Do Not Tiptoe 7 by Christian Aid Collective

CONTACT US AT: Tel: 020 7523 2300 Email: collective@christian-aid.org Online at: christianaidcollective.org Twitter: @TheCACollective Facebook: facebook.com/christianaidcollective

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DNT ISSUE 7 • CHRISTIANAIDCOLLECTIVE.ORG

Together we are Collective.

DO NOT TIPTOE

POWER

We are a movement of young people and students who believe the world doesn’t have to be the way it is. We’re not content to tiptoe through life. We want to shout out against injustice and challenge the systems that keep people poor. We want to run towards a new world – a better world. To be love in action. Together we can be the generation that ends poverty.

the power edition

‘ ALL AROUND YOU, PEOPLE WILL BE TIPTOEING THROUGH LIFE, JUST TO ARRIVE AT DEATH SAFELY. BUT DEAR CHILDREN, DO NOT TIPTOE. RUN, HOP, SKIP OR DANCE, JUST DON’T TIPTOE.’ Shane Claiborne

To find out more about Christian Aid Collective go to christianaidcollective.org

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Nathan Maetzener Nathan is a Canadian artist passionate about visual story telling. He’s also a husband and a father of two energetic young boys!

Frances Bell Through printmaking, pen and ink, Frances spends her days illustrating children’s books and whatever she can get her hands on. Take a peek at francesbellillustration.com.

Peter Henderson Peter Is a freelance illustrator, who thrives off detail and culture. See more at peterhenderson.co.uk

Join our FREE text community – text JOIN to 70060* to receive monthly messages with campaign actions, videos and exciting resources to equip you to create change where you are. *Texts are charged at your standard network rate. We may contact you again in future. If you would prefer that we didn’t call you, text NOCALL CA to 70123. If you would prefer not to receive SMS messages from us in future, text NOSMS CA to 70123.

For regional offices’ contact information, go to christianaidcollective.org/office-contact-information

SHUTTERSTOCK

To find out when the next issue of Do Not Tiptoe is on its way, sign up to our newsletter list at christianaidcollective.org UK registered charity no.1105851 Company no. 5171525 Scotland charity no. SC039150 NI charity no. XR94639 Company no. NI059154 ROI charity no. 20014162 Company no. 426928 The Christian Aid name and logo are trademarks of Christian Aid. Christian Aid Collective is a mark of Christian Aid. Do Not Tiptoe is printed exclusively on material sourced from responsibly managed forests © Christian Aid April 2015 J3759 Cover art: Nathan Maetzener

CONTENTS

THE POWER EDITION 1-4 UPFRONT AND PERSONAL We explore the words of a superhero while Claire Jones stares into the eyes of politicians and Joe Nicholson practises the art of telekinesis.

5-24 POWER 5 Illustrator Frances Bell explores a challenging quote to kick us off. 7 Was Jesus powerful? Jim Cronin wrestles with the meek and mild stereotype of Jesus. 11 Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got the power... Be inspired to make a difference in the shops, with your potential and among your friends. 17 Rising from the rubble: amazing artwork from a young illustrator in Gaza, plus her incredible story. 21 Much more than a cow: the most powerful animal in Ethiopia, as told by Andrew Weston. 23 How electrical power is empowering communities in Mali.

25-39 SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO 25 The UK politics machine: illustrator Peter Henderson shows us how it all works. 27 Power to the people: politics is exciting. Sarah Dickson shows us why and what you can do. Plus the power of movements, prayer and community. Oh, and doing the washing up.

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So said that one famous superhero, one time. And we discover how true this is sat in front of the cinema screen watching the hero save the day, defeating villains who would dismantle and destroy their utopia. Power as a force for good or for evil doesn’t just make movies happen, it makes our world go round. Every day, world leaders make decisions that impact millions of people. And they’re branded in the headlines, ‘HERO!’ or ‘VILLAIN!’, depending on how they point their allpowerful fingers over all of us. When we think of power, we tend to imagine it in the hands of those who have achieved riches, status or fame. We live in a society that is used to seeing power corrupt individuals rather than bless communities. Yet, the reality is that power doesn’t need to be feared, but embraced. It doesn’t just belong to the super-rich, super-old or super-famous. It belongs to us. In this edition of Do Not Tiptoe, we’re thinking about power because every single human being on the planet has it. Unfortunately in our world of inequality, a minority use their power for their own gain, while so many people are silenced or ignored, meaning they can’t even use their voice for good. So instead of, ‘do I have power?’, our question should be, ‘how can I best use the power that is within me?’ From Gaza to Ethiopia to our very own doorsteps, this issue is full of people grappling with the power within; discovering how to shine brightly and create change. People just like you and me, who aren’t famous or especially popular, but significant because they believe that they have great responsibility – just like that superhero – to use their power, for good. Joanna Callender @joanna_cal Joanna’s favourite superhero is in fact not Spiderman, but Wonder Woman.

