I’ve recently joined a collaborative group which was the brainchild of the lovely Paul Sutton from Bottle PR. We’d be really grateful if you took the time to read about the first initiative we are supporting below.
Geeks for Good is for those working in social media and tech to come together to try and bring about change that benefits everyone. We have access to a huge collective network through our personal social graphs, and this group is intended to be an opportunity to get involved in using that collective network for the greater good, not just for personal gain.
The first project is for the charitable organisation, Practical Action, which uses technology to combat poverty in the developing world. Its primary area of interest is that of energy access and a concept that it has called ‘technology injustice’. This is where in the developed world we might put huge amounts of investment, time, resources and technology into developing a cure for baldness (for example), and yet in the developing world an extremely simple cooking pot would really change people’s lives. It’s an area that the geek community could make a real impact in.
With the UN Year of Sustainable Energy for All fast approaching, Practical Action have created a new online campaign that asks people to make their point in support of energy for all.
Globally, 1.4 billion people have no electricity and 2.5 billion rely on traditional fuels like firewood to cook and heat their homes.
Smoke from cooking in the home kills more people than malaria; mostly women and children. This is one of the points that Practical Action is asking people to make.
The Make Your Point campaign (practicalaction.org/energyforall) asks people to show why they think energy access is important by choosing one of five coloured points. Together, people’s points create an array of colour which visually represents support for energy for all.
Helen Marsh, Lead Campaigner at Practical Action said: “We often take access to energy for granted in this part of the world and it’s easy to forget how much we rely on it for daily life and work. This campaign gets people to think about the importance of energy access for people in developing countries, and the vital role it plays in alleviating poverty.”
The aim of the campaign is to build interest ahead of the UN’s 2012 International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
Central to the year is the Rio+20 Earth Summit where real progress on a global commitment to universal energy access by 2030 is expected. Achieving this goal would free billions of people from unnecessary daily struggles that limit their ability to escape poverty.
For more information and to make your point about energy access, please visit www.practicalaction.org/energyforall.