Are we becoming soulless?

By Mozafer Rajabali

Some people might call it a political stunt, and some may see it as an exemplary model, but that is not the argument Cynthia McKinney’s actions bring to the table. Rather, it brings to light the injustice faced by so many innocent people who aren’t even perceived as innocent. Stalin’s quote that “one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic” puts into perspective this whole scenario. McKinney wrote a letter from an Israeli jail, stating that she was a human rights activist and was trying to take medical supplies, building supplies and crayons for children. She further goes on to say that the doctors from Jordan and Norway told her that Gaza has become a “weapons testing laboratory” for the Israelis. If this holds any truth, what on Earth happened to human dignity, why are we, the general pubic still not coming forward to raise our voices, sign petitions, participate in demonstrations.

Cynthia McKinney is amongst many people who are wrongfully imprisoned. Abdel Razik was held in prison in Sudan under US law, but the Canadian human rights activists protested day and night until his bail was produced. However, until today the Canadian citizen remains on the list of terrorist suspects for the US.

Not very long ago did Amnesty International come out and publicly state that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza. This was somewhat shocking to the international community, because of Israel’s prestigious status with the US, and yet senior political figures remain quiet. On a personal note, I thought it was about time that an international organization shed some light on these war crimes perpetrated in Gaza. Hamas was always criticized as mischievous, causing chaos and taking lives, however they were in reality only part of the problem.

Come to Iraq, and the bringing down of the great Saddam Hussein was considered a massive coup by the western media as it happened. Not until later was it discovered that the reason to enter the country was merely an excuse. Until today chaos seems to reign in Iraq, and peacefully earning any livelihood for the local people is somewhat difficult.

My question is to myself, and the youth of today. Where were we while these injustices were taking place? Why can’t we prevent them? We are by far the most motivated group of people on this planet, and need to do something about it.

Mozafer Rajabali is a student who wants potential to be recognized in the most deprived of countries.

Silent Activism

By Erin Hartmans

Never underestimate the old saying “actions speak louder than words”. When it comes to tackling social justice issues, this form of “silent activism” can be an immensely effective and powerful way of bringing about wide-spread change. The little choices we make everyday (often when we spend our hard earned dollars) have the power to change the world. Think of what you “say” with the following actions…

• When you buy chocolate that isn’t fair trade, you support child labour.
• When you consume meat that wasn’t sustainably and ethically produced, you agree that factory farming is okay.
• If you buy most of your food from countries far far away, you support the mentality that “eating local doesn’t matter”.
• Every time you buy food that isn’t organic, you endorse the use, over-use and mal-use, of pesticides on our crops.
• When you buy paper made of trees that weren’t sustainably harvested, you agree that it is okay to chop down old growth forest.
• And every time you buy food that is overly packaged you agree to fill up our landfills with unnecessary garbage.

Often what we “say” with our actions does not reflect our moral beliefs at all. Unfortunately, in making those simple choices we empower the companies and corporations by feeding them them our money and giving them no reason to change their toxic business practices.
Some people may argue that making the choice to “buy better” is too costly and time consuming. But what price are we willing to pay…

• To improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of child slaves working on cocoa plantations.
• To have a safe water supply that isn’t contaminated with pesticides or animal runoff.
• To ensure that local farmers can continue to provide quality food to our community.
• To keep old growth forests alive to be enjoyed for generations to come.
• To not have to show your grandchildren pictures of what nature “used to look like”.

These are questions we need to consider each time we try to save those few extra pennies at the grocery store. A healthier world is worth the extra effort and dollars.

Think before you buy: about where your food came from, how it was produced, and what impact it might have had on people and the environment.

We owe it to ourselves, to our ancestors, to future generations, and to the earth that made and feeds us, to express the immense power of our actions by making choices that benefit not just our wallets, but the whole world.

Erin Hartmans is a student activist from Guelph, Ontario.

Originally posted on the Reach Lesotho Blog, a program of I Have Hope.

