Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

equired a lot of non-profits and donors to build a movement. They
just needed to organise properly. So this all begs the question: can
donating replace actual participation? Can we really expect giving
to replace activism, as the Effective Altruism movement seems to
suggest? Grassroots activism means physically showing up for
events, but it can also mean spreading the message through social
media. At Free from Harm we developed the Pollinators Network
because we realised there is an enormous and still largely untapped
potential to impact our online audience. We also realised that we
have a loyal following of very savvy social media people and still
others who want to become more active and sharpen their skills.
So we mentor them and give them the tools and skills to become
strong “virtual” activists. It’s the next best thing to being there, but
it’s still important to show up.
Connect with Robert’s
organisation Free
From Harm via their
website, Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube
and Twitter. Click on
the image below to
order your copy of
Farm to Fable.
You come from a creative consultancy
background and you’ve very successfully used
your talents to create ‘Free from Harm’. What
advice would you give others to encourage them
to use their own unique gifts and talents to
promote veganism?
Yep, cultivate those talents and see how they can work for your
activism but also share them with a community. On the one hand,
we think it might be more of an effort to show up and develop a
community, but then we also have a yearning for community — for
the community of like-minded, kindred spirits. This is vital to our
own personal fulfilment as well as building our movement. We
want to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves, part of
history in the making, part of a legacy that future generations will
hopefully benefit from. In the end, the pay-off for showing up is
well worth it because of the sense of community with which it
rewards us. BV
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