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UPFRONT AND AND PERSONAL PERSONAL UPFRONT

SUPER AMBITIONS Growing up, I really wanted superpowers. Not just any powers. Jean Grey from the X-Men was my idol. With both telepathy (mind-reading) and telekinesis (moving things with the mind), she was pretty amazing. Let’s be real here – part of this was laziness. Bringing snacks from kitchen to sofa without moving a muscle? Surely the ideal life. And maybe I was plain nosy – the prospect of knowing exactly what others were thinking was fascinating. And terrifying. But I was also in love with the idea of limitlessness. I’d be able to create whatever I imagined. I could travel wherever I wanted – and, protected by my powers, I’d never be vulnerable. As a telepath there’d be no more secrets, nothing hidden. I could know everything, do anything – just by thinking it.

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That thought of limitlessness became more enticing when I started to learn about the unfair world around me. When my eyes opened to injustice, I could have done with Jean Grey’s powers. I yearned to translate my anger into making lives better.

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When I remember how small I am, it seems like I could never change the world. But there is a power that I do have. Even in recognising the smallness of my life, I remember that I’m part of something huge. I’m created by and named by God; part of a connected world, empowered by love. There’s a universe beyond me. True, I’ll probably never have superpowers (friends, your thoughts are safe!) Instead, I’m using my mind to think about the potential of a movement that’s more than me. To imagine what we could do together. That’s more exciting. Joe Nicholson @JosephNicholson Joe’s favourite superhero is still Jean Grey, although he’s stopped trying to imitate her now.

FOR ONE OR FOR ALL? My Granny always used to say that she voted for politicians with good eyes. Trustworthy eyes, she’d say – you can always tell a person’s character by their eyes. I’d have to disagree with my lovely Granny’s discernment process but she’s right that we need politicians we can trust – the question is, what for? What do we want those with power, in our communities, churches and country, to do with it? With our voices and our votes, we get to hold our leaders to account. I find that it’s easy to think about what they’ll do for me personally. My temptation is to pick leaders who promise to make me more comfortable and more well-off. But should I be thinking of the good of one, myself, or of all? Whenever we pick leaders, someone will end up in power, and others will lose out. But it’s people in poverty who know what it means to be really powerless.

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Most of us have enough power over our own lives – choices to make about

what we eat, whether to spend or save, what career to pursue. But poverty and powerlessness are two sides of the same coin. Poverty robs you of choices, of the chance to plan, of the dignity of decision-making. So we need to tell our leaders to empower the powerless. Let’s ask them to make sure that everyone – from the single parent in East London to the teenage girl in rural Ethiopia – can have the chance to make decisions about the things that affect them. For politicians to truly help create a fair world, we need to ask them to give dignity, choices and opportunity to those who are trapped in poverty, and to tackle its root causes. That gets my vote – and yours? Claire Jones @claireylegs Claire’s favourite superhero is Clark Kent because she may also be an alien disguised as a human.

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Frances Bell

GENDER

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Jim Cronin wrestles with the divine power of a humble man. A mentor of mine once said: ‘If you want to know whether you’re a leader, look over your shoulder. If people are following you, you’re a leader. If not... you’re just out for a walk.’

