They are lying to you that you can’t help.
As a writer, marketeer and self-proclaimed curious soul, one thing you need to know about me is I read a lot.
So, whenever a humanitarian disaster hits or any other world crisis, one narrative I can never get away from at the end of every article, every book, every opinion piece is “There is only so much we can do! Change is difficult to implement!” and I have to be honest with you, until recently I believed in that as well. I never challenged this perspective because I never dug deeper into whether or not I can, in fact, help.
When I joined the Global Impact Team and even so, when I was offered the role, one of the main reasons I immediately became passionate is that I recognised the challenge of my conviction — through this app and this community, I saw the tangible reality that change is very easy to implement. Participation is what we lack.
Before you say I am biased, I will share with you just two of the personal highlights from the 6 months I’ve worked for the platform.
- Exhibit A: Our Founder organised a world clean up event that in the span of 3 days— over 30 people participated in globally without much promotion around it. It took Tatiana 5 minutes of her time to create it — it took each person around an hour of their time to collect litter from the streets — and we were presented with this:
I was a little shocked at the immediate change that happened — huh, so it was possible after all?
- Exhibit B: Our Ambassadors are 100 people from all over the world who are incredibly busy with work they already do in the humanitarian/sustainability sphere. I am talking about young, bright, incredibly passionate human beings who every day wake up with a desire for change. They work so much that I can barely get them all together in one virtual room once a month, despite that, I see their posts on the Global Impact wall every day — Avikalp today recycled this much, Madi ate 3 meat-free meals, Giovanni taught 10 children how to code and so on.
Their actions — measured. Change — immediate. Despite how busy they are. Despite what everyone tells us — that change can’t happen so easily.
And if you’re still not convinced, the same people are working on developing mental health questionnaires for people in India affected during the COVID-19 crisis. They met on the platform, became friends, recognised what can be done with the help of a collaborative environment and they are now on track to also creating various technologies to help out.
So why do we keep listening to people tell us change can’t happen easily? Why are we so convinced that we cannot influence the way things are — is it because that is the reality or because we haven’t explored enough options?
Since I started working for Global Impact I really noticed how my brain operates when I think about change. Change to me now means something immediate, it means something tangible — and it is only so, because I saw it happen too many times in the past 6 months.
Now I only have one thing to ask from all of you — please challenge those who tell you you don’t have the power of change, that your action leads to global inaction, that words don’t have meaning and that skipping your chicken for lunch doesn’t change anything.
And if you wonder how to do all of that — please check out our work and the work of others by starting to log challenges and events on Global Impact. We are free, on the app stores and our algorithms ensure that you not only meet new people to help out with your causes and concerns, but they also allow total visibility of your opinion and participation.
