Mothers of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, persuasions and political stripes have gigantic economic and political strength. Historic. Unprecedented. A true global force to be reckoned with! If mothers got a notion to flex a bit of this strength, they, we, could shape every corporate & public policy impacting the wellbeing of our human family, including labor practices, maternity leave, development aid, and sustainable environmental practices. All that is needed is clarity of purpose and uniting on an issue. One of the groups working to unite this powerhouse is Mothers Acting Up (MAU), a movement of mothers* publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children. MAU inspires, educates and engages mothers to prioritize children in our corporate and public policies while leading a global movement to protect the world’s children.
Sounds idealistic. Yes. Realistic. Absolutely. Most shifts happen incrementally. It starts with one simple step that begins a journey to prioritize our children and the lives of all children. It could be deciding that your personal cup of coffee will always be Fair Trade certified coffee. Perhaps this seems a rather paltry start, but looking deeper, the significance of this effort, linked with larger international efforts, begins to blossom into a cultural shift. Individual choices plus collective action creates systematic change. Making your morning cup of coffee Fair Trade ensures that the farmers growing and picking your beans receive a fair wage and that the profits from the sale of your beans go back into their communities, so that their children can go to school rather than be used as labor (often the case). Your choice, along with thousands of other coffee drinkers, can ensure that a coffee farmer's family has access to health care, his/her children can attend school, and sustainable environmental practices are used. Beyond that single farming community, your support of Fair Trade is in alignment with many of the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which if fully followed and funded, will halve extreme poverty by 2015. (Read about the goals at www.millenniumcampaign.org.)
How to start? It’s easy. Just ask your café or grocery store if they carry Fair Trade certified coffee. If not, respectfully let them know that you will be switching to a business whose practices have a more positive impact on the world’s children. Better yet, share your interest in Fair Trade with them. Leave your phone number and ask the manager to call you once they choose to carry it. If they do, congratulate them warmly and spread the word! This kind of acting up is more contagious than the stomach flu and loads more fun. In addition, these methods are likely to work for mothers who, as a whole, shy away from more public forms of acting up. This kind of activism is actually a form of community building, at which most mothers excel. It is realizing that we are in partnership with the people who sell and produce our goods who in this global village live on another continent. Hands down, the most certain path to a peaceful world for our children is to tend to these relationships with integrity rather than a blind eye. Is there really a link from your morning cup of coffee to international efforts to reduce poverty? Yes, we are all inextricably linked in both our challenges and our solutions.
*mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller
