The 365 Ways Blog

Lending to microentrepreneurs

2009-12-24T14:10:00.002Z

The Internet is an ideal medium for linking people to people and aggregating their support to achieve something specific. There is a new term for this – crowdfunding. And websites are being launched, such as www.kickstarter.com and www.sellaband.com and www.spot.us and one that I am working on (to be launched in mid-2010) provisionally called Sellaventure: www.sellaventure.co.uk

There are also websites such as www.goodgifts.org which link people's gift of money
to the purchase of a specific item which will improve the lives of an individual, a family or the wider community.

It is important (a) that these websites state clearly what will be done with the money they have collected (provide a loan to a Tanzanian microentrepreneur, give a Rwandan woman a goat, etc.) and (b) that the money is not appropriated for general funds through a get-out clause in the small print. People need to have confidence that their money is being spent as they believe it will be, and charities raising money in these ways need to respect their donors.

But many of the "good gift" fundraising has small print, that the money may not go for a goat, but perhaps be given for a giraffe or even spent just on running costs, if that's where the money is needed. I should state that the worst offenders seem to be the major charities, and that specialist websites such as goodgifts.org really do do wha they state.

For some time I have been a strong advocate of www.kiva.org and have made several loans to microentrepreneurs using their website. I was passed this cutting from the New York Times. Let it speak for itself (see below). But my suggestion to Kiva as a Kiva lender is that they try to do what everybody thought they were doing, to act as a market place to provide loans to microentrepreneurs with the Kiva supporters supporting specific named individuals (which is a powerful fundraising idea) and not just putting their funds into microfinance lending institutions (which is something that banks are better at doing). I really like the idea of giving somebody a hand up, by contributing towards a target sum for that individual to invest in his or her future.

Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes by STEPHANIE STROM Published: November 8, 2009 in the New York Times

Last month (October 2009), David Roodman, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, pressed a button on his laptop as his bus left the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan and started a debate that has people re-examining the country’s latest celebrated charity, Kiva.org.

Oprah Winfrey extolled Kiva on her TV show. Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times, sang its praises. “I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic,” Mr. Kristof wrote in a 2007 column.

Kiva, a nonprofit organization, promoted itself as a link between small individual lenders and small individual borrowers like Maryjane Cruz in the Philippines, who recently sought a $625 loan to support her family’s farm.

But Mr. Roodman’s blog post said that lenders like Mr. Kristof were not making direct loans. Borrowers like Ms. Cruz already have loans from microfinance institutions by the time their pictures are posted on Kiva’s Web site.

Thus, the direct person-to-person connection Kiva offered was in fact an illusion. Kiva’s lenders were actually backstopping microfinance institutions, and since Kiva and other online giving and lending models pride themselves on their transparency, Mr. Roodman and others suggested it might better explain what its lenders’ money — about $100 million over four years — was really doing.

“The person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional,” he wrote. “I suspect that most Kiva users do not realize this.”

“Little did I realize what that click would unleash,” he said in an interview, later adding that the post had attracted dozens of comments, more than 10,000 hits and thousands of Twitter postings.

Much of his long post is complimentary to Kiva — after all, the information he used to write it is largely tucked away on Kiva’s site — but it has brought scrutiny of the organization. It goes beyond complaints about its transparency to questioning whether the model it relies on is viable and, indeed, whether any organization can fulfill the promise it was making to directly connect people to people.

“There’s a whole new generation of socially connected nonprofits that use the Internet to make the illusion of person-to-person contact much more believable,” said Timothy Ogden, editor in chief of Philanthropy Action, an online journal for donors. “The problem is that they are no more connecting donors to people than the child sponsorship organizations of the past did.”

In the late 1990s, several child sponsorship organizations amended their disclosures after a series of articles in The Chicago Tribune revealed that while they were soliciting money to sponsor a specific needy child, that child was not necessarily receiving the money directly.

More recently, charities that ask donors for money to buy a farm animal have added disclaimers to their pitches, stating that money might not buy a cow or a duck but finance broader programs.

Now Kiva is the latest nonprofit group to have to overhaul its explanation of how it works. Where its home page once promised, “Kiva lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty,” it now simply states, after Mr. Roodman’s post: “Kiva connects people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

Kiva is not the only site with transparency problems. GlobalGiving, whose Web site allows donors to choose among various projects to support, has raised money for philanthropic projects of three or four profit-making companies, according to Dennis Whittle, its co-founder and chief executive. It did not, however, tell donors that their money would support a company’s philanthropic projects rather than one proposed by a nonprofit.

For instance, it raised $975 for SunNight Solar Enterprises, a small start-up that develops solar-powered consumer products, so it could distribute 500 free solar-powered lights to refugees in camps. After The New York Times raised questions about the issue, Mr. Whittle said in a blog post on The Huffington Post that GlobalGiving was considering whether to tell potential donors when it was raising money for a business rather than a nonprofit.

Premal Shah, Kiva’s president, said he could foresee a day when Kiva really did provide person-to-person connection, once some legal hurdles are cleared and when people in the developing world began using their mobile phones to use credit and make payments.

“That’s the future of Kiva,” he said, “when through that disintermediation process you can bring down the costs of these transactions and put them directly in the hands of people.”

For now, however, analysts are raising questions about Kiva’s model, which relies in part on its own data, offers lenders no recourse against default and deploys volunteers to do most of its auditing.

Mr. Ogden goes so far as to question Kiva’s role in the lending process. “Kiva’s new documentation explains, if you read it, that Kiva is a connector not of individual lenders to individual donors, but of individual lenders to microfinance institutions,” he said. “If Kiva’s users want to be connected to an individual borrower, Kiva doesn’t do that, and so the big question is, do Kiva’s users want to be connected to a microfinance institution — in which case, why do they need Kiva?”

Indeed, individual lenders can support microfinance institutions directly through, for example, Microplace, or make donations to support nonprofit groups like the Grameen Foundation and Acción that support microfinance.

Mr. Shah said he thought Kiva’s distinct advantage was in making it easier for small lenders to support microfinance than the other programs.

The difficulty is in engaging the person who wants to lend $25, a mother of three in Des Moines, for instance, “and create a simple way for her to participate in microfinance, which is what we do,” Mr. Shah said.

The question is, does the lender understand that his money may not be supporting the loan he picked on Kiva’s Web site?

The uproar has proven beneficial in an unexpected way. “If anything, it has drawn more people into the nuance and beauty of this model of microfinance,” said Mr. Shah, who joined Kiva from eBay. “It’s highly imperfect, but it’s like a 3 1/2-year-old child: it has a lot of potential.”

He said he had so far seen no impact on Kiva’s business, which set a record with $293,000 lent on the day he was interviewed and celebrated its fourth anniversary last month by announcing it had lent more than $100 million all told.

Time to eat your dog?

2009-12-21T12:39:00.001Z

Should owning a Great Dane make you as much of an eco-outcast as an SUV driver? Yes it should, say Robert and Brenda Vale, two architects at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, who specialise in sustainable living. In their book, “Time to Eat the Dog? The real guide to sustainable living”, they compare the ecological footprints of popular pets with those of various other lifestyle choices - and pets do not fare well.

As well as guzzling resources, especially eating processed meat which requires a high input of resources, cats and dogs devastate wildlife populations, spread disease and add to pollution. It is time that we recognized the ecological footprint of our pets.

To measure the paw, claw and fin-prints of the family pet, the Vales analysed the ingredients of common brands of pet food. They calculated, for example, that a medium-sized dog would consume 90gms of meat and 156gms of cereals daily in its recommended 300gm portion of dried dog food. At its pre-dried weight, that equates to 450gms of fresh meat and 260gms of cereal. That means that over the course of a year, your dog will wolf down about 164kgs of meat and 95kgs of cereals. It takes 43.3sq m of land to generate 1kg of chicken per year (it is far more for beef and lamb), and 13.4sq m of land to generate 1kg of cereals. So that gives him a footprint for an average dog of 0.84 hectares. For a bigger dog such as a German Shepherd, the figure would be 1.1 hectares.

Meanwhile, an SUV such as a 4.6-litre Toyota Land Cruiser driven a modest 10,000 kms a year will uses 55.1 gigajoules, of energy both to fuel it and to build it. One hectare of land can produce approximately 135 gigajoules of energy per year, so the Land Cruiser's eco-footprint is about 0.41 hectares – which is less than half that of a medium-sized dog.

Owning a dog really is an ecological extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat.

The Vales found that cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares (slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf), hamsters come in at 0.014 hectares apiece (buy two, and you might as well have bought a plasma TV) and canaries half that. Even a goldfish requires 0.00034 hectares (3.4 sq m) of land to sustain it, giving it an ecological fin-print equal to two cellphones.

What can we do about this? We could:

Give up owning a pet altogether for environmental reasons. If we are unwilling to do that, then…
Trade down first to smaller pets, and then to vegetarian pets.
And if in the end, you must have a pet, probably go for a goldfish.
Or why not get a virtual pet? www.virtualpet.com/vp/links/links.htm

Twixtmas

2009-12-21T11:34:00.002Z

A new campaign has been launched called Twixtmas, which hopes to improve the world a little bit. And if lots of people take part, it will mean that the little improvements add up to something meaningful.

