Community Mobilization for Campaigns: Lessons and Principles

I dedicate this article to all the HEROES who made the maiden Share-Your-Lunch event a huge success on September 10, 2011. You are appreciated; this is just an indication of what we are capable of doing if we deliberately plan towards change. You are the HEROES of this generation.

Since my teenage years as an activist, I have been part of several campaigns, some successful and others not. I remember being an active member of campaigns in my local community and my University as an undergraduate, as well as sharing with other vibrant young people ideas and views about campaigns both in Ghana and the UK. I really enjoyed my time with the Student World Assembly’s 2007 Campaign against Human (Child) Trafficking, Youth Crime Watch of America’s ‘Youth against Crime, Drugs and Violence’ and the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) Climate Revolution, during which I met most of the passionate and inspiring young activists on this planet.

I have spent most part of my life looking for opportunities to be part and/or lead a progressive youth movement towards change and to learn from what is working somewhere. While my dream seems to be approaching each passing moment, I have taken some time to learn, and still learning from other people, especially young people across the globe who are making change happen in real small ways and gradually building robust movements to cause a revolution.

I have never learnt so much from other young people as I have done in this past year; I have come closer to believe and understand in some ways, about how to approach change and organize and mobilize movements for action towards change which I would  want to share with you. I’m sharing what I have learnt from all of you reading this piece, especially the fabulous community of Share-Your-Lunch whom I call our Generation’s Heroes. I have 5 main lessons/principles to share about how we can mobilize for successful campaigns and would be glad if you tell me what you think:

1. Communicate well in advance

Communication is very important in mobilizing for campaigns, especially if it’s a community campaign, and the first challenge would be to break the language barrier if there is one. The next step is working on your 2Ts (Team and Target). Your team should grasp why you are running the campaign and what really the issue on the ground is that needs urgent attention. Orientations and training for volunteers from time to time well in advance would really help and making information available to them is key. Communicating with your target overtime can be an overwhelming task. Engage other people who can communicate better with your target than yourself and use basic illustrations to explain complex scenarios. It is important to work on your team from time to time before launching your campaign than doing everything possible to make the message sink down using a single event. It might not work.

2. Define clearly your ‘Young People’ and ‘Youth

 There are different international definitions of who a youth is. From the African Union, Commonwealth of Nations, to the United Nations, various age categories have been defined as youth. Though these definitions are internationally recognized models, for a campaign, it is important to define your own ‘youth’ to get the results and success required.  The age factor is equally important for campaigns. Young people will come for an event or sign up for a campaign when they know they would meet other young people just like them. What I have learnt from community organization and mobilization in Ghana is that it is less challenging to mobilize 13-25yrs for campaigns because these group of young people have less domestic and social responsibilities. Above this age group, it is possible to have a large number of people missing campaign events because they have to go to work on weekends, attend funerals, outdoorings, weddings and equally important assignments which they wouldn't sacrifice for a campaign due to their social relevance. 

3. Shift focus from policy makers to policy affected

I have seen events starting late because dignitaries (e.g. opinion leaders and government officials) have not arrived. This might leave a bad taste for your target group. They sometimes may feel you are either taking them for granted or think they are less important since the policy maker would as usual make promises and fail again. If you want your campaign to yield lifetime results, you must be bold and willing to dispense with titles like ‘Chairman’, ‘Special Guest of Honor’, etc, for some events. Concentrate on packaging your campaign to be attractive for the participation of people affected by policies or a social or environmental problem.

4. Engage and build your community

This I think is the most important principle and I have heard activists across the globe stress on this, whether they are friends from LEEDS TIDAL or Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC).  People make up a community and communities make movements. The latter is about mobilizing masses for campaigns and to be able to do that you need to make people feel part of most of the steps you take. Democracy is important here. It is important to find innovative ways to build and sustain people’s interest in a social issue and create platforms for information and knowledge sharing. You can also think about building the capacity of your community for action. In all, your community should feel like they are citizens or natives of the campaign and not just supporters of a cause or online members or petition signers doing you a favor.

