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January 2009 E-news
Amy's Resource Reviews
We Are What We Do
Submitted By: Amy Jiang
“We Are What We Do” is a global movement that encourages young people to make small changes in their lives to make the world a better place. Accessible at the following Web site, www.wearewhatwedo.ca, this great internet resource is suitable for anyone who wants to help change the world one step at a time, without having to change the entire way in which they live. This movement operates on the basic philosophy that: SMALL ACTIONS x LOTS OF PEOPLE = BIG CHANGE. The Web site encourages visitors and members to pick one of the 130 listed actions, track it, and see how much of an impact it can create. It also allows users to order “We Are What We Do” books, including renowned titles such as Change the World for Ten Bucks, and Teach Your Granny to Text. This movement is inspirational, it’s simple, and it’s for ALL AGES!
The Green Book
Submitted By: Amy Jiang
The Green Book is a book that highlights a huge scope of small changes that you can make in your life to protect the environment. It is laid out quite simply - each chapter covers one facet of life - sports, shopping or school - with a “big picture” describing the overall impact of each of these aspects, followed by “simple steps” and “little things” that everyone is capable of doing to make a difference. Numerous celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston, Tyra Banks, Martha Stewart and Justin Timberlake, contribute to the closing of each chapter by telling the reader how they have made their daily habits more eco-friendly. It offers green advice on practically anything you could ask for - even brokerage statements, candle use and kitchen countertop materials!
It also explains some of the science behind the environmental issues that we are facing today. It is also packed with statistics that show us just how much of a change we can make by taking small steps. For example, did you know that if all households in the United States reduced their beef consumption by just one pound per year, we would save a total of 250 billion gallons of water! That is, the equivalent amount of water that pours over Niagara Falls over the course of five days!
The book ends with about fifty pages of internet resources that the reader can use for more information, all of which were involved in the writing of the book.
For more information, or to order the book, visit: www.readthegreenbook.com.
MindShift: Youth Educating Youth - Shifting to a Sustainable Culture
In September, 2007, a team of seven passionate youth in the Halifax area came together to design a dramatic environmental education program called MindShift. We met once a week for a year, and with the guidance of an adult mentor, created an interactive, youth-led presentation which includes drama, dialogue, activities and discussions about educating youth to shift their values and lifestyles towards sustainability. During this past year our team has achieved more then we ever believed possible. Our accomplishments include: creating the program, presenting it a number of times to public audiences and classrooms, performing the keynote presentation at both provincial (Recreation Nova Scotia) and national (EECOM) conferences, and training over sixty high school students to deliver this program.
MindShift’s goal is to have the program presented to all grade 10 students in Nova Scotia. In order to achieve this, we have started by training over sixty youth to present MindShift in their schools. Currently, we have 6 teams in 5 Halifax area high schools. In each school the MindShift team presents to grade 10 science classes. Along with presenting MindShift, the youth team is also responsible for running environmental awareness events throughout the school year.
My school has two MindShift teams that work together to present and educate. We have not only been able to present MindShift to 8 classes to date, but we have also been working on changing our school’s culture. Together we have planned awareness events, a community clean up and have provided easy sustainable choices to the students in our school.
My hope is that one day, MindShift will reach all Canadian high school students and teach them the value of sustainable living and our role in the environment. I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing project, having worked for countless hours in the last year with some of the most inspiring people. I truly believe that this program will create significant change, not only in my community, but throughout the entire world, inspiring people to shift their way of thinking for a more sustainable future.
Submitted By: Rachel Eisener
Rachel Eisener is a grade 12 student at Lockview High School in Fall River, NS, and an original member of the MindShift Development Team. She is a passionate change-agent who works tirelessly to model and promote sustainability in her school and community.
Me to We Day 2008
The date was, October 17, 2008, and the energy was palpable!
8,500 globally-conscious, enthusiastic, cheering, smiling and hi-fiving, elementary and secondary school age youth, from all over North America came together for the second annual National Me to We Day. It is an initiative started by the not-for-profit international development organization Free the Children. National Me to We Day was started as a way to introduce young Canadians to the concept of “Me to We” - a movement that is all about focusing less on the “me” and more on how we contribute to the greater global community of “we”.