The idea of Twixtmas is that, in the five days between Christmas and New Year (December 27th to December 31st) , we all encourage everyone we know (including ourselves of course) to do five things to make the world a better place. Each day has a particular theme – helping yourself, someone else, a friend, the planet and doing something for your future. To spread the Twixtmas cheer, people are encouraged to give their friends and family a ‘Merry Twixtmas High Five’ hand greeting and share their Twixtmas pledge – the five things they are doing to change their world – as well as spreading the word about Twixtmas and what it stands for. Valuable tips and advice from leading experts in well-being are offered on the website www.twixtmas.com where visitors can also download a Twixtmas Pledge form.

The idea for Twixtmas celebrations is being promoted by the Flexible Thinking Forum, a new not-for-profit social enterprise which works to provide training for more creative and flexible thinking among businesses and organizations.
You can find out more at www.twixtmas.com.

Started in 2008, it is not yet too late to do it for 2009, but also make a note to do it in 2010 by putting it in your diary and promoting the idea when you send out your Christmas greetings. Five little things can make a big difference.

Pitch your ideas for changing the world

2009-04-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Social entrepreneurs take note. Here’s an opportunity to get your entrepreneurial ideas to a wider audience. As part of it’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, the Virgin Atlantic airline is launching a new show, PitchTV, which will air onboard and will also be available online here.

Virgin Atlantic is inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload a 2-minute video pitch. Virgin Atlantic staff will vote for their favourite and each month. The winning videos will feature on Virgin Atlantic’s PitchTV show which will air on the inflight entertainment system – and give exposure to thousands of business professionals flying Virgin Atlantic. Any viewer interested in hearing more about a pitched idea will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take the idea further.

“When I was starting out, I wish I could have had the chance to pitch my business ideas directly to people who could help make my ambitions a reality. We can now make that happen for you. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we’re giving you the unique opportunity of getting your ideas by top business professionals from around the world on board Virgin Atlantic planes as well online. Who knows – among the viewers might be someone with the power to bring your idea to life.” – Richard Branson

All you have to do is film yourself delivering the very best pitch possible, but make sure it’s no longer than 2 minutes. Then simply upload your video pitch on http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/pitchtv

Each year, Branson will also personally select his favourite pitch, and the winner will receive a special prize, details to be revealed later. In the meantime, get your ideas sorted, film yourself, upload your video, and good luck!

Celebrating Sarah-ness

2009-02-27T15:55:00.003Z

Nearly every year, two friends called Sarah at America’s Burning Man festival, host a party for all the Sarahs there. A Sarah Party, where Sarahs gather to share food, music, stories about their names, and inevitably debate the with or without an ‘h’ issue.

In 2003 Sarah Pletts met Sarah Jane Hall at the festival and they attended the Sarah Party together. They subsequently decided it would be fun to host a Sarah Party in London. This is how they describe the experience:

Having a name that seemed to be shared by many means that I work hard to differentiate myself. I never really enjoyed being a Sarah until I went to the Sarah Party at the Burning Man festival. It transformed the way I felt about my name. Suddenly it was fun and exciting, and I wanted to pass on the experience to others.

I and some of my Sarah-friends agreed to host a Sarah Party on a whim. It never occurred to me that it might be difficult to find enough Sarahs to make it happen, as there always seemed to be plenty of them in my life, but as the day grew nearer, it became the biggest challenge. Literally hundreds of Sarahs were approached and invited to the party. I e-mailed all the Sarahs I knew, then my whole address book. I asked everyone I met if they knew any Sarahs. I googled them, and I made a sign to try and track them down at a festival. Most of them were wary of my strange approach. They could be forgiven for thinking I was mad.

The Sarahs brave and lucky enough to be able to be there at my Sarah Party on Sunday 29th June 2008 were an extraordinary and diverse group of wonderful people. It really was a delight to meet them.

We tried to theme every aspect of the party within our limited budget. On arrival everyone received a name badge, and a tiara. There was a shrine to honour past Sarahs. Poems were written and read, there were Sarah songs and the extraordinary singer Sarah Jane Morris performed with guitarist Dominic Miller. There were games, a quiz, yoga, massage and juggling, a raffle with MC Sarah Bennetto. We showed a film starring Sara Dee who played 'Sarah'. Sara Leigh Lewis took photographs, and we ate food that spelled our name while drinking 'Sarandipity' cocktails.

We don't know exactly how many came, but there are 59 in the group photo and we know of quite a few who left before or arrived after it. Our guess is about 75. Everyone who came participated and added to the spirit of playfulness.

I didn't expect the whole experience to be quite so fulfilling, and quite such hard work. Through the Burning Man community - which has an ethos of 'gifting' and participation, I have discovered new possibilities for enjoying life and expressing my passions creatively. Doing something for fun can be surprisingly radical. My aim was to inspire and please, and in so doing send out ripples for others to taste and follow their own pleasure. Celebrate your Sarah-ness, express your unique-ness!

And if you are not a Sarah, but a Mary or a Michael, then follow the example of the Sarah’s and organise your own Michael or Mary party to celebrate your Michael-ness of Mary-ness….
www.sarahness.co.uk

Two out of the ten things about being Sarah by Sarah Salway:
• My uncle made a speech at my wedding. ‘Sarah,’ he said, ‘is harass backwards, and he has certainly always been very good at that.’
• Sarah, Sarha, Sahra… how hard is it to spell? Once, after three attempts over the telephone, the man on the other end told me crossly that it would be easier if I’d been called ‘banana.’

The top 10 boys names in the UK in 2007 (according to the Office of National Statistics):
Jack
Thomas
Oliver
Joshua
Harry
Charlie
Daniel
William
James
Alfie

And the top 10 girls names in the UK in 2007
Grace
Ruby
Olivia
Emily
Jessica
Sophie
Chloe
Lily
Ella
Amelia

Burning Man is an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance and held at the start of September in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Find out more about Burning Man. Go along and join in if you are looking for something different: www.burningman.com

Guerrilla tactics for sustainable transport

2009-02-27T15:52:00.002Z

1. Organise a Parking Meter Party
Pay for a bay. The going rate on the meter for as long as you want to party. Place a model car in the space – just to show that you are parked there. Bring some deckchairs and a table, a nicely chilled bottle of white wine, elegant wine flutes and some delicious snacks. Enjoy. But at the same time, spread the word. Have leaflets to give out to passers-by. You could even invite them to come and join your party. Maybe, they will be committed enough to the cause to take the adjacent parking bay. You can organise your party to promote sustainable transport solutions, or just to have a ball. Either way, you will be reducing the parking capacity of the street (temporarily) and having a lot of fun. Canada seems to be the world centre for promoting this sort of street event. You can get some tips on organising a Parking Meter Party from: www.streetsareforpeople.org/actions/carfree2006-tips.html

2. Print out some fake parking tickets
The Alliance Against Urban 4x4s seeks to educate people about the environmental and social damage caused by the increasing numbers of urban 4x4s that we have been seeing in cities as well as to promote more sustainable forms of transport. They are lobbying for increases in congestion charges and road taxes for 4x4s, and trying to get a ban on advertising 4x4s in mainstream media.

Their campaigning activities aim to be peaceful, creative, eye-catching and constructive. They want to engage drivers in the debate and not demonise those who drive oversize 4x4s. Everyone wants to have a safer, cleaner environment, so the hope is that urban 4x4 drivers will realise that their car is the villain (not them) and that this could lead them to making better transport choices in future.

A small number of 4x4 models have carbon emissions less damaging than most, and these could be chosen by people who genuinely need a 4x4. However, most 4x4s are large, highly polluting and dangerous to others on narrow streets. Apart from those need to drive off-road, tow heavy loads or engage in other activities for which 4x4s are specially designed, SUVs are a nuisance to others and bad for the environment.

One tactic used to campaign against SUVs in cities is to place a fake parking ticket on the windshield, which gives information on all the reasons for not driving this sort of vehicle. It might also cause the driver a few moments of worry until they realise what the parking ticket actually is. You can download fake parking tickets from the Alliance against Urban 4x4s website: www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk

In the USA, over 1 million fake tickets served on SUV drivers in 500 cities in 48 States:
www.globalexchange.org/war_peace_democracy/oil/suvticket.html
www.earthonempty.com/tickets.html

3. Draw your own cycle lanes
Hywell Sedjwick-Jell writes… “Every time I see a cyclist struggling through the traffic, I feel a surge of rage growing from my stomach and spreading to my chest and then heading towards my cheeks. That’s when I start thinking about how I might be able to find a way to help, something that will also help me the next time I cycle down that road.”

It started in Latvia, where cyclists had the idea of drawing their own cycle lanes in the narrow congested streets of Riga. One evening in the UK, Hywel went out with chalk in his hands to do the same in a street he cycled down every day… Barker Drive in Camden Town, north London. “It didn’t have a bike lane. I was sick of holding my breath in fear every time I heard the rev of a car engine behind me. I wanted something that would separate me from the street and keep cars away. Maybe if I drew a cycle lane, people would start thinking that there really should be one and start asking for one. I know I certainly would.”

“Cycling is something that should be preserved as precious, and encouraged. When I’m cycling, I’m saving the city from pollution. I’m diminishing raffic. I’m not taking up places in the bus or on the subway; And I’m generally creating a nicer environment for everyone.”

“I usually go out on the streets to draw at about 1.00am. I prefer doing it when there aren’t too many people around. I’ve never checked whether what I’m doing is legal. Yes, I am drawing on public property, but the chalk dissolves when it rains.. I would like people, especially cyclists, to be aware that it is their right to demand bike paths. Maybe someone rushing to work one morning will notice my cycle lane and think “I could send a letter to the Council or to my MP.” [from The Guardian newspaper]

Stop the runway; join the airplot

2009-01-15T13:22:00.004Z

Plans for building a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport have been approved by the UK government. There is widespread opposition to this from environmentalists as well as the two main opposition political parties who feel that a stop should be made to any airport expansion if the UK is to reduce its carbon emissions to the extent that will be needed to halt and reverse global warming. The most optimistic forecast for when the new runway would become operational is 2019, by which time the world will have had to come to terms with peak oil and the consequences of our inaction on climate change.

Greenpeace UK has developed a campaign for opposing the runway plan by buying a plot of land where it is to be built and then inviting people opposed to the runway plan to become co-owners. Sign up to join the Airplot and co-own a bit of land that will be needed for the runway. Do this at: www.greenpeace.org.uk

Here’s what Greenpeace say:

We've bought a piece of land slap bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site at Heathrow. We're not going to let the runway get built and we need your help.   The government plans to go ahead with airport expansion across the country even though this means we'll have no hope of meeting our climate emission targets. At full capacity, Heathrow would become the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the whole country. We can't let this happen if we are serious about tackling climate change.   We've bought the plot at Heathrow to make sure that climate change cannot be ignored. We will challenge the proposals every step of the way. We will give evidence at the planning inquiry, resist the compulsory purchase of the land, we will campaign during the national election and final, if necessary, we will stand with the community of Sipson and stop the bulldozers. The village of Sipson, including 700 homes, businesses, the local school and several local pubs, will be flattened to make way for the third runway.    We have four legal owners on the deeds: Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Zac Goldsmith and Greenpeace UK. That's the maximum number of owners we can put on the deeds, but we're inviting everyone to join the plot as a beneficial owner and stand beside us to resist all attempts to build the runway.   You'll be joining beneficial owners who've already signed-up including local Labour MP John McDonnell, Tory frontbench spokeswoman Justine Greening, Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer, environmentalist George Monbiot and acclaimed climate scientist and Royal Society Research Fellow Dr Simon Lewis.   We'll be depending on thousands of people to join the Airplot community in the coming months and years to put pressure on your MPs, write letters to local media, join us at events, tell friends, and come up with your own ideas to make sure that everyone in the country know that we must stop airport expansion if we are going to stop runaway climate change.   The government says that we need the third runway to create jobs in these tough economic times. But building a runway in 10 years time will do nothing to stop a recession now. And the benefits to the economy have been completely overblown by the government. In fact an independent study commissioned by WWF suggests that the true cost of a third runway would lead to a £5 billion loss.  In truth the government has few allies outside the aviation industry on this issue. Scientists including the government's former Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King, the head of the environment agency, Chris Smith, cabinet ministers Ed Miliband and Hillary Benn, all major opposition parties, and an increasing number of Labour MPs have all spoken out against the plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.   Now we need your help! Join the plot and help stop airport expansion.
Check out Plane Stupid, the campaign against airport expansion: www.planestupid.com

Change the world at change.org

2009-01-12T14:18:00.001Z

The new US President used two catchphrases in his speeches “Change” and “Yes we can”. Change.org is a social action network where you can: learn about causes; connect to good people and non-profits; and take action.

You can also submit or vote on ideas for change in America. For example, here’s an idea that’s particularly relevant:

Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Non-Violence: Our planet, our media, our social interactions, our homes all suffer from the epidemic of inter-personal violence and warfare that plagues America. With the establishment of a Department of Peace and Non-Violence, with a respected Secretary of Peace in the President's Cabinet, and a program to reduce violence in cities, nations, and even in our homes, we will all benefit from the growth of a culture of peace.  While this is a new layer of the Federal Government, it is a positive force for change, for handling the rage and violence that has cost our country billions in emergency rooms, police protection, broken homes and marriages. This is not an attempt to circumvent or replace the Department of Defense nor to co-opt the Department of State. This is a new entity, in the President's Cabinet, a Department dedicated to training peace-keepers, educating our children, and suggesting non-violent alternatives to hostility, and war. We are asking for a motive and a method to counteract violence, with positive potentials for resolution of conflict, by individuals trained to work with local, state and national approaches, building a United States that no longer glorifies warfare and deadly force, but brings to the table a sincere desire for peace, and a methodology to achieve it. – Submitted by Stephen Zendt (Senior Citizen working in Financial Services, Walnut Creek, California).

Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA. The company was founded by Ben Rattray in the summer of 2005. Change.org launched the first version of its website in 2007. Our Vision: Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action. Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.

Have fun browsing the ideas on this website: www.change.org/ideas
Take action on issues. Be part of the change. www.change.org

Football can change the world

2009-01-12T10:35:00.001Z

Football is the world’s most popular sport. It can be used in many ways to help create a better world. All sorts of projects have been set up, from homeless and slum football leagues and world cups to micro-enterprises making fair trade footballs. But none has been so successful as the Mathare Youth Sports Association established in 1987 in a Nairobi slum which set up the semi-professional Mathare United team which has now won Kenya’s Premier League and helped create many young sports stars.

Boys' football in MYSA was started in the Mathare and Eastleigh area. In the first year the league comprised 27 teams. In 1988 there were over 120 teams from junior to senior level. Today over 13,000 youth aged between 9-18 play in MYSA boys leagues with over 900 boys teams in 15 different zones.

Girls football was started in 1992. Many of the girls were doing domestic work and had nothing interesting to do in their free time. Football was an unexpected success. Girls playing football in African society was an alien concept. Parents weren't comfortable with the idea and the boys laughed it off thinking that girls couldn’t play at all. But some girls were interested and also saw it as an opportunity to get fit, and MYSA was determined to develop the idea. In 1996 the girls under-14 team featured in the Norway Cup. Seeing fellow girls in action was a great morale boost for them. More and more girls wanted to be involved in football. Their parents started encouraging them and their brothers were surprised by how good the girls were. In 1998 and 2000 the girls' teams were runners up in the Norway Cup.

One underlying principle behind MYSA is reciprocity. “We’ll do something for you (provide you with the opportunity to play football), if you give something back in return (help clean up the community)”. A win may earn 3 points in the Mathare league, but participating in a clean up earns 6 points!. The incentive is clear.

Under the MYSA Environment Programme, young people and their teams are encouraged weekly and voluntarily to remove solid waste and unclog open sewers which will reduce disease. Any team that completes its cleanup activity is awarded 6 points in the league standings and individual players get 2 points in every completed cleanup which increases their chance of winning a leadership award. The programme teaches the youth to be responsible for their environment and be “winners on and off the pitch”. One successful activity can lead to another. MYSA is now considering acquiring skills and the necessary equipment which can be used to start a garbage recycling plant, which could become a successful income generating activity for MYSA.

The MYSA Leadership Awards Project tries to help the youth stay in school for an additional year. The MYSA youth are able to earn points for participating in sports and community development activities. Each year the best young leaders by age and gender in our 16 zones will receive MYSA Leadership Awards paid directly to their school. Each award is about $150 which largely covers their school fees. Over 300 young leaders receive awards annually.

Key MYSA achievements
• More and more youth are joining MYSA
• Through sport, MYSA is able to fight poverty by creating job opportunities for the youth and involving them in a scholarship award programme which keeps most of them in school.
• Through sport, MYSA has managed to create awareness on key social issues such as HIV/AIDS and drug abuse.
• First Kenyan team in the Norway Cup.
• First to combine sports with environment clean up.
• First self-help league by and for slum youth.
• Started Mathare United semi-professional team, which is also the first top team to train its players on HIV/AIDS awareness.
• MYSA hosts more that 70 teams from all over Kenya and neighbouring countries, for an annual international girls tournament
• The MYSA sports programme has been a model to other organizations in Africa and has offered consultancy services to countries such as Tanzania , Uganda , Botswana , Sudan , Zambia and South Africa by assisting them in initiating a similar programme, as well as offering coaching and refereeing courses.

Key challenges for MYSA
• Since MYSA does not own any community fields, the sports programme has to rely on the co-operation of local schools for running its activities.
• Future aims are:
To possess our own fields.
To fully equip our MYSA zones with all the required sports equipment
To expand the sports programme to other areas in Kenya
To incorporate sport for the disabled in our programme
To have our own stadium
To host an international youth exchange soccer tournament like the Norway Cup
To decentralize and have offices in all the 16 MYSA zones
To introduce other sporting activities apart from soccer

How you can help
1. Support MYSA with a cash donation. $160 will provide one leadership award and keep a young person in school for an additional year. Contact www.mysakenya.org to find out more and to make a donation.
2. Donate equipment to MYSA. Trainers, boots, balls will all be useful.
3. Buy footballs from Alive and Kicking, a social enterprise which creates jobs for young people in Kenya making footballs, and donate them to MYSA. For just $15, A&K will make and deliver one football, netball or volleyball to a school, youth club, orphanage, slum project or refugee camp in Africa. www.aliveandkicking.org.uk

It’s all a lot of rubbish

2008-09-12T13:56:00.003+01:00

I’ve read two books about rubbish recently:

Rubbish: the archaeology of garbage by William and Rathje and Cullen Murphy, published in 1982, explores the way in which garbage today and through history provides an insight into how we live. By analyzing the garbage people throw out and excavating core samples from landfill sites, the authors explore the impact of such things as fast food packaging, disposable diapers, old newspapers, compostable food waste, and take a look at recycling and waste-to-energy schemes.