Water Action

The Eco Children Home prides themselves on being active community members. Whether it be the Pokhara community, the nonprofit community or the blogging community they are trying to be more involved.

For Blog Action Day the theme this year is WATER. We thought it would be fitting to discuss our water situation at the home and in Nepal.

Water in Nepal is a problematic thing. During the monsoons we have so much of it sitting around that it aids the spread of many diseases. In other months there is never enough, causing people to line up at water points for hours to fill plastic bottles, jugs and buckets. According to WaterAid Nepal 4.4 million people in Nepal do not have access to safe drinking facilities.

At the home it is usually the housemothers who have the responsibility of collecting water while the children are at school. Everyday they collect large amounts of safe water for cooking and drinking at the home. It is a job which is very time consuming and requires great physical strength.

In Pokhara we are fortunate as clean water filters down from the jungle to various water points. The home has two water points within blocks. For many others collecting water is a difficult daily task. In Kathmandu the water is becoming very polluted and traditional water points are becoming contaminated as the population increases. 10,500 under five year olds die a year due to inadequate water and sanitation access (WaterAid Nepal).

Recently one of our volunteers was hospitalised after drinking contaminated water during a trip to Kathmandu. She was shocked to discover the hospital had very limited facilities, no flushing toilet or soap in the bathroom. The hospital staff also declined to provide her with drinking water as the water was considered too polluted for foreigners to drink.

We hope to improve the children's water practices. We have highlighted a number of water issues we can work on at the home. These are:

• Clean hands - it is traditional to eat with the hands in Nepal so we need to ensure the children are diligent in keeping hands clean.
• Swimming - none of the children can swim. The home is located blocks from a large lake. This provides a very real safety issue.
• Water Safety for Volunteers - we need to ensure we can provide clean water and to educate volunteers of the dangers of drink water from unknown sources.

Together: A Song for Haiti

Music students were moved by the tragedy in Haiti and wanted to help, so they decided to apply their skills to raise awareness and show their support of the people of Haiti.

The High School for Recording Arts (HSRA), aka Hip Hop High, is an alternative high school in St. Paul, MN. HSRA provides youth the opportunity to achieve a high school diploma through the exploration and operation of the music business and other creative endeavors.

Play the video below to hear their song (link to YouTube here).

Canada and the G8

By Kristen Ostling

It’s been a pretty interesting New Year in Ottawa so far. The decision to shut down parliament dominated the headlines, but just 24 hours after that story broke, Canada also took over the presidency of the G8, a group made up of the leaders of the eight of the world’s most powerful countries, and a critical decision making body when it comes to supporting the world’s poorest people.

It is once again Canada’s time to lead and it’s our time to remind Ottawa that even though parliament may be prorogued, we can’t prorogue the fight against global poverty.

Ask our leaders to develop a new Canadian plan to invest in meeting the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty and disease by 2015. Take action now by clicking this link to add your name to our urgent petition.

The petition, which we'll deliver to Prime Minister Harper and opposition leaders Ignatieff, Duceppe, and Layton, reads:

As Canada assumes the presidency of the G8 for 2010, please honour the tradition of leadership in the fight against global poverty by announcing a new commitment to investing in proven solutions to extreme poverty and disease, as part of a Millennium Development Goal action plan with a strong focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Canada is uniquely positioned to be the catalyst for a new, global push to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Across parties and governments, Canada kept its promise to double foreign assistance between 2005 and 2010. It’s an accomplishment we can celebrate and use as a jumping-off point this year.

With that in mind, ONE is teaming up with Make Poverty History Canada to take advantage of this historic moment. In 2010, Canadian leadership at the G8 will play a crucial role in keeping the focus on the incredible opportunity we have to make this the decade when we keep the global promise to meet the challenge of global poverty and preventable disease.

But it will only happen if we come together and remind our leaders in Ottawa that we’re watching and expect bold action against global poverty in 2010 and beyond.

