Orange is the New Black Star Uzo Aduba gives us #goals

If the internet has done nothing else, it has given us the gem of a hashtag: #goals. Sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes legitimate ambition, search for #goals on Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite social channel and you’re sure to dredge up genuine inspiration, comedy gold or head-scratching admissions.

This week, as the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York City, is Global Goals Week. And we’re hoping that we can help skew the search results of #goals to the more legitimate. 

If you take a look at their site, Global Goals Week is “an annual week of action, awareness, and accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals (also known as the SDGs or the Global Goals).”

Launched in 2016, the year after the Millennium Development Goals expired and the year the SDGs were adopted, the week hopes to bring people, institutions and governments together to build momentum around the SDGs in the hopes that they’re truly achieved by 2030.

So, how can you get involved even though we’re half-way through the week? Well, Global Goals has all kinds of resources online, but they also suggest following the  #globalgoals as an easy first step. Or, if you happen to be in New York, join one of their events in person.

But the easiest thing to do? Try redefining your own #goals for a few days. If you’re out there Instagramming or social-mediaing in whatever way you choose, maybe tie your #goals to one of the 17 SDGs.      

The things we can't measure are the pride and joy in people being able to provide for their families, says @UzoAduba speaking to @melindagates at #Goalkeepers18
on the effects of empowering communities by giving them a hand up is more effective than giving them a hand out pic.twitter.com/W9D84bQcgK

— Gates Africa (@GatesAfrica) September 26, 2018

Sure, they’re lofty. Yes, they can seem too big to tackle. But Uzo Aduba, our Ambassador to Africa, who spoke Saturday at the Mashable Social Good summit, and who is speaking today at the Goalkeepers event, said it so eloquently.  She told the crowd this: 

“One choice that we can make one day in our lives has the potential to affect lives larger than we can count.” And “our job is not to change someone; our job is to introduce a pathway for someone to walk down.” 

When it’s put like that, getting to zero hunger and no poverty in the next 12 years seems do-able. Whether you donate to your local foodbank, an international development organization, or galvanize your social networks to do the same, or whether you join an advocacy group, challenge gender norms, or stand up to support women, there are small actions you can take every day that can affect lives “larger than we can count.”

So, how are you going to contribute to zero hunger, gender equality or climate action (goals 1, 5 and 13 respectively)? Or what can you do to advance work in the other 14 goal areas?

Get out there and let us know.