Stories told by the people behind the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) UNEP/GEF project: “Women who are breast feeding their first-born are able to participate in the milk sampling. We select female mayors to work with the women” by Afele Faiilagi, Samoa. “How do hazardous chemicals affect our mothers in Egypt?” by Elham Refaat Abdel Aziz, Egypt. “This project is very important for Japan as it has a history of severe pollution” by Tetsuro Fujii, Japan. “The results that we obtain from the Global Monitoring Plan are of key importance for policy-making” by Leila Devia, Argentina. “As a Small Island Developing State, we see POPs present in our environment even though we have not produced them” by Roxanne Blesam, Palau. “We take our water samples from one of the major rivers on the African continent, the Zambezi” by Christopher Kanema, Zambia. “Training is key in order to keep monitoring sustainable” by Anton Purnomo, Indonesia. “In Antigua and Barbuda we look at chemicals management as a whole” BY Linroy Christian, Antigua and Barbuda. “We have serious air quality issues in Thailand, caused by open burning in winter or haze pollution from neighboring countries” by Teeraporn Wiriwutikorn, Thailand.