October 17 ((( Make Your Mark )))

Amplfiy your voice with Asia Pacific Youth Network

Join young people around the globe Tuesday October 17, 2009 to (((Demand Dignity))) – this is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Add the amplification marks “((( around a word / object )))” to something in your world, take a photo or video and upload (or send to) APYN. More Human Rights = Less Poverty Join the Asia Pacific Youth Network on October 17, 2009 to amplify young voices in the Asia Pacific region, who are demanding dignity! It’s easy – simply think about what Dignity means to you and amplify it through taking a photo of it surrounded by the amplification symbol “ ((( ))) ” .

Then load it up with APYN to amplify your call with your friends across the Asia Pacific. The International Week of Youth Action (IWYA) will take place simultaneously in hundreds of locations around the globe from 12 to 17 October 2009. The main theme of the IWYA will be Demand Dignity: Human Rights = Less Poverty. The Asia Pacific Youth Network invites all young people in the Asia Pacific to join.

Thanks for taking part! Here’s a few more things you can do

Get creative to (((Make Your Mark)))

• Use nature: draw the symbol in sand, or cut it into grass, or use your bodies!
• Be symbolic: display the symbol in significant locations
• Paint or stencil the symbol with ‘clean graffiti’ (chalk, non permanent paint on cardboard mounts or fabric etc). Remember to get permission!
• Create sections of the symbol on big cardboard boxes of the symbol that you can put together into one large display.
• Display the amplification marks in your work, school or home window, create and use posters, stamps or stickers in colleges, community centers, cafés…
• Wear it! Get people to show their support for the campaign through clothes and other items, for example: T-shirts, bracelets, badges, with make up, stickers and more!
• Create it: bake cookies or cakes, and ice them with “((( )))”, take photos of objects that signify dignity to you encased in “((( )))”, do a poster run around (legal) areas with the “((( )))” symbol, draw or dance ‘dignity’ and ask a friend to video – so much more!
• Think about things you use or come into contact everyday, can you use vegetables to create the “((( )))” symbol on your plate? Can you and your friend’s arms become amplification symbols?

Already busy on October 17? Doesn’t matter! It could take only a minute of your day – if it’s your birthday, have a happy snap with the amplification symbol, if you have an activity planned, see if you can spare a moment to include some way to (((Make Your Mark))), going to be away on holiday, consider what Dignity means to the place you are visiting and (((Make Your Mark))) in a small, unobtrusive way! Decide now to be part of this on October 17!

Yes, I want to (((Make My Mark))) on October 17 So, want to (((make your mark))) on October 17?

1. Register your participation in October 17 here

2. Donate your twitter or facebook status for the day. Collate responses and send them in from your comments and RT’s.

2. Donate your twitter or facebook status for the day. Collate responses and send them in from your comments and RT’s.

On Facebook, visit our Fan page, become a fan and sign up to add your status on October 17 (different language translations are available : want to help translate? contact apyncampaigns@gmail.com with the name of your language).
If you’re on Twitter, use our Twitter app to help amplify your voice, and join others from around the world.

3. Invite your friends to join you!

4. Between October 12 and 17, add the amplification marks “ (((around a word / object )))“ in your world then…photograph, video or somehow ‘record’ you making your mark to ((( Demand Dignity)))

5. and take a photo, video, audio recording to (((Make Your Mark))) then send it back to APYN [webforms to be live on October 17 from www.apyouth.net] or submit directly to www.demanddignity.org (when you add it insert “imyoung09” and then your text) (((Need amplification marks?))) they just look like this: “(((” “)))”! Email apyncampaigns@gmail.com if you need more!

WHAT IS THE (((DEMAND DIGNITY))) CAMPAIGN?

The world is currently experiencing a human rights crisis. Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity around the world. The global economic crisis is driving millions more people into poverty and placing them at increased risk of human rights violations such as food insecurity or forced eviction. The world urgently needs a different kind of response and a different kind of leadership if we are to reverse this dramatic escalation of human misery. The solution can only be found through a coordinated and concerted response rooted in human rights and the rule of law. This requires strong leadership. Asia Pacific Youth Network supports Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign, which aims to end global poverty by working to strengthen recognition and protection of the rights of the poor. The campaign will demand the leadership, accountability and transparency that are essential to end the human rights violations that keep people poor. This is a campaign about all human rights. It is the combined abuse of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights that drives and deepens poverty. By demanding dignity we are demanding that all states adopt and implement the laws, policies and practices that will end deprivation, insecurity, exclusion, and voicelessness. Participation and involvement in the decisions that impact on our lives are essential to human rights. By including all rights holders in policy making governments are at once creating a framework for accountability, transparency, inclusion and empowerment. These are the prerequisites to ending poverty. The Demand Dignity campaign puts rights at the centre of poverty eradication, and make rights protection efforts work for all people. The stories and solutions that people living in poverty have to tell will be the centerpiece of this worldwide mobilization. Together we will amplify their voices and demand effective responses from political leaders.