Christmas is a time for reunions of families and friends.

It is a time for giving and sharing – and it is the season of the year for thinking about others.

For those of us lucky enough to be enjoying the festive season with our families in warm, comfortable surroundings it is all too easy to forget that some people are not so fortunate.

Poverty is a scourge of society, both at home and abroad, and child poverty is in many ways the most unacceptable kind of poverty.

I am not talking about children who will not find the latest PlayStation game under the Christmas tree. What I’m talking about is children whose families are finding it a struggle to afford even the most basic things in life; food, clothes and heating in their homes – if they have a roof over their head.

That’s why my government is determined to tackle the problem head-on, aiming to eradicate child poverty in Wales by 2020.

It’s a tall order. We have already made substantial inroads into the problem, with thousands fewer children in relative poverty than there were in 1999. But there is a long way to go.

That’s why we have mapped out a plan over the next decade or so, using a great deal of effort, creativity and determination to achieve our ambitious target.

Eradicating child poverty will mean improving job opportunities, educational prospects and health facilities. It means removing barriers to achievement, combating social exclusion. It means enriching the lives and experiences and raising the aspirations of the children of Wales.

It will mean a titanic and sustained effort across all departments of the Assembly Government, along with assistance from local authorities and the Westminster government.

But I am determined that we will not flinch from that mission and that we will achieve our aims through co-operation and a lot of hard work.

I believe that the people of Wales have a new-found maturity and self-confidence following devolution, and as a result we are not afraid to look beyond our boundaries.

Alongside our resolve to tackle poverty at home we also have an ambition for Wales to play its part in helping those less fortunate than ourselves abroad. Wales for Africa is our response to the global fight to make poverty history.

Towns and villages throughout Wales have twinned with communities in Africa. The PONT group in Pontypridd, for example, helps groups in Mbale in Uganda get aid to the very poorest communities. Bees for Development in Monmouthshire helps people in remote and poor areas create food and income through beekeeping and helping to pollinate crops and wild plants.

Earlier this year I was delighted to meet visitors from Timbuktu in Mali, who have twinned with Hay-on-Wye because both areas have strong literary connections.
Since the twinning announcement, Hay2Timbuktu were successful in becoming one of the five pilot projects in the new Gold Star community linking scheme. 

The Gold Star Communities project aims to contribute to the creation of a ‘Gold Star’ framework of standards and good practice, aligned to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction.
The Wales pilot is being developed with the support of the UN, to produce a model for recognising and spreading quality community partnerships that address issues such as fair and just trade, climate change and the environment, children’s rights and social inclusion.

The Gold Star scheme is yet more proof that Wales has not become inward looking and self-obsessed since devolution started in 1999.  Welsh people are renowned for their internationalist outlook and their desire to help those elsewhere in the world and this new, international partnership is a great example of what we are trying to achieve through the Wales for Africa framework.
So this Christmas I hope you will join me in thinking about those children and their parents who are not as well off as ourselves both at home and abroad – and join us to consign poverty to the dustbin of history by 2020.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan