How to make the world a better place

By Anwar Fazal, founder member of IBFAN and many other consumers organizations including IOCU,
HAI and WABA.

Today´s world is dominated by violence, by manipulation and by waste. Over one million infants are allowed
to die because we don´t protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Some of the worlds largest
corporations have been implicated in this massive tragedy through deliberate and misguided propaganda
on an inferior product - artificial milk . Huge economic resources are wasted on buying this unnecessary
product and massive environmental damage is also done to the planet through plastic, tins, fuel and
land use .

We can change the world.
We have stopped most advertising, removed misleading pictures and information, stopped free supplies to hospitals and launched Baby Friendly Hospitals and community support system but we have still a long way
to go.

The movement was inspired by many young people. A young person, Mike Muller, seeking refuge from the
then apartheid regime in South Africa wrote the first popular expose of the scandal. A group of brave students in Switzerland ,the Berne Declaration led by Christopher Kurth, translated the book with the title "Nestle Kills Babies" ,which shocked the world and Switzerland. A long court trial exposed the issues further and led to a global outcry , and UN intervention!

The inspiration is that the youth were always leading actors and their efforts made a global difference!
The power to change the world is with all of us. The challenge is to exercise that power and to assert it in a strategic way. Five triggers of power are with us

•  the power of ONE - history has shown us that one person can make the difference
• the power of MANY - lean to form and influence groups so we can have the synergy of more people
• the power of INFORMATION - the power of the internet now give you the power of being anywhere, anytime
• the power of internationally agreed instrument of the United Nations - there provide the framework for our action. "We ,the peoples of the world...." ,the first words of the UN founding Charter, give us the most powerful mandate!
• the power of SUCCESS - many places in the world have shown us that we can do it. Share them, celebrate them and be inspired by them to do more.

The above five organizing principles of social mobilization are fundamental in making the world a better place. Remember that it is little people in little place doing little things that add up to the crescendo that makes the tipping point for transformational change.

And the youth of the world are the vanguard for this.
Be part of the change, starting today.

Anwar Fazal is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, popularly known at the "Alternative Nobel Prize" and often reminds us that he is in the youth of old age!