The breakthroughs are made, albeit not overnight -  it took decades of struggle to abolish slavery in the west, even for black Americans to secure their civil rights. Similarly, it took years of struggle and sacrifice for women to get the vote in the UK; and decades of brave activism from gay people before getting their sexuality decriminalised. So campaigning works. It's just a matter of never giving up.

Do you feel world poverty might be too big a problem to tackle? Our experience shows that it is not. This doesn't mean we're going to end it tomorrow -  beating injustice on this scale is a process rather than a one-off event. What we've found is that by breaking the problem down into key issues, and campaigning on one at a time -  and pressing hard for change on that issue -  real impact can be made. 

Christian Aid, the organisation behind Pressureworks, has campaigned -  along with others - and played a major role in getting:

Debt relief for some of the world's poorest countries -  thousands of children now go to school because of debt cancellation delivered by rich governments
 
Governments to sign an international treaty banning landmines

Supermarkets to stock fairly traded products -  Fair Trade is now worth £100 million a year, directly benefiting thousands of farmers around the world

So how do we do it?