Making a Difference, What Can I Do?
Beyond getting giving money or organizing a community event, here are some additional things you can do:
- Write to your local and national newspapers about how you feel about the situation in Africa. The letters page is a more influential forum than most people realize.
- Organize your community – neighbourhood, school, workplace, club, association, church/temple/mosque/synagogue – to fundraise and consciousness-raise about AIDS in Africa.
- If you work in a profession that has a union, your union may have an international solidarity fund or already be involved in international development. Unions are engaged in a host of socially useful projects, from partnering to direct financial support of grassroots groups. You should contact your union to see how you can get involved.
- If you work in a profession that has an association like Engineers Without Borders, Doctors Without Borders, or Actuaries Without Borders, you should contact them to find out how you can get involved. If your profession doesn't have an international development arm, get in touch with one of the existing groups for ideas about starting your own.
- If you want to go to Africa, see the section of our website on ‘Volunteering In Africa’.