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Lobbying

The third L is for Lobbying.

"Justice" is mentioned over 2000 times in the Bible.  "Sin" is mentioned 900 times.  It is important to get our proportions to align with God's.  We sometimes get our priorities wrong.

The C4L Board has mandated that there be a mix of modes at C4L, including:

  • Response to disaster emergencies
  • Development programming
  • Advocacy and lobbying
Likewise, the activists that C4L has trained over the past 20 years are Change Agents in their communities - they must address the causes, not just the symptoms.  This is essentially what Justice-ministry tries to do.  Biblically-speaking, there is a prophetic aspect to our ministry.


Public Engagement

Whether you call it "lobbying"  or "advocacy" or "public engagement", it always involves "speaking truth to power".

The first thrust of public engagement by C4L was The Childermas Letters, linking children and leaders with the theme: "Transforming leadership, so that children are safe."

In 2011, C4L also organized a poster campaign against the Mpumalanga Murders.

C4L then deployed its youth alumni at community level in awareness-raising projects - funded by donors.  For example on the themes of Human Trafficking and Body Parts Trafficking. 

C4L's biggest volumes in this regard was training 1200 "green activists".  Here is one example of the message that they are carrying to community level:

https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2019/02/18/save-eskom-yourself-solar-chuck-stephens

 

Starting in 2016, C4L started to tackle the "War on Blessers" as it has been dubbed by the ex-Minister of Health.

One sample of an article written about this topic is indicative:

https://www.voices360.com/the-main-reasons-why-partial-decriminalization-is-best-for-south-africa/

 

However, C4L has also been in direct contact with government officials to try to influence policy makers.

Even before the Covid lockdowns caused government to tighten alcohol restrictions, C4L had been vocal in support of raising the drinking age from 18 to 21.  So many social evils stem from alcoholism that this is a good place to start.

 

Lockdown

Ironically, C4L has had more time to devote to lobbying because of the suspension of direct programming.

 

 

Voter Education - The WeighBridge magazine

Before the last elections in both South Africa and Canada, C4L launched a VOTER EDUCATION PROJECT.  Its focus was to get Youth to register to vote and to think about how to cast their vote.  A ballot like this is not just a privilege but a civic responsibiltiy and must be exercised with due attention and care.  Voting on auto-pilot is not a democratic ideal.

So we piloted a print-media magazine for youth called The WeighBridge.  It was aimed at first-time voters, but should be of general interest to all.

There is now a WEGHBRIDGE READER of the four pilot issues.  But this initiative crashed into the Covid crisis.  Funding was not available to continue...

Because printed material is heavy, and "snail mail" is slow, we now encourage any youth worker or youth pastor to download the PDF file from our website (on this page, below) and have it printed locally.  Each of the four pilot issues is 20 pages long (inside, black and white) plus a colour cover (one side only).  Any print shop can print as many copies as required from our print-ready PDF files.  These are contained in the table below, for you to peruse and download.

In fact, this magazine should be of interest to all English-speaking countries, and in any election year.  The issues are generic. 

 

If you like the four pilot issues and want to make a contribution to generate more issues, it costs about $500 USD to produce one more issue - in PDF format (for circulation) along with 100 hard copies for marketing.

Remember that print-media magazines are usually read by several people.  For example, if planted strategically in waiting rooms.


Anti-corruption campaigning

Through its regular Bulletins C4L has often tackled the Triumphalists who tried to entrench waste, graft and patronage as a-way-of-doing-business in South Africa.

Issue #3 of The WeighBridge especially articulates much of C4L's thinking and insights about "State Capture" and its effects on the economy.

Beneath such acts are bent attitudes.  One of them is lying - perjury when lying under oath.  Deception is also the underlying cause of Fake News.  This triggered the following article:

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/daily-news/20181024/281767040209579

 

C4L tries to get down to where the rubber meets the road!

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Download Issues of The WeighBridge

Document Title Size Revision  
Issue 1
Election fever
3.05 MB Feb 07, 2019 Issue 1
Issue 2
Tweaking Democracy
734.00 kB Feb 07, 2019 Issue 2
Issue 3
Banana republics
9.91 MB Feb 08, 2019 Issue 3
Issue 4 read-easy version
1.35 MB Jun 30, 2020 Issue 4 read-easy version
Issue 4 print-ready version
1.35 MB Jun 30, 2020 Issue 4 print-ready version