Blog Tag: Advocacy
DC Sunshine Action Club
Posted by Peter MUIR
Are you interested in joining a club that can contribute to CE, CAS, and the community in Hong Kong?
Sunshine Action is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that aims to support those will limited access to resources or services in Hong Kong as well as other countries. It could be said that it is the smallest charity organisation in HK, with only ONE PERSON handling everything, which is why this organisation needs YOUR help!
DC’s Sunshine Action Club intends to support Sunshine Action through promoting its events, coming up and developing ideas and also getting into direct contact with those that need your help by participating in Sunshine Action’s events (eg. food distributing).
Some roles and requirements in Sunshine Charity Club may include but are not limited to:
-
Regular attendance is a must
-
Poster designing, taking photos or creating a film of Sunshine Action events
-
Writing posts on CE blog, bulletin and explorer about Sunshine Charity
-
Promote this event (tell your friends and family, take advantage of social media!)
-
Participate in at least 1 Sunshine Charity event (bring some friends!)
Please email Adrian at 17yana1@dc.edu.hk if you are interested in joining. Click here to read more about Sunshine Action.
Fish Outta Water – using comic for social action
Posted by Peter MUIR
Dolphin Jai is a naive character who leaves his comfort zone to go on an adventure. When the strip begins, all he wants is to get a fishy dinner in the waters around Hong Kong Airport but to no avail. While he’s tracking down the White Elephant whom he thinks scare off his fish, he encounters a series of characters that represent threats to the environment.
Check out Dolphin Jai’s adventures in the comic strip Fish Outta Water that features on the website Support HK – you may wish to take a look at the social action that this orgniastion supports while you are there.
How could you use creativity and artistic skills for a cause in your Community Engagement?
Global Goals
Posted by Peter MUIR
The Global Goals for Sustainable development will be introduced next week, September 25th. The goals take over from the Millennium Development goals, which led to improvement but were not actually achieved. Watch the video below on these goals, which may provide you with an idea for your own goal for your Community Engagement efforts. Investigate the issues surrounding these goals, develop your own SMART goal based on one of the 17 goals, create an action plan, and then act!
The Worlds Largest Lesson Introduced by Malala Yousafzai from World’s Largest Lesson on Vimeo.
We will live in what world?
Posted by Peter MUIR
On September 25th 2015, 193 world leaders will commit to 17 Global Goals to achieve 3 extraordinary things in the next 15 years. End extreme poverty. Fight inequality & injustice. Fix climate change. The Global Goals for sustainable development could get these things done. In all countries. For all people.
Here is you chance to star in the We the People video and tell everyone about the future you want to see. Pick one of the #GlobalGoals that mean the most to you and film yourself, and potentially feature in the final film alongside Ashton Kutcher, Bill and Melinda Gates, Malala Yousafzai, One Direction, Richard Branson, and Stephen Hawking, among others.
Then, of course, you can think about what you can do to help achieve these goals.
Taking action on HK’s ivory trade
Posted by Peter MUIR
Each year, at least 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa for their tusks, primarily to satisfy the demand for ivory products in Asia. Hong Kong has just been revealed as the world’s number one city for ivory retailing: 30,856 ivory items were found on sale in its main tourist areas, far more than any other surveyed city.
What action could you take to take steps in reducing HK’s ivory trade? Click here and here to find out what some other students in HK are doing, and consider joining this advocacy campaign as a part of your Community Engagement.
Join the global climate march
Posted by Peter MUIR
There is much evidence that climate change is playing havoc on our planet, and despite some thoughts it may not be our fault, there is convincing evidence to point out that mankind is altering the climate of our planet. While you/we have the chance to take actions every single day to lesson our impact on our planet, we have a major chance to get our leaders to make big changes in the upcoming climate summit in Paris. This summit, the biggest climate summit of the decade, is just four months away. In this time we need to convince our leaders leaders to agree to end fossil fuels for good.
Lat year Avaaz.org, a 41-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decision-making, helped create the biggest climate mobilisation in history at the People’s Climate March. They are now aiming for something even larger, to be held on November 29th, hours before leaders arrive at the Paris climate summit.
Not only could you sign up to receive news about events that you can join here in Hong Kong, you could use the toolkit supplied by Avaaz.org to organize your own event here in HK.