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If the title seems like a stupid question, it might be helpful to consider what we mean by power. Let’s leave aside the image we might have of Jesus in blazing white robes, seated on a throne in heaven, with armies of angels at his command. Let’s look at Jesus, the man like one of us who walked around the Middle East two millennia ago. Was Jesus, as humanity met him, a powerful person? If ‘power’ means ‘influence’ (like a Prime Minister’s influence on a country, or your parents’ influence on your upbringing),

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then yes, Jesus was influential. Here we are talking about him, 2,000 years after he walked the earth, and his teachings from that time are still shaping our discussions – even among those who don’t agree with him. Roughly a third of the population of the planet claim to follow him, and a big chunk of the rest have heard of him and his teachings, and have been influenced by them somehow. But in the stories we have about Jesus, I don’t see a man looking for influence. At least, not in the way we’d recognise it. After Jesus fed 5,000 people with one picnic, a group of the crowd were so impressed that they wanted to make this ‘prophet’ into their king. But Jesus was having none of it.1 He also, perhaps curiously to us, sometimes healed

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people and then told them to keep it a secret.2 Jesus seems to have figured that he could help more people by avoiding the spotlight; he could have more of a meaningful influence for more individuals by not having power in the way we might have gone after it. The sort of power Jesus taught flew in the face of how humanity so often handled (and still handles) it. ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them’, he said to his friends, and challenged them, ‘It shall not be so among you.’3 This culture-smack was Jesus’ response to his disciples fighting over the important seats in Jesus’ kingdom. They’d missed the point, because they were still looking at how much influence they could get personally, rather than how much they could serve. The disciples themselves are a fascinating study in power: why did Jesus have ‘disciples’? Choosing to invest in 12 people in particular, over about three years, shows us a lot about how Jesus wanted to change the world. He could have gone for the celebrity guest speaker approach, touring amphitheatres and hillsides speaking to as many massive crowds as he could, racking up the numbers with quick appearances and avoiding difficult questions.

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Come to think of it, why didn’t he postpone the whole God-become-man mission until the era of social media? Punchy sermonettes on his Facebook fan-page, a few YouTube clips of miracles, and a couple of billion retweets later: job done, surely?

If Jesus had come to Earth in the era of worldwide communications, I still don’t imagine he’d make Internet stardom. I reckon he’d be spending his time in some unknown estate, nurturing quality relationships with twelve or so nobodies, and building them up to be a world-transforming team. Jesus’ model for influence was intentional depth, not shallow breadth. He really wanted to make sure that his followers got the idea, understood the culture he was instilling into them. Billions of casual ‘followers’ who skimmed his soundbites but didn’t get what he was asking them, let alone commit to doing it? Not for him. Jesus wanted to influence his few disciples so profoundly that they would willingly drop everything else they had (career, relationships, even family if it

came to it) to live and die for his mission for humanity. Riches, stardom, or control through worldly power just weren’t on the agenda for the kingdom of God that he announced.4 This ‘upside down’ kingdom, as I’ve heard it called, is as much of a challenge to us today as it was to the religious and political rulers of the AD 30s. Perhaps that’s why faithful figures like Mother Teresa (though I’m sure she’d shudder at being compared to Jesus) still stop us in our tracks – they influence the world around them by serving it, not by having a group of people carrying out their commands. Equally, the oppressive regimes and governments of the world may claim ‘power’, and score some hollow victories of terror for now. To me, though, their battle seems ultimately lost from the moment they started to oppress people.

Jesus didn’t want the throne of a palace, or the balcony of the dictator watching troops marching perfectly past. Jesus wanted to serve those who needed him, to bring his message of hope and salvation to a broken world through a

1 See John 6:15. 2 Mark 1:40-45 is a good example. 3 See Matthew 20:20-28. 4 See Luke 4:5-8.

committed few, who would invest in a committed few more. Jesus’ passion for his mission, without compromise or distraction, inspired those looking to give their all to that mission too. That’s how the Church came about, by the way – the worldwide body of Christ bringing God’s kingdom on Earth – just a committed few investing in a few more until they were committed too. Mind-blowing. Was Jesus powerful? He didn’t seek the crowds, but because of his words of truth and hope, the crowds came. He resisted worldly power, but a huge proportion of the world has been directly influenced by him. He spent his time giving himself to only a handful, but that handful echoed the commitment, until the world knew the name of Jesus. Oh yeah, and he’s God. There’s no way he wasn’t (or isn’t) supremely powerful. If Jesus were to look back over his shoulder at the result of his time spent on Earth, I don’t think he’d be interested in whether he could call himself ‘a leader’. I think he’d be interested in the lives that had been influenced, his way, by committed followers committing to serving other people. This way, Jesus’ way, may look powerless. But history, and the lives he has touched, would disagree. Jim Cronin is Editor of UCB’s Word 4U 2Day, and uses that privilege to provide as many people as he can with a relevant daily scripture reflection (and he thinks it’s great work).

