For the Cost of a Cup of Coffee....

You often hear non-for profit organisations pedalling the idea of, "For the simple cost of a cup of coffee, you can save starving children in Africa". This sounds incredibly cheap, but you could end up paying for 10 to 50 cups of coffee a day!

Ash, Nicole and I were tackled by a young man from Amnesty International today, as we scurried back to class after lunch, via the WA Art Gallery. There seems to be a different cause there every day! Yesterday, it was Greenpeace, other days it's been different high profile non-for profit organisations.

The Amnesty guy looked a little despondent, as people hurried past him, not making eye contact, not wanting to gain his attention. Ash, Nicole and I looked at each other, all knowing we were really needing to get back to Central very quickly but, in almost unison, we stopped to hear what he had to say. We will be that young man soon, so we respectfully stopped to hear what he had to say, much to his delight.

He was fairly predictable. There always seems to be some sort of contract you need to sign up for, where payments are deducted periodically from your credit card. There never seems to be a pamphlet you can take away with you, allowing you to cool off, allowing you to make a more educated decision.

To be honest, I was impressed by his spin. I had no idea that Amnesty were now involved in so many different causes, always believing their efforts surrounded the rights of prisoners overseas. I didn't know they were pressuring governments to stamp out the supply of weapons to child soldiers.

We were shown some compelling photos of young African children, as we were informed about AK 47's and other weapons being supplied to them, and Amnesty's goal to stamp out this practice.

Then, almost on queue, came the line, "You can help these kids with the small cost of a cup of coffee..."

In the car, on the way home tonight, there was an ad on the radio, asking for donations for abused children. It was difficult to ignore the emotion and appeal in the young child's voice, as he directed us to an internet site to pledge our much needed donations.

A good friend of mine loves to use the saying, "Changing the world one child at a time" etc The word child can be replaced by alternative words, depending on your cause eg. dolphin, plastic bag etc

What makes us give to one organisation over another? what buttons in us are being pushed? do we lean towards charities we can relate to? ones we feel are truly making a difference? or does our sacrifice of the cost of a cup of coffee make us feel like we are on the deck of a Greenpeace ship, alongside those fearless activists? do we sleep better at night knowing a child in Africa had a meal and fresh water tonight?

As a family, we try to spread our contributions amongst groups we have an interest or belief in. It's a common topic of conversation in our household. We accept you can only do so much, and really wish we could do more. Yes, like many, we are idealists, and deep inside we truly wish we could change the world.

In Cert IV Public Relations we will be asking these same questions, very soon. How do we get the public to share our passion for the organisation we represent, and perhaps give up their cup of coffee? This is going to be VERY challenging!

picture from http://www.amnesty.org.au/jobs/street_campaigning/