Waste to Art – an invite
Posted by Peter MUIR
Lantau artist and activist Liina Klauss is holding a waste-to-art installation 31.10 – 01.11. at Shui Hau beach on Lantau Island. The amount of trash washed ashore this year is unprecedented and a request is made to for nature and art lovers alike to get involved in cleaning up the beach and watching art in progress. In Liina’s words “let’s get as many hands as possible to make this installation a huge one to show the world this ugly truth!”
March Against the Incinerator
Posted by Peter MUIR
A number of NGOs and schools are collaborating in organising this Saturday’s ‘March Against the Incinerator’. On 3rd October, LegCo will vote whether to use up $200 billion of HK taxpayers money to build one of the biggest incinerators in the world – not far away from DB in the pristine environs of Shek Kwu Chau. This march is being organisied to help change the minds of LegCo.
For more details about the planned incinerator – click here.
The march will take place on 27 Sept to March from Victoria Park to Legislative Council Building at Tamar (Admiralty). For more details, check out the orgnisers Facebook page.
If a City can do it, can DC?
Posted by Peter MUIR
This news from The Story of Stuff about the plastic bottle ban in the city of San Francisco is a bit outdated. Regardless, it highlights how advocacy can lead to change. It also makes me think – if the city of that size can do, why can’t Discovery College? Or all ESF schools?
The Issue: Bottled water is one of the biggest, least necessary, wastestreams that we currently create. San Francisco debated historic legislation that would ban the sale of bottled water on city property, and invest in public water resources.
Their Response: Hundreds of our Story Community members wrote in to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, voicing support for the water bottle ban, and helping to pass the legislation.
The Story: With our friends at Corporate Accountability International leading the way in pushing the issue, San Francisco became the biggest and most visible city to debate regulations on the sale of bottled water. The historic legislation would ban the sale of bottled water on city property, as well as make important investments in public water resources to ensure access to fresh, clean water. Bottled water companies knew the importance of the move: San Francisco was one of the first cities to regulate plastic bags, and passage of this bill could establish it as model legislation for other communities to follow. Hundreds of members of our Story Community wrote in to support the legislation, which passed in a tough vote to kick off the next fight over unnecessary waste.
San Francisco Examiner: SF becomes first major city to ban sale of plastic water bottles, March 4th 2014
The Power of Petitions Plus Active Advocacy
Posted by Peter MUIR
You may have seen them online, on Facebook or even been sent an email requesting that you sign a petition. In fact I have posted about petitions that DC students could sign for issues right here in Hong Kong on this blog. But do they work? Yes – when well planned and a part of a campaign. Here is a message from one of the biggest online petition organisations – Avaaz.org about their successes with petitions.
I often get asked by Avaazers, “what happens after I sign a petition?” And the truth is, a HECK of a lot! Every Avaaz campaign springs from a massive global mandate, and then zeroes in on the best way for our voices to win. Here’s just two of our victories from the last few months:
Recently 2 million of us came together to stop the flogging of a 15-year old rape victim in the Maldives. Her sentence has been quashed! Here’s what our team did to win:
- Spoke for hours with the Maldivian Attorney-General and Ministers and emailed the President at his personal account.
- Commissioned opinion polls showing massive support for reforms to protect girls. And wrote an Op-Ed in a major national paper.
- Persuaded a top Islamic scholar to speak out against flogging.
- Threatened to run an ad (right) in tourism publications, affecting the country’s major industry.
- Visited the Maldives and the location where the girl was held, pressing officials directly.
Ahmed Shaheed, former Foreign Minister of the Maldives said “The Avaaz contribution was the spearhead of the campaign to overturn the flogging sentence; a petition signed by millions, a country visit, a public opinion survey, and persistent follow-up all proved irresistible.”
Another example: almost 2 million of us rallied to stop the Maasai tribe in Tanzania from being kicked off their land for a hunting reserve. In September, the Prime Minister announced they could stay! The petition provided a powerful basis for what the team did next:
- Got CNN and the Guardian to visit the Maasai and break the wider story to the world.
- Advised Maasai elders on their campaigning strategy.
- Flooded Ministers and the President with messages — forcing debate in cabinet and Parliament.
- Ran a hard hitting newspaper ad in an influential paper which publicly shamed the government.
- Persuaded diplomats worldwide to raise the issue — embarrassing the government.
- Financially supported Maasai elders to travel to the capital where they gathered to ‘occupy’ land outside of the Prime Minister’s office for weeks, refusing to leave until he met them.
What is noticeable about these petitions is that they are much more than just a petition – the petition is part of a well-planned advocacy campaign. What changes could you make through petition? How could you use a petition as a tool in your advocacy campaign?