5. Assignment and Space (Assign and give space)

It is quite normal to feel nervous about campaigns, especially at the beginning, but one thing you really have to consider is giving your team members space after you have assigned and communicated their roles and responsibilities to them well in advance and they understand the issues on the ground. It is important to give people the space to be creative and innovative about their own tasks. It breathes life into the campaign.

I am happy to share my views with you. I am really looking forward to seeing robust youth movements making huge strides in Ghana towards achieving a revolution and it can only happen when we think and plan strategically, employing all creativity and innovation to bear.

If You Want to Change the World, Ask a 10yr old British Girl and an 11yr old Ghanaian Boy

I dedicate this note to my little sweetie pie, Emma Kenyon, my superhero and inspirational icon for August 2011.

I call this our generation the unpredictable blackberry-totting, and a fad-craze one that has mutated the mobile phone youth culture. The day this generation was birthed; self centeredness was transported onto this planet in an UFO, for we are unreasonably capable of attacking our own neighbours just because there are riots. Our sense of belonging and responsibility can sometimes go on holidays in Malta to ride camels, or maybe to a Caribbean beach resort indulging in sun tanning.

Our fun-loving ladies adore their hair gels and the well groomed guys are gym-frequenters with well erected muscles ever ready for any hedonic expedition. And if you care to know, our life culture can sometimes be as inspiring and predictable as it’s brash and crass.

But let’s just say that there is an emerging action oriented and energetic generation which has taken their destiny into their own hands, found inspiration in an extraordinary creed to change their world and are whispering aloud to us to get out of their way if we think it’s not possible and better make an all day good impression of ourselves like a cow in a china shop.

Believe it or not, the kids are on fire and their conviction is as real as a NATO bomb raid in Tripoli. One of my principles as a community organizer is to share and spread inspirations and so if I know a 10yr old Jamaican-English girl and have read about an 11yr old Ghanaian boy throwing the kitchen sink to raise funds to support their fellow drought victims in Somalia, I wouldn’t just admit, “that is inspiring”, but would as well pick a quill, dip it into ink, and tattoo a gymnastic graffiti for the entire world to read. They are my heroes, they are my real child celebrities and yes, they are salvation to the horn of Africa.

Emma Kenyon, 10, my pretty and adorable family and church friend is a Ranger; she leads the way- Emma spent her school holidays making bookmarks to sell for the Somalia Drought Appeal. She’s realized £50 so far by selling 40 bookmarks out of the 250 she has produced so far. Emma’s marketing strategy is simple and precise- she sells her crafts after church service when the congregation has just been fired up by sermon to show love and compassion. What a creativity, what an innovation, and yes, it is coming from a 10yr old.

Andrew Adansi-Boamah, 11, Ghana- Now this boy blows my mind apart with an RPG. I first heard of him when I had been invited by a local radio station in Accra, Ghana called Radio Gold to grant an interview about our Share-Your-Lunch social media initiative. Andrew had granted an interview on the same program the day before. The host of the Morning Show gave me a play back of his interview, and inspired and shocked to the core, my words were remanded in custody by the throat.

During his eight-week school holiday, Andrew made a pledge to raise 20 million Ghanaian cedis ($13 million) for the children in Somalia by walking office to office collecting donations in Ghana's capital, Accra. Since August 1, when he started the fundraising, he has collected about $6,500 in pledges for the fund he started after consulting with UNICEF and the U.N.'s World Food Program.

According to Andrew, he was inspired by images of skeletal babies and stick-thin children he saw on television, which led him to name his campaign ‘Save Somali Children from Hunger’. After the interview, he put the icing on the cake, "This is a moment that mankind can touch lives," he said. "There is no point for others to have so much to eat while others have nothing to eat. It is not right."

I’m currently talking to people who might know Andrew so I can book an appointment just for an autograph. But as for Emma, very soon, and maybe one chilly winter evening in Christmas, after eating Jamaican food together, I would swallow her up in a bear hug.

Gideon Marcel (2011)- Community Organiser, Writer, Poet