INTRODUCTION
Today, in the ancient city of Calabar, Pillars of Community of Development (PCD) is making, for the third consecutive year, what has become internationally known as the World Poverty Day. Historically, the World Poverty Day dates back to October 17, 1987 when more than 100,000 people gathered in Paris, France to honour victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. As a follow-up, the UN General Assembly officially declared October 17 as the date for International Day for the eradication of poverty through Resolution 47/196 of December 22, 1992. Little wonder, then that the halving of poverty by member countries by the year 2015 became the number one goal in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Declaration of 2000.

CHALLENGES OF THE MDGs
Barely four years are the MDGs deadline, we at Pillars of Community Development becoming very nervous about the actualization of 2015 poverty reduction target. When we say that 41% of global poverty is located in Sub-Sahara Africa, or that 44% of households in Africa Subsist on less than 1U.S. Dollar a day (PPP), it may sound like the usual abstract statistics. But if we look around us, we will notice that the evidence are compelling. It is high time we all, the rich and the poor, started domesticating and internationalizing the realities of this global scourge. It serves no purpose trying to superiorize and inferiorize the nations of the world on account of poverty or the lack of it because, as we all know, what concerns poor nations (diseases, climate change, air and water pollution, waste disposal, food insecurity, environmental degradation) will sooner, or later, get to the rich. We all must wake up to accept the hard fact that environmental challenges do not respect class or spatial boundaries.

WHY WE MUST CARE
We are two compelling philosophical platforms for all men (and women) of goodwill to join in the crusade against poverty. First, is the ethical platform. In the past five decades, the world’s gross domestic product has increased more than tenfold, yet one-fifth of the world’s 6.68 billion people live in extreme poverty, without access to adequate calorie intake, shelter and medical care. Infant mortality is still high at 97 per thousand births. Coming back home, why should Nigeria, for example, budget N4.2 billion in 2011, yet so many of her citizens live in abject misery and state of hopelessness? Is it not becoming scandalous that in the face of increasing revenue streams, our poverty index has graduated from mere 15% at independence (1960), to 46% in 1985, 66% in 1996 and over 70% today?
Our human Development Index (HDI) reveals the, of the country’s 140 million people, 92.4% are described as poor while 71% are classified as “extreme poor”. Life expectancy has dropped to all-time low 47. Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (as he then was) in 2006 dropped the bombshell at the 20th Convocation Ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, when he lamented that less than 10 percent of Nigeria controlled more than 90 percent of the Nation’s wealth! That ratio is, perhaps, worse today. A massively disproportionate distribution of income is, in part, responsible for the high level of poverty in our midst. Those who study the poverty-insecurity nexus have confirmed the high incidence of poverty breeds militancy and terrorism, including the newly invented Boko Haram. Whether we agree with them or not is a matter of conjecture. Herein lies the second reason – self-interest.

CALABAR SOUTH
Calabar South has a population of 191,630 going by the 2006 census. It is the fifth after Akpabuyo (271,395), Yala (210,843), Yakurr (196,450) and Odukpani (192,444). However, because it occupies an area of just 115,447 square metres, its population density is the highest (1,659.9) in the entire Cross River State. Therefore, the issue of environmental health and other social implications in this area call for deeper attention. Calabar South is lacking in infrastructure and a robust public-driven economy. Most times, we remember the area only in terms of conflicts.
We at Pillars of Community Development believe we could lend a helping hand in providing the citizens with sustainable livelihood options. That is why we are commissioning today three branches of our Microfinance Institution where the active poor could borrow funds at affordable terms to support their economic endeavours.
The war against poverty must be fought and won. The 2006 Nobel Prize Winner, Muhammed Yunus who revolutionized the microfinance concept asserts, I have come to believe, deeply and firmly, that we can create a poverty free world, if we want to…”It is easier to create such world first by redefining our weapons of warfare and even our vocabulary in crusade. For us at PCD, the opposite of poverty cannot be wealth or affluence; the antonym for poverty has to be sufficiency. The poor do not need skyscrapers and limousines. What they need, and urgently too, are food on the table, clothes over their bony back, school fees for their children, medication for their failing health, roof over their heads and, maybe, a transistor to listen to what the rich are doing. These are issues we can fast-track through a co-ordinated public-private partnership approach.

WOMEN AS ENGINES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
As you can see, majority of our beneficiaries are women. Gender activists like Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo will confirm that women are much more predisposed to poverty out of no faults of theirs. By assisting them, we do not only help humanity; we also grow the economy. Women have remained reliable spark-plugs in the engine of economic growth and platform for fighting poverty worldwide. Robert B. Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group queries, “…equality is not just the right thing to do. It’s smart economics. How can an economy achieve full potentials if we ignore, sidelines, or fail to invest in half its population? Again, in virtually every economy of the world, it is the small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures that account for nearly 70 percent of new jobs, not the government nor the big companies.
By their very structure and mission, the conventional commercial Banks will not have the time for the largely unserviced segment of the population because of the grave misconception that poor people do not repay their loans. Additionally, since their lending must be collateralized, the poor are easily zoned out. But we at Pillars of Community Development are proud to announce that what the poor lack in collateral, they make up in integrity. Poor people do not owe.
I have the mandate of the Board of PCD to announce to our Branch Managers that Calabar South must generate a micro credit portfolio in excess of N100 million within six months to support the economy of Calabar South and, by extension, that of Cross River State. We are, therefore, inviting groups of vegetable farmers, firewood sellers, palm produce merchants, plantain sellers, garri sellers, yam sellers, akara sellers, provision store owners, welders, electricians, beauticians, hair dressers and fish merchants to come under the PCD umbrella.
This year, the theme of our celebration has shifted from microfinance to health. Poverty is a very nebulous concept and its definition and measurement could differ according to scholars on the subject. Our Guest Speaker, Professor Emmanuel Ekanem, Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital is eminently qualified to bisect and dissect the subject.
I thank you for your kind attention and wish you a very brilliant outing on the 2011 World Poverty Day.