The Book of Rubbish Ideas by Tracey Smith, who is also the initiator of International Downshifting Week. The author looks at rubbish room by room and gives practical ideas for how to reduce it and shows how much of our rubbish can be recycled usefully. Here are some facts and ideas from this lively and useful book:

If you toss out your rubbish, this is how long it takes to break down:
Banana peel 2-10 days
Sugar cane and pulp products 1-2 months
Cotton rags 1-5 months
Paper 2-5 months
Rope (organic matter) 3-14 months
Orange peel 6 months
Wool socks 1-5 years
Cigarette filters 1-12 years
Leather shoes 60-80 years
Nylon fabric 100+ years
Aluminium cans 200-400 years
Nappies 300-500 years
Plastic 6-pack holder 450 years
Plastic bottles 450 years – never
Car tyres 1000s of years – never
Chewing gum never
The Zero Waste Week challenge is to see how little residents can throw away in their rubbish bins over the course of one week by recycling and composting as much as possible as well as trying to reuse things, like shopping bags, and avoiding or reducing disposable items whenever possible. The 2008 Zero Waste Week organized by a group of local authorities in the UK took place from 29th September to 5th October. Find out more at:
www.bathnes.gov.uk/BathNES/environmentandplanning/recyclingandwaste/Recycling/Zerowastechallenge.htm and www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/zerowaste and www.therubbishdiet.co.uk

Check out www.junkk.com for recycling ideas

Give up washing powder and use soapnuts instead, a naturally occurring washing detergent which has been used traditionally in India and Nepal. Google it, or check out: www.inasoapnutshell.com

Cut your food waste. Buy only only the food you need. Around one third of all the food we buy is wasted (and that excludes peelings), and this is a significant contributor to global warming. Did you know that in the UK, each day we throw away:
1 million slices of ham
1.3 million yogurts and yogurt drinks
7 million slices of bread
5.1 million potatoes
1.6 million bananas
2.2 million apples
2.8 million tomatoes
Check out: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Recycle your old sex toys: New recycling regulations mean that all electrical equipment – including sex toys – must be disposed of at a designated electrical waste collection centre. This means that you shouldn't just chuck your dead vibrator in the kitchen bin! More than 1,000 electrical waste centres have been set up at recycling sites around the UK. But who wants the hassle and embarrassment of taking your dog-eared defunct sex toy down to the tip? Nobody! That's where the LoveHoney Rabbit Amnesty can help. You can send your old rabbit vibrator to LoveHoney Rabbit Amnesty and they will: carefully dispose of your old vibrator, ensuring as much as possible is recycled; donate £1 to a green charity; sell you a new rabbit vibrator at half price. Irresistible! www.lovehoney.co.uk/rabbit-amnesty

Save your sole and recycle your old shoes: a recycled footwear project to donate old shoes to the shoeless: www.solesunited.com

Use a Sol Shaver solar-powered razor (cost around £30 or $50), and cut the carbon as you cut the stubble. Google it for suppliers.

Pests or partners?

2008-07-29T16:37:00.002+01:00

Here is why we need to conserve invertebrates:

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” – E.O Wilson

“If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.” – David Attenborough

Although insect life is critical to the well-being of the planet, many insect species are becoming endangered through human action. And recently, there has been an enormous worry about the fate of bees, where whole colonies seem to be dying without any real explanation as to why… and without the bee, much of our plant life would not be so effectively pollinated.

To celebrate the importance of insect life, Bridget Nicholls created the International Arts Festival of pests, known as the “Pestival”. This was first run in 2006 at the London Wetlands Centre, and is again being run in 2009, this time on the South Bank. The Pestival aims to raising awareness of the integral role insects play in the global ecosystem and in all animal societies and to generate positive PR for insects, so that they are seen as co-citizens of the planet rather than just as pests. “The Pestival aims to create positive PR for this 400-million-year-old, highly evolved taxon that has had thousands of years of bad press.”

Pestival will take place in London in May 2009. “The programme will include talks, demonstrations, workshops, art installations, films, music and performance, fusing art and science and reaching out to a broad, interested audience of homo sapiens adults and children.” www.pestival.org

Bugs in trouble
Did you know…
• The New Forest cicada is one of Britain's largest insects, black with orange stripes and lovely transparent wings longer than its body. It spends eight years in a larval stage before emerging in a burst of song -- but it has not been heard since 1996.
• Folklore has it that the spots of the seven-spot ladybird symbolise the seven joys and seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Sorrow than joy may be in store for lovers of Coccinella septempunctata as the aphids it eats are being gobbled up by the Asian harlequin ladybird, introduced to Europe as a biocontrol.
• The shrill carder bee was widespread in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but records suggest a decline to only one third of the previous distribution by the 1970s, with just seven sites reliably identified in the south and east of the British Isles in the 1980s.
• The southern damselfly is a glorious barcode in turquoise and black. But Coenagrion mercuriale has suffered a 30-per-cent decline in its UK distribution since 1960 due to a lack of appropriate heathland management.
• The oil beetle has one of the most extraordinary life cycles of any British insect, being parasitic on various species of ground-nesting solitary bee.But only three of the nine oil- beetle varieties once found in Britain are still resident.

What can you do to support insect life?
Put a note in your diary to go along to the next Pestival which is being held in May 2009 (watch the website for final dates and programme), and send Bridget your best wishes for its success at: bridget@pestival.org

Check out our blog entry for 7th March 2008 (“Bugs are our Friends”) and visit the Bugwatch website: www.buglife.org.uk

Think about the problem of pesticides by going to these Pesticide Action Network websites: www.pan-international.org, www.pan-uk.org and www.panna.org

Make your own chemical-free mosquito repellant from lemon grass, which is readily available. Here’s how: http://journeytoforever.org/edu_homer.html

Find out about beekeeping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping

And if you want to become a beekeeper, the first point of contact is your national Beekeepers’ Association. In the UK this is: www.britishbee.org.uk

Animal rights activists don’t appear to be concerned about people eating insects. If you don’t want to be vegetarian, then insects will provide a more planet-friendly source of protein than farm-reared beef or pork. And if this becomes a fashion, then insects will be bred to create more insects... which could even improve the species! Check out the possibilities at http://eatbug.com

What do you think you are eating?

2008-07-20T23:06:00.002+01:00

More and more of us are eating pre-prepared food. This could be a pre-prepared complete meal or food which has been chilled or frozen; it could be food that has been canned or bottled; it could be dried and then reconstituted by the addition of water. Whatever the food, it will usually be nicely packaged.

We will make our buying choices partly through the images of the food that have been printed on the packaging. We do this, despite knowing from experience that the pictures on the package are seldom anything like what’s inside – which may be greyer, soggier, and altogether less appealing than the picture.

If you don’t believe this, then go to the website www.pundo3000.com. Go to this page: www.pundo3000.com/htms/1.htm for the first product and then scroll through by pressing the “nachstes” button (yes, the website is in German) through to www.pundo3000.com/htms/100.htm. Each product has three images: the package; the image of the food inside that has been printed on the package; and a photograph of what’s actually inside.

Do the following:
1. Visit the pundo website and feel disgusted about the whole idea of food that has been prepared for you in factories; and start cooking real food for yourself, when you know exactly what ingredients you are using and you can use your culinary arts to make it look delicious.
2. If you encounter any particularly stomach-churning examples of prepared food and how the contents look completely different from the picture on the package, then photograph it, and send your photos to The Guardian newspaper at g2@guardian.co.uk and they'll put the best photographs in a gallery. You can also post your comments on any particularly revolting example on The Guardian blog at http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/07/not_what_it_says_on_the_tin.html

Support the Bhopal victims

2008-07-01T02:19:00.003+01:00

The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 was an industrial disaster caused by the accidental release of 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate from a Union Carbide India pesticide plant (50.9% owned by the Union Carbide corporation) located in the heart of the city of Bhopal, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

According to the Bhopal Medical Appeal, around 500,000 people were exposed to the leaking chemical. The death toll was estimated by the BBC at nearly 3,000 people who died immediately and at least 15,000 from related illnesses subsequently, although this may be a conservative estimate. Over 120,000 people continue to suffer from the effects of the disaster – such as breathing difficulties, cancer, serious birth-defects, blindness, gynaecological complications and other related problems.

Alongside the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Bhopal rates as the major industrial disaster of the 20th century. After a fight, some compensation was obtained from Union Carbide, but it was not nearly enough and many of the victims found it hard to access. Nearly 25 years later, teh disaster is still causing misery.

After marching more than 500 miles from Bhopal to Delhi, a group survivors and their children, with ages ranging from 6-year old Nagma to eighty-plus year old Gulabo Bai, sat at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for over 70 days in Spring and Summer 2008 to highlight the unresolved issues of the Bhopal disaster, braving dust storms and heavy rainfall. They asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even before they began their march to Delhi. They are demanding the formation of a Special Commission on Bhopal, and for legal action to be taken against Dow Chemical Company, the successor company to Union Carbide which inherited the liability for the ongoing consequences of the disaster.

The Prime Minister remained deaf to their pleas. Then nine of the survivors and supporters began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi starting on June 10. You can read more about the march, sit-in and campaign at www.bhopal.net.