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Power doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just sit with the rich and famous. Be inspired by three people who know power to change the world lies in our everyday lives.

…BECAUSE YOU HAVE POTENTIAL I’m not a student. It’s been a while since I roamed the hallowed halls of academia. Probably longer than I care to admit. But before you start crying great salty tears of pity for me, let me tell you something. The next stage is actually pretty great. You start building a life for yourself. Your knowledge of what makes your own brain tick gradually becomes more accurate. You rarely, if ever, get asked to write anything even approaching 5000 words. This article, for example, is only meant to be 350 words.

There is power in your potential. And I’m asking you to use that power to make a difference. When nothing is set in stone – that’s the time to ask questions about the status quo. Speak out when you encounter injustice. Ask questions when things don’t make sense. You can be an activist, a campaigner or a lobbyist just as easily as you can be a DJ, the lead guitar in a band or president of the Harry Potter society. You’re young enough that the world expects you to experiment. So experiment with being a change maker.

350. Words. I had shopping lists longer than that when I was a student. Except I didn’t because I couldn’t afford to buy anything. Which is sort of my point. Life after education is a time of growth. Hopefully, you get a job and then slowly, agonisingly, inch-by-inch you start working your way out of debt. You begin to work out what you truly value in life. Yeah, life is pretty great for us nonstudents. But do you know what I miss the most from my time on campus?

It’s easy. No change is too small. You could begin by asking your college to stock only fairtrade coffee, or start a local foodbank in your community, or, if you’re up for a challenge, get involved in our Sourced campaign to kick tax dodgers off campus (go to christianaidcollective.org/sourced for more info).

Potential.

Your power is that you are a story as yet unwritten.

I miss all the potential lives I could have had. All the people I could have become. Because education is like that. It gives you a dizzying amount of theoretical choices and all the tools you need to pursue every single one of them.

Chris Mead is a writer, improviser and podcaster who loves Doctor Who, cycling and loose leaf tea. You can read (and listen to) more of his stuff at spiritofthestairwell.com

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…WHEN YOU BUY STUFF Eight years ago, I defiantly stood outside a well-known high street clothes shop in the rain at my first protest holding a banner. I brought a hopeful assumption that my angry presence and witty banner would inspire potential shoppers to rethink buying clothes made from the tears of small children, and would make the shop rethink its entire ethics that very day. Needless to say, my protest didn’t have the world changing impact I’d hoped. And 10 minutes in, one of our group went into the shop to buy a top she’d been meaning to get for a night out… Sometimes fighting for what’s right can leave us feeling powerless. High street shops that make billions in profit every year can often feel like the last place we could possibly influence change.

Every day we make consumer choices that have the potential to have positive or negative impacts on our world. When we choose to spend our money on fairtrade coffee, when we write to companies we love and ask them to make more ethical decisions, we’re making an impact on the industry.

In the eight years since I joined people trying to influence the consumer sphere, I’ve noticed a change in the stuff on the shelf. Today, there are all sorts of labels on the things we buy. And not just the price label: Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, Soil Association, Freedom Food, Vegetarian Society Approved… the list is endless.

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But here’s the thing. The moment we reach for our wallet is the moment when we’re at our most powerful. If money makes the world go round, then the way we spend it is the most powerful action we can take. We vote on ballot papers but we also vote with our cash.

We’re beginning to make the connections. To join the dots from when we reach into our pocket and get our wallet out, to that person on the opposite side of the world who got paid a wage for making what we’re about to buy. From the beep of the contactless machine, to the impact that our purchases are having on the world around us.

Hannah Henderson is part of the Collective and is currently trying to buy nothing new (check out christianaidcollective.org/climatechallenge). She has a dangerous love of biscuits, and can always be found behind a camera. Hannah’s favourite superheroes are the suffragettes; thanks to them she can vote!

All of our daily spending habits could lead to big changes. Because at the end of the day, companies rely on our custom and when we all demand a change in the system, they have to listen. After all, the customer is always right. ISSUE 7 Do Not Tiptoe 14

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…WHEN YOU INSPIRE OTHER PEOPLE What is the best way to find a new album for your Spotify playlist? Or to work out which TED talk to listen to next? Or to choose a new curry to try on take-away night?

from the truth. The reality is that our lifestyles make a difference. And that difference, whether we’re having a positive impact on the planet or negative, spreads out like ripples in a lake.

