ATD Fourth World, standing for All Together in Dignity, aims to eradicate poverty using a human rights approach that recognizes the dignity of every person. First seeking out people who are the most excluded because of extreme poverty, ATD is a movement that gathers people from all backgrounds in order to think, act, and live together differently. Poverty is an affront to human dignity, and people in poverty have unique knowledge and experience that can lower the barriers separating people and communities.
Founded in 1957 in France by Joseph Wresinski, today ATD Fourth World works in 32 countries across five continents. All its projects are created and planned together with people living in extreme poverty, with the goal of leaving no one behind in order to shape a world without poverty where each person is respected. Its projects build knowledge and education, shape a people-centered and earth-friendly economic vision, and advocate for human rights and peace.
The violence of extreme poverty, ignorance, deprivation, and contempt isolates people and locks them in silence to the point where they doubt that they are part of the human community. ATD sees recognizing the efforts made by people in poverty to ensure that no one is left behind, and combining our strengths to reach out to those still unreached, as essential steps on the path toward overcoming poverty and building peace together.
The most disadvantaged people can free themselves from the dependence and indignity of poverty when their courage and capacity for action are recognized and when everyone takes responsibility for overcoming the prejudice and discrimination that continue to exclude people in poverty, on every continent.