What’s faith got to do with activism?

We've been thinking lots recently about 'Discipleship in Action' and what that means for Christians in Vision Generation. We're busy campaigning to end human trafficking and labour exploitation, through the Don't Trade Lives campaign, and yet we rarely think about the founder of the anti-slavery movement, William Wilberforce and how his Christian faith motivated his call for justice.

Enough of us just thinking about it - we want you to think about 'Discipleship in Action' and what that means for you. We're pretty excited to bring young Christians together in your cities to be a part of this discussion. Bring along your friends from school, uni and church and get ready to be inspired to lead the anti-trafficking movement in your community.


The Roadshow - what's it about?
Social change throughout history has often been driven by Christian leaders, like William Wilberforce or Martin Luther King Jr. – so are we missing something today in our fight to end modern-day slavery and protect human rights?

Come ready to listen and discuss ideas about how advocating for social change is connected to Christian discipleship and faith. Be challenged to become an even better advocate on behalf of children caught in exploitative labour around the globe.

Speakers:
Jarrod McKenna, World Vision Australia Advisor Faith Youth Activism
Steven Cooke, World Vision Australia Campaign Leader – Christian Advocacy
Brett Louise Woods, National Director, Vision Generation





Dates: (all events in the evening)
Tuesday June 14th Sydney Thursday June 16th Brisbane
Tuesday June 28th Adelaide Thursday June 30th Melbourne

More information:

We'll be releasing more information about venues and times in your city in the next week. If you'd like us to let you know when the details are released or to RSVP, please email campaigns@worldvision.com.au.

NSW/ACT VGroups Get Busy at our Training Day

From listening to inspiring guest speakers, to playing with string, to planning out the rest of the year - the World Vision Office in Sydney was a hive of activity at our training day! Young people from all over the state came together for the NSW/ACT Vision Generation Vision Group training day.

The day started off casually with a quick introduction to VGen, it's history, structure and plans. This was then followed with a simple game involving getting to know each other and a ball of string. Everyone in the conference room formed a circle and we explained to everyone how and why we got involved with VGen. After a person finished telling you their story if you could relate to it, you got passed the ball of string. At the end of the activity we had an amazing web (with some awesome patterns), showing that although we may have got involved in VGen for different reasons, we are all connected and that we all form a web of activity which relies on everyone.
We then got to listen to the NSW 40 Hour Famine Youth Ambassador, Aaron Lovell, talk about his recent experiences in East Timor and how he got involved with World Vision. As well as including some great videos and photos, Aaron also gave us some moving stories and William Wilberforce quotes which meant there wasn't a single dry eye in the room. Tim Middlemiss (a WV School Rep), then shared with shed some light on this year's 40 Hour Famine and got us even more motivated to help families in East Timor! As well as seeing the awesome 40 Hour Famine Leader Kits, we also brainstormed some great ways to get our schools and communities involved in the 40 Hour Famine.

After getting pumped over the 40 Hour Famine, we then went downstairs to experience The Connecting Lives Exhibition. If you live in Sydney and you are reading this and you haven't been - YOU NEED TO GO, NOW!!! It's inspiring, emotive, fascinating, multimodal and FREE!. It was an amazing experience for everyone at the training day. Everyone was given an iPod and entered a maze, where a narrator walks you through the life of a child in Africa. There are 3 different stories to be captivated by - you could spend hours there! Everyone found it an eye opening experience and left personal reflection messages on thewall at the end of the exhibition.

After some tasty lunch, the NSW/ACT team got down and dirty and into the thick of the current VGen Campaigns! We had speakers about the Child Health Now and Don't Trade Lives campaigns. Stories, photos and movies about successes and campaigns and practical demonstrations (yes Vic VGen, they included birthing kits, okay!) and personal stories about Human Trafficking. Once again you could hear everyone's minds ticking with ideas and ways to captivate their communities and schools.

With our day coming to an end, all the VGroups sat down with their mentors and planned out the year to come. Although a tad cliche, the day could only be described as a success! Watch out VGen Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland, NSW/ACT is back in action and is packing some heat!

Superheroes Assemble!

The SA/NT Vision Generation state team had it first training day for the year recently. We were lucky enough to have a visit from our National Director Brett Woods, who got us up on the latest details on Vision Generation campaigns and actions.

As part of the day state training day, all Vision Groups have been challenged to a get creative with a visual stunt. The rules are that they must use superheroes (with poverty fighting super powers!!) in a visual stunt to mobilise their communities to take action on either the Don't Trade Lives or Child Health Now campaigns. The state team had a taste of this superhero magic on our training day by getting out in the middle of Adelaide, talking to the public and creating some awareness about poverty dressed as poverty fighting superheros. We are looking forward to seeing a whole heap of creative stunts in our VGroups' local communities... look out!

Superheroes unite!

Giving birth at World Vision HQ...

What a random headline...

On Saturday 30th April Vision Generation Victoria "gave birth" to an amazing Training Day, with 48 attendees from all across Melbourne.

And consistent with our birthing analongies, the day began with a simulation of different childbirth conditions around the world.Deb and Josh were the proud parents of a baby t-shirt in the first world, with the benefits of comfortable conditions and Kelsey the skilled birth attendant.
In the developing world Jesse had access to a birthing kit, but was still in more primitive conditions and without assistance.
Jasmine gave birth alone in the third world, with no assistance, no resources, and very little chance of surviving if something went wrong.

This was our introduction to Child Health Now as one of the two major campaigns for VGroups to run during the year. This was accompanied by an amazing workshop run by Meg Howe about MDG's 4 and 5, Child and Maternal Health.

Vision Groups from schools, universities and some new faces brainstormed ideas to start promoting Child Health Now, sharing some exciting and pretty inspirational ideas.

State Director Jasmine Zapka led us in an eye-opening and uplifting session listening to some clips of amazing people speaking and thinking about the things that we find unnaceptable in the world.

After lunch we looked at Don't Trade Lives and Community Campaigner Jeremy Brennan talked us through some important campaign points and types of action. Musician and Fair-trade advocate Jesse Mitchell also popped in during the day to promote the upcoming Unshackled festival, promoting awareness of human trafficking and slavery.

We wrapped up the day with Hamish McKenzie talking about what stirs him- the human face of these campaigns, and a Where To From Here segment looking at upcoming events.

It was a great day, we not only expanded our volunteer base but we got everyone stirred up and excited for the next few months. A big thanks to everyone who attended and to Jade Leigh for her super hard work.

Keep your eyes peeled for some video footage over the next few weeks....