Making a difference, one student at a time

Ryan Chippy
Contributor
Providing a clear path from awareness to solution is the hallmark of any successful activist initiative. This is exactly where the Poverty Eradication Project (PEP) excels , according to Virgil Haden-Pawlowski, program founder and third-year political science student. In an interview with Excalibur, Haden-Pawlowski shared his thoughts on the group – started in September 2010 – along with the state of student activism.
Fantastic goals, feasible solutions
With a focus on amassing student support for poverty eradication initiatives, PEP advocates on behalf of the Millennium Villages project that works with Africans to provide solutions for eliminating poverty. The project is part of a wider initiative introduced by the United Nations called the Millennium Development Goals, which set specific objectives like cutting global poverty in half by 2015, providing universal primary education and reducing child and maternal mortality rates.
Aware some may consider these goals improbable, Haden-Pawlowski stressed the practicality of these objectives – they received “unanimous support from every member state in the UN,” he notes. Simply setting goals does not make problems disappear, so PEP’s task is to build support for specific programs. Even though poverty is the group’s focus, they’re also attempting to tackle issues such as gender or racial equality and accessible education, which Virgil notes are all overlapping obstacles to true global development.

No order, no problem
The group is entirely student-run, with a decentralized structure including a “shared, consensusbased leadership built on trust” that allows for increased dialogue among team members, added Haden-Pawlowski. Divided into various project teams, the group separates responsibilities such as student engagement, design and media, events and publications.
As someone who has always been attracted to activism – he was research coordinator for the Human Rights Participatory Growth Program at McLaughlin College – Haden-Pawlowski decided to reach out to fellow students who wanted to volunteer their time for a worthy cause. He believes that students will support these initiatives given the right opportunities, and with good reason; the group has already built a great support base involved in the different facets of the organization.
Open minds, not pockets
Far from a simple cash transaction that defines many activist initiatives on campus, this group is seeking a deeper level of participation by students. Their aim is to raise awareness among the student population and let them know about the realities of poverty and other intertwined social issues. Other aims include creating academic or professional opportunities for students wishing to further their involvement in poverty initiatives; and partnering with other organizations to create synergetic relationships that help realize developmental goals.
Supplementing these aims are activities like movie nights, guest speaker sessions, an undergraduate online academic journal and an e-zine specializing in creative writing and art. The group is also committed to forming valuable partnerships that extend their reach – so far, the partnerships have been local collaborations with groups like the international development; law and society; and sociology students’ associations.
Like most social initiatives, the group faces an obstacle in an apathetic student base. Posters, brochures and verbal appeals are often used in vain, either falling on deaf ears or into the campus recycling bins. Haden-Pawlowski says the group is fighting back, though, using “popular media to draw audience’s attention to relevant issues” and screening films such as the action thriller Taken to shed light on human sex trafficking. Rather than simply using the allure of an entertaining blockbuster, the group goes further and introduces professors and other guest speakers to further educate the audience.
Drowned in the activist wave?
The strong activist climate at York means many groups are vying for attention, often leaving students feeling they’ve an information overload. Posters and representatives overwhelm students with calls to support a plethora of causes, leaving a group such as the PEP lost among the many; however, Haden-Pawlowski sees this more as an opportunity than a problem, allowing for greater collaborative efforts among related groups that all tackle similar issues from diverse perspectives.
Haden-Pawlowski believes “there can never too much activism,” and that the abundance of opportunities is exactly what is needed to stimulate students who may have otherwise been ignorant of how they can participate in an initiative that interests them. Nonetheless, obstacles related to the sheer number of groups fighting for attention, including logistical difficulties like booking space and gathering administrative support, do obstruct the growth of this newcomer at the activist table. Haden-Pawlowski is confident time will mitigate these problems.
Blueprint for success
Despite being a relatively new organization, PEP has developed a positive, collaborative climate focused on contributing in the fight against global inequality. With their aims of spreading awareness and building valuable partnerships to increase student participation, they have outlined a path that has already proven victorious in the fight against poverty. Haden-Pawlowski notes Carleton University has seen such triumphs: the majority of students there voted to fund the Millennium Villages with a $6 dollar annual fee following a campaign by the local campus group, Students to End Extreme Poverty.
PEP hasn’t yet garnered that support at York, but Haden-Pawlowski remains optimistic. His future plans include seeking external partnerships with NGOs and cultivating a “vast network of students involved in research, publishing, and outreach” on and off campus.