OUR FOUNDATION
Clarence Environment Centre operates through the collective movement of local people working towards a common goal of ecologically sustainable development. These local people from throughout the Clarence district do so as volunteers. The organisation, both at the day to day operational level and at the committee management level, functions on the provision of time and ideas in the civic action of a volunteer workforce. Volunteers in general share a common rural area, a common place and experience. They work in a spirit of co-operation to achieve mutually defined tasks, taking into consideration personal aptitudes, time availability and accepted responsibilities. This volunteer experience is based upon personal motivation freely undertaken as a citizen movement within the framework of the Clarence Environment Centre. It builds upon human solidarity for the environment, for people and for social development.
Gary
CAN I MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
This is a question many of us ask. The answer is often complex and at times we doubt our ability to make a difference. There is a story from a few years ago. It is an Irish story and also a story about apartheid but it is relevant to us all.
A young Irish women, less than twenty with no political background, worked at the check-out counter in a large Dublin supermarket. She was aware of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the fact that the African people there had called on consumers not to buy South African products. Because her store carried South African fruit she decided to refuse to sell it. Customers complained, managers came and she was fired. By the end of the day the other women in the store were refusing to sell South African fruit.
The strife escalated, with threats of mass stand-downs and workers in other supermarkets coming out in support of the women who refused to sell the racist fruit. The issue was covered in the press and on television and many people in Ireland learnt about the real cost of cheap apartheid fruit. Eventually the company agreed to stop selling South African fruit, the young women got her job back and in the whole process the community had learnt about the power of one persons commitment to act in solidarity with those who are oppressed.
Essential changes require many individuals taking action on many levels. To do these we need to believe that as an individual and the individuals around us can make a difference. Perhaps this is the greatest challenge of community building.
Gary