Merry Christmas and New Year - Odd Sock Wednesday no: 7

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has enjoyed 2011 - a year full of fun, surprises,

and challenges!

I really need to thank everyone who has supported this blog - you guys are the ones who are keeping it going!

I'd especially like to thank my wonderful friends - Jeremy, Amy, Joe, Laura, Leah, and all my friends at the Centre For Global Learning/Global Poverty Project. I'd also like to thank my awesome friends in the Vinnies group that are supporting social justice big-time!

Well, 2011 is pretty much over - but the challenges don't end here!

2012 starts with our 7th Annual Odd Sock Wednesday, followed by a year of fun, fasting, and fair trade chocolate, and we'll be coming to the 1 year anniversary of the blog - so there's heaps to look forward to!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful New year, and don't forget the odd socks this Wednesday!

Cya!

Merry Christmas - A final Christmas Challenge

Hello Everyone

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas season
We have one final challenge before Christmas: The Christmas Eve fast
This Challenge is a "seasonal" version of "Saturday for Somalia", and it only feels right-before we indulge our puddings and cakes the next day-that we have some time to remember those suffering lack of food this Christmas

The basic rule - minimise the amount of food you eat from the hours of six to six

Have a Merry Christmas

6 MONTHS OF CHALLENGES

This coming week marks the half year mark for our blog!
For half a year we have been challenging ourselves to help others in need!
We've done a great job so far.......

ODD SOCK WEDNESDAY TAKE 6

Time to bring out the odd socks again this wednesday!

THIS CHRISTMAS, MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

The Caritas organisation have created an appeal that will help people in need this christmas.
Give your friends and family members a gift while changing the lives of others less fortunate than us. By making this donation, you will be supporting the fulfilment of the MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS. To make a difference this Christmas, click this link.

Thanks guys

AVAAZ - THE AWESOME SITE

I'm sure you've all heard of - or else you of - Avaaz, a site that addresses all sorts of sudden and ongoing crisises across the world. The people at Avaaz.org are - with our support - filling in all the gaps in our society to try and make it all perfect. It looks at problems involving human rights, climate change, poverty, corruption and all sorts of stuff.

These guys are like us, slowly making a difference, and they need all our support.

How about subscribing to their daily-weekly email list, and like them on Facebook - tweet about them even - cus' they're doing what we are doing, and that is changing the world for the better!

Check out the site here.

Thanks again, see ya soon!

Happy 5th month of Challenges to Change!

Well, thanks to all your support, we have made through nearly 1/2 a year already!
It only feels like the other night that I picked up the laptop and started designing this little blog!

Happy 5th ODD SOCK WEDNESDAY - its always good to bring out the odd socks once in a while!


Now this week I thought I should tell you about an amazing dude called Neil Pasricha
He was in an unhappy time when he decided to create his own blog based on very positive things
1000 awesome things is a great website, and if you're ever feeling unhappy or down, just check it out. It makes you laugh and before you know it you'll be ready to be happy again.

Go to the legendary site by clicking this link :)

His story is inspiring and is worth checking out too!

Cya next week! :)

The Final Millenium Development Goal

So we have now reached goal no: 8 which is also the final goal.
But this goal is not the least important.
To me, this goal is the most important one of the eight!

DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT.
Without fulfilling this goal, none of these other goals could be achieved!
This goal brings us all together as a world and makes everything happen!

Ever heard of the Global Poverty Project?
Well you need to, cus' it basically strives to fulfil not only this goal, but all the other seven. This to me seems to be the BEST ORGANISATION IN THE WORLD promoting all the worst problems in the world and showing us how to change them.

So come and change the world for the better!

Have fun and TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this awesome international organisation.

Cya next week!

ANTI POVERTY WEEK - MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL NO: 7

This week is another very special week for our blog:
- 1: of course, we have another goal to fulfil-environmental sustainability
-and 2: this week is Anti Poverty Week.

1: Without trees, plants, and crops surrounding us, we could not live on this earth (or anywhere else.) Over the past century, us humans have been very careless with the way we treat the environment around us. But we cannot blame the generations before us. Instead, we need to make a positive change with our treatment of the nature around us, we need to help spread the word about endangered species and all other problems associated with this goal.
Cleanup is a great site that talks about different ways to contribute to looking after our environment and about upcoming events that you can go to to help clean up our country.
Save the Environment is a useful blog that is basically a web directory of sites that can help fulfil this goal.

Take a look, its worth a look.

2: This week is a great week. Its Anti Poverty Week! This is a great opportunity to show how much we care about changing the world and ending poverty!

This week has a website that will give you some ideas on what you can do during this legendary week.

