About Advocacies

Who is an Advocate?

Wherever you are, here or abroad, whoever you are, and whatever you do, you can still be an advocate. An advocate is one who believes in something, one who has a conviction—and does something about it. This may be on any issue or subject, like senior citizens, prisoners, grief, health like breast cancer, diabetes, hypertension, drug rehabilitation, street children, housing, abandoned children, sexually abused women, breastfeeding, and many more.

What it takes to be an Advocate

Believing in one thing is something, but doing something about what you believe in is another—that is being an advocate. A lot of people are passive about what is happening around them. No matter what happens, they still do not care at all. It is high time that we begin to care. One can never live alone. One can never tell—who knows, one time or another, it will be you or me who will be on the receiving end of one’s compassion, empathy, or help.

If you have a calling, try to do something about it. Say, if you feel that street children need your help, find out more about them, what their needs are, the demographics, what is being done about their plight, what groups are involved, and how you, as an individual can contribute.

Do not just hand them some money, this may be a relief to them, but it is only temporary, not a long term solution to their problem. Even if you are in a foreign land, you can still make a difference—actually a lot of difference.

First, you can check on what your local Filipino community is doing. There might be some projects, like fund-raising or awareness projects that they are involved with. Find out how you can get involved. You may also check the Internet—but be wary for there at lots of scams.

Be an advocate NOW:  silent or active

You can either be a silent advocate or an active advocate. Silent means you can support the advocacy by giving some money for the different projects. As an active advocate, you may be directly involved with the projects that are being handled. Say, be a member of the various committees, be there onsite whenever you have the chance, if you are a writer, write about the projects for awareness, or launch a personal campaign so that your friends and relatives can become involved.

There are so many ways to be involved in an advocacy. The most important thing is to know what your heart really believes in and do some action NOW.

---

About the Author Dine Racoma, a mother of 7, is a Filipina doing what she likes best—writing, her passion. She writes freelance, does research, advises on new media, and manages a virtual assistance office for home-based jobs. She was in the corporate world for 27 years, the first 5 as executive secretary to an affiliate of the country's biggest drug chain, and the last 22 as an international civil servant in an international development bank with HQ in Manila. She has traveled extensively to many countries bringing about rich experiences and lessons learned that she shares with her dear Readers in The D Spot. Read more from this author

---