Penelope Doyle decided to fast for one day on 29 June 2008 in solidarity with the survivors of Bhopal. She became part of the International Hunger Strike Relay. And she writes as follows: “I am doing my part to express my support with the survivors. I am writing to ask you to help in whatever capacity possible.” Here are some of the ways that you could support Penelope and the Bhopal Survivors:

1. Join the International Hunger Fast and sign up to fast for a day or more at www.bhopal.net/2008hungerstrike.html

2. Donate to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. Please send the money that you would spend on a day’s worth of food to support the Bhopalis’ struggle by going to www.panna.org/system/onlineDonationBhopal.html

3. Call the Prime Minister of India's office to express your disappointment in India’s leaders who are supposed to be there to help the people. Call from overseas at: +91-11-2301 8939 or +91-11-2301-1166. Or send an online fax to the Prime Minster's office at
www.boston4bhopal.org/write_fax.php

4. Spread the word. If you create awareness as a first step, then action will follow. Visit the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal website www.bhopal.net and the Bhopal Medical Appeal website at www.bhopal.org for more information. Or for the Union Carbide viewpoint and their statement about the disaster, go to: www.bhopal.co m

Dialogue in the dark

2008-06-11T18:16:00.002+01:00

The idea is really very simple. In completely a darkened room, blind people lead small groups of guests through an exhibition in which everyday situations are experienced without eyesight.

But the experience is altogether different. A role reversal takes place. Sighted people are taken out from their normal social routine and away from the familiar. Blind people help you orient yourself and give you mobility, and they are also ambassadors for their culture which is devoid of images. They will show you that being blind is a different, but it also offers interesting ways of perceiving people and places.

Everybody will have an unforgettable experience. They will feel their own limits, and perhaps develop a greater understanding, empathy and respect for people who see the world without the benefit of sight.

To complement the exhibitions Dialogue in the Dark provides educational activities for pupils, teachers and others who are interested, and for companies and institutions, a special Business Workshop. Their Taste of Darkness allows you to eat in the dark – there are other restaurants such as Dans le Noir? (London and Paris, with franchises in Moscow and Warsaw)and Die Blinde Kuh (Zurich and Basel) which also do this.

Dialogue in the Dark started in 2000. It has creates jobs for over 5,000 blind, disabled and disadvantaged people worldwide. Its experience can change mindsets on disability and diversity, and increase tolerance. Over 5 million visitors from more than 20 countries have experienced the exhibition.

There are Dialogue in the Dark venues in many European countries, the Americas, East Asia and Israel. If you are passing why not drop by. If you can think of somewhere in your own country to install a Dialogue in the Dark permanent or temporary exhibition, then contact Andreas at: www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com

Dialogue in the Dark was founded by Andreas Heinecke. He was born in 1955 and grew up in Baden-Baden in Germany. He studied German language, literature and history. Following his studies began work as a journalist and documentary writer. It was there that he was asked to train a journalist who had gone blind. Andreas was fascinated by the world of blind people and shocked by the discrimination against them, to which they are still exposed today.

In 1988, Andreas began working with the Home for the Blind Foundation in Frankfurt am Main, so that he could share the experience he had gained so far with other broadcasting corporations. He was looking for possibilities to engage blind and sighted people in conversations where their interest in each other would not be impaired by pity, insecurity or prejudice. It seemed an obvious idea to allow blind and sighted people to meet in the dark.

In 1996, Andreas resigned from the Foundation to start his own business and spread the idea of Dialogue in the Dark internationally.

Together with his wife, Orna Cohen, he has also developed the spin-off of Dialogue in Silence where deaf people provide the hearing with access to non-verbal communication.

Dialogue in Silence is an exhibition which invites you into a world of silence. Other forms of expression have to be used and language has to be visible if it is to be understood. Deaf people act as guides for the visitors, taking small groups through the exhibition which is totally soundproof. Hearing people will discover a repertoire of non-verbal communication (such as mime, gesture and body language). Deaf people will show them a world without sound but which is in no way poorer.

Dialogue in Silence: www.dialogue-in-silence.com

Go and have a meal in a blind restaurant:
www.blindekuh.ch
www.danslenoir.com

Words, words, words

2008-06-06T09:59:00.002+01:00

Words not only enable us to communicate, they also define the society we live in.

New words and phrases arise when we have something new to communicate which can’t be expressed in existing language – from Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Axis of Evil to Sub-Prime Mortgages and Collateralised Debt Obligations or Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Offsetting, new ideas need new words to express them. But new words also arise through the new ways of communication that we have now developed (such as e-mailing, texting, talking in chatrooms, on-line gaming, rapping…), through spin and PR-speak (which seeks to obscure or manipulate our messages), and within particular groups (such as gangsta culture and business-speak).

Because of rapid technological and social change, language now seems to be evolving faster and faster.

Someone somewhere today will feel a need to say something which needs a new word, and invents that word. Then its usage may spread (slowly or extremely rapidly) so that it becomes accepted slang or even enters a mainstream dictionary.

The Urban Dictionary
Eric Pederson, head linguistics at the University of Oregon, has kept an online slang dictionary since 2000 (at babel.uoregon.edu/slang/pub_search.lasso). All undergraduates taking his Linguistics 101 course have to collect terms for the dictionary from a community or social group other than their own. If you are not an undergraduate on this course, you can register with the website and you will then be able to contribute your own words and definitions. This dictionary now has definitions of nearly 7,000 words.

Aaron Peckham, now a Silicon Valley software engineer, launched UrbanDictionary.com in 1999 at age 18 whilst a freshman at Cal Poly State University. He wanted to parody traditional dictionaries by providing definitions of words that would never qualify for an entry in any mainstream publication. His website now has 1 million definitions for 600,000 words, and some 2,000 new definitions are being created every day. About half the words and new definitions submitted are actually put online; before this happens, they are scrutinised via a team of around 6,500 volunteer editors. Dictionary users can vote “for” or “against” each definition, edit an entry or submit a new word for inclusion.

“Aaron Peckham was chillin' at the computer nine years ago, when he dreamed up Urban Dictionary – a ridonkulous slang online dictionary co-created by fellow technogeeks.” Find out what these words mean at UrbanDictionary.com

Here is an example of how it works. David Turnbull used the term "California car pool" in an online exchange with someone, who didn't know what it meant. He had been using this phrase for several years. So he turned to UrbanDictionary.com for a definition. As there was no entry for this, he submitted this definition: "When each member of a group uses their own car to go to the same destination." This was published and gained more than 1,600 votes of approval.

Do something:
1. Sign up to receive the word of the day. Each day a word (and its definition) will arrive in your inbox. Subscription is free.

For 23rd April 2008 the word of the day was “Power Outage Baby”. Definition: Some years back the power went out in San Francisco for a long time due [to a supply shortage]. Nine months later, there was a certain increase in birthrate. If you were born nine months after a power outage, you are a power outage baby.

2. Resolve to use the Word of the Day in your speech at some time during the day.
3. Write a definition for a slang word that you came across, or invent a new word. Submit it to UrbanDictionary.com.

www.urbandictionary.com

The English Project
The English Project is creating a 'living museum' of the English language where visitors can explore the English language in all its complexity across time and geography. It aims to deepen people’s understanding and knowledge of the language, its history and continuing development so that English speakers everywhere can better appreciate, use and enjoy it.

It will include all forms of English so as to reflect the amazing variety and power and adaptability of the language – from the street and workplace to science and advertising. There will be a core exhibition tracking the broad development of the language over the past 1,500 years across the globe but it will be supplemented constantly by temporary exhibitions focused on special aspects and applications of English in, for example, pop music and science, law and love.

English-language speakers are constantly creating their own new words and meanings in their lives and families for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes these private words gain wider currency and, over time, come into common usage and perhaps are even included in mainstream to the dictionaries. Although more often these words will remain the preserve of the people or group that invented them.

The English Project’s Kitchen Table Lingo Project aims to collect these private words and bring them to a wider audience. So if you, your friends, family, or workmates have special words with special meanings that you use amongst yourselves, then submit them to: www.englishproject.org

The Future Dictionary of America
As a reaction to the excesses of the Neo-Con culture of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld years, a dictionary was created as a guide to the American language sometime in the future, when all or most of the USA’s problems had been solved and the 2000-2008 administration was just a distant memory. The book includes contributions from almost 200 writers who were asked to invent words that reflected the time and its excesses, and then provide a definition for their word. www.mcsweeneys.net/2004/7/11.html

Get some great fundraising ideas

2008-05-30T12:11:00.002+01:00

At the International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation held in Kuala Lumpur in 2008, one of the speakers asked the fundraisers in the audience whether they liked asking for money. Only one person put their hand up. Most people are good at writing fundraising proposals and organising events, but when it comes to asking for money they feel embarrassed.

