From Clicktivist to Advocate

Today marks 500 days until the target date to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. As the momentum speeds up, what can we do to assist? Nicole So decided to get more involved and effective in doing her bit to help meet these important goals. Here she tells of her journey from 'clicktivist' to advocate. 

by Nicole So, Citizen Advocate

Less than a year ago, I knew nothing about advocacy.

This time last year, I was nothing more than a clicktivist. A person that cared enough to share a heart-breaking picture of a child living in poverty via my Twitter account, but didn’t quite know what else she could do.

I found RESULTS through a job advertisement for Global Health Campaign Manager. A position that I did not have the experience or qualifications for which to apply, but something about this word, advocacy, grabbed my attention.

Defined by Dictionary.com as ‘the act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending; active espousal.’

OK, that didn’t clear anything up...

Upon further research I realised:

• Words with Friends point value for advocacy is 21 points!
• Google images relates advocacy to people holding hands and/or megaphones.
• Advocacy in Portuguese is advocacy.

None of these amazing fun facts actually helped me understand advocacy better. When I finally clicked through to the RESULTS website I had a lot of questions. The biggest one was who can I contact to ask more questions, the website had so many words, flashing images, and tabs. It was overwhelming to know where to start. So, I retreated to my safe place - Facebook.

Thankfully, RESULTS has a Facebook page or my journey in advocacy could have ended right there. This is the first post that I saw:

I am not sure what intrigued or terrified me more, the idea of speaking with my local member of parliament, who happens to be the Hon. Joe Hockey, or travelling to Canberra with strangers. I stared at my screen, stupefied, for five minutes before I sent this short email to Gina the Grassroots Engagement Manager:

Hello,

My name is Nicole. I am interested to help speak to MPs in Canberra about poverty.

Please let me know more information.

Thank you.

Regards, Nicole

When my mum said, ‘don’t get into a car with strangers’, I think she meant to say, ‘except if the driver is the CEO of a non-profit organisation who is driving you to Canberra to talk to MPs about poverty’. If not, sorry mum.

That was in September 2013, fast forward to June, 2014: I am in the foyer of the Doubletree Hotel in Arlington, Virginia at the RESULTS 2014 International Conference. It is 9:00am, but my body thinks it is 11:00pm, so I rely on unrelenting enthusiasm to keep me vertical.

Plus caffeine.

The first workshop was titled ‘Who Do You Want to Be in the World?: Leadership Tips for Everyone’. I sat sheepishly at the end of a row, towards the back. Close enough so that I can see the screen without my glasses, but far back enough to melt into a sea of faces. I wasn’t sure that I had anything important to contribute, but I was wrong. Turns out, as a Citizen Advocate, I am the most important part.

Sam Daley-Harris, the founder of RESULTS opened the day with a powerful speech, reminding all of us that ordinary citizens can do extraordinary things. A part of our potential and privilege as citizens of a democratic nation is the freedom to engage and connect with our government. This is something that not enough of us are taking advantage of. The power to change the world for the better, was hidden in the idea of advocacy the whole time.

Next, Rev. Lisa Marchal captivated me with the story of her journey to working with RESULTS (US). It began with a humble recollection of her first encounter with a Person Living with HIV and the stigma she witnessed amongst her friends and family. She emphasised the necessity for a good personal story to not only teach someone how to act - but to inspire them to act. A good story can communicate morals and values through emotions and can bring global issues to a personal level. I wanted one of those, a story to bewitch, and to embolden change.

I have been to conferences before, ones where people talk at you, where you’re expected to write notes quietly, and not interact. This was not one of those. The minutes went by and I felt the community atmosphere grow. Each session was peppered with audience participation, and we were encouraged to give feedback and ask questions. I felt like I was a part of something bigger, like a cog in a well-oiled advocacy machine.

After each speaker, I was sure that my glass was too full of inspiration, I could not possibly have room for more. But the conference just kept handing me a bigger glass.

Perhaps, it was between:

• former Prime Minister and Board Chair of GPE, Julia Gillard passionately advocating for universal quality education;
• or the dizzying scrimmage to get this photo with President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Kim after he spoke fondly of his experiences with RESULTS;

That I stopped to ask myself, How did I get here?
 
Well, the ingenuity of aeronautical engineering had a hand, but it was advocacy. Advocacy got me from Sydney, Australia to Washington DC, USA.

It empowered me as much as I use it to empower politicians to act on alleviating poverty.

Less than a year ago, I knew nothing about advocacy.

Now, I am a Citizen Advocate, and I know what it means. It means that I am one of many big-hearted people around the world in the RESULTS family, who care enough to speak loudly about the global issues that matter, for the betterment of those who are voiceless.

And Google images was right, advocacy was about holding hands and a megaphone.

So, thank you to my friends at RESULTS (Australia) who held my hand and helped me find my voice, but especially to Gina who gave me a megaphone.

The power of being non-partisan

 Jim Grant, former Executive Director of UNICEF, visits a classroom in Bangladesh. photo: UNICEF

by Gina Olivieri, RESULTS Australia's Grassroots Engagement Manager

"Why do you provide condoms to sex workers? Why do you provide lube to men who have sex with men? Why do you exchange needles for drug users?”

These are questions often posed to our advocate friends in Kenya who are working to eliminate HIV in their communities.

The underlying assumption of questions like this, particularly in conservative settings, seems to be ‘these people are dirty, they are not worthy of your help.’

The answer given by the Kenyan advocate, incidentally, was love. They show love to all people who need their help to protect themselves and the community from a killer virus; by simply helping them without judgment.

This comment and others throughout the day got me thinking of another story. They got me thinking of the late Jim Grant, hugely influential former Executive Director of UNICEF who led the ‘child survival revolution’ throughout the 80s and 90s. Grant was often criticised for being photographed shaking hands with dictators; before or after having just met with them to discuss some sort of child survival intervention such as vaccination or oral rehydration salts.

He ‘shook hands that were stained with blood, hands that had turned the keys on political prisoners, hands that had signed away human rights, hands that were deep in the country’s till.’
This was not taken well, as many thought he shouldn’t be tainting UNICEF’s name by associating with such corrupt and even evil regimes.

Grant’s answer was as pragmatic as you would expect – “We don’t like the President so the kids don’t get immunized? You want to wait to launch the campaign until all governments are respectable?”
Grant recognised that as advocates, we don’t always get to choose who has the key to unlock interventions that can save lives. We could probably individually find a reason to avoid engaging with every single political leader or person of influence; for reasons trivially annoying to morally reprehensible.

But if we avoid engaging with them, what do we gain? And more importantly, what do we lose?
We lose the opportunity to influence somebody to be a champion for child health. Despite their evil reputations and deeds, Jim Grant was able to convince some notorious dictators that child health was important and deserving of resources. Had he not done that, those children would have been in exactly the same state as before – dying of preventable diseases or dehydration for a lack of simple, inexpensive interventions.

Our power is in our non-partisan stance. If we eliminate individuals, or even whole sides of politics from the dialogue, we miss the opportunity to build champions, who we have seen from experience, can come from surprising places. They may not be the ones we would have chosen, but they are in a place of influence. It’s our job to ensure that influence is used well.

Reference: http://www.unicef.org/about/history/files/Jim_Grant_unicef_visionary.pdf