More than 300 Whitney Middle School pupils have joined the worldwide campaign demanding that governments of wealthy nations do more to stamp out child poverty by 2015.

The campaign stems from the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when 189 world leaders committed to an eight point road map to improve the lives of the world's poorest people.

However, according to the movement Stand Up and Speak Out, which the school was supporting, seven years have past since that commitment, while 50,000 people a day die because of extreme poverty.

A Guinness World Record was set by the movement last year, when more than 23 million people across the globe literally and symbolically demanded that world leaders keep their promise.

The global call officially kicked off on Tuesday and ended yesterday. But the fight continues, Whitney School counsellor Lisa Trott, a former president of the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT), said.

Mrs. Trott, who helped organise the school's participation stated: "This is a worldwide event. We must stand up and be counted and speak out so we can be heard. Our school has registered to be counted as part of this campaign.

"When we think of the Holocaust which saw the world stand by when Jews were being killed, we are facing a similar plight today in terms of world hunger.

"The rest of the world is sitting by and potentially doing nothing about the fact that a child dies every three seconds simply because they are poor."

Students and staff held hands and joined in prayers to think of the children in continents such as Africa and Asia that had died while they gathered, because of a lack of access to health care and free education which many in Bermuda take for granted.

The school's resident pastor, Terrence Stovell, said geography sometimes resulted in an unawareness of what our counterparts, half a world away, are going through.

"Sometimes it's very difficult for us to understand what other children have to go through in other parts of the world," Mr. Stovell addressed to the pupils, ranging from ages ten-14.

"This is because oftentimes we are so far removed by geographical location, being in Bermuda, which is known as the gem of the Atlantic.

"You and I have never seen a child in Bermuda on the streets covered in flies, trying to get food — it's something that we're not that aware of locally.

"The thing we have in common with everyone else in the world is that we're all human. My wife and I have the privilege of travelling twice a year to Africa and Asia.

"Unfortunately, there, we've seen children whose meals come from a bin or a trash can. Every day they scour through trash just to find food for their next meal.

"What is considered poverty in Bermuda is not even close to what many children are experiencing around the world."

M2 pupil Elizabeth Blankendell, 13, took the microphone to make a plea to others like her and those in power to work harder to bring an end to worldwide poverty.

She stated: "Every day, 50,000 people die as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider. We need you to stand up and speak out to make governments honour their commitments to give better and more aid.

"Also, to cancel the debts of developing countries and to make international trade more just, however, this won't happen unless all of us takes a stand.

"Last year, more than 23 million people took part in Stand Up and Speak Out and this year we want you to help break this record so the message is even louder. Every person counts!"

An additional $50 billion of aid per year is all that is needed to help stem the problem, Stand Up and Speak Out estimates, this, while hundreds of billions are being spent in post-war Iraq.

For more information on how you can get involved, log onto www.endpoverty2015.org.