They should not be. They are asking people to join with them in addressing an important and sometimes urgent social problem. They are giving people the opportunity to do something about it – which they may really want to do. And without their support, less can be done. So if you are involved in a campaign or a project which you feel passionate about, and if you need money, volunteers, gifts in kind or other support, then go out and ask people. Besides asking family, friends and colleagues at work, or organising receptions to tell people about what you are doing or speaking in public, there are lots of other opportunities for asking. Here are some whacky ideas for asking contributed by participants at another workshop:

1. Get talking to the person behind you in the supermarket queue. They will be just as bored as you, and will have to wait longer than you to pass through the checkout. Why not use the opportunity to tell them about the importance of your cause, and even ask them to support you.
2. Go and ask one person at random in the street if they can spare you a minute to hear about a really important issue. Do this once a day. Most people will not want to talk to you. A few will. Someone may decide to support you. You will get better and better at it with practice.
3. Go and speak at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, London. Just take along a crate to stand on, dress colourfully and bring along some leaflets to hand out. Start talking. People passing by will stop to listen. Eventually you may attract a crowd. Participate in one of the iconic symbols of freedom of speech.
4. Develop a ten-second pitch to give to people in an elevator as you zoom up from street level to the 51st floor. See how many you can convince on the way up. Do it again on the way down.
5. If you happen to go sky diving, talk to your fellow divers on the way down. See if you can sign them up to make a legacy in your favour (which you will only benefit from when they die). Perhaps their ’chute will not open!
6. Organise a dress-in-green day at your workplace, and fine people as they come in if they are not dressed in green. As you fine them, tell them about how their fine is going to help change the world.

If you have any great ideas for how to ask for money, then submit them to www.365act.com

If you want to get some great fundraising ideas, then visit the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration: www.sofii.org

Over 100 great examples of fundraising successes are showcased. Browse the website, or submit your own example of a creative idea that worked really well for you. Here are two of the case studies.

Jeans for Genes is a national appeal in the UK where everyone across the country is asked to throw out the usual dress rules, jump into their jeans and donate £1 at schools or £2 at work to help children with genetic disorders. In order to get people to know about Jeans for Genes Day and to sign up to organise something at their place of work, iconic statues all around the UK were dressed in jeans. Some statues wore denim jeans, others had cloaks, aprons or specially eye-catching denim clothing. It all cost about £100 – the denim was donated, the jeans were made by volunteers. The media picked up the story which helped promote Jeans for Genes Day.

Jeans or denim wear were put on: The Bull in Birmingham, Dylan Thomas in Swansea, Captain Cat in Swansea, Gareth Edwards in Cardiff, Lady Godiva in Coventry, Sir Stanley Matthews in Stoke on Trent, Beau Brummell in Jermyn Street (London), The Cordwainer in Watling Street (London), The LIFFE Trader in Walbrook Street (London), The Shepherd and Sheep in Paternoster Square (London), and Eric Morecambe in Morecambe Bay.

Covenant House Candlelight Vigil. For over 16 years, Covenant House (USA) has used a candlelight vigil to draw attention to the needs of homeless and street youth. The main vigil is held in Times Square, New York with surrounding billboards lighting up with advertisements and information about Covenant House and the youth it serves. The 2006 vigil was held at 17 locations in North and Latin America with audiences of up to 750. The event itself is a simple half-hour programme: a proclamation and/or greetings from local government individuals, inspirational messages from street youth and a short address by a distinguished member of the community. All vigils include the lighting of candles as a symbol of caring.

Covenant House now wants to increase the number of vigil sites to more than 1,000, to create a ‘blaze’ of concern at the start of US National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week and to raise $10-12 million dollars in sponsorships to fund its programmes.

A garden in a bag

2008-05-30T11:15:00.002+01:00

Two London architects, Ulrike Steven and Gareth Morris, started WHAT IF: projects to develop ideas for the urban landscape. Their aim is to build on what’s already happening in local communities, and to unlock resources and enable people to find new ways of doing, thinking responding to everyday issues. Through their architectural practice and as college lecturers they are testing ideas through small-scale interventions. A particular interest is Void Spaces and the opportunities that these could offer neighbourhoods and cities. www.what-if.info

Vacant Lot: one question they have tried to answer is “How might you meet the demand for ‘grow-your-own’ within dense urban areas where available land is scarce?”   Together with local residents of an inner city housing estate in Shoreditch in East London, they have come up with a novel solution. They have transformed a formerly inaccessible and run-down piece of vacant land on a housing estate into a beautiful oasis of green. Seventy 500kg bags of soil have been arranged to form an allotment space. The bags are the sort that builders use for the delivery on site of sand and gravel. Within their individual plots, local residents are tending a spectacular array of vegetables, salads, fruit and flowers. A new sense of community has emerged as a result of this... plus fresh, healthy and virtually free food for them and their families. They have called the project “Vacant Lot”, and it was commissioned by the Shoreditch Trust, funded by the Arts Council and developed for the London Festival of Architecture in 2008 in association with the Charles Street and Pitfield Tenant and Resident Association and Groundwork East London. What a lot of organisations for a little project! But a really creative way of growing vegetables on your doorstep.

Other WHAT IF projects include:

Out-Post: a shipping container wass placed on some unused land in the Toxteth area of Liverpool to be used for meetings, exhibitions, rehearsals. Workshops and gatherings of all kinds.

During the Liverpool, European Capital of Culture Year 2008 unheard voices were given a say through an exhibition of stories exhibited at the Out-Post and in the surrounding streets. The collection of personal stories from within Toxteth aimed to give expression to the different cultures and identities within three marginalised neighbourhoods. These areas lacked amenities and meeting places, so the container provided a central public space for local people who were invited to fill it with their experiences, memories, fears and aspirations.

Also in Toxteth, the Cow: the Udder Way project brought 5 cows, 5 calves, 3 milkmen and a milking parlour to a piece of green space in Toxteth for 9 days. Imagine waking up in the city, and seeing a farm suddenly appear nearby!

The Travelling Shed sought to promote environmental awareness. A garden shed appeared at shopping centres offering people digital garden make-overs so that a more sensible use of their gardens would help them reduce their ecological footprint. Each person’s ecological footprint is about 800 times the size of the average suburban back garden. 60,000 square metres is the area needed to produce the resources each of us consumes and to absorb our waste. If the earth’s available land was shared evenly between the global population, we would each have 18,000 square metres of space. This is the space available to us sustainable living (as a planet).

Using more than our fair share will eventually lead to ecological overload. If every country had Britain’s level of consumption we would need 3.1 worlds to cope with the demand for resources.  Reducing our “ecological footprint” means becoming more aware of the origin of our food, how our energy is produced, where our waste goes, where water comes from or drains to… and then taking action to reduce it. For 3 weeks the Shed advertised the beauty of a productive plot or a wildlife habitat in our back gardens, with the slogan: “Don’t mow it, grow it!”.

Also on the WHAT IF: projects website are ideas for constructing low-cost greenhouses out of bamboo and polythene to grow tomatoes, and green roofs to grow things which also retain water during periods of heavy rainfall and act as an insulator helping keep the heat inside the house.

Commemorating people who have died on the roads

2008-05-19T17:48:00.002+01:00

In Great Britain, there were 3,431 on the road in 2002 (the latest available statistics) and 35,976 serious injuries. Of these, 130 cyclists were killed and 2,420 seriously injured.

When people are murdered or when they are killed on the road, often bouquets of flowers are left by well-wishers near where the death took place. Remember the outpouring of flowers for Princess Di placed against the railings of Kensington Palace where she lived. Now a new phenomenon is taking place in response to cyclists being killed on the roads. Old bikes are being left instead of flowers.

These are being called Ghostbikes. They are old junked bikes painted white all over (including the tyres) and affixed to the site where a cyclist has been hit or killed with a message of commemoration. Ghostbikes are intended as a memorial for the fallen, but they also provide a reminder to everyone to share the road.

If you are a car driver, please remember that reckless driving can kill. And cyclists are particularly vulnerable. You would not wish to become a murderer. So drive safely and give cyclists a break. A collision with a bicycle may not always be your fault, but you are not likely to suffer much in the way of injury. There’s a lot you can do to make cycling safer for cyclists – such as drive within the speed limit, don’t accelerate away from traffic lights at maximum throttle, give cyclists a wide berth when overtaking them, always signal when you are turning (and do this well before you reach the turn), and check your mirror before opening the car door.

If you want to commemorate cyclists who have been the victim of a road accident, creating a Ghostbike is easy. Here's how:
1. Gather a team of people around you to do the business.
2. Identify locations where cyclists have been killed. Start a log of the time, place, person and other details.
3. Obtain old bicycles, paint entirely white.
4. Create signs to let people know why the bike is there. Pieces of plywood make good signage and creating a stencil so you can spray on the info is a good way of creating several signs. Work out how you are going to attach the sign to the bike.
5. Find a way of stopping the bikes being removed. Lengths of metal cable with couplers is a fairly affordable way of locking them.
6. Identify the exact bike placement locations. Keep in mind that memorials may not be technically legal. Local authorities may decide to overlook this if their siting does not present a problem, since this kind of enforcement is usually complaint-driven. Try not to block the road or the pavement, and keep in mind where the fire hydrants are located.
7. Erect your bike memorials under the cover of darkness.
8. Take a photo.
9. Create an entry for your Ghostbike on the Ghostbike website.

Are there any other causes of death where you could use a similar approach to creating a memorial?

