Following the vivid news reports of the earthquake in Nepal and the launch of the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal, the One World Centre is co-ordinating street collections across the Island this weekend. Please contact us if you can help at one of the following locations, or would like a bucket for your own event:
Castletown (Saturday)
Douglas (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
Peel (Saturday)
Port Erin (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
Ramsey (Friday and Saturday)
Day two of this year’s five day challenge: only use £1/day for all of your food and drink. Porridge was an excellent start this morning but one slice of bread with a little jam and a small clementine needs to keep me going for another few hours. Still, it is my choice, to stand alongside those who have no choice and whose pound equivalent has to stretch for more than food and drink.
And it is particularly poignant with the news reports of the earthquake in Nepal. So many people with so few resources and limited infrastructure.
At the end of January the third Primary Fairtrade Conference took place in the Government Buildings in Douglas. A key feature of the event was a formal debate on the topic: All organisations on the Isle of Man should only use Fairtrade tea coffee and sugar and you can see one of the four groups tackling this debate in the picture above.
Sixteen schools took part, each sending 4 delegates, and they have been busy since preparing for Fairtrade Fortnight. As well as providing assemblies for their school mates, some delegates took the Fairtrade message to one or more other schools. There were tuck shops, Fairtrade Hamper raffles and dress down days.
On the Final Saturday students from St Thomas’ Primary School joined members of the Fairtrade Group to run a Fairtrade stall in the Strand Centre in Douglas, complete with smoothie bike provided by the Manx Co-operative Society.
The winning team from Castle Rushen celebrating their triumph at the end of six months work. Their innovative presentation started with a challenge from “a music producer” to write a charity song that would sweep into the charts. The audience was swept along as the team thought about charities, decided to focus on Toybox, and found out more about its work. The climax of the evening was their Toybox song. The team also won the audience vote and so won £3,800 for their charity.
In joint second place, winning £2,500 for their charities, were the teams from King William’s College (Mannin Africa Sponsors International) and Queen Elizabeth II High School (School for Uganda).
In joint third place, winning £1,600 for their charities, were the teams from Ballakermeen High School (Action Saves Kids), the Isle of Man College (Pahar Trust) and St Ninian’s High School (Kocep).
It was particularly special to welcome Carole Edgecox (ASK) who has been very unwell recently, and Mary Stewart (KOCEP) who spends most of her time in Kenya.
Fairtrade Fortnight runs from 23rd February to 8th March this year. So what can you do to help people choose products that change lives? How about a Fairtrade bake-off at work or school, Fairtrade chocolate tasting or a Fairtrade coffee morning? Have a look at the Fairtrade Foundation’s website to see inspiring stories of how Fairtrade makes a difference and for ideas of how you can celebrate. And let us know if you want an event publicising here!
http://fortnight.fairtrade.org.uk/
Leprosy is widely believed to be the world’s oldest disease and certainly one of the most stigmatised. The World Health Organisation reports there are around a quarter of a million news cases of leprosy diagnosed globally every year and it is still endemic in 30 countries around the world.
Each year The Leprosy Mission collects used stamps to sell to collectors, with the money raised going towards healthcare and education about the disease, which typically hits the poorest people in society living without good sanitation or nutrition.
The One World Centre is once again organising the collection of stamps on the Island over Christmas time on behalf of The Leprosy Mission and the following school and churches have kindly offered to act as collection points:
Schools: Arbory, Ashley Hill, Ballasalla, Ballaugh, Bunscoill, Cronk y Berry, Marown, Onchan, St Johns, Scoill yn Jubilee, Willaston, Ballakermeen, QEII, St Ninians.
Churches: Ballasalla, St Matthews (Douglas), The Cathedral (Peel), Trinity Methodist (Douglas)
You can also send used stamps direct to the One World Centre, Thie Garey Ny Cloie, Foxdale Road, St Johns, Isle of Man IM4 3AS.
The stamps should be cut neatly with at least a 5mm edge around them and they will be collected to send on to The Leprosy Mission at the end of January 2015. Thank you!
We were delighted to receive a phone call from a Cambridge graduate asking whether there was a possibility of volunteering with us. David Wildman, a graduate in Chinese Studies, wanted to gain experience of the third sector. Through his Chinese studies he had developed an interest in the developing world and was keen to see how a small charity operates.
Over the last few weeks he has been busy helping us work through several projects on our ever-growing to do list. The terms and conditions for the new website we are going to launch in the spring were waiting attention and he has been through them for us. He has looked at the draft constitutions for two would-be Manx charities and accompanied Rosemary on some of her appointments.
We look forward to his input to this website and other aspects of our work and trust that the experience he is gaining will equip him to find the job of his dreams.
Following our Toilet Twinning theme in One World Week, we decided to use our entry to the Save the Children Christmas Tree exhibition at the airport to continue to encourage people to twin their toilets. It is a scandal that 40% of the world’s population having nowhere private to go to the loo, and that women are vulnerable particularly at night when they use open land.
For just £60 you can twin your toilet with one in a developing country. You receive a framed picture of your twin, and the money goes to build another one.
We had fun using toilet brushes, and are grateful to Cu Plas for the loan of the toilet which acts as the tub for the tree.
Perhaps you’d like to give a toilet twin as a Christmas present? The details you need are here
Earlier in the year our Chair, Phil Craine, spent three months living in East Jerusalem as a human rights monitor. If you would like to learn more about the situation there, please join us at Nobles Park Pavilion this Saturday, 29th November, at 19:30. Questions welcome!
Not only did we raise £6,300, but the Manx Government have agreed to send £100,000 from their emergency funding pot to help with the Ebola outbreak.
Thank you to all who collected in Douglas, Peel, Port Erin and Ramsey – and to those who co-ordinated others.
I hope it will be a long time before we need to call on your help for the next DEC Appeal. If you live in Castletown or know of anyone who could help there, please let me know.
