Since 2009, Global Citizens have taken over 24.8 million actions, which have resulted in more than 100 commitments — enough to impact 880 million lives — from governments, multilateral institutions, and corporations to help end extreme poverty by 2030.
Sarah Humphreys is one of those Global Citizens. She graduated from a marketing degree in 2018 and has been doing voluntary marketing for charities and freelance marketing work for companies ever since.
Humpreys is passionate about women’s rights and access to healthcare around the world, and started to take action with Global Citizen after learning more about the problems people living in poverty face.
We asked her more about how she became a Global Citizen, and why taking action is important to her.
Why did you first become a Global Citizen?
It’s hard to remember exactly, but looking back, I can see that I first signed up in 2015, when I was a student at the University of Westminster.
I think I decided to sign up after getting a bit older, and reading the news more, and finding out more about the poverty so many people experience in the rest of the world.
When you’re a kid you don’t have a care in the world, but as you get older you realise that some of the things you’ve taken for granted, other young people and children growing up just don’t have.
What encouraged you to continue taking part in Global Citizen?
Learning more about what people in other countries face made me realise that many people don’t have a voice, and there isn’t a facility for them to really say what they need. Or, they do speak out but are just not being listened to.
What I like about Global Citizen is that you can take a small amount of time out of your day to help someone and raise awareness of what they are dealing with. I always go on and read all about the issues that the action is based on, and I learn about it, and then decide to sign the petition, or tweet, or write an email.
I have also taken part in a video about polio for Global Citizen, which was really interesting. I really like feeling like I can actually do something and take part.
What issues do you care about most?
I really like taking the actions that help girls and women. Women in some countries aren’t treated as fairly as we are, and I think we have to remember that in the UK we didn’t always have our rights either.
People fought for our rights, the right to vote for example, in the UK, and now it’s important for us to fight for those rights for other women.
I’m also concerned about health. Right now in the UK, we’re being told to stay inside and wash our hands because of the coronavirus pandemic, but a lot of people in other countries can’t do that.
They might not have a house with a tap, they can’t stay safe and keep themselves sanitised, even if they did catch the virus. They don’t have a choice. I really think in the UK we take things like the NHS for granted too, we have healthcare and free education.
Has taking action for Global Citizen inspired your daily life?
In a way yes. One of the things I have thought about from reading the “finance and innovation” section of Global Citizen is how so many people living in poverty aren’t able to use their talents.
They might be very clever and talented, they might even be able to fight coronavirus as a scientist or something – but they don’t have access to those opportunities because people aren’t giving them a chance.
I think this was something I thought about at university. You might think sometimes “Oh do I really need to go to that lecture? I could have a lie in” but really, some people would kill to be in your position, being able to go to lectures and be at university, and so we shouldn’t take it for granted.
Why do you think it’s important to take action?
I think it’s really important because it’s a way of using your voice to make other people’s voices more powerful.
It’s easy to do and if everyone took a few minutes to do it, you can have an impact without even realising.
I’m not sure exactly how to say this, but I also just think it’s important to use our time to try and have a positive impact on the world, to fight for a legacy for future generations, just as other people did for us in the past.
“Action Taker of the Week” is a Global Citizen series that focuses on the everyday Global Citizens taking action around the world. We’ll be featuring a Q&A with a new action taker every week. You can start taking action here.
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Source: Global Citizen