This week I spent a few hours over two days handing out fliers outside the Liverpool Street Station in London. The fliers were in support of the Starfish Greathearts Foundation, who are putting on Starfish Day, on Monday (3rd of September).
The Starfish Foundation is dedicated to helping AIDS orphans in Southern Africa (there will be an estimated 3 million AIDS orphans in southern Africa alone by 2010, 90% of whom do not have the virus themselves). Not those with AIDS, but the thousands of children whose short lives have been destroyed by it. Surely a great cause if ever there was one.
So, I was more than happy to give my spare time, and this little extra “plug”. Here is the essence of their campaign:
The idea is simple. All we’re asking is that you donate one day’s wages to Starfish (and work the other 364 days of the year for yourself!). You’re sure to feel good knowing that your money will pay for some extremely important projects.
Starfish is already providing more than 28,000 orphans with a safe, clean place to sleep and a nutritious breakfast before school. That’s right, giving these children a chance at a quality education is also a big part of how Starfish makes a difference. Whilst we are making progress, we could be doing a lot more (a lot more!) - and that’s where you come in.
If you are in London on Monday, swing by the The Barracuda Bar, 133 Houndsditch, EC3A 7BX (near Liverpool Street Station, or Aldgate tube station) and find out more.
But back to my story. I spent about 3 hours this week handing out fliers advertising this event and have a few thoughts.
There are two free newspapers in London who have people distribute by hand to commuters at rush hour in high traffic areas. When I arrived, I was expecting some pretty heavy turf problems with the paper guys, but I was wrong. They thought I was funny, and at one point even helped me. Not only that, but as I was obviously handing out fliers, throughout London (on my way home after) I was noted and recognized by other paper and flier people. I had joined a fraternity.
Handing out fliers is a skill: eye contact is crucial, people are far more likely to take a flier when you’ve looked at them in the eye. Also, moving the flier in their
direction in an offering motion is much more effective than holding it out in front of them. However, after an hour in full rush hour frenzy, you can get really dizzy and slightly disoriented.
If someone took a flier, it was more likely that someone else would. And likewise, if someone made any recognition (no thanks, or a wave), the person who followed was more likely to do so as well.
I handed out about 200 fliers, and it was interesting to see who took them. About 1 in 8 of middle aged black women who passed me took a flier, and were by far the most interested, taking probably more than 30 of my fliers. In contrast middle aged white women were not at all interested. This was interesting to me, as I’ve always associated compassionate activism of this sort with women. But two white women took fliers, each of them looked like they were or had been activists themselves. White women seemed less interested than men in power suits. This is by no means a definitive study, but simply a surprising observation.
Before I did this, I had assumed it would be pretty embarrassing. It wasn’t at all, in fact I thought it was quite fun and interesting. It made me think of the Buddhist tradition of begging as a religious rite, and I could see why this was important. It was at once humbling, but also turned the world on it’s ear enough to show a different side to living. Very few times will you have to stand in a high traffic area and stare down the commuting masses. As you do so, you see each person’s reaction told a little story.
Having said all that, I can understand it would get pretty old very fast. But it had purpose, AIDS orphans is as good a purpose as I can think of, and that made it much easier and enjoyable.
