Georgia on Organising a Protest

When I think of Social Impact, I think of a quote from my role model Abbie Hoffman “There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!”

I had always been taught that my voice was important. I was lucky that I came from a family where it is pretty normal for us to talk and discuss major events and social issues. However, I don’t think I ever realized just how impactful my actions could be until last year. March 26th was when I heard that Roe V Wade was overturned in America, I found out via my routine morning TikTok scroll. I can remember feel sick to my stomach, I sent an article to my mum, to my flat group chat and to my social work cohort alongside a paragraph rant that summed up to ‘what the hell is this?’

I promptly searched everywhere to see if there was a protest happening here in Dunedin, Roe v Wade was, and still is an issue near and dear to me but I came back empty. Not a single event had been made in the following days so I took my Dad’s advice “If no one else can be bothered, you should at least try.”

The next week was a whirlwind. Getting permission to hold a demonstration in the octagon, creating a Facebook page with the help of some friends of a friend, contacting people to be guest speakers, battling about what I wanted to say in my speech, contacting the Otago Daily Time and the Critic for them to cover the event, planned for a counterprotest from a local TERF group, everything was ready and planned - only to them promptly catch Covid and ending up in ICU two days before the demonstration…

I wanted to be heard – by the government, by the public, by those who felt outrage like I did and by those who disagreed with me. Over the process of organizing the event I came to terms with why I was so effected by the news, I wanted to support all those other women, non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming individuals who were terrified of what this repeal would mean for their human rights. So as soon as I could write an email, I started reorganizing the event.  

Approximately 115 people showed up on the day. Our Facebook page was viewed over 600 times, and we got two articles from the ODT, one from the Critic and an interview from Radio One. As I stood in the crowd, I truly understood what it meant to have a voice. I understood what it meant to be surrounded by people who all support the same cause. 

Social impact is a hard thing to define, I don’t think you really can define it in a way that truly captures what a beautiful, empowering thing it feels like when you’re in the middle of it. I think I have never felt so heard as I did the few weeks I spent planning the Roe V Wade protest, and I truly hope everyone has the opportunity to feel what I did.