World No Tobacco Day 2002

Take Action!
May 2002

World No Tobacco Day is coming up soon. A number of global partnerships are working on joint WNTD activities. Please also find below some ideas for easy-to-do solidarity projects/actions that you and your global partner can incorporate into your respective WNTD activities -- followed by a sampling of what some global partnerships are already doing!

WNTD is an excellent opportunity to garner local media attention on the tobacco industry's misdeeds around the world -- using your global partnership as the local "hook." In particular, WE ENCOURAGE ALL GPTC GROUPS TO ISSUE A PRESS RELEASE LEADING UP TO WNTD! Sample press release

Are you planning an event for WNTD, but don't quite know how to incorporate your global partnership? Here are some ideas, many of which can be combined:

• BRINGING HOME TOBACCO'S GLOBAL TOLL. Hold solidarity "funeral processions" for the 100 million people that the tobacco industry killed worldwide last century. Message: if the tobacco industry is not controlled, it will kill 1 BILLION people this century. End with a rally and/or press conference. This activity can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish. Be creative! Contact Essential Action or Work for a Better Bangladesh (which conducted such an event earlier this year) for additional ideas.

• WHAT BIG TOBACCO'S UP TO AROUND THE WORLD. Put together a simple exhibit of tobacco advertising from around the world to display at your WNTD event or in a public place. In particular, you may want to focus on sports. Include examples and testimonies from your partner's country, as well as examples provided by GPTC groups this past year. See:
  http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco/qofm/

• GATHER SUPPORT FOR A TOBACCO CONTROL INITIATIVE ABROAD. Involve your community in supporting a tobacco control initiative championed by your global partner. For example, is your global partner advocating for smoke-free hospitals? Write up a short petition and/or a sample letter in support of the campaign. Collect as many signatures as you can at your event. After your event, send the petitions/letters to your partner to use in bolstering political support for the campaign. Alternative: have event attendees sign a banner with a message of support (e.g. "Maryland supports smoke-free hospitals in Romania!"), that your global partner can use at public events, demonstrations, & press conferences.

• EXCHANGE MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY. Are you planning to hold a public event? Ask your partner to send over a message of solidarity to be read aloud, included in press packets, and/or publicly displayed. If you work with youth, you may want to exchange multiple short messages of solidarity to be read by many different youth or otherwise incorporated into your activities.

• MEDIA COVERAGE. The media love good visuals and human interest stories. Use one of the above activities to gain media coverage! If there are other GPTC groups in your state or country, consider issuing a joint press release. Often reporters' articles will repeat verbatim the text of your press release. To make things easier for you, we will be sending you a sample press release. Last year a number of GPTC groups were successful in garnering media coverage. Here are two examples:

  USA - OREGON
  "Hood River Group Joins Global Tobacco Fight"
  Hood River News - Wednesday May 30, 2001
  -- Jerry Gabay, Nuestra Comunidad

  BURUNDI
  "Unissons nos efforts pour combattre le tabagisme"
  Le Renouveau du Burundi - Friday/Saturday June 1 - 2, 2001
  -- Nestor Bikorimana, Association Burundaise des Consommateurs
  

Whatever you do, be sure to photograph your event for your global partner, particularly any visual examples of your collaboration. These photos can be used for additional media coverage, newsletters, and future displays related to your global partnership. And don't forget to send copies and a short description of your event to Essential Action so that we can share them with other GPTC participants!

YUGOSLAVIA - KANSAS (USA): JOINT WNTD PROCLAMATION
In Yugoslavia, the Institute of Public Health of Serbia has planned a variety of WNTD events and actions, e.g. a petition to government ministry offices in support of a ban on tobacco advertising and marketing. In Kansas, high school members of the Youth Council in Topeka, KS, are making a tobacco prevention banner that they will have their picture taken with - to send to youth advocates in Belgrade. These activities and more are described in a proclamation that the Kansas SmokeLess Kids Initiative and other KS groups have issued to commemorate their collaboration with Yugoslavia and to mark their "commitment to reducing the economic and physical damage caused by tobacco in all parts of the world." Read the entire proclamation: html, PDF

Copies of the proclamation will be sent to key public officials in Serbia and used to bolster political, media, and public support for the Institute's tobacco control advocacy efforts. The proclamation has also served as a useful tool in raising awareness among Kansas groups about tobacco control abroad. Representatives of the following organizations have signed it: Kansas Department of Health and Environment; Kansas State Nurses Association; Topeka Youth Council; Eastside Church of God in Christ; American Heart Association of Kansas; American Cancer Society; Kansas Division; American Lung Association of Kansas; Kansas Public Health Association; Kansas Association of Local Health Departments. For more information contact: Mary Jayne Hellebust, Andjelka Dzeletovic

UKRAINE - CALIFORNIA (USA): EXHIBIT OF ADVERTISING & TOBACCO'S GLOBAL TOLL
Lisa Houston, a Peace Corps Volunteer at the Ukrainian State Maritime Technical University & Sang Trieu of Alameda County Tobacco Control Program's STARRS program have exchanged photos of tobacco advertising and personal testimonies of people personally affected by tobacco, for exhibits in their respective communities. In California, the exhibit was displayed at two college health fairs, the biggest campus events of the year. Sang reports that the exchibit was a real "wake-up call" for students and staff who previously knew little about Big Tobacco's global expansion. The pictures of tobacco advertising in Ukraine made a particularly strong impression. In the Ukraine, Lisa plans to collaborate with several local youth and health groups on a WNTD event. She will be incorporating photos sent over by Sang and quotes from the California interviews in an exhibit which will be publicly displayed, and used to garner local media attention to the importance of tobacco control. For more info: Sang Trieu, Lisa Houston

SENEGAL - FLORIDA (USA): YOUTH PROJECT ON SECOND HAND SMOKE
Teens involved with Volusia Count Department of Health "Students Working Against Tobacco" program and youth clubs connected with FADDES (Senegal) have created scrapbooks with photos, examples of tobacco advertisements, and excerpts from interviews with community members about secondhand smoke. The scrapbooks will be exchanged and used to garner media coverage leading up to WNTD about the harmful effect of secondhand smoke in their community and around the world. For more info: Gloria Luther