Take action here now.


Kristen Ostling is a member of the activist group ONE

Everyday Activists

This week on Speak Up for Change, contributors wrote about their favourite activists. Many times, activists are everyday people in ordinary communities! Have a look at the stories and videos below of several activists, from children to adults, featured on GetInvolved.ca.


10-yr-old lemonade stand titan for a cause dear to her heart


A small but mighty 10 year-old activist, AMANDA BELZOWSKI has raised over $100,000.00 for The Heart and Stroke Foundation. She has done it through an annual lemonade stands that has drawn the attention of celebrities like Donald Trump, Mike "Pinball" Clemmons and David Copperfield. She was motivated to raise money for the cause after it affected both her great-grandfather and grandmother. What began as a family lesson in giving back has turned into a highly successful annual fundraiser that raises tens of thousands of dollars. Next year, Amanda plans to pass on her fundraising torch to her little brother Joshua while she assumes the position of proud big sister, overseer and coach.







Public school activist turned environmental steward


A grade 11 student from British Columbia, QUINN RUNKLE is an environmental activist. She started Eco Kids in Grade 4 and was successfully able to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in her community. Afterwards, a trip to the Antarctic with world-renowned scientists and a United Nations environmental conference for kids showed Quinn that children all around the world were taking the problems of the environment just as seriously. Today, she travels the globe lecturing on the importance of environmental issues, writes letters to governments demanding change and represents a new generation of concerned and involved young citizens.

Author who challenges us to change the world

Innovator PAUL EDNEY is blurring the lines between education and social justice. Edney's book, How to Change the World for 10 Bucks challenges Canadians to make small changes in their lives and to measure the impact their change makes. We'll meet teachers and students at Toronto's Bishop Strachan School whose lives have been affected by the book, and discover the collective power of making change on step at a time.

Social entrepreneur committed to saving lives and the environment

RANJANA MITRA is actively working to stop the dumping of toxic e-waste from improperly discarded computers and other electronics. As an activist, she is working to stop the transportation of this toxic e-waste to workers in developing nations where they're exposed to harmful toxins as they mine valuable metals from millions of broken computer screens and cell phones. Her contribution to the problem - Share-IT, a not-for-profit that diverts computers from landfills by refurbishing and redistributing them to those in need in local communities. Ranjana's mission is to provide technology to low-income families and stop the exportation of e-waste to developing countries.

Former super model turned model citizen for Human Rights

Dayle Haddon is a very recognizable face. As a L'OREAL spokesperson and former supermodel, Dayle has made a commitment to reaching out to women through her work. She parlayed her media profile and her powers of persuasion to lead a quiet revolution against ageism in the beauty industry.


She is now a best selling author and advocate for women. Her newest role is as an ambassador for both the United Nations and UNICEF, has taken her to Darfur, Haiti, the Congo and Angola where she interviewed women and children in the refugee camps in order to hear their stories and share them with others.


Have a look at this video on Dayle Haddon and her work!





For more on the Dayle Haddon video, visit the page on GetInvolved.ca.

The Renaissance: A Poem of Change

By Ryan Duffy

The renaissance will not be televised

You will not be able to see it on cable.

You will not see it on iTunes, TiVo, or YouTube.

You will not be able to see Super Bowl commercials,

Or half-time wardrobe malfunctions due to a 2 second delay.

Because the renaissance will not be televised.

The renaissance will not be compromised.

The renaissance will not be available on Blu-Ray-DVD

Encrypted high def with an FBI copyright warning.

The renaissance will not be sound bites of Bush

Declaring "war on terror" & "evil-doers" like Saddam

Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda only to be

Stuck in Iraq years later with no exit strategy.

The renaissance will not be compromised.

The renaissance will not have its world premiere at the

Grauman's Chinese Theater and will not star Beyonce,

Lindsay Lohan, or Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

The renaissance will not give you another face lift.

The renaissance will not get rid of wrinkles.

