World Vision ACT:S is a network of young people committed to exploring what our faith says about poverty and injustice, using creative activism to bring issues to life and change hearts, and using our voices to advocate on AIDS, malaria, hunger, and child slavery.
If you are not already a member of ACT:S, we encourage you to check out our About page and join the ACT:S network for bi-weekly e-mail updates.
Below are the latest stories, resources, and campaigns. If you would like to contribute, e-mail acts@worldvision.org.
Start planning: Sign up to host a Day of Prayer and Action // October 1, 2010
We believe our generation is called to create a modern-day Book of Acts with our lives. Join us during the week of October 1 as we explore this calling.
Whether you are acting on AIDS, malaria, child slavery, or another issue of poverty and injustice – this will be an excellent opportunity to rally your community to explore our callings as individuals and as a generation committed to faith and justice.
Sign up to organize a Day of Prayer and Action – and we will provide you with resources to gather together and seek out God’s calling. The free resource packet includes a video message by Steve Haas and resources to facilitate prayer and action.
Get published as an ACT:S Contributor!
Looking for a way to spread the word on issues you care about and get some writing published? Want your writings to become a resource other activists can use? Join World Vision as an ACT:S Contributor!
World Vision ACT:S needs a range of voices to enrich our content and you’ll get published with one of the world’s largest international humanitarian organizations.
We’re looking for creative, well-written articles on any of the issues we cover—human trafficking, malaria, HIV/AIDS, poverty and hunger—as well as faith and justice stories and reflections, “creative activism” pieces, or articles on advocacy. The door’s wide open.
Sign up HERE to become an ACT:S Contributor! You’ll receive our writer’s guidelines via email—and then you can start writing. Also, you will recieve an e-mail once a month on the type of content we are looking for that month!
The perks (if your article is selected):
• Publication on our website - and possibly through other media partners
• Inside scoops on the issues
• We send you tips for writing hard-hitting articles on topics that matter… and getting people to read them
• Free stuff (we’ll mail you a useful book that’s actually good)
Tips for Recruiting New Students: The Grass is Green
By Jonathan Lo, ACT:S Faith and Justice Fellow
Here are a couple things we know about the first week of school:
1. Campuses spend good money ensuring their grass is green and healthy for all the students.
2. There is a buzz at school as students return to their respective campuses.
3. Students hang out a lot on the grass from #1.
Remember when you first took a step on campus?
After you moved all your big boxes into your little dorm room, did you sit there waiting and hoping that your new roommate will be fairly organized, respectful and hygienic? After the school-organized parties that you went to with the guys or girls on your floor, did you still return to your room feeling lost and overwhelmed?
How to write to spark action
By Lauren Seibert, ACT:S Advocacy & Campaigns Fellow
The truth is, writers want their readers to become temporarily OCD. We want them to follow an inescapable compulsion to finish the article. We want them snared to the very end. And then we want them to respond.
When writing about issues like human trafficking or malaria, which are ruining millions of kids’ lives as we speak, of course we want to glue readers to our words with the same level of interest that gets “Charlie bit my finger” 200 million views on YouTube—a number that multiplied fast as people told their friends about it. But that doesn’t always happen. Why not?
There’s a big difference between writing informatively about an issue and creating a piece that becomes a catalyst in itself, reacting with readers on a level that sparks them into action.
Congress falls short on promise: the fight for $1 billion
By Craig Jaggers, World Vision health policy advisor
For most children in Africa, mosquito bites that pass on malaria are a lethal threat. And now, programs to combat this killer disease are at risk as a House appropriations subcommittee just bit off nearly 70 percent of the increase in the president's request for malaria programs -- an amount already short of the $1 billion a year commitment the United States made in 2008.
If action isn't taken, malaria funding could be limited to $615 million in fiscal year 2011, $70 million below the president's request and far short of the congressional promise to provide $1 billion a year.
ACT NOW: Ask Congress to keep its promises and protect funds to end malaria!
These cuts are not merely for the sake of fiscal austerity, as the committee provided increases above the president's request in other accounts.
This is a critical moment, and for those of us who care about protecting children from this lethal disease, a time for action. It's not too late to provide more funding for malaria, but Congress needs to hear that people care. The full House of Representatives will need to vote on the appropriations bill, and the Senate has not yet taken action on the appropriations bill affecting global health. Action now could make all the difference.
ACT NOW: Ask Congress to keep its promises and protect funds to end malaria!
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Connect with us at: acts@worldvision.org or 1-888-876-2004.
ACT:S is the activism network for World Vision. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. |
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