I wrote this post a few months back, when I was in Africa. It’s worth reposting today, on World Aids Day, because I think that the reminder is an important one: that those of who have a voice – whether those voices are carried virtually, or otherwise – have a responsibility to use our voices for those who don’t. And the mothers and the children and the families that I met in Africa don’t have voices. I lend them mine.<\/i><\/p>\n
I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Maseru, Lesotho. Lesotho,
\nin case you didn’t know, is deep in the southern-most part of Africa,
\nland-locked by South Africa. It is, you might think, an unlikely place
\nfor a blogger to be. After all, what do bloggers have to do with aid in
\nAfrica? But you’d be wrong. A blogger can have a lot to do with aid in
\nAfrica, or any other kind of social good. I’m here for some very good
\nsocial media reasons.\n<\/p>\n
I’m here because I’m visiting some on-the-ground projects that are funded by Born HIV Free, a program of the Global Fund<\/a>, and I’m visiting these projects because Born HIV Free and the Global Fund want to raise awareness<\/a>, Social media — this is an awkward and ugly term, of course, but one So it is that I am here, in Lesotho<\/a>, This Thursday, tomorrow, is Social Media For Social Good Day<\/a>, We’re interested in unleashing fresh thinking about how You can find out more about participating in this at Mashable<\/a>. I’ll be celebrating by writing more about what I’m doing here in Let’s go be inspiring.<\/p>\n
\nand who better to raise awareness than bloggers? Who better than
\nbloggers to take the real stories of what such projects look like, of
\nwhat they mean to real people, and not just the posters and soundbites
\nand late-night infomercials with Sally Struthers, and become part of
\nthose stories and tell them in real voices? Who better than
\nstorytellers, personal storytellers, coming at the story with their
\nhearts and telling and showing their communities what it all looks like
\nand sounds like and feels like?\n<\/p>\n
\nthat describes that mass of us, bloggers and publishers and twitterers
\nand Flickrers and others, and what we do — can make a difference in
\ncases such as this, such as the one that I am in right now, because
\nsocial media is conversation, it’s discourse. It’s all of us, talking,
\ntelling stories and sharing stories and keeping stories going because
\nwe’re invested in the stories that we tell and that we hear because we are a narrative community<\/a>, and for any issue or problem that might be helped by getting its story told, we are the people to do it. So it was for me with Tutus For Tanner<\/a>, so it has been for Heather Spohr and her work on behalf of Maddie<\/a>, so it was for so many BlogHers after the earthquake in Haiti<\/a>, so it is for too many bloggers to count here. We’re making a difference by telling these stories.<\/p>\n
\nmeeting mothers who are HIV positive but who have, with the help of
\nPMTCT (Preventing Mother To Child Transmission) treatment and support,
\nchildren who are HIV-free, and meeting women who are pregnant and
\nundergoing such treatment and meeting children who have lost their
\nparents to HIV\/AIDS and also meeting children, some children, who are
\nnot HIV-free. And I’m talking to you about here, now, and I’ve been
\ntalking about it on my blog and right here<\/a>
\nat BlogHer and I will keep talking about it, I will keep telling
\nstories, because there are so, so many stories here to tell. There are
\nall the personal stories to tell, of course — such as those about these children and their mothers<\/a> — and my story in relation to these (because we always bring these narratives back to us<\/em>, don’t we? I have complicated feelings abut this, which is another story altogether<\/a>),
\nbut there are also the bigger stories, such as how maternal health care
\nreally works in countries such as Lesotho (especially in the furthest,
\nmost rural reaches of these countries), and about how breastfeeding
\ndebates really are different under these sorts of circumstances, ditto
\ndebates about depression and mental illness and anxiety and maternal
\nshame and maternal fear and all those things. I’ll tell these stories,
\nand hope that they make a little bit of difference, if only by getting
\nother people to talk about them, and think about them, and maybe,
\nmaybe, do something if they get the chance.<\/p>\n
\nand it aims to celebrate exactly that — our power to make a difference
\nthrough the collective power of this new medium. It’s hosted by
\nMashable and (RED), and what they have in mind is this:<\/p>\n\n
\nsocial media can raise awareness and create solutions for social issues
\naround the world. It starts with each community coming together and
\ncontributing ideas and, more importantly, solutions. Whatever community
\nyou’ll be participating in we want to know, “What’s your solution?”<\/strong> Let the world hear your ideas through social media!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nBut you can also celebrate social media for social good in your own
\nway, simply by reflecting on the kind of change, or the cause, or the
\nhope that matters to you, and writing about it or tweeting about it or
\nuploading photos that capture it, or whatever expression of social
\nmedia speaks to you.<\/p>\n
\nAfrica, and how and why social media matters to this work. But my cause
\nis not necessarily your cause, and although I’d love it if you spread my Lesotho\/BornHIVFree story<\/a> (and please, feel free to do so if it speaks to you) (or, you know, if these children speak to you<\/a>)
\n(look, nobody said we had to play fair on the Internet), I’m more
\ninterested in seeing you get inspired by the idea of using this medium
\nfor social good and acting on that inspiration in your own way. Write
\nor photograph or vlog whatever change it is that you’d like to see in
\nthe world, and leave the link here so that we can all share it. Because
\nthat’s what this is all about. Sharing, and inspiring through sharing,
\nand making change through inspiring.<\/p>\n