Tap this link to view this awesome site

So if you have a free minute in your busy week, have a loom at this stuff! Remember, if we can all do small good things for our world, soon we as a world could all be doing one big thing: changing the world!

Thanks!

GOAL 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS

Across our world, there are many terrible diseases that can be the result of a lost family member or friend in many countries, especially developing ones. Malaria, AIDS, and many other of these are fatal and should be treated with the right medication and hospitality. The sad thing is, most of the people with these diseases are living in extreme poverty and do not have access to these facilities. What can we do about this?

I was scanning the web, wondering what organisation we could look at or what challenge we could commit to, when I stumbled into the most amazing organisation to do with this subject I have ever seen. Its called The Global Fund, and deals with basically all the problems associated with this goal!

Click here to see the site


This is worth checking out. It is another one of these amazing organisations that we really should support. Next week is anti-poverty week, so keep that in mind.


Thanks! 

Happy 4TH Odd Sock Wednesday!

Thanks for supporting the blog! It has now been over 4 whole months.
Thank you so much for being involved and keep challenging yourself!
So bring out the odd socks today!
Cya later!

GOAL 5: MATERNAL HEALTH

Challenge No.5: Maternal Health.

Did you know that every minute of every day at least one woman dies of giving birth or pregnancy?
Well now you do, and we need to let the world know about this big problem!
Visit the following sites, maybe link them to your Facebook or Twitter accounts:
UN Women National Committee Australia
Oxfam - Maternal Health

MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE No 4: Gender Equality

I owe you all a big apology: last weeks' goal was meant to be the one I am promoting now.
But in either order, we will still be making a difference and supporting the goals.

So the goal of last week now relocated to this week is as follows: promote gender equality.
Did you know that in many developing countries girls do not have the opportunity to receive the same education as boys?

Giving girls an education gives them confidence, gives them a voice, and a chance at a life full of joy and independence.In Australia and other developed countries, girls have the opportunity not only to a basic education, but they can choose their jobs and their future, whether it be a doctor, chef, or mechanic-the skies the limit.

This week we are finding ways to support women in developing countries and give them a shot at having a better life.

The St Vincent de Paul Society creates some wonderful appeals and fundraisers made for things that are happening around our world that are not fair. One of their appeals, Assist a Student, I feel was made for this goal. This appeal asks for a donation that will help girls as much as boys in developing countries and gives them a better education-and therefore a better chance at life. To check out the site, click the link above.


St Vincent de Paul Society is full of great ideas, and is a huge part of our quest of making the world a better place. They have stores that are run by sometimes even volunteers, vans that travel around cities at night helping those on the streets, and they create appeals such as this one that bring our world a few steps closer to a problem-free world.


So this week, think about things. Check out the site, think to yourself, talk to your colleagues and classmates, and really try to realise that to get to our dream-world, gender equality is a huge step, and with all of us making some steps of any size, we can overcome this obstacle and treat each other fairly.

Thanks!

The End of Polio - MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL NO:3

The third of eight millennium development goals is: CHILD MORTALITY.
Today I was scanning the web, and I found a great article on a great website. This article tells us about how easy it can be to end the problem of polio for not only adults but children as well. Along with this article, a campaign was launched-The End of Polio-that is dedicated to helping the Global Polio Eradication Initiative receive donations. Its a great idea -no its truly LEGENDARY- and you should really take a look at the whole campaign @: The End of Polio Campaign
                                          The Article
So this week see what you can do for the cause - there's a petition to sign, you can like articles on your Facebook or Twitter, donate to the campaign through Rotary International, and even come an ambassador!!!!!!

Hundreds of thousands of children around our world have to put up with polio-but we can change that!
This is our third week of eight in the MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES, good luck!!!!!

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE NO:2!

Thanks to every one for going through with the many challenges throughout the week!
We are now brought to the 2nd of the eight weeks of the MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES. The second Millennium Development Goal is to have UNIVERSAL EDUCATION around the world. So what we are doing this week is using our knowledge from our opportunity to go to school and learn to help educate others. We have been lucky enough to learn how to read! We can read books about dragons, robots, wars and ugly ducklings, but this week, we will try to read about things that are going wrong in our world-gender equality, racism, refugees, etc-and then see what we can do about it. Then spread the word-tell your friends- and tell them that they can help these eight goals work!!!

HAPPY 3RD ODD SOCK WEDNESDAY!

It's that day again, time to get out your odd socks and hole-y socks and wear them with pride!
Every first Wednesday of the month, we bring out our odd socks and wear them, thinking of those who can't even afford to wear hole-y socks let alone odd socks.
For more info on this challenge, see "THE CHALLENGES" page!


Remember that for our first Millennium Development Challenge, we are thinking of those who cannot afford food or drink. This first week of 8 Millennium Development Weeks will conclude with a fast on saturday (see SATURDAY 4 SOMALIA, "THE CHALLENGES"!)

The MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT Challenges

Our biggest and longest challenge is coming up - the MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT Challenge!

This challenge will take place over the course of the next eight weeks, each week being a week focusing on each of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals!

This coming week's challenge will be focusing on the first goal: end poverty and hunger.
Try to focus on keeping your food intake low and think of those who need food and drink and what you would do in their situation.

The first challenge will begin this coming Sunday (4th of September), and will end with yet another Saturday 4 Somalia the following Saturday.


Keep on checking the blog daily/weekly for our following MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT Challenges......................!

Cooking 4 a Cause!

Four special friends of mine have been giving their classmates a great example of how to make a difference.
Ella, Emily, Holly and Iris are all a part of our Vinnies group at school. But what they did on Monday was amazing.
Monday morning at 8:15 I come to school to find over 150 cupcakes with amazing and cool icing covering them. At recess, they sold nearly every last one of the cupcakes. The money that was raised is being sent to Somalia for those in the drought. What these girls are doing is amazing and I just thought that it would be appropriate to show the public how my friends are making a difference.

The girls were inspired by the Tasmanian Centre For Global Learning and the MAD(Making A Difference) Ambassadors of Tasmania.

Challenges to remember...

Thanks to everyone that participated in our Saturday for Somalia fast, because it is a truly bis commitment to give up your days worth of food.

Just a few things to remember:

Our annual Odd Sock Wednesday will be held for the second time tomorrow, so pull out your old, hole-y socks and wear them with pride!

Also, as I type this now, I am watching the news, and I can see that the Somalian famine is not getting any better, so we're going to give "Saturday 4 Somalia" another go!


And well done to our MAD (Making A Difference) Ambassadors for getting an awesome article in the Mercury today!

Saturday 4 Somalia

As you all would have heard over the past few weeks, there has been a terrible famine throughout countries such as Somalia in Africa recently. So when we hear about all of this, we wonder what we can do. We could maybe send food or money over to their countries, or donate to charity. But probably the best thing we can do in these situations is help spread the word that these people need help, and a way of doing that can be giving up some of our goods.

       So for our next challenge, we are going to try our hardest to give up our food this saturday for those in Somalia. From the hours of 6-6, we will (with pride) try our hardest to be like those starving in Africa.




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And don't forget to wear your odd socks with pride for our annual "Odd Socks Wednesday" next wednesday!

The fantastic GLOBAL POVERTY PROJECT!

The GLOBAL POVERTY PROJECT is a worldwide project that looks at the eight millennium development goals and helps spread the word about the poverty situation in our world.

Part of their project is "1.4 BILLION REASONS", an awesome and inspiring talk on how we, as ordinary people can make a difference for world-from buying fair-trade products, to supporting a school in a remote country-we can make the world a happy place.

  Please check out their site and check all their stuff out, because what those guys are doing is awesome!

http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/

Water 4 A Week!

Our second challenge to change: Water for a Week!

We, in our modern society tend to underestimate the value of water.
If we have the chance to drink this liquid gold, we just shrug and ask how much the Fanta costs.

Well, now comes up a new challenge: From Monday 11th of July-Friday the 15th, you can try your very hardest to drink water!

Sounds too easy?

Well then we'll make it a little more difficult!
You can not drink anything else!
No cordials, no fruit juices, no artificial glucose free low-diet sports juices, no soft drinks, and no milk!

THE EASY OPTION: If you can't handle the idea, it can be simplified!
You may have milk on your cereal, because having water on your cereal would just be gross!

Thanks everyone for supporting us for our very first week, and thanks for participating in odd socks day!

Fair Trade Chocolate!

Do you know why buying Cadbury's Dairy Milk is better than buying Tim Tams?

Sure they have less fat and everything, but when you buy your foods and goods, do you look out for the Fair Trade logo?

If a certain product, like Cadbury's Dairy Milk, has the logo on their wrapper, that can assure you that that certain product has not been produced or made unfairly, and that the workers who produced the cocoa beans in this example, have been paid a fair wage and not been exploited.

So next time you're out at the shops and are gonna buy some chocolate, why not buy Dairy Milk instead of Kinder or Nestle, and by doing that, you can help people in other countries have a better life!

For more info, visit: http://www.fta.org.au/

Odd Socks Wednesday

Our first challenge to change: Odd Socks Wednesday!

The first wednesday of the month is your chance to proudly show off your odd socks!

So instead of throwing out your old socks with holes in the toes, wear them every month to show that you care that some people in 3rd world countries would love your hole-y socks to comfort their feet.

OUR FIRST ODD SOCK WEDNESDAY: 6th of July!