The renaissance will not make you look ten years

younger, because the renaissance will not be advertised, brother.

There will be no color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale,

United States Department of Homeland Security, or

Emergancy Readiness kits with duct tape in them.

The NSA will not be able to get warrantless wiretaps

For KEYWORDS like "bomb" or "jihad"

The renaissance will not be terrorized.

There will be no footage of pigs beating down

Rodney King on instant replay.

There will be no footage of brothers beating

Reginald Denny on instant replay.

There will be no coverage of Rev. Al Sharpton

Eulogizing James Brown at the Apollo theater

There will be no LAPD car chase of O. J.Simpson riding in a White GMC Bronco,

Going 40 miles an hour down the LA Freeway,

Wearing black Isotoner gloves he had been saving

For just the proper occasion.

Survivor, American Idol, and Big Brother,

Will no longer be so damned relevant, and

No one will care if Britney finally got back

Custody of her 2 kids because people

will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

The renaissance will not be commercialized.

There will be no video blogs or highlights on

Entertainment Tonight of Paris Hilton going to jail

For D.U.I. or Miley Cyrus going platinum.

The theme song will not be remixed by Bad Boy,

Jermaine Dupri, nor sung by Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls,

Kanye West, Soulja Boy, or the Black Eyed Peas.

The renaissance will not be glamourized.

The renaissance will not be right back after an Email

From eBay, eCommerce, eTrade, or eHarmony.

You will not have to worry about Anthrax in your

mail, a bomb on your plane, or water in your carry on.

The renaissance will not go better with rhymes

The renaissance will not be longer than 3 minutes and 10 seconds

The renaissance WILL be found here at the Drake.

The renaissance will not be televised, compromised, advertised

Terrorized, commercialized, or glamourized.

The renaissance will be no cover brothers;

The renaissance will be live.

Top Websites for Activism, Social Change, Non-Profits and Resources

Speak Up for Change has complied a list of some websites and online tools for activists, non-profit organizations, and those looking to make a difference online! Included are links and a breif description of each site, as well as links to their Twitter accounts.

Websites included in this post have been selected based on their usefulness and relevance, but there are still more to be added in a future post. Please comment on this post or email editor@accesscharity.ca with your suggestions.

Change.org (www.change.org and @changedotorg)
Change.org serves as a central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.

Global Issues.org (www.globalissues.org)
GlobalIssues.org provides insights into global issues that may be misrepresented but are all closely related.

TakingItGlobal (www.tigweb.org and @takingitglobal)
TakingITGlobal.org is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities.

Idealist.org (www.idealist.org and @idealist)
A "global clearinghouse of nonprofit and volunteering resources", offering a directory of volunteer opportunities and other resources.

Charity Village (www.charityvillage.com and @CharityVillage)
Canada's supersite for the nonprofit sector, with thousands of pages of news, jobs, resources and links.

Social Actions (www.socialactions.com and @socialactions)
Social Actions is an open source database of actions people can take on any issue. The actions are aggregated from across the social web and include everything from volunteer opportunities to micro credit loans.

Global Voices (globalvoicesonline.org and @globalvoices)
Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore.

The Online Giving Blog (www.onlinefundraisingblog.com)
Whether you're an experienced online fundraiser or new to raising money online, answers to your questions can be found on this blog.

Imagine Canada (www.imaginecanada.ca and @ImagineCanada)
A national program to promote public and corporate giving, volunteering and support to the community.

We-Care.com (www.we-care.com and @We_Care_Giving)
We-Care.com allows your organization to receive money when your supporters shop at major online merchants. It is free, customized to support your brand and message, and fully managed so it's not taking up your staff time.

Global Giving (www.globalgiving.com and @GlobalGiving)
GlobalGiving is an online marketplace that connects you to the causes and countries you care about. You select the projects you want to support, make a tax-deductible contribution, and get regular progress updates - so you can see your impact.

