Taking a Step Beyond - Personal efforts in meeting the Millennium Development Goals

Sphere: Related Content In past posts, I have been self-depreciating (which doesn't mean that it is not true) about being a slacktivist. Even this small effort has sometimes become more difficult with other issues rising in my life. Truth is that we can always find people in our lives who are doing something more and can use that to help keep ourselves on the journey. So I wanted to connect with some of the good work that I have run across while on this pathway.

I have been wanting to do a blog post on what some of my Orkut and Facebook friends were getting involved in. It has been something on the backburner for a while. This pathway has introduced me to some rather interesting people. I did one with this blog on SAHASH INDIA NGO Society sometime ago.

One early connection was with Dr. Shushil Choubey of Bangalore, Karnataka, India who also has his own blog LIFE - Science Civilization.

Another friend Debashree Mukherjee works with TakingITGlobal - Inspire. Inform. Involve.

• "TIG is an inspiration to other organizations - it leads by example with its dynamism and commitment to constantly exploring and implementing innovative ways of doing business, proving that it is possible for an organization to be successful and truly socially responsible, and by showcasing the passionate dedication and brilliance of young people who are, often thanklessly, making this world a better place for all of us."

  Diigo tags: global, takingitglobal, activism, collaboration, youth, education, web2.0
  

This journey has also introduced me to SUSANTA BISWAS documentary maker both on Orkut and Facebook. This is his home page SUSANTA BISWAS - homepage.

He recently introduced me to Jeanne Ratzloff on Facebook who works with PeopleWeaver.com.

• PeopleWeaver.com - Kyangwali Women's MicroCredit Business Loans

  We provide economic assistance to the women living at the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda. The intent of this assistance is to help the community escape extreme poverty. Current assistance projects include:
  

  • MicroCredit for Individuals
  • Community Grain Mill Purchase
  • Basket Making for Export

  Diigo tags: peopleweaver, kyangwali, microcredit, social-entrepreneurship

So there are people all over trying to make the world a bit better. My interest in focusing on these efforts is that they are the efforts of individuals, perhaps through organizations, but it is their individual effort that makes the story. The efforts are a bit more than your run-of-the-mill slacktivist even by well-meaning people who keep blogs and wiki's. Helps to keep perspective when dealing with this crazy world. I recently revisited a TED Talk that made this point about the importance of the individual's efforts as opposed to the networks.

Outreach from Uttrakhand

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The reach of the World Wide Web continues to amaze me. I belong to the Orkut group End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA. The membership is primarily from India with a good number from Brazil (which has by far the greatest number of people on Orkut) and a few from Europe and America. I have credited the Orkut End Poverty group with getting me involved online with this cause before. Today I am highlighting another online connection.

PSSP ("Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti” Pati) an NGO, in Uttrakhand contacted me.

PSSP:

Hi, We are Uttrakhand (India) based NGO. We have FCRA registration, could you guide us how we can get fund from foreigin organisation.

They have overestimated my connections and influence. This weblog's objective is to educate myself as much as it is to educate and influence anybody else. One point of ignorance, I don't know what FCRA registration means in this context. I also can't vouch for them. I will though put their information out where I can and let the collective intelligence of the web take over.

Others within the Orkut community have said that they should identify themselves better, which they should, but I could see a situation where a NGO in a remote area, with limited resources was able to use the web to leverage connections across the globe. In order to do so, their connection would have to grow like crystals expanding. They would need others to take up their cause.

Reaping from Yesterday's Efforts Planting for the Future

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Both Blog Action Day - Poverty and Stand Up Take Action are now in the past. You can see the results of the Blog Action Day here. Stand Up Take Action will be holding their press conference tomorrow to talk about the results. I already provided input to both the folks at Blog Action Day about an idea for next year's Blog Action Day and my views to the Orkut group I belong to supporting EndPoverty2015.

I had two basic messages to the Orkut group. One was to send in what they had done as stories, pictures or links. This is actually a bit self-serving because I get so many useful and interesting resources this way. The other was to register online as having Stood Up Against Poverty Online if they couldn't make it to an actual event.

The idea of pushing Universal Education as a means of promoting the Millennium Development Goals has been running around my head for awhile. I did see one local event at a near by Long Beach magnet school on Understanding Global Poverty, then I realized that it was 6th to 8th graders. Now I am very happy that they are studying global issues, but it wasn't something I would want to attend unless I still had my own eighth grader. So I participated online with the the Australian Council for International Development Make Poverty History Campaign.

Looking over some of the other posts at Blog Action Day I found Lucy Barrow's EduBlog post on Blog Action Day - What does the world think about poverty? | ICT and TLC. I did not know what an ICT trainer was until now. Lucy's post lead me to a more interesting resources such as Edublogger, and the polling site Ask 500 People. The pertinent question was “Do you believe it is possible to make poverty history?” That led me back to to Make Poverty History.

Another new and interesting find was Blog Action Day posts by "association" bloggers courtesy of Lisa Junker via Acronym by on 10/17/08. I have to admit that I am not familiar with the use of the term Association as a profession, but it seems like they do great work and that there is a great deal to learn from them. The Bamboo Project seems to have a good deal to offer.

I particularly liked the insight from Kristin Clarke the day after October 15th “Blog Action Day”.

Can one day’s worth of blog posts fundamentally shift public discourse on a major social issue? All I can say is that issues definitely won’t be addressed if no one is talking about them.

