International Youth Day.

August 12th marks International Youth Day. Visit www.un.org/youth for ways to celebrate. The theme for this year is BE SEEN, BE HEARD: YOUTH PARTICIPATION FOR DEVELOPMENT.

There are many youth led organizations in many countries around the world that are doing great work to change the future of their communities, countries, and our planet. If you have time, skills and experience – lend a hand.

One World Youth Project is a sister school program for middle and senior high schools connecting schools in US/Canada to schools around the world. The goal is to work together on projects and ideas related to the United Nation’s MDGs. Each pair of schools are assigned one of the MDGs to focus on and then over the course of the seven months, students discuss the curriculum, share ideas, and develop projects.

Dalai Lama’s Ten Virtuous Actions

The Dalai Lama’s Ten Virtuous Actions

• Protecting and saving life
• Giving and not taking what is not given
• Treating your partner respectfully—respecting your marriage vows
• Speaking honestly
• Speaking with the goal to bring harmony among beings
• Speaking gently
• Refraining from gossip
• Being happy for others’ accomplishments
• Being loving toward all
• Having a view that includes karma and understands the middle way between the two extreme views of eternalism and nihilism, accompanied by the two kinds of accumulations (of merit and wisdom)

This is only the list, please go to http://www.care2.com/ for the full story.

Podcasting for Social Justice

There’s a great case study and article on how groups in Africa are using podcasting to share and disseminate criticial information. Because it is relatively inexpensive to create a podcast there are few barriers to starting. And there are now organizations that are setting up computer centres for people to come in and download the podcasts.

Pambazuka News, is an example. Produced by Networks for Social Justice, it is six years old and has an audience of around half a million readers. And is now the “principal platform for analysis, debate and discussion on issues related to the struggle for social justice in Africa.”

In Peru, podcasts are being used to help farmers get relevant information on the specific crops they grow in a language they understand. “Local information centres with Internet connections make audio CDs or copy the files onto digital audio players which can then be listened to by farmers at a time convenient to themselves.”

There has also been an interesting mix of old and new technologies, where the podcasts are also broadcasted on traditional radio stations.

I wonder how many other applications of this technology we can use in social marketing and social justice campaigns.

Received an email the other day from the Alliance …

Received an email the other day from the Alliance for Climate Protection about a cool new contest they are running with Current TV. Go to www.current.tv/ecospot for all the details, but here is the run down.

Create a 15, 30 or 60 second Ecospot ad about how someone who is taking action to solve the climate crisis. Or you can create an original, persuasive message that will open eyes, inspire change and empower your audience. Submit your ad at Current.tv.

A panel of celebrity judges including Mr. George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Orlando Bloom, Rihanna, Sam Mendes (Oscar winning director), Alex Bogusky (leading ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky), Joe Pytka (legendary advertising director), Cathy Zoi (founding CEO of the Alliance) will pick the best 20.

Then the general public can view them all and vote on their favorite. Win Sony gadgets, Sidekicks or grand prize a Toyota Hybrid! Plus your ad could be used in a National outreach campaign by Alliance.

Sites are getting into it.

Recently, I was on wayn.com (Where Are You Now) site, which is a travel/travel blog site. I noticed on it that they have added an “issues or cause” section to the site.

…Next month we will be launching a new Make_A_Difference campaign chosen by our members. You can currently vote for the issue you most care about and the one which has the most member votes will be turned into a global campaign from which we will publish our member input from a more detailed poll. Take the opportunity to support your issue now!

This is an example of how any site can add interactive elements to their website AND do it for a good cause.