Weekend on Gorakh Hill...

WHAT IS "ADVOCACY"?

m.. 

Working definition of advocacy is:

Advocacy is pursuit of influencing outcomes - including public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions - that directly affect people's lives.

Advocacy consists of organized efforts and actions based on the reality of "what is." These organized actions seek to highlight critical issues that have been ignored and submerged, to influence public attitudes, and to enact and implement laws and public policies so that visions of "what should be" in a just, decent society become a reality. Human rights - political, economic, and social - is an overreaching framework for these visions. Advocacy organizations draw their strength from and are accountable to people - their members, constituents, and/or members of affected groups.

Advocacy has purposeful results: to enable social justice advocates to gain access and voice in the decision making of relevant institutions; to change the power relationships between these institutions and the people affected by their decisions, thereby changing the institutions themselves; and to bring a clear improvement in people's lives.

Excerpted from Volume I: Reflections on Advocacy by David Cohen, Co-Director, Advocacy Institute from the forthcoming Advocacy Learning Initiative by Oxfam America and the Advocacy Institute.

Dr. Kimat Gul Khatak is the most senior subscriber
to ABSMN. he has been very vocal. We thought it would be worthwhile
to publish his picture for the benefit of those who would like
to see him in print for the time being.



Dr. Khatak 





OUR WEEKLY PICTURE QUIZ

... 

All the three are subscribers to ABSMN one is vocal, two are silent.
Of the two one used to be the Sports Secretary in 1974 in LMC.
The other used to be a well known LMCathlete. It is said that when
he used to percuss a patient in Jamshoro, the whole
campus used to shake. See answers next week.

OUR SILENT SUBSCRIBER OF THE WEEK.

Dr. Nazir Ansari is a psychiatrist in UK.
He is silent subscriber to the
list. He is LMC Graduate of 1977.
He is known to be very gregarious off-line
but on-line he is very sociophobic

Dr. Nazir Ansari