Other Related Organizations to Follow on Twitter

Apart from Speak Up for Change @sufc, here are some active users that you may want to follow for more information on activism and the non-profiit sector!

@twittacause
@changefeed
@Philanthropy
@socialactions
@firstgiving
@Top10Causes

Speak Up for Change (speakupforchange.ca and @sufc) gives youth and non-profit organizations a chance to write about poverty, education-related issues and more. Subscribe via email or become a contributor today!

Signs of Hope

By Mozafer Rajabali

As a teenager living in a developed country, it is really difficult to understand what most children face in their day-to-day lives. With International Children’s Day approaching, it is very essential that those of us who have some time and the capacity to do something about it, because a small step can take us a long way. We tend to forget that these children are mobbed of their chances of enjoying their youth with time for sports, fun, and have to surrender to living a subsistence way of life.

Not only do we need to start organizations created by the youth in today’s generation, we have to employ them to be put to good use. Last year a series of events since 2003 began an ambitious effort by students at the University of Guelph to raise money towards HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik initially wanted to raise $1 million for the Tsepong Clinic, however only halfway through her battle did she receive support from many students at the University, thus a new goal was born – to raise $150 million. This will be enough to stop the transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout the whole of Lesotho. The power of the youth here is hard to mouth, almost impossible to define. Initially, the students along with Dr. Anne-Marie came up with the idea of hiring a group of South African women to make 5,000 red and white beaded bracelets and sell them on their campus. They named it the Bracelet of Hope, which is today being promoted all of Canada, and will in the future; achieve the goal of providing better healthcare in Lesotho alone 1.


If today’s youth, including myself, would come forward and promote such issues – we could save the world! The best place to start would be by helping those who are so dear and yet so far away from us, the deprived youth of many developing countries. A colleague of mine raised a good point once in a heated debate, that the media and the stereotypical view of youth in developing countries is that they are deprived of necessities, commonly live in huts, don’t attend school, and if they do they use chalkboards and so on and so forth. Although this is true, it is only so to a certain extent. Many developing countries have computers; some even have one per student!

It is astounding at times that a lot of people can close their eyes and blindly believe what they want to believe, rather than what they need to. At the same time, there is a great need to establish support for those who are living in the direst of circumstances. Awareness of the positive aspects of many poorer countries, especially in Africa has to be created. In this way ignorance will be removed, and thus a better understanding of how we as the youth of today, are interdependent will increase.

There are big initiatives out there, which promote a better lifestyle for children. What we have to realize, as today’s youth, is that this change not only has to occur for those in need, but for those who have to extend their hand in providing the need. If the latter group can show initiative, we can be a great success. Present day examples like the Grameen Bank, which at its root is set out to help people, more so women and children, are exemplary.

I would like to see more youth who are capable leaders, to step into such fields with the plain intention of sincerely helping and reaching out. More importantly we need adults to provide incentives for the youth to do so, because otherwise ignorance will prevail and the mindset of many youth will be somewhat selfish, if not totally selfish.

As International Children’s Day is here, we have to acknowledge the role of children and youth in our lives, let them play an integral part of it, and promote a more interdependent society. At the same time the children have to be congratulated at wherever they stand, and reminded of how they have so much more than their international compatriots.

Mozafer Rajabali is a high school student who wants potential to be recognized in the most deprived of countries.

References: 1 “Bracelet of Hope”, hope.student-reach.com. 30th May 2009. <http://hope.student-reach.com/bracelet.html>

Fair trade may be the world's last, best hope

By Mathew Hulbert

The reason I consider myself to be a progressive, a campaigner on Social Justice issues and a promoter of a world that is free, fair and green is because, since my teenage years, I've read and heard about people-in lands far away from my own-that suffer not through any fault of their own but because of the deep-seated unfairness that marks the way much of the world s governed, and the way economies are run.

