Sarah Brown: The Tweet Heard Round the World
Twitteratti Gather at Number 10 for Million Mums
One of the most compelling users of Twitter has been Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; she’s been tweeting to raise awareness of the global campaign for maternal health as the Global Ambassador for The White Ribbon Alliance. The WRA for Safe Motherhood is uniting people in 142 countries to demand government action to end the unnecessary deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth through the Million Mums Campaign.
Downing Tweet from whcinsider on Vimeo.
On Friday night Sarah Brown, who passed the million followers mark over the weekend, hosted a Tweetup (a gathering of Twitter friends) at Number 10 Downing Street. The invited guests originally had been surprised by a tweet from Brown, asking for a mailing address; some thought her account had been hacked or speculated a Christmas card was coming. But an invitation to a Number 10 Tweetup for the Million Mums Campaign caught everyone by surprise.
The approximately 100 people gathered came from different backgrounds and represented different charities and causes, but all were united behind the belief that social media, like Twitter, is key to spreading the word on important global issues like maternal mortality.
In a blog on HuffingtonPost.com Sarah Brown wrote:
“I have tweeted for the last 9 months about the causes I am most passionate about and shared with many other Twitter followers what is happening in both my and their lives. I love the humour on Twitter, I love the lack of cynicism, and I love the genuine engagement with many people. The twitter community is full of great people from all walks of life who want to make a difference and they are exactly the kind of audience www.millionmums.org is trying to reach.”
Nick Kristof, New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and author of the bestselling book, “Half the Sky,” said:
“Sarah Brown attracts publicity because of who she is, and she has deflected it quite successfully to maternal mortality. She is adept at Twitter, and she also has a sophisticated understanding of maternal health issues.”
Packed from wall to wall, guests enjoyed minced pies topped with decorative birds (the Twitter icon is a bird) and a performance by Beverly Knight who blessed her listeners with keyboard renditions of her hits “Shoulda Woulda Coulda” and “Gold.” The highlight of the evening was the chance to meet and greet the Prime Minister and Sarah Brown.
It was much more than a fun Downing Street party. Nick Kristof said: “The UK government has been a leader in pushing to reduce maternal mortality—I wish the Obama administration were as active—and presumably part of that is Sarah Brown’s influence”. While her husband Gordon Brown has been one of the long standing political leaders promoting international development and advocating women’s issues, Kristof is only half-joking when he says, “I do know that Sarah read Half the Sky first and then Gordon Brown read it; I think I can guess how it got on his bedside stand.”
Kristof’s co-author Sheryl WuDunn agreed, “The U.S. Government really has a role to play as well. And it doesn’t just have to be money, in the form of USAID. Top officials can use the bully pulpit much more creatively and effectively.”
Many guests left with a “Mums” heart tattoo, others with photos in front of the iconic Number 10 door, which had a “Downing Tweet” sign made especially for the event. More importantly, each left having made new friends and the memory of an experience of a lifetime, ready to rededicate themselves to the efforts of the White Ribbon Alliance and the desire to help further the cause for social justice around the world.
Can this group of advocates and activists change the world? Twitter campaigns certainly can make a difference, especially on issues like maternal health that often go unnoticed by mainstream media.
Reporting by Gretel Truong