We make the majority of our decisions with help from people around us. Little decisions like a box set to watch, big decisions like what to do with a summer off, or world-changing decisions like how our lives can impact positively on our planet. In all of them, we’re influenced by the people we spend time with.

Our choices are simple and ordinary. Each time we take our plastic bottle home to recycle, it’s not just an isolated action. It is an opportunity to influence a friend to live differently too. Whenever we avoid a certain coffee chain in favour of finding something ethically traded to drink, it’s not just a private choice. It is an opportunity to influence a friend to live differently too.

How often we think that we are too small a part of the world to truly make a difference. But this could not be further

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The world won’t change just because one person recycles. We will see a

world transformed because one person influences their friends, and they inspire their friends… and so on. The world will look better tomorrow because we influence one another to live differently and use our influence to inspire others.

I am influenced to live differently by friends like Hannah who ran a campaign and took it to her local MP in order to speak up for those less able to be heard. Jake influences me to live differently by his commitment to reading the news and staying up to date with what’s going on in the world so that he can pray. Polly influences me by her super stylish clothes from charity shops. Your influence matters. Your life makes a difference. How will you influence the people around you? How have you got the power? Drop us an email about how you’re changing the world. Email us at collective@ christian-aid.org

Dot Tyler is a member of Tearfund’s Rhythms community – rhythms.org – seeking to #livedifferent through habits that serve the world. Dot’s favourite superhero is Bruce Wayne… he has no ‘superpowers’ but uses what he’s got to make his world a better place!

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Lama Shakshak is a 15-year-old Palestinian artist from Gaza in the Middle East. We had the chance to chat to her about her thoughts... Lama has seen the reality of violent conflict with her own eyes; Last year during the war between Israel and Hamas, her house was destroyed, and she had to be rescued from the rubble by her father. With her art, which you can see on the previous page, Lama calls the world to pay attention to what’s going on in Gaza. She explains her piece to us:

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‘I drew this picture to represent the suffering of Palestinian children at war, and the cycle of violence that children are exposed to here in the Gaza Strip. I wanted to show the world that Palestinian children, as other children in the world, have rights. We have the right to live in peace and security. It’s a message that governments all over the world should be behind, as she points out:

‘The number 36 [in the picture on p17-18] refers to an article from the Convention on the Rights of the Child; it’s about ensuring that children are protected from any activity that takes advantage of them or could harm their welfare and development.’ Lama hasn’t always been so confident in using her artistic skills to speak out. She used to be shy and quiet, finding it difficult to chat to other people her age. But the Culture and Free Thought Association, a Christian Aid funded organisation, runs centres in Gaza for children and young people growing up in conflict. As she started to attend one of its centres, Lama began to draw. At the centre, children and young people use therapy and activities like music, theatre, dance and art as ways to try to process their experiences of growing up in conflict. It’s a safe space where children and young people can express and work through the conflict and scenes of violence they’ve witnessed, develop leadership skills, and confidence in their own potential. To see this happen brings real joy to the staff at the centre who are passionate about young people exercising their rights and becoming the individuals they want to be. Creative therapy through art has changed everything for Lama, who’s been given the materials she needs to draw. But not it’s just the practical essentials that are important: ‘They are giving me the space to express myself through my talent. I sit with my friends sharing ideas, exchanging thoughts.’ Lama’s transformation through art means that she now supports other young people, sharing her experiences and teaching them to draw too. And so in the middle of destruction, empowerment has come through paintbrushes and a fresh blank canvas. Lama has come to believe in herself and she calls us to also use our talents for change: ‘Don’t be shy, challenge yourself. Challenge yourself and the feelings of fear inside you. I was like this before, but now I’ve overcome these feelings to develop my talent.’ Inspired by Lama and want to use your creative talents to work for a fairer world? Whether artist, writer, or something else entirely, we’d love to hear from you. Email collective@christian-aid.org or tweet us @TheCACollective! ISSUE 7 Do Not Tiptoe 20

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Christian Aid/Shona Day

In rural Ethiopia, previously ignored women are rapidly gaining power over their own lives, as Andrew Weston discovers.

