Adonis Diaries

1 student + 1 petition = staggering

It’s staggering what one person can accomplish these days with the help of the internet.

Take Christine, a UK student at Leeds University. She was shocked when she heard that Syrian students at her school might be expelled and even deported back to the nightmare in Syria because they couldn’t pay their school fees, some because their families had been killed or impoverished.

Christine stepped in and actually saved hundreds of students at dozens of universities from this fate! (And what is the full name of Christine?)

She did it by getting together with some friends and starting a petition on the Avaaz community petitions website. 

The petition was good, sensible, and emotionally compelling. She only sent it to a few friends, but they sent it to more, and it soon blew up on twitter, with over 45,000 people signing!

The Avaaz team helped Christine get the story on TV and in major newspapers, and government ministers pushed schools to waive fees and launched a plan to make sure no student ever faces expulsion because of war back home again.

This stuff is powerful, it’s the next generation of Avaaz, where any one of us can start campaigns in our communities, nations and even globally.

The potential of this to change the world is why our community is now offering up to $10,000 in support of the best petitions started by our members to make the biggest impact possible.

Imagine not only getting thousands of people behind a cause, but also having $10,000 to fund the best way to win – anything from dozens of radio ads to funding a rally to building a giant billboard or float. The new simplified petition site means it takes just a minute to give it a shot, on literally anything you know needs to change:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?cl=3406468130&v=30133
(Or click here to get started in Arabic)

The students’ victory was a ray of hope for Syrians at a time when their fate is so uncertain — caught between a brutal dictator and the whims of heads of state playing politics. It’s also a powerful reminder that when a small group of committed community campaigners are supported by the amazing Avaaz community there’s no limit to what we can achieve together.

Getting started is simple, and only takes a few minutes.

Then once your petition is up and running, you can watch it spread from friends and family, and into the hands of passionate supporters around the world. The Avaaz community will vote to choose the ten best petition ideas with the potential to dramatically change our communities, cities or countries, and the campaigns get up to $10,000 in financial support to supercharge their call.

Many of our recent victories came from campaigns started by Avaaz members, from giving Syrian students the right to continue their studies abroad, to helping stop a company from abusing migrant workers in Bahrain. All these just took a few minutes to get started — together, the Avaaz community can multiply our impact a thousand times over.

With hope and excitement for all we can achieve together,

Pascal, Emily, Oli, David, Emma, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

More Information

Here’s the original Avaaz petition calling on UK universities to stop expelling Syrian students:https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_UK_universities_from_expelling_Syrian_students/

Minister tells universities to defer fees for Syrian students (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/mar/04/defer-fees-syrian-students-universities

Syrian students face fees crisis (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21129735

Syrian students ‘should study at UK universities for free’ (Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9905799/Syrian-students-should-study-at-U…

Syrian Students In UK Face ‘Deportation, Torture, Death’ As Cannot Pay Tuition Fees (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/14/syrian-students-face-deportation-death-torture-tuition-fe…