Next Year's Blogging Action Day - Getting an early start

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I left Collis of Blogging Action Day the following message by e-mail (sans some typos).

I am getting my "vote" in early about next year's Blog Action Day - Universal Education. Not too long ago I got interested in the UN Millennium Development Goals. I joined an Orkut group supporting Stand Up Take Action and the thought came to my mind wouldn't it be cool if the Blog Action folks had poverty as their focus this year, lo and behold you did. Trouble is despite the online success of Blog Action and the participation of people around the world in Stand Up Take Action these issues are still not mainstream which can be seen by the lack of 1st level mass media attention. Yes, I know that they are owned by corporations, but if this was understood and appreciated by the average person in the Western World there would be more main stream stories on it. So then Blog Action Day 2009 focuses on supporting Universal Education and then we can use it as a means of increasing awareness of all the related issues. Get Junior High School students on board and by 2015 they are or just about ready to vote. People are likely to be more willing to provide education for others when they are educating their own kids. Kids are more likely to be comfortable with the net having grown up with it. Lastly, this came to me because of the recent work of TED and Dave Eggers Once Upon a School, seems like there is something there that could be built upon.

Standing Up Today Take Action Against Poverty Today and Tomorrow and on

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I am basically re-blogging my self. This is from the forum of the Orkut group of which I am a part. This is based on a previous post, Stand Up Take Action Online.

Standing Up Today

via End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA Community Feed by OrkutFeeds on 10/17/08

Last Post: by Brian Dowling

I have Stood Up Against Poverty today Online with the Australian Council for International Development Make Poverty History Campaign. There are relatively few events in the United State 196 compared to 176 on the British Isles. This has not gone mainstream in America. India has had the best showing with 760 events planned and over 27 million scheduled to attend. There are though some glimmers of hope in my own backyard. Here is my message on Standing Up Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals.

From: briandrpm@mac.com
Subject: Standing Up Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals
Date: October 17, 2008 7:47:19 AM PDT
To: mph@acfid.asn.au

I am Standing Up Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals Online as a member of the Orkut group End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=47234928

I think of this as only a starting point, like the beginning of a race towards a goal. The question is how to get people to complete the marathon to the finish line? I believe that the online communities will be a very important tool in getting as many people involved as possible.

Brian Dowling
BrianDRPM

http://anewmillennium.blogspot.com/
briandrpm@gmail.com preferred email

Blog Action Day Is Today The Struggle Continues

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This is my Blog Action Day post against poverty. It's a workday and I am doing this on my lunch hour. This is where I am suppose to make a statement against poverty, for a cause, on some worldwide solution. The truth is that I am not that good of a writer. Obstinately, it appears to be one day to add one small voices to over 10,000 others.

Not that I haven't been dealing with the subject of poverty or promoting this event. The last few days have been spent doing that, leading up to this with a number of posts; all inspired by Easton Ellsworth's post on How to Make Blog Action Day 2008 Unforgettable which appeared at Blog Action Day 2008 on 9/22/08. Here are my takes on these themes.

1. Ponder. Think about poverty.

2. Believe: Blog Action Day 2008 Reminder!

3. Dream

4. Act.

5. Share - Across The Globe

6. Change For Today - For Oct 15th - For the World

Easton has done it again with his post on 88 Ways to DO something about Poverty. Easton has done what many of us do and that is take ideas from across the World Wide Web and shared them with others. We, in turn, do the same again. That may be the essence of Blog Action Day.

It is not one day to add one small voices to over 10,000 others. It is 2,500 and more days following today to add my voice to growing millions. It may be small, often simple, but like water it can be made a persistent, unyielding force, especially en mass.

Today, of all days, I was given the opportunity to become of a moderator on the Orkut group End POVERTY by 2015 United Nations Millennium Campaign Stand UP Take ACTION 17-19 Oct 2008.

One Small action (from Easton's list) Visit The Hunger Site every day and click the link to feed the hungry. It’s fast and it’s free and there’s absolutely NO excuse not to do it every day you’re online!

Buddhist Thought of the Day

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills. - Buddha ...

Share - Across The Globe

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Both Blogging Action Day Poverty and I are on the same page that it's 5 days until the big day when over 7,000 blogs raise a ruckus against poverty.

Today is a great day to talk about No. 5. Share of the 6 different ways to make Blogging Day unforgettable. Easton Ellsworth (plug), who started this off with his Action Blog post, was kind enough to leave an encouraging comment at my post "3. Dream":

Brian, this series rocks! Thank you!

Tim O'Reilly, who was an initial source of inspiration, is telling the Web 2.0 world techies that they need to get more involved (my personal take on what he had to say).

The whole intention of this blog is to put forth my true thoughts and opinions about poverty on October 15 and beyond. It was social media accounts, or the people in them, that got me involved in this effort in the first place. I am participating in Facebook, MyBlogLog and am trying to start a diigo group, but the most fruitful has been Orkut. Aditi (a mysterious visitor to my other blog) led me to the Orkut group Stand Up Take Action Against Poverty (may have to join to see). The fact that I can join a group in India proves the global reach of blogging. I have been very impressed with what they have put together. They have reached 1,965 members and have a number of involved forums. Rupesh Manda from Watconsult.com, which handles all the social media presence and management for UNDC s poverty campaign in India, was also supportive of my efforts. He recently told me that Blog Action Day is now Blogging Action Partner for UNMC now. Together we will make a difference!

More from Blog Action Day 2008