1. Learn their stories/realities

Invite/listen to them speak (e.g., immigrants, victims of sexism & domestic & hate violence)

Read their stories (e.g., Maryknoll Magazine and News Notes, Christian Peacemaker Teams, biographies of Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez...

)

Watch videos about their struggles (e.g., LONG WALK HOME, DEAD MAN WALKING, CRY FREEDOM, ROMERO, MALCOLM X, PLATOON, PHILADELPHIA …)

Taste their realities (e.g., fasting, urban plunges, solidarity trips & work projects)

2. Read/view stories of advocates for these victims for inspiration

Dorothy Day (LOVE IS THE MEASURE by Jim Forest)
Jean Donovan (SALVADOR WITNESS by Ana Carrigan)
Dr. King (“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” STRENGTH TO LOVE, TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE)

3. Stand with them and develop personal & mutual relationships (“doing with” vs. “doing for”)

Join their worship community, community organization, project, or events/actions as “allies"
Correspond with prisoners (contact your local criminal justice ministry office)
Direct service opportunities where relationships can develop (e.g., Meals on Wheels, mentor at risk students or ex-offenders, Habitat for Humanity, include others in holiday celebrations)
Accompany them (e.g., sanctuary, Witness for Peace, death row inmates & victims of crime)

4. Economically support/empower groups struggling against their domination

Buy directly from small local producers and local service providers.
Shop through Fair Trade groups; buy “Third World” handicrafts (see back side)
Support consumer boycotts (Visit Boycotts.org for descriptions of current boycotts)
Twin with a faith community, school, village or self-help project (e.g. Haiti Parish Twinning Program or Heifer International)
Invest in revolving loan funds (e.g. Wisconsin Coord. Council on Nicaragua) Donations (e.g. All Our Children for medicine for Iraqi children)

5. Political action on their behalf

Children’s Defense Fund (regarding children’s needs in the US)

Amnesty International (regarding prisoners of conscience worldwide)

Network (regarding many of these issues )

American Friends Service Committee (regarding Iraq, Middle East, global poverty)

Pax Christi USA (same focus from a Catholic perspective)

Fasting, public/church libraries for books & videos, recycle shops, neighborhood/church coops
Donate a similar older item for each new item you buy (e.g., clothes, books, computer, appliances)
Renounce economic privileges (e.g., “voluntary surcharge,” i.e., taxing ourselves 10% for goods involving exploited labor & donating it to groups working for economic justice; include groups working on behalf of the poor in our wills)