If you didn’t know already, it’s been Refugee Week 2009 this week. To commemorate the cause Jaz and Ben have been doing a brilliant job getting the word out, energising the blogging community and collectively making some however big or small, social change.
When it comes to charity and making social change, i’m sometimes a bit too cynical for my own good. However, this got me thinking to myself what are the words that I think of first ordinarily when I see or hear the word refugee, here’s my top 5.
1. Poverty
2. Forced
3. Conflict
4. Unrest
5. Global
When you look at those words, they’re all pretty powerful and all probably stir some kind of emotion inside you. I’ve often thought just how lucky we really are in western society having all the luxuries we’re accustomed to and take for granted.
What are your top 5 and what’s this all in aid of?
Let me answer the latter part at least..
The Simple Acts campaign is about inspiring individuals to use small, everyday actions to change perceptions of refugees.
It consists of 20 actions that can be done by anyone and that encourage us to learn and do more with refugees. With every person who joins the campaign and does a small thing with and for refugees, we get a little closer to removing barriers between communities and to creating the kind of world we all want to live in.
There’s no way of knowing an exact number, but we hope to see thousands of people doing at least one small action by 2010!
According to the homepage 3298 simple acts have been carried out. Amazing. How about adding another one to the mix?
Check out a few other posts from Matt Churchill, Anke Holst and Kate Evans Bush
