By Nishall Garala

OVER the last few days at the One Young World Summit we discuss many world issues and had many inspirational and emotional speakers, however once session really made me think and really applied to our community. The session was titled “We need to talk ethics because…”

The session was began by introducing the President of Ireland’s Ethics Initiative, and the “we need to talk about ethics because…….” campaign, launched in February 2014 to discuss Irish students’ opinions of ethical issues. After the introduction to the initiatives, the session then focus specifically on the “we need to talk about ethics because…” campaign, in which Irish students are capturing and sharing their own thoughts on why ethics are important. We were shown few sample of these ideas, and then we were asked to complete the whiteboard exercise ourselves.

Young people wrote thing such as “we need to talk ethics because we are face with decisions every day!” another one was “we need to talk about ethics because every member of society has a voice and history can’t repeat its self!”

On my whiteboard I wrote “We need to talk ethics because I am a volunteer in my local community!!”

Ethics is a code of thinking and behavior governed by a combination of personal, moral, legal, and social standards of what is right. Although the definition of “right” varies with situations and cultures, its meaning in the context of a community intervention involves a number of guiding principles with which most community activists and service providers would probably agree.

In addition to its simply being the right thing to do, always acting ethically brings some particular advantages with it. It makes your program more effective; it cements your standing in the community; it allows you to occupy the moral high ground when arguing the merits of your program, and to exercise moral leadership in the community; and it assures that you remain in good standing legally and professionally.

-> Standing in the community. An organisation that has a reputation for ethical action is far more likely to be respected by both participants and the community as a whole than one that has been known to be unethical in the past. An organisation that’s recognised as ethical is also apt to be seen as competent, and to be trusted to treat people with respect and to do what it says it will do. That community trust makes it easier to recruit staff, volunteers, Board members, and participants, and to raise money and public support

-> Moral credibility and leadership. If you work for the betterment of the world — whether you see that as social change, social justice, the alleviation of suffering, the fostering of human dignity, or simply the provision of services — it’s consistent to act as you wish the rest of the world to act. Ethical action reflects why you started your community intervention in the first place. You have a moral obligation to yourself, the individuals you work with, and the community to be ethical in all you do, and to expect the same from others. If you fulfill that obligation, and everyone knows it, your voice will have greater impact when you speak out for what you believe is right, or against what you believe is wrong, and others will follow you.

After this you may understand how ethics affects our community in my opinion, but I invite you to come and join this discussion and tell me and the our present and future leaders what ethics means to you. Join the discussion by completing the following sentence “We need to talk ethics because….” and tweet it to me @Nishall95 or Facebook me /nishallgarala95. Looking forward to reading what ethics means to you.