By Anti-Poverty Network SA member, Sara Walker. Read at our Anti-Poverty Week Enfield Community Lunch, on Monday October 13, 2025.
Good Morning.
I didn’t wake up one day and decide to become an activist.
I just got tired of seeing good people — people I care about — struggle while the world looked the other way.
Tired of feeling that nothing could change.
Tired of waiting for someone else to fix it.
But what is ‘Activism’?
It isn’t so much a title or a hobby or a phase.
And rarely is it a paid job!
Activism is what happens when you care about something so deeply that staying silent becomes impossible.
It’s what happens when passion becomes action.
Activism is a way of seeing the world. Once you realise that systems can be challenged, you never see the world the same again.
You stop asking, “Why doesn’t someone do something?” and start realising — you are someone.
In the words of Anthropologist, Margaret Mead –
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
When you become an activist, you start to see the world differently.
You stop believing that poverty is personal failure, and you start to see it as political design.
You start to notice how power moves — and how we can move it back.
And once you’ve seen that, you can’t unsee it.
Becoming an activist doesn’t make life easier.
It’s messy, emotional, sometimes chaotic; but it is real.
It gives you a sense of purpose and gets you up in the morning, even when things are hard.
It turns frustration into fuel, fear into focus, and loneliness into solidarity.
What does it feel like to be part of a grassroots movement?
Being part of a grassroots community — like ours — can be ‘really’ hard work… but it’s also magic.
It’s where people who’ve been written off, write themselves back into the story.
It’s where we are reminded that expertise doesn’t just live in office buildings or come from degrees — but also, from lived experience.
Where every small win — a family housed, a policy shifted, a community fed — feels monumental because it came from us, the community
Where you find family in the people standing beside you.
And most importantly, where you start to see people’s lives change, including your own.
In spaces like this, I’ve seen people transformed.
I’ve seen someone go from quietly attending their first meeting, to speaking truth to power at Parliament House.
I’ve seen people who once felt invisible become leaders, trainers, and changemakers.
Because activism doesn’t just change the world — it changes you.
It shows you that your story matters.
That your courage counts.
And that collective action can turn despair, into possibility.
Every banner we raise, every rally we hold, every petition, every small act of kindness — they all ripple outwards.
And when enough of us ripple, we make waves.
When enough waves rise together, we can create a tsunami — and that’s when systems shift.
So, if you’ve ever felt powerless — that’s our broken, unfair system at work.
But the truth is, the moment you decide to care out loud, you’ve already started changing things.
Join us. Stand with us. Build with us.
Because we are the hope that we’ve all been waiting for.
And together, we are unstoppable.
Thank you.
Anti-Poverty Network SA 