Student-led initiative Live Campus launched their website, LiveCampus.org, Monday to further their goal of ending extreme global poverty.
As one of the Boston-based Millennium Campus Network groups striving to end extreme poverty, Live Campus acts as a national inter-collegiate coordinating committee that allows students to plan benefit concerts and events and pledge donations.
“Our goal is to communicate to students as much as possible” said Daniel Acheampong ’11, Associate Director of Live Campus. “[The website] is an effective way to communicate.”
Live Campus originally started out supporting the Millennium Promise cause, a nonprofit organization in the process of building “Millennium Villages” in sub-Saharan Africa to help end extreme poverty. Live Campus has since partnered with Rock for a Remedy, and Two Dollar Challenge to extend its base for greater networking and outreach for events. The decision to make further outreaches changed a previous goal of Live Campus to raise $1.5 million.
“Now, our goal is to raise as much money as we can to combat this global poverty” said Acheampong.
With greater reach and greater goals, Live Campus aims to raise funds by helping to coordinate multiple small charitable events.
“Smaller concerts are better” said Justin Kang ’09, Director of Live Campus. “It’s more about grassroots.”
By enabling students and their colleges to host so many events, Live Campus hopes to raise funds for already well established organizations aimed at ending extreme poverty. Live Campus has incorporated 11 organizations or causes into its network including Grassroots Soccer and Partners in Health, while maintaining its original ties with Millennium Promise.
In addition to networking concerts to raise funds, Live Campus aims to raise the level of awareness about global poverty by combining the fundraising with education. The network seeks to “diversify the movement to reduce and ultimately end extreme poverty” said Chrissy Callahan ’11, Associate Director of Live Campus, in an e-mail.
“[This website] is the first stepping stone to getting the word out.” said Acheampong.
Live Campus features itself as a student-led organization and hopes to use this fact to inspire others to take action.
“Certainly, this initiative seems intimidating” said Kang on the website. “It shouldn’t however; such challenges should inspire and push our generation to seek and to do better. Students have the ability and the power to organize such large-scale and important programs. It just takes patience, confidence and vision.”
Although Live Campus does not plan events itself, it has scheduled a series of benefit concerts for the first week of April to jumpstart its goals. Live Campus looks to grow and establish itself as a resource for students and organizations to plan concerts.
“We hope people will check it out” said Acheampong.
Editor’s Note: Chrissy Callahan is the Features editor of The Brandeis Hoot.
