There is now an active SPEAK group in Sierra Leone who have sent news to us- this is now the third African country where there is an active network of young people campaigning for social change- both in similar and different ways to us here in the UK! Here is the latest news and photos from them..

On 22/12/06 Sylvanus Murray, National Coordinator wrote;

"In our last Executive Committee (7 members) meeting which took place on the
17th December 2006 at 18N Pratt Street, New England Ville, we discussed
lengthily on the different approach that needs to be considered in order
for us (SPEAK-SL) to be able to achieve our common vision... Some of these

The following is the latest report from one of our partner organisations from India working with dalits for justice and empowerment;

It is an honor and privilege to hear from you. Our youth camp will bring youth people to gather in action and prayer regularly about Justice Issues. The modern slavery of the Dalits and other oppressed sections must come to an end in our generation. This means that today’s children and future generations must be capable to meet their own needs and fulfill their rights to ensure that this section of the society gets equal status. It also provides the youth with opportunities to help them empower themselves.

Let me tell you what we are doing in Holland (see also http://www.timetoturn.nl/new/english.php)

* We've set up a foundation, Time to Turn, last years, with some (ex-)students and decided to be a partner of SPEAK
* We try to speak about injustice, but also about lifestyle and materialism. We have the idea that injustice starts with our materialistic values.
* We have 5 people in the core team, all part-time (we all have an other parttime job) and we have around 15 volunteers, 150 networkers ("Speak links") and 1500 readers of our ezines.
* Just recently four local groups are trying to get active!

The SPEAK Network Manual

Background to SPEAK

The vision of the SPEAK network is to link students and young adults together for action and prayer on issues of global justice. SPEAK produces regular information for action and prayer through simple prayer cards and campaign postcards (as part of the Pray & Post network) as well as through the newsletter Volumize.

In the UK SPEAK was established by a group of students who felt that God was challenging them to take the call to defend the cause of the oppressed more seriously. They got together and prayed and decided to form a network to link people together in action and prayer to make them more effective. The campaign material produced in the UK and the action encouraged in the UK mainly target UK-based decision-makers so though people from other nations can use it, it makes more sense for them to target decision makers in their own nations.

Hello everyone,

I'm Christelle, the International Petal Coordinator. It's my role to try to welcome International people to the forum, especially those of you interested in setting up SPEAK netwroks in your own countries. I am about to post the SPEAK Network manual up onto the forum, which outlines all our advice for people wanting to set up a network. If after reading this you'd like to get in touch and share some or your ideas/difficulties/questions/stories please either post on this forum, contact the office, or contact me on .

An important role for this forum will be to keep all our affiliated groups up-to-date with one another's activities/prayer requests etc. We'd really love it if as many people as possible could post about what their groups have been doing (UK groups are welcome to join in too!) Also, the next issue of Volumize will focus on International groups, so if anyone can send in updates to me or that would be great!

Update from Eastern University SPEAK, Pennsylvania, USA from Professor Tony Campolo

10/6/06

The group have been successful in moving campus lunchrooms and cafeterias at both their own university and other American universities to fair trade coffee.

“What should be of specific interest to you is that the SPEAK group here at Eastern has become very active in negotiating peace for Northern Ireland. I know that sounds strange, but the folks in Northern Ireland are convinced that an initiative for peace must come from the United States since support for Sinn Fein and support for the DUP both come from this side of the pond. The following things are happening as we take some initiatives in working for peace in Northern Ireland:

THANKS FOR SPEAK IREAD ALL THE STEPS TO REGISTER OUR ACTIVITIES AND IT WAS SUCH AWONDEFULL WORK NOW WE ARE FULL REGISTERED NGO IN UGANDA TO CARRY OUT DISCIPLE SHIP TRAINIG AND THE ADVOCACY WORK NOW WE ARE REQUESTING ANY GOOD CHRISTIANE WHO CAN HELP US WITH SOME COPUTERS,FUNDING AND ALSO NEED TO GET INTOCH WITH DIFFERENT ORGANISATION WHO ARE TALKING FOR THE COMMUNITIES AND SHARING THE INFOMATION,VISTS,OR VOLUNTEER TO PREACH OR COMMUNITY WORK. ONE CAN GET INTOCH WITH ME ON

ORIOKOT HENRY
DAVID'S DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES
PO BOX 11236 KAMPALA-UGANDA

Hi,

I'm Steve from California, USA. I met Louise at SLOT in Poland last week, and I'm hopeing to start some action here in my area.