Campaign 2000 Youth Action Committee

Hello to all: The tabling that Make Poverty History was able to do at the Billy Talent Concert on June 13^th, 2007 was quite a success! Our tally for the day was $207.00 raised, through the donations for the Make Poverty History white wristbands, and we managed to get a total of 243 people to sign onto the campaign. There were 6 volunteers — including me — and we all had a great time through the process of talking to the passersby, advocating for our campaign, and speaking out. The response was largely positive - most people were eager to listen to what we were saying, and once they realized we weren’t asking for money, they usually agreed to sign on and support our campaign. However, the audience we were facing — mainly teenagers - mid 20’s, proved to both our advantage and disadvantage. The advantage was that we got to talk to a lot of youth who hadn’t heard about our group before, and spew out a couple of facts that I’m sure they’d never been alerted to. It was also a chance to see others our own age, which made it somewhat easier to talk to them and have them to understand. The unfortunate disadvantage is that a large portion of them were simply there for the concert, and didn’t want to even bother listening to anything we’d say for a few seconds. It’s a demonstration of today’s youth and their disinterest in becoming involved in anything spanning larger than their social circle of friends. It was a little bit frustrating, but something we all did understand. Overall, it was a lot of fun - we didn’t approach people, we usually said hi, or they came to us! - and we got to hear some of the band’s music as well. I think the group that we had did an amazing job, especially since most of the people hadn’t been involved with Make Poverty History before, and this was their first time becoming acquainted with the campaign. For sure I would take up another opportunity like this one! -Cindy (YAC member), July 13, 2007