The words we use have great power: power to build up, power to tear down. This thought occurred to me as I found myself in the middle of a remote village in Ethiopia, preparing to meet some of the women who were hosting us there. We’d arrived slightly early and the group was still gathering. When we sat down in the shade of the trees, an observation was declared in a strong, confident voice: ‘Before, we would not have been able to come to this meeting. It was a taboo for women to come to community meetings.’ As we listened to these women tell their tales in their own words, it was gutwrenching to think that just a few years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to hear their stories. Until recently, women in villages like this one were never heard. Their husbands would never have thought to consult with them about decisions that would affect their families. The girls in this community would previously have had no choice but to marry, instead of being in school gaining an education. Many of these women and children had not been stripped of their own voice because to be stripped of a right, you need to have had it in the first place. They never did. Without a voice, they were powerless – powerless over the kind of decisions that you and I expect to be able to make every single day. Yet there we were in this small corner of Ethiopia, being welcomed to a community meeting by the women of the village. Their lives have been transformed in a radical way.

And the reason for this transformation? Introducing… the humble cow. In communities like this one, livestock are the source of social status but widowed women can’t inherit their husbands’ cattle. So a small organisation called HUNDEE provides the poorest members of the community (usually women) with a cow. Owning a cow gives status, voice and power. It means they can speak up and join in the decision-making! A cow gives earning potential too – milk can be turned into butter, calves can be sold, and the cow itself can be used as security against a small loan.

The project is sustainable, because it grows: when a woman is given a cow, she passes on the firstborn calf to another vulnerable woman within the community. And alongside the cows, HUNDEE also runs self-help groups for women to come together to share their troubles, and learn from one another about everything from running small businesses to basic literacy skills. In many respects, it’s a simple project – working inside small communities to help them meet their own basic needs. But a humble cow can be the difference between a family missing meals each day or being able to send their children to school with full stomachs. Women in these parts of Ethiopia are now making full use of their voices, where before, they were stifled. Here, our voices aren’t stifled, but we have a choice about how to use our words. They hold a great power to tear down, or to build up. christianaidcollective.org/cow

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Mali photos

Massaran is seven years old and lives with her family in the outskirts of Mali, in a place where there’s no electricity. This doesn’t just mean a lack of light; it also gets in the way of education and healthcare. Christian Aid is working in Mali to set up energy shops, which provide solar lamps for the local community – a sustainable source of power. Now, Massaran can use her solar lamp to finish her homework, which means she’s able to keep up at school. And in years to come, solar power could provide light and power to all of Mali. Christian Aid/Lilly Peel

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THE UK POLITICS MACHINE

Pete Henderson

Here are the people who make it happen.

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE: HOW DOES IT WORK? You might not think it, but getting your head around how our country runs is one of the best ways to change the world. Sarah Dickson explains why… Politics.

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No! Don’t stop reading! I know your hand is hovering over the page corner, ready to turn over; you’re certain you’re going to get bored because I’ve mentioned the word politics. I spend most of my time trying to influence politics, but don’t worry, I understand how incredibly baffling it can be.

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I can vividly remember family gatherings in my childhood – I’d sit at the dinner table waiting for an appropriate moment to thank Granny for dinner and excuse myself from the political debate unfolding between the adults in the family. Politics was, to me, something just for grown-ups to chat about.

A few years down the line, with a charity in Manchester, I spent time chatting to some people who had fled their countries to seek safety in the UK. At that moment I realised quite how important all this politics malarkey is. Politics defines all the activities that are associated with organising and running our society. It is more than just what happens inside big buildings in Westminster! It shapes everything we do as a country; that includes all the stuff we young people do – going to school or work or chilling in our houses. Politics lies at the root of many of the problems we see in the world, but also has the potential to bring about extraordinary change. All the ‘right honourable friends’ and other jargon is just a tiny part of something that has the power to see poverty eradicated, injustices tackled and equality for all. It’s worth us ploughing through to stand up for things we care about, because we can make our voice heard!

In the UK, one of your key representatives is your Member of Parliament (MP). They have been elected to represent you and other people who live in your area – and if you live in Scotland or Wales, you’ll have people representing you in the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly too. Your MP’s job is to listen to you about local, national and global issues you care about. You are young, creative and innovative thinkers. You have a voice and a vote (or you will do soon!). MPs want to hear from you! When you speak up, change can happen. MPs can amplify your voice to influence key decision-makers. Some MPs and Lords are appointed by the Prime Minister to take care of particular issues (government ministers) and others run an entire section of the government (cabinet ministers). Like a relay baton, your concerns can be passed upwards to make things change. Your voice can trigger big change... Sarah Dickson is the Collective’s Advocacy Intern. She’s a Midlander by birth, a Northerner by student-hood and a Londoner by current residence! ISSUE 7 Do Not Tiptoe 28

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE: MAKING YOURSELF HEARD Back in 2013, people from all over the country decided it was time to speak out against global hunger and get politicians to tackle it. They joined the Enough Food for Everyone IF Campaign and showed that engaging in politics doesn’t have to be boring and complicated. The number of people who turned up at Hyde Park to get the attention of world leaders; they planted spinning flowers that represented the millions of children who die each year from malnutrition.

