THE WAY OF AVAAZ (www. Avaaz.org) the good use of technology…….
I am a fan of Avaaz and I hope that this month’s
Reflection will encourage you to become a fan too. I hear some of you
asking - “what is Avaaz?”
Avaaz – meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern
and Asian languages – was launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission:
organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and
the world most people everywhere want.
Avaaz empowers millions of people from all walks of
life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from
corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change. Through internet
organizing Avaaz allows thousands of individual efforts, however small, to be
rapidly combined into a powerful collective force.
The Avaaz community campaigns in 15 languages, served
by a core team on 6 continents and thousands of volunteers. Avaaz takes action
– signing petitions, funding media campaigns and direct actions, emailing,
calling and lobbying governments, and organizing “offline” protests and events
– to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform the
decisions that affect us all. It depends entirely on voluntary donations for
its work.
Previous international citizen’s groups and social
movements have had to build a constituency for each separate issue, year by
year and country by country, in order to reach a scale that could make a
difference. Today, thanks to new technology and arising ethic of global
inter-dependence, that constraint no longer applies. Avaaz’s online community
can act like a megaphone to call attention to new issues: a lightning rod to
channel broad public concern into specific, targeted campaigns; a fire truck to
rush an effective response to a sudden, urgent emergency; and a stem cell that grows into whatever form
of advocacy or work is best suited to meet an urgent demand.
It costs nothing to Google the Avaaz web site and to
give them your e-mail address. Avaaz then informs you by e-mail of their
current campaigns. Through their net-working they have built a vast global
community of people. I see this as especially important at a time when many
people feel they can do nothing in the face of the world’s suffering. We can.
What Avaaz is seeking to achieve is an inspiring vision - a vision rooted in
compassion and in concern for our connected world in which there is much
injustice. We need not sit back powerless when through the internet we can act
for the good of other people.
Avaaz crosses
all political, cultural and religious lines, while accepting the power of the
individual to change things. Through its work I personally feel connected to
many deeply concerned people in the world. People of all religious and cultural
traditions - all of whom are aware that together we can raise our voices on
issue that matter to the human family.
Recently about 50,000 of us all across the world (it
may be more now) responded to this moving letter from a woman called Ria living
in the UK. This was Ria’s initial, beautiful message sent to the Avaaz web site.
Dear Friends at Avaaz
all over the world,
I am 65 years old and have terminal cancer and not
long to live. I can do very little practically because of this. The state of
the world and the amount of violence and injustice often break my heart.
Through your organization even I can make a difference and try to help make
this world a better place for others before I leave it. This is a positive and
peaceful action which gives me great comfort. I am no longer helpless and
powerless. You have given me, even in
sickness, a voice.Thank you for giving me this priceless opportunity at such a time as this. Peace and democracy in Syria would be such a fantastic “going away present.” However, this message was just to say thank you for giving so many people who care a voice which is now heard world wide – 15 million of us! What a voice to be reckoned with. Thanks to you all. Ria.
I have never believed that the Christian God is
confined to the churches or to church-goers. But as many of you know from these
month by month reflections I am deeply interested in this fundamental question:
Where is Christ’s voice to be heard and his presence felt in the world
today?Avaaz is not a religious movement but through its vision millions of caring people have come together to make their voice heard. I know that some Christians dislike global movements of this kind. In some way they see them as threatening or “not of God.” Many Christians are suspicious of anything that does not originate in their own country or which takes seriously other religious and cultural traditions.
All I can say is that when I get a
message in my e-mail box from Avaaz, I know that its content will awaken my heart and mind to a vital
concern in the modern world. A concern which may be “far away” but relates to my daily
living me for we are together on this small planet. Ria was right in her moving
letter when she said that we can all make a difference to some tough situation
or to some suffering group in the world.
No one has asked me to write in support
of Avaaz. I hope, if you have time, that by my writing about Avaaz here, you
will look at the web-site and through it find encouragement for your own work of compassion.
+++++
Lord in these inter-connected times, we thank you that millions of
caring people can be linked through the web in
their work for justice and peace. +++++
****
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE OLDEST READER OF THESE REFLECTIONS – Mrs Louie Wilson of
Ayr in Scotland who in July celebrated her 100th birthday in her own
home. ****