The 8,500 students, along with Craig and Marc Kielburger, founders of Free the Children and Me to We Social Enterprises, were joined by a star-studded line-up of celebrity guests - such as Mia Farrow, Justin Trudeau, Nate Berkus, Jessi Cruickshank, Farley Flex, Sol Guy, the cast of Degrassi, Louise Kent, Michel Chikwanine, Spencer West, and hosts, Tanya Kim and Ben Mulroney. They all addressed the students about the importance of being a global citizen, and how we all have the power to change the lives of others both locally and internationally.
Justin Trudeau, Sol Guy and Farley Flex spoke to students about how cool it IS to care about making the world a better place, and how lucky we are to have the opportunity to speak out about what we are passionate about because we live in a free country like Canada. Every student in the audience cheered as they spoke about how with 8,000 young people strong, we are more than capable of taking this world by storm and being the agents of change for solving the world’s problems. It starts with acquiring knowledge of a global problem, then finding that passion and energy to make a difference in that cause, getting connected with friends, family, colleagues and other change-makers who have that same passion, and finally, getting to work to make a change. This world WILL change because of the passion, energy and commitment to action of each and every one of us - in fact, it already is. The youth of Canada are not “leaders of tomorrow”; we are leaders of TODAY.
Louise Kent, a socially-conscious Canadian musician, performed songs from her new album, The Small Things. This is the debut album for Me to We Music, the brand-new record label that is raising awareness about social issues, as well as supporting Free the Children projects around the world.
And of course, the boys from Thornhill, Ontario who started it all - Craig and Marc Kielburger - delivered passionate speeches outlining the need to take action on issues that plague the world today.
As National Me to We Day came to a close, Craig and Marc took to the stage to talk about how students can be the change, at home, in their schools and in their community - listening to socially conscious music; wearing fair trade, sweatshop free clothing like “Me to We Responsible Style”; or participating in local and global campaigns such as Halloween for Hunger, the Vow of Silence, the Brick by Brick school-building campaign in a country overseas. Every little action makes a HUGE difference. They also launched the 100-school challenge - a challenge for Canadian students to fundraise enough to build one hundred schools in developing countries this year!
The crowd of students left the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto feeling incredibly inspired, passionate, enthusiastic, committed and ready to take action and be the change we all want to see in the world. Everybody left that stadium knowing that together, WE can make this world a better place.
To view clips from National Me to We Day, you can visit: www.ctv.ca/metowe. For more information on the Me to We movement and about Free the Children projects, check out: www.metowe.com and www.freethechildren.com/we.
Submitted By: Rachel Ginsberg and Kelsi Prince
Building Hope in Kenya
After a long year of fundraising, myself and three friends began our volunteer trip to the rural community of Salabwek, Kenya. We were all excited to begin work on the school and meet the children who would use it. After arriving and meeting the rest of our group, we settled into our tents and had a good night’s sleep. The next morning, we made the short walk to Salabwek Primary School. We were greeted with singing at a welcoming ceremony given by the teachers and students.
We began work that afternoon. As the Kenyan government funds schools based on the number of buildings they have, we were building individual classrooms, each one called a “school.” When we arrived, work had been started on two schools already. We began by finishing their foundations and over the next few days, we focused on building just one school. In the short time we were there, we were able to build the walls about halfway up.
The parents of Salabwek value education very highly; so much so that they had constructed a school building for their children. We could see the love that had been put into the building, but we also saw the need for what we were doing. It had been made out of mud and sticks, was very dark inside and after 20-30 years, it was starting to fall apart.
Despite the exhausting physical labour, we were inspired to keep going by the children at the school. During their breaks, we would play with them and have basic conversations in broken Swahili and English. We were able to play games and sing, although it was usually just one song: “Boom Chika Boom”, which they all knew and loved. We quickly befriended the children at the school.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave. As we sat down in front of the kids for the last time, many of us struggled to hold back tears. They held another beautiful ceremony, where many of the parents came, singing and dancing for us. They also thanked each of us with a bracelet. I spent the rest of the time there holding hands with my new 11-year-old friend, Marcy. Finally, we had to go back to our camp.
One thing is sure for all of us: we will never forget these people and everything they have taught us. This trip was more than an amazing adventure and a huge eye-opener; it was a life-changing experience. Now each of us are back in our home countries and ready to act on what we have learned to change the lives of the people we have met in Kenya and people all over the world who we have yet to meet.
Free The Children is the world's largest network of children helping children through education, with more than one million young people involved in their programs in 45 countries. For more information about the organization, please visit www.freethechildren.com or www.leaderstoday.com to find out more about their international trips.
Submitted By: Rachel Ginsberg, YAC Member |