500 OTHERS DRESSED UP AS THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

to ask him to stick to his word and spend 0.7% of national income on international aid. They also asked him to stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WROTE TO THEIR MPS TO HIGHLIGHT THE ISSUE.

As a result, UK politicians committed to give 0.7% of our national income to overseas aid. And the structural causes of hunger were at the heart of world leaders’ discussions at one of the biggest meetings of world leaders that year. They spoke out and made the world change. Working collectively and creatively, they spoke with power to influence those who hold power. 29 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 7

YOU CAN DO THE SAME! HERE’S HOW:

T hink about what you care about. What things in the world make you ready to burst out, ‘it’s not fair!’?

ind other people already speaking out about the F things you care about. Is there already a group trying to make their voices heard who you could join?

Swot up on who your MP is at theyworkforyou.com and think about what you want to ask of them.

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ind your MP’s contact details at writetothem.com F and tell them what the problem you care about is, what the solutions could be, and what you want them to do about it. You could meet them (they’re friendly folk!), give their office a call or drop them an email. Keep in touch! Keep checking in with your MP to see what they’re doing in response to your concern. You might need to persevere, but keep going until something happens. We have the power to influence some of our countries’ most important decision makers. Let’s start using it!

At the Christian Aid Collective, we’re campaigning to change the systems that make people poor and keep them poor all across the world. Keen to chat to your MP about this stuff? Head to christianaidcollective.org/lobbyist to find out how.

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MOVERS AND SHAKERS Meeting with other passionate people is a great way to fast-track change. We chat to SPEAK and SCM – little movements who are taking big actions…

SPEAK Why call yourselves SPEAK? We get our name from Proverbs 31:8-9 – all about speaking up for justice in a world of injustice. It’s often written in capitals, not because it stands for something, but because we want to speak LOUD! If you could be any superhero, who would you pick? Cheesy old Captain Planet, for definite! SPEAK is all about combining our powers. Tell us what you do in a sentence: We’re a network of young adults who creatively pray and campaign to change situations of social and environmental injustice.

‘Imagine the change we’d make if all Christian students were working together against poverty and climate change, and for peace and equality!’ 31 Do Not Tiptoe ISSUE 7

Tell us what’s great about a movement: It’s moving! Anyone can get on board and shape where it goes – it isn’t about the people at the top telling everyone else what to do! It’s about relationships with one another as fellow artists and activists. What’s your big dream for the next 20 years? To see the movement spread with more and more students and young adults creatively challenging injustice and going deeper in faith together. Imagine the change we’d make if all Christian students were working together against poverty and climate change, and for peace and equality! A big dream is to one day get a bit of land to start a creative SPEAK community. How can someone keen join in with what you do? Get on our mailing list to get news and campaign actions. Join or start up a SPEAK group, or use our campaigns with any group you’re part of. Come to one of our Flower Model gatherings – a forum where we plan and dream for the future together. Or come to our mini-festival in September. Contact us on speak@speak.org.uk for more info on any of that and we’ll get you plugged in!

SCM Why call yourselves SCM? SCM stands for Student Christian Movement; we do what it says on the tin! We’re a student-led organisation enabling students and recent grads to grow in faith and to make an impact on the world around them. If you could be any superhero, who would you pick? We’re going to cheat and say the X-Men – our strength lies in bringing together people from diverse backgrounds with different skills, and working together to make a difference to the world around us. Tell us what you do in a sentence: We meet in groups on campuses across the UK, and individual members come together at local and national events to share in faith and fellowship (and amazing food!), to learn from each other and our diverse experiences in order to grow in discipleship. Tell us what’s great about a movement: Everyone’s contributions are welcomed and valued. A movement needs that sense of solidarity to work, and that mutual support, love and respect for each other is something that SCM has in bucketloads! We may not always agree on everything but there’s a shared vision and purpose that is so important.