Since my early teens I've been a consumer of and a supporter and campaign for Fair Trade products.I now have the great privilege and honour of being Co Fairtrade Co-ordinator at my church, Hinckley URC, and a member of the Hinckley and Bosworth Fairtrade Forum, a group of like-minded people and an official from the local authority.The job of the Fairtrade Forum is to promote Fairtrade products, and the cause itself, in South West Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England in the UK.

But, as important as that work is, what we really need to work for is a world where Fairtrade products aren't actually needed.What I mean by that is that the whole reason the Fairtrade movement came into being is because a number of very special, passionate, inspired people looked at the utterly unfair trading rules, many years ago, and decided that they needed to do something to help the Developing World to help itself.

They took action when Western Governments were doing nothing but sitting on their hands and getting rich and fat by kicking and punishing their poor relations-instead of offering the hand of friendship, removing restrictive and prohibitive trade rules, and saying 'come and join the party, it's time to spread the wealth.'

Ever since then, despite the best efforts of campaigners and lobbyists, a great number of restrictive trade rules have remained in place.That means fair trade and other movements have been needed to continue campaigning for fairer rules.So far, by and large, Western Governments have failed to listen.

Now, with Barack Obama in the White House, there is a real sign of hope.

Holding others back, instead of allowing them to trade freely and fairly, is utterly backward looking and, ultimately (as we've seen), doesn't help our economies.

The great irony is that Developing World nations, who've done nothing to contribute to the current world economic downturn, will suffer first and the most because they've been held back by the very countries whose economic policies have gotten the globe into this mess.

Removing the barriers to free and fair trade may be the last, best, hope we have of kick-starting the global economy.It's time for freedom and fairness to reign!

Mathew is a reporter with a group of radio stations in the English Midlands and writes for a number of local newspapers, and writes for the Speak Up for Change blog in an independent capacity.

Genocide: the hard-hitting reality

By Mathew Hulbert

Every January 27th I attend a deeply moving and, in its own way, deeply upsetting service at a local church in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. January 27th is National Holocaust Memorial Day and I go along to that service of remembrance to bow my head and pay my respects to all who have died in genocides and to all whose lives have been touched by it. The haunting music, the testaments read out loud, the prayers and, in my mind's eye, Jesus weeping at a world touched by evil. Then finally out into what always, on that day, seems to be the chill wind; as if nature itself is creaking under the weight of more than a century of man's inhumanity to man.

I'd heard about genocides at school but it was only when, around 1999, I read a couple of books by the incredible Irish writer Fergal Keane that the real horror, the real pain, the disgust hit me, like a freight train, in the face. Disgust that it had been allowed to happen again and again; not just the almost unfathomable horror of the Holocaust, but, since then, in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now, even as I write, in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Millions of people lost, innocence taken, whole nations destroyed.

How can we ever even begin to make amends for a century and more of pillage, rape, murder and torture?

How do we begin to build, brick by slow brick, a global coalition that'll stand and say 'we'll take no more. This must happen no longer. Not in our name'?

As Fergal Keane has pointed out in his reporting, the most shocking aspect of all is that genocide isn't carried out by devils, but by human beings. And, again as Mr Keane has noted, it is allowed to happen because people of goodwill either turn their collective heads away or take far too long before acting.

Just look at Rwanda. It was 1994; only a few short years from the start of a new century. And, despite reports from brave journalists and others, Governments around the world turned their faces away from the 100 day slaughter of almost a whole people. Where were the Governments of John Major and Bill Clinton? And, in terms of Darfur, where were the Governments of Tony Blair and George W Bush?

I am despite all of this, however, an optimist at heart. I believe with the new Obama administration making positive foreign policy noises from Washington that we could (stress the 'could') be about to enter a new ethical age. Only time will tell, of course, but I hope and pray that in future years when I attend the January 27th service I'll be remembering events of the past but no longer reflecting on genocides of the present.

We really must say and mean:

Never Again.

Mathew is a reporter with a group of radio stations in the English Midlands and writes for a number of local newspapers, and writes for the Speak Up for Change blog in an independent capacity.