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In one month, on June the 26th, it’s the “United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture”.
For the IRCT, abbreviation for “The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims”, today is the start of a large, worldwide campaign to help raise awareness for the problem of torturing and the effects of it for its victims.
The IRCT is a worldwide organization which helps the torture survivors to start building a new life for themselves, and at the same time fights to ban torturing from the planet entirely.
Like every NGO, the organization greatly depends on the support of donors and people’s goodwill.
This year, the IRCT plans to more than ever denounce the problem of torture and the effects of it, and continue the battle against it.
With this, the IRCT calls upon people but even more so upon the media which nowadays connect people and therefore make it possible for NGO’s to mobilize the world on a bigger scale, and with a larger and faster reach: social media.
This happens through the “World without Torture” campaign, which has the goal to make the dream of a world without torture reality, with the use of a Facebook and Twitter account, amongst other things.
This is exactly, a dream. Because social media and the people who use them aren’t able to envision a world without torture, hunger, sadness, pain, war, abuse, poverty, and human misery.
Fortunately, there are lots of people and organizations out there who did not lose their idealism once they grew up and realized that life is no fairytale.
People make the difference
And it’s those people who put their realistic idealism, energy, time and connections to good use in order to help create a better world in every possible way.
Sometimes this happens on a large scale as with this campaign, and sometimes on a smaller, local scale.
“World without Torture” is one of those bigger actions. The campaign’s Facebook page strives to be a big community where people can discuss the problems, where the stories of torture victims are being told, and of course where you can find out more about the NGO.
You can find facts on torture on the page as well, and you can help “spread the word” on it.
You can spread the word yourself too, by visiting the page, following the Twitter account, and of course using your own “social influence”, no matter how big or small that might be.
Of course there are thousands of NGO’s in this world, and even more problems. For lots of us, this fact alone is a reason to lose interest in all of these problems.
Every day, television shows us misery from all over the world, to the point that we’ve almost become immune to it. “As long as it doesn’t happen to us.” It’s a human and normal reaction. As we become older, we focus more on our own happiness and that of our families, and lose our frustration and anger towards all of the injustice around us. But most of all, we lose the will to do something about it, each in our own way.
It doesn’t always have to be massive, like it was with Haiti at the time. The genuine, unknown heroes are the people “in the field” who help others during disasters, poverty, war, torture, etc., day in, day out.
But they need tools in order to be able to do so. We can also be skeptical about certain NGO’s, but that’s not what this is all about.
The real question is just how much do we dare to face our own problems and those of the world, and do we have the youthful energy and courage to do something about them?
Whether it is helping a neighbor or a friend, or by supporting a large campaign that helps a good cause. Really helping someone, without the entire world knowing about it, is the hardest and most noble thing to do.
Supporting an NGO through social media and some financial aid is only a matter of a couple of clicks and tweets, and addressing and motivating people around you.
For the record: I have not developed this campaign, all credit goes to the people of Mindjumpers, kindred spirits and idealists like me. My contribution? Paying for a Facebook ad campaign and pulling lots of favors.
What’s our excuse not to do something? Even if it’s just a retweet or linking a Facebook page…
J-P De Clerck is an interactive marketing expert, well-known blogger and owner of conversionation. You can connect with him via Twitter or on Facebook.
