About EVERYONE A CHANGEMAKER
For the posting of images to the group’s main photo pool, please follow the Image Posting Rules Thread
As one of their 1.800 fellows in a highly effective global network of social entrepreneurs, I deeply respect Ashoka’s vision of a world where Everyone can be a Changemaker: a world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change.
Not only am I privileged to be part of Ashoka’s global network of social entrepreneurs, I am also part of another highly creative global community called Flickr, where all of you, its members, share that same privilege. With more than a million regular members and millions more who visit this community, Flickr obviously hosts an incredible number of potential changemakers.
Identifying potentials is something we do all the time in our organization, working with youth venture to pave the way for social change in their own underprivileged communities. But how does one go about releasing the hidden potential of such an immense global community as Flickr? I have often wondered what moves mountains, - what makes people feel solidarity towards, or wakes their compassion to support a solution to a given problem. I suppose for some people, being an active part of the solution means everything, whilst for others, making a modest financial contribution towards the realization and implementation of a solution is probably more realistic.
As a social entrepreneur I am constantly faced with challenges to find effective solutions to protect the rights of street children and other children at risk with my organization, the Children At Risk Foundation - CARF. Respecting my own limitations, I therefore believe in a strong social network of changemakers as being the only realistic and effective solution to many of the world’s social problems.
At CARF, we often need to rely on our creative ability to find quick solutions to urgent problems and preferably, ones that don’t put too much strain on our annual budget. Some problems are easier than others to resolve due to our 14 years of experience as a humanitarian organization, which has obviously left us with a certain amount of know-how regarding local conditions and limitations. Other situations may not have immediate answers.
Whatever the problem, almost any solution requires a minimum of funding to pull it through and the human resources to implement it, but regretfully the funds are not always as easily accessible as the solution itself. So why then, do most of us simply wait for the big catastrophes to appear before we react? Have we become so dependent on the mass media’s powerful monopoly to move us? Are we still capable of practicing those small, everyday actions of solidarity towards each other, making a real difference in the lives of those touched by our actions? I think so........
......and that is my reason for starting this new and special group, in the hope of discovering the hidden potential for social change in Flickr and moving these mountains together so that everyone’s a changemaker.
The objectives of this group........................
I plan to use the group to present various problems that we are faced with in our daily work with street children and other children at risk, problems that are either seeking a solution or the necessary funding to implement one. I will try to present, as detailed as my work allows me, each problem in a separate “Case Study Thread” (see direct links to these below), inviting suggestions and ideas for solutions from the members of this community, if and when a solution has not already been found by CARF’s team of co-workers at Hummingbird. Through sharing valuable knowledge and insights, we can maybe discover alternative and satisfactory solutions for these problems. We will then appeal to the community to help fund the solution, or part of it, through our fundraising campaign: Flickr Change for Social Change.
NB! CARF has non-profit charity status No.977 155 371, registered as NGO No.74 with the Norwegian Charity Collections Control Bureau
Research shows, that giving cash to at-risk children on the streets, contributes more towards their self-destruction than actually helping them, no matter where in the world one finds them. Do you realize that in Brazil alone, each child begging at the traffic lights and collecting small change from car windows does so to the tone of almost USD$500 each month, yet there is no positive social change to their lives as a consequence. CARF uses the same amount per child, per year, attended in our Street Migration Prevention Programme. I think it’s about time we begin redirecting that petty cash to benefit some real social change.
Believing in a united community action, I’m directing this campaign to the masses because ordinary people like you and me, have always been the back-bone for CARF’s Hummingbird Project. As a grass-roots organization, it is the sum of all those helping hands, big or small, that have kept Hummingbird flying high during these last 14 years.
Everyone a Changemaker welcomes initiatives from members to create their own campaigns in support of CARF’s work for children at risk. Please feel free to share your ideas with me if you think you can contribute with a changemaker initiative. The discussion threads are your open forum for these initiatives. One such initiative is now in its second year edition: Marília's Hummingbird Xmas Campaign 2006:
•For the posting of images to the group’s main photo pool, please follow the Image Posting Rules Thread
•To find out how you can make a contribution towards the “Flickr Change for Social Change” Campaign, please follow the Flickr Change for Social Change Thread or go directly to the Campaign Page
•To find out more about Ashoka and get inspired by the incredible work being developed all over the world by their network of changemaking social entrepreneurs, please follow the Useful Links to Social Change Thread
Prevention better than cure – Cure being the prevention
 . . . . 
 
Case Study - II. First we'll walk Case Study - I. through its steps before we start running........
http://www.carfweb.net/changemakers.html
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