Ghostbike: www.ghostbike.org

Road accidents are a major global killer
These statistics are taken from the fact file from the Global Commission on Road Safety which is supported by the FIA Foundation, which itself was established by the governing body for world motor sport to promote road safety worldwide:

• Worldwide, the number of people killed in road traffic crashes each year is estimated to be almost 1.2 million. That’s 3,000 people killed on the world’s roads every day. According to World Health Organisation data, deaths from road traffic injuries account for around 25% of all deaths from injury. Road deaths are expected to rise above 2 million a year by 2020.
• The number of people injured in road traffic accidents is estimated to be as high as 50 million – which is the combined population of five of the world’s large cities.
• It is expected that, if nothing is done, road traffic injuries and deaths will rise by 65% between 2000 and 2020
• Over 50% of deaths are among young adults in the age range of 15-44 years. For men aged 15-44 road traffic injuries rank second (behind HIV/AIDS) as the leading cause of premature death and ill health worldwide. Among both children aged 5-14 years and young people aged 15-29 years, road traffic injuries are the second-leading cause of death worldwide
• More than 80% of those killed in road traffic crashes live in middle and low income countries, where road traffic deaths are predicted to rise (on average) by more than 80% in low and middle income countries by 2020
• The World Bank recently estimated that developing countries lose approximately US$100 billion every year due to road crashes. This is twice the amount of all development aid provided by donors. Africa bears a huge economic burden from road traffic crashes. Despite having very low levels of vehicle use. 10% of global road fatalities occur in Africa and are conservatively estimated to cost the continent approximately US$3.7 billion a year. This cost is expected to increase by 80% over the next seven years Promoting road safety could have a greater impact on international development than giving money.

Global Commission on Road Safety: www.fiafoundation.com/commissionforglobalroadsafety/index.html

Swinging and Surfing

2008-05-13T11:30:00.002+01:00

The ageing population: Population ageing is taking place in many highly developed countries. Amongst those countries classified by the United Nations as more developed (with a combined population of 1.2 billion in 2005), the median age of the population rose from 29.0 in 1950 to 37.3 in 2000, and is forecast to rise to 45.5 by 2050. The corresponding figures for the world as a whole are 23.9 for 1950, 26.8 for 2000, and 37.8 for 2050. In Japan, one of the fastest aging countries in the world, in 1950 there were 9.3 people under 20 for every person over 65, but by 2025 this ratio will become 0.59 people under 20 for every person older than 65.

Unless the elderly remain engaged in productive and creative activity for longer, this could cause problems as a smaller and smaller workforce creates the wealth to sustain a larger and larger population of retirees. But as the world develops, and as a result of medical advances and healthier work environments, older people are remaining fit and active for much longer.

Here are some initiatives which seek to engage older people in the modern world:

Silver Surfers' Day: This takes place in the UK on 23rd May 2008. The idea is to help nearly 10 million over-50s who haven't yet got online and tasted cyber-life, to introduce them to the delights of surfing.

However old you are, and whether you represent an organisation or are just an individual, you can take part.

If you are a big business, a small business, a sheltered housing scheme, a community centre, a library, a school, a pub, a bingo hall, a sports club – or even one person in your own home – you can hold an IT taster event on Silver Surfers' Day that could be a trigger point for changing older people's lives.

You just need to offer an hour or so of your time per visitor and the Silver Surfer Learning Zone will do the rest. Log your email address to receive Learning Zone handouts (on everything from the basics to blogging, online shopping to I-player).

Silver Surfers' Day: www.digitalunite.net/ssd

Swinging singles at 70 and beyond: You’re never too old. Seniors are leading more active sex lives. They're ready and willing, if not always able without some external stimulant!

As the veterans of the sexual revolution head toward retirement, their golden years appear to be getting even hotter. Carol McConnell, 63, single after her husband of 18 years passed away and living in Ontario, approached dating with some trepidation. “At first I tried the seniors' dances. They're meat markets." On the website Wired Seniors, she met several older men, including an 83-year-old who sent her $1,000 to cover the cost of a visit to California and a 70-year-old from Canada. Both men used Viagra, although with limited success.  Eventually, she met a 69-year-old male for occasional romantic trysts. But she enjoys staying single and having the freedom to date around. 

“Today's seniors are meeting their sometimes medically enhanced later years with a more liberated mindset, with access to multiple partners through the internet and with more movies and books that depict their sexual adventures.” From Suddenly Senior, a daily e-zine for anyone who feels that they have become senior before their time: www.suddenlysenior.com

Saga Zone (UK) and Wired Seniors (USA and Canada), two popular online social communities for the over 50s. www.sagazone.co.uk and www.wiredseniors.com

Body gossip

2008-05-12T12:02:00.001+01:00

“Everyday I wake up and I tell myself, don’t eat anything today”

It’s not fair that this 12-year old girl thinks that she is so fat that she wants to starve herself. I’m Ruth Rogers. I think that the beauty battle has gone too far. Every day men, women and now children worry about how they look. So I’ve decided to do something about it. I want to give everyone in the UK the chance to shout louder than the media for once. I’m launching a national writing competition. I want stories about real bodies from real people. The twenty best will be performed by a cast of celebrities on a West End stage. It could be the most worthwhile theatre event this year. But organising it isn’t going to be easy!

Body Gossip is a call to arms for people in the UK to celebrate their realistic natural beauty.
Whether it's man boobs, muffin tops or cellulite. Growing old, grey or saggy. Media pressure, peer pressure, negative beauty icons or airbrushed magazine images. Size 0, size 20 and everything inbetween. Whether you're male or female, aged 10 or 110: if you have something to say about body image, Body Gossip wants to hear your stories.

Your personal story could inspire, encourage and reassure others. It could change their world – and your world too.

Your story can either be in the form of a theatrical monologue (a character speaking to the audience), or a duologue (two characters speaking to each other). The style of each piece is up to the writer. If you decide to submit a story, it should be no more than five minutes in length.

If your story is one of the 20 that is chosen to be performed, you will receive full writing credits, VIP tickets for the performance, return travel to and from London and 5 star accommodation and an invitation to a glitzy after-show party. Once at the event, you'll be treated like a star – you'll meet the celebrity performing your story and will take a bow with them onstage in recognition of your contribution to the evening.

Besides the competition, there is a Body Gossip Sofa. This is taken to events such as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London Alternative Fashion Week. People are invited to sit on the sofa and write a sentence about how they feel about their body. There are five sofas so far (actually, just one sofa with five sets of covers). The sofas will form part of the stage set when the Body Gossip performance is staged. After everything has ended, the sofas will be auctioned with proceeds going to an eating disorder charity.

Submit your own entry to the competition. Find out where the sofa is going next, go there and write your own message on the cover.

www.bodygossip.org

Holidaying without leaving your room

2008-04-29T15:12:00.002+01:00

This is the ultimate in eco-tourism, to have a holiday without leaving your room. This is what 27-year old Frenchman Xavier De Maistre did in 1790. He was arrested after a duel and imprisoned in his room for six weeks, with only his butler and a dog for company. He filled his time by embarking on a journey around his bedroom, later writing an account of what he had seen. Eight years later, he made a second journey traveling at night and reaching as far as the window ledge. He wore a “traveling outfit” of pink and blue pyjamas. Read his classic travel book: “A Journey Around My Room”.

Graveling goes traveling
In an attempt to keep fit and do his bit for the environment, Gary Graveling began cycling to work. His current commute is just under 27 miles per day and takes him from Bristol to Bath and back, mainly along the first Sustrans Cycle Route – the Bristol-Bath Railway Path. He cycled 2,350 commuter miles in 2007.

To make the journey a bit more interesting/challenging in 2008, and to add to the mix, he decided to take a virtual trek across North America, transposing my commuter miles (red line) onto my virtual route (blue line) on the map on his Just Giving website and raising money for Sustrans at the same time.

In January 2008, Gary started this virtual journey close to the area where John Cabot landed on his first voyage from Bristol to Newfoundland. He is currently making his virtual way down to Chicago, where he will follow Route 66 and on to Los Angeles.

The trip according to the Google route planner is 4,145 miles long. He aims to finish before the Christmas holiday break, by when he should be at least 15kg lighter, healthier and will have saved about 1.5 tonnes of CO2 (compared with driving the same distance to and from work for a year) – never mind the CO2 saved by not flying to America.

www.justgiving.com/garygraveling

Sustrans works on practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport in order to reduce motor traffic and its adverse effects. Sustrans's flagship project is the National Cycle Network, where it is creating 10,000 miles of bicycle routes throughout the UK: www.sustrans.org.uk

Some further options for virtual travel
1. Plan a great route, full of interest. A journey that you’ve always wanted to take but never got around to.
2. Follow your route on Google maps and Google Earth photographs: www.google.com
3. You don’t even need to get on a bike. Forge the fresh air. Don’t worry about safety. Buy an exercise bike and do your virtual journey without leaving your room.
4. Then link up your exercise bike to an electricity generator, and as you pedal put electricity back into the grid.

The Newspaper House

2008-04-22T15:13:00.002+01:00

One quite recent phenomenon is the emergence of the freesheet, a newspaper paid for through its advertising and given away for free. Over 40 million papers are being handed out on the streets every day around the world. London has three freesheets: Metro distributed on the tube (subway) system in the mornings, and London Lite and thelondonpaper handed out on the street in the afternoons.

Sometimes these are handed on for another person to read. But mostly they are thrown away, which is creating a growing waste mountain. Tube passengers in London discard approximately nine-and-a-half tonnes of freesheet newspapers every day.

Besides being a litter problem, these freesheets are also an environmental problem. The vast majority of the papers goes to landfill rather than being recycled.

Project Freesheet aims to highlight this growing problem. They want to see:
• An increased proportion of the paper used being recycled.
• A ban on the distributors handing them out.
• More collection points on the street paid for by the freesheets themselves (on the basis that the polluter should pay).

