I'd like to take you through the story of how I initially got involved with advocacy, why I do it now and what motivates me to keep going when it gets hard. My advocacy journey started when I was in year 8, when I went to a Micah Challenge training day. I knew that poverty was wrong, and I wanted to do something about it. I had explored ideas, but didn't really come to something that I could do. I was too young for many of the volunteering-type activities, and I was at school during the week! Anyway, I found out about Micah Challenge and went to their training day. There were workshops to choose from, and somehow I found myself at the one on how to visit a politician. I am not sure how. Maybe the other workshops were mostly for adults, or I had already been to them... I am not sure. So I sat in the room, listening to two ladies talking about how visiting politicians really is quite easy and not scary. I didn't believe them. I hated (and still do!) public speaking. I listened, I took notes, I took the papers that I was given. But in my mind I was…
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