Mike Gravel 08 - Great, or the Greatest

Facilitating Synchronicity Between Us

by Deborah Phelan (boatsie)

Jon Ramer has been a ‘wiser man’ since the beginning. But during his recent work in Southeast Asia, he experienced firsthand the actualization of the promise of WiserEarth: the ability to engage diverse players in solving complex problems.

“Wiser is now the core of all the organizations in Southeast Asia working on child’s rights,” Ramer says.  “We worked collaboratively to name all the different organizations and resources, and ensure they were linked and able to collaborate on WE.”

Photo Courtesy of Mercy Centre

 Students at Thailand's Mercy Centre

Ramer represented the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in a summit at Thailand’s Mercy Centre, working with groups like the International Institute on Child Rights and Development, UNICEF, Plan International, and Mercy Centre on issues related to orphans, HIV-AIDS, education and human trafficking. The working group succeeded in identifying and unifying local, regional, and international resources to focus on children’s rights.

“It was truly amazing,” Ramer says, “The best hope for groups like this is that they can become more aware of each other’s resources and capabilities so that they can collaborate and synchronize their activities. I think we accomplished that.”

The offshoot of their work is the Children’s Rights and Practice community directory, which links to 21 organizations and 23 resources, along with files and solutions pages. The directory’s network diagram highlights such resources as the Child Exploitation Tracking System and Cartoons For Children’s Rights.  One of the solution pages, How Many Children Will Inherit the Earth, provides instructions for creative problem solving.

Ramer, co-founder of the Washington-based Interra Project (www.interraproject.org), also uses the Wiser network in many local and regional projects, such as the Cascadia Portal, Northwest Interfaith Community Outreach (NICO), Sustainable West Seattle, and the Eco April Alignment.  He is also a long-term active participant in Wiser community groups such as WiserEarth Editors and WiserEarth Suggestions.

He looks forward to real-time community conversations, possibly through the use of "webinars," to discuss how to create a more vibrant network. “There has to be space for the community to take responsibility and become involved in social justice and sustainability and Wiser offers that option,” he says. “We can extend the synchronicity between us. You can turn what you have into what you need.”