‘A movement needs that sense of solidarity to work, and that mutual support, love and respect for each other is something that SCM has in bucketloads!’

What’s your big dream for the next 20 years? We’re working on building our oncampus presence – it would be great to have an SCM group at every university, and for those groups to be actively engaged in campaigning on social justice issues. How can someone keen join in with what you do? You can visit our website (movement.org.uk) or find us on Facebook and Twitter! We can direct you to one of our local groups and all our fantastic events coming up – everyone is welcome!

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THE WAY I SEE IT… HAVE A GO ANYWAY. Mim Skinner discovers that changing the world isn’t a glamorous job… Let me share something with you something I’ve painfully learnt over the last year of a rather chaotic ministry. I’m much less impressive and heroic than I think I am. Let me explain. I dropped off of the educational conveyorbelt thinking I’d arrived at life and it should be glad I had, because I was going to Shake Things Up. I’m aware that sounds impossibly naive, but I (perhaps like you) am a product of the ‘you can achieve anything’ generation. If I were a lawyer, I’d win all the hard cases and if I were an activist, I would have testimonies like those people on stages at Christian conferences. I was going to be a #worldchanger. This kind of millennial confidence can be exacerbated by the stories we tell each other in our Christian circles, the stories about what changing the world looks like. The testimonies we hear from a festival stage can too often follow the pattern: ‘X was addicted to class A drugs and then we sprinkled the magic dust of Jesus; now she is off drugs, has immaculate mental health and is considering a career in human rights law’. Of course, I’m exaggerating but you get the idea. These ‘dark-to-light’ glory-stories are amazing, but they’re not the whole picture.

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If we expect that when in the messy arena of working with real people, our efforts will always equal outcome, then we’re in for a surprise. Loving people doesn’t mean they’ll change, and being results-motivated in your quest to change the world is going to leave you pretty disappointed. And what if you’re not Shane Claiborne, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer? What if you don’t read your Bible enough and fall asleep praying? What if your response to being messed around is more ‘I want to bang your head against a concrete wall’, than ‘thank you for giving me the opportunity to practise the grace of Jesus’? Well, welcome to the club. But here’s the thing. We already have a Saviour, the world doesn’t need another one. What it needs is people willing to get their hands dirty. God uses screw-ups and failures, the weak and the powerless, the Have-A-Go Harrys and Try-Hard Tinas. He even uses those people who always forget to add the attachment to emails. So why not have a go anyway? Mim is a writer and community activist. She lives in community, gets called mum by grubby teenage boys, and does a lot of washing up. She runs Ideas Hive, which encourages social change and political engagement in County Durham.

Shutterstock

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Being results motivated in your quest to change the world is going to leave you pretty disappointedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Hannah Henderson

SEE, HEAR, PRAY, DO

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY ‘It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.’ Easy to say, perhaps, for Harry S Truman, a former US President. We love to believe the story of the individual hero who achieves amazing things on their own. But when we scratch below the surface, we never find one person who changed history. We find movements of people, people just like us. We love to credit Martin Luther King Jr. for his ‘I have a dream’ speech, but what would those words have been without the mass campaigning and crowd? He would just be one man bellowing out his carefully crafted vision, only for his words to be carried away into insignificance. Let’s lose the myth of heroic individuals, they don’t deserve the pedestal. There are no superheroes. But there are plenty of passionate communities. They’re made up of people who care about the change they can make together, more than having their name up in lights.

If God wanted superheroes we would have the power to become them. But God wants us using our voice, talents and resources as one united body to deliver an almighty knock-out blow to the injustices that ravage this planet. That’s why I’m part of the Collective because I want to be part of an impassioned community if I want to change the world. I can’t stand alone. Only when I am willing to lay down my selfish ambition to be the hero are we able to discover our amazing ability to accomplish anything. I’m no hero and you shouldn’t be either. Ben Palmer can’t stop drinking tea, doesn’t stop playing football, won’t stop pursuing justice and will never stop seeking Jesus. He helps run the Christian Aid Collective internship and is starting a blog at medium.com/@humbletheology

CONTACT US AT: Tel: 020 7523 2300 Email: collective@christian-aid.org Online at: christianaidcollective.org Twitter: @TheCACollective Facebook: facebook.com/christianaidcollective

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POWER

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