You can do two things to help:
• Sign the petition on the website. Add your voice to thousands of others protesting about this grotesque waste.
• Upload your photo of discarded freesheets which will contribute towards a collage on the website.

www.projectfreesheet.com

Project Freesheet has also been working with Creative City, which creates projects that engage artists with audiences. “We believe that Art can really engage people on issues that touch them. Our aim is to create high quality projects that are both publicly accessible and viable works of art in themselves.”

Around 100 volunteers gathered 10,000 copies of discarded papers which they then used to build a house in Dalston, north London, which was constructed entirely from discarded newspapers. The aim was to get some publicity for this waste problem and to heighten people’ consciousness of the issue such that they start to change their behaviour.

“Thinking about the way we live is not a trend but a necessity. It is essential that each member of the public starts to think about their impact on their environment and the world they are creating for their children. The Newspaper House aims to engage the audience in a fun, non-moralistic way.”

www.creative-city.co.uk
www.newspaperhouse.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/newspaperhouse

Travelling Lite

2008-04-22T13:53:00.003+01:00

Ed Gillespie, co-founder of Futerra, an environmental consultancy, travelled around the world taking more than one year using “slow travel” options wherever possible, and trying to avoid flights during his 45,000-mile 381-day odyssey which (on his calculations) consumed just 1.8 tonnes of carbon. During his trip, he wrote a mostly weekly column for The Observer, and will be publishing a book about his trip during 2008. www.lowcarbontravel.com

Mark Smith is “The Man in Seat 61”.“I'm a career railwayman who ran away from Oxford to join the circus (or British Rail as it was then called) as soon as he could... I became the Station Manager for Charing Cross, London Bridge & Cannon Street railway stations in London in the early to mid 90s, and later the Customer Relations Manager for two major UK train companies. Until recently, I worked in London for the Department for Transport managing the team that regulates fares and ticketing on Britain's railways. When not travelling, of course...

I've been lucky enough to travel around the world on trains and ships to many interesting places, and I've worked as a European rail agent issuing tickets and advising other travel agents on train travel across Europe. So if you'd like some help with a journey you're planning, why not ask the Man in Seat Sixty-One...?

Why 'The Man in Seat Sixty-One'...? It's Eurostar's fault... I've left London by Eurostar on my way to Marrakech (via Paris, Madrid & Algeciras), to Tunisia (via Lille & Marseille), to Italy, to Albania, to Malta, to Istanbul, Aleppo, Damascus & Petra, to Ukraine & the Crimea, and even to Tokyo & Nagasaki via Moscow, Vladivostok and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Zaharoff, the notorious arms dealer, would always book compartment 7 on the Orient Express. When travelling in Eurostar 1st class, I always ask for seat 61 (in cars 11, 7 or 8). Before you ask, it's one of a pair of individual seats with table that actually lines up with the window...”

Need help ideas for planning your low carbon holiday? Ask the Man in Seat 61.

Seat61.com is a personal website, started by Mark Smith purely as a hobby in 2001. It's grown and now become a full time job. It’s not a company or a travel agency, just an individual sharing knowledge that others might find useful. All the information on the website is provided free of charge to users, with the aim of providing sound practical advice to help people make journeys by train or ship instead of flying, affordably, comfortably and safely.

The site will help you if you can't find what you need through normal commercial websites or travel agencies. It also aims to inspire you to do something more rewarding with your travel than going to an airport, getting on am international airliner, missing out on all the scenery below and trashing the environment at the same time. “There's more to travel than the destination. It used to be called a journey!” www.seat61.com

NoFlights.com is a travel agency offering travel options that exclude flying. So if you want to go somewhere by rail (Including by electrified high speed rail) or by small ship (cargo or passenger), then check them out. They have a price promise to refuynd any difference if you can find the same travel product cheaper somewhere else. www.noflights.com

LoCo2 is a website which is “attempting to put the mental in environmental”. Its aim is to make low carbon travel fun, accessible and ultimately cheaper. The website is just starting up, and aims to inspire with ideas for travel by airship, supertanker, long-distance rail or to some wonderful European festivals. Go loco at: www.loco2travel.com

Nominate a journalist for the Churner Prize

2008-04-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

Journalists are becoming “churnalists”. Denied the time, money and resources to do the job properly, many hacks now churn out stories from press releases without even bothering to check the facts or their sources.

But it’s not all their fault, as often their editor is demanding that they deliver too much right now on a budget which is just too small. Your press release might just arrive when they are desperate for some interesting information to fill a space.

This phenomenon of turning PR into journalism “churnalism” is worth celebrating, even if it is only to highlight the depths that journalism can sink to.

With this in mind, a new website has been created. This website will display examples of bad churnalism and The Churner Prize will be offered from time to time to the most deserving recipients. Note that this is a pun on The Turner Prize, which is the UK’s most presitigious annual fine art award.

They need your help. If you spot an example of churnalism, email them the details. Your anonymity is 100% guaranteed. If you’re a journalist on the churn, then confess; this will ease the soul.

www.churnerprize.co.uk

Steal This Book

2008-04-14T13:23:00.002+01:00

Steal This Book is the title of a book written by Abbie Hoffman, co-founder of the Youth International Party known as the Yippees, which was published in 1971. Hoffman campaigned vigorously against the Vietnam War, and in his autobiography Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, he described himself as anarchist.

His book advocates rebelling against authority in all its forms, including the government and big corporations. It contains practical advice on such topics as growing marijuana, starting a pirate radio station, living in a commune, stealing food and shoplifting, preparing a legal defense, making pipe bombs, and even how to obtaining a free buffalo from the US government. The book discusses various tactics for fighting, and there is a list of affordable and easy ways to find weapons and armour to use in any confrontation with the police.

Many bookstores refused to carry the book. They were afraid that some people would take the book's title literally. Even today, it is still very hard to find the book in public libraries probably for the same reason. The latest paperback edition was published in 2002 and you can get it at www.amazon.com.

Reflecting on the success of the book, the author said, "It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List".

Much of the information in the book is now completely out of date; and some would now be seen as encouraging international terrorism. But what the book does is capture the mood of a generation that has long since passed.

The influence of the Yippees is still around through such things as “culture jamming” and “subvertising”; and there are parallels between the Vietnam war which mobilized a generation to speak out and the growing revulsion against the Iraq war of today. The Yippees still exist as a small movement whose main concern now is to see marijuana legalised. In 2004, they were able to purchased their 9 Bleeker Street headquarters which they have converted into the Yippie Museum Cafe. If you are ever in New York, pay it a visit, have a cup of coffee and think about the consumer culture and what we can do to rein it in.

Borrow this book

The internet also provides you with a way of sharing your books… through BookCrossing:

“Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind.”

There must be a book which you have really enjoyed or found particularly useful, which you would like others to read. Maybe this is gathering dust on your bookshelf. So, take it off the shelf, write some comments about what you like about it and why others should read it in the inside front cover. Then go to the BookCrossing website, register the book and follow the instructions. You will then leave the book somewhere for someone else to find it, read it and then pass it on to someone else. You will be track the progress of your book as it travels the world on the BookCrossing website.

The process is really very simple. These are the “Three R’s of BookCrossing”:

R1: Read a good book… a book that you would recommend to others.

R2: Register the book with BookCrossing. First you log in your details. This takes a couple of minutes. You will be given a BookCrossing identification number and the URL of the BookCrossing website.

Label the book with these references, and put a note asking the reader to pass it on after they’ve finished reading it. You can download printed labels from the BookCrossing website.

R3: Release the book for someone else to read. There are three ways of doing this. You can give it to a friend. You can leave it somewhere for someone to pick up – on a park bench, in a coffee shop, etc. Or you can release it “into the wild”, when people can search for it. The BookCrossing website enables you to say you have left it or give clues to help people find it.

Then wait and see what happens. You will be joining 589,357 other people in over 130 countries who have shared their passion for a particular book with the world.

BookCrossing: www.bookcrossing.com

Go Kindling

“Kindling” is the term used for small strips of wood used to start a fire. You can now “Kindle” your books without having to burn them!

Kindle is a new electronic reading device developed by Amazon.com, where you can download books wirelessly in a matter of seconds. It has these features:
• Its electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper.
• It is simple to use – no computer, no cables, just press a button.
• Its wireless connectivity enables you to purchase electronic books from Amazon wherever you are – whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.
• You just buy the book and it is delivered wirelessly to your Kindle in less than one minute and at a good saving on the printed version.
• More than 110,000 books are available, including many current best sellers.
• You can download free book samples, and read a chapter or two before you decide to buy.
• You can also get a selection of leading newspapers and magazines, and more than 250 leading blogs on business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics. It also includes free wireless access to Wikipedia.
• It is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback – weighing just 10.3 ounces and holding over 200 titles.
• It has a long battery life. It needs to be recharged approximately every other day if left on continuously; or if the wireless is turned off, you can read for a week or more before needing to recharge. Recharging takes two hours.
• Unlike WiFi, Kindle uses the same high-speed data transmission system as advanced cell phones. You can download from anywhere, and you don’t need to go to a hotspot.
• You can e-mail Word documents and pictures in JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG format to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing.

At he moment, Kindle is only available for delivery n the USA. It costs $399. Since there are no printing or distribution costs, this method of selling books to readers has the potential to transform the book industry.

Find out more and watch the video at: www.amazon.com