Sadiqa Jabbar shares her thoughts on the recent global poverty campaign training MADE in Europe ran in partnership with FOSIS.

One of the objectives I had for the weekend campaign training workshop was to enhance my current skills set whilst also developing new ones such as actively taking part in discussions and exploring the concept of campaigning. Of course I will always hold my strong opinions and ideas about things, but unfortunately these remain just that, opinions and ideas; they don’t materialise into action. Over the past year my interest in national and international issues, especially that affecting the poorer members of society, has grown. And so, having no previous campaigning experience (or so I thought) and that too with a group of Muslim sisters and brothers, I was looking forward to the weekend.

The workshop provided me an insight to campaigning and what it entails. It was interesting to find out that the very notion of the word ‘campaign’ comprises movements of sorts at varying scales. From the basic nagging for a toy as a child to the Occupy movement at St Paul’s, to Presidential elections, these are all forms of campaigning. It led to a short debate defining the concept of a campaign. How does one define campaign and social movements? Are they the same thing? When does one draw a line between the two? I suppose social movements start off as campaigns but as momentum develops and more people become involved, the scale increases to become a movement. Although one can argue that it is still a campaign if there is an underlying cause. Can it mean that vying for a place at a university or a job vacancy is campaigning of sorts? From what I understand, the answer is a yes. As long as one has passion and drive about the issue at hand, one can campaign about pretty much anything. However bringing that discussion back to MADE’s developmental scope a discussion on the notion of what development is drew up an interesting dialogue whereby much of the concepts aired were very much in keeping with what I had been studying in my recent masters. Some of the ideas comprised issues of transformation, empowerment, self-sustaining, technology and indigenous thoughts and techniques.

The more we discussed the more I felt proud and privileged  to be doing so within a group of intelligent Muslim sisters and brothers aware of global issues and who cared enough about wanting to make a change; however little to begin with. It just showed that the new generations of Muslims are becoming not only more aware of the international development issues but also know that we as a community do not actively participate in making changes happen. I guess it is by taking smaller steps that we can generate interest and gradually influence the masses.

Through continuous involvement of the participants the workshop flowed from icebreaking introductions of individuals, MADE as an organisation and the developmental issues it is concerned with, presenting the MADE Campaigning Toolkit, to the notion of campaigning and its various components. Having attended numerous workshops beforehand, the format of this workshop to enable participants to not only partake in discussions (as opposed to lecture-style formats) and activities throughout was not only refreshing but allowed us conclude by using the gained knowledge to create a campaign.

The weekend was good timing and presented an introduction to MADE as an organisation having recently joined the volunteering team. The workshop gave me an insight to the kind of work that I may be involved with. It broadened my knowledge of what campaigning involves as it is much more than ‘in your face’ bucket collections on streets; there is a lot of planning, implementing, and evaluative activities involved. Ultimately to be involved in campaigning one needs to be a team player, have the drive and organisational skills (or find someone who does), be realistic whilst also visionary, creative, play to one’s strengths, but above all be passionate about the cause at hand. Was I inspired? Yes I was.

If you're interested in taking part in a future training on campaigning, click here to find out more