Posted by Anella Wickenden

The sun has come out today and a glimpse of blue sky and white fluffy cloud has got us in the festival mood. This year the Bollocks to Poverty roadshow includes Beach Break Live and Reading Festival and we’re soooo excited!

So to help brush away any rainy weather blues you’ve been feeling, over the next few weeks we’ll be giving away tickets to some of the amazing bands making festival appearances this summer: The Horrors, Keane, The Rapture and more!

Today’s tickets up for grabs are:

The Horrors @ O2 Academy Bristol on Wednesday 23rd May, or 02 Academy Brixton on Friday 25th May.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on the Bollocks to Poverty Facebook page telling us why you think you should win the tickets (don’t forget to say if you want the Bristol or London tickets). Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Get your hands on a pair of The Horrors tickets

Want to help us take Bollocks to Poverty on the road to festivals? Find out more about volunteering

Posted by Helen Hector

On Friday, the G8 leaders are all piling round to Barack Obama’s place for a meeting about the state of the world. 

They do this quite a lot, and its usually a good opportunity for them to make decisions which have a big impact on the rest of us.  So you have probably noticed that organisations like ours often target campaigns around these meetings, hoping to influence what gets talked about and the position that our rep David Cameron will adopt.

This time round, it looks like all the noise that lots of charities have been making about food and hunger has paid off, and Barack’s put it on his ‘to do’ list. *Group hug*

About time as well.  Almost one billion people are hungry right now, and in West Africa a new food crisis is unfolding, pushing thousands more even deeper into poverty.

Will they all just scratch their heads, argue, and fail to do enough?  Or will they use this opportunity to do something special that will have a real impact on the poorest communities?

Our man in the US Neil Watkins goes into more detail about what ActionAid would love to see happen this weekend in the Huffington Post.  Let’s hope they pay attention.

Want to do something to help people right now?  Donate whatever you can afford to our West Africa appeal, where we are working on the ground to supply food, water, seeds and tools to 29,000 people.

Posted by Lucy McDonnell

So it turns out that every little action does help. On Wednesday the government used the Queen's speech to announce a new supermarket watchdog bill. Something that ActionAid has been calling for since 2007.

This 'supermarket adjudicator' bill will protect farmers and farm workers from unfair treatment by big supermarkets. Farmers like Gertruida Baartman, a fruit picker from South Africa, who attended Tesco’s AGM to tell their chief executive about conditions on her farm.

"I am taking a risk to speak out here today. I could lose my job and my home. But I am here before you today because I don't get paid enough to feed my children."

We need to give a massive thanks to the tens of thousands of people who've supported ActionAid's supermarkets campaign over the past five years, we’re sure you guys are among them. So thank you, you’re awesome and this win proves just what we can all do if we don’t give up!

To finish, here's a little blast from our campaigns past. Check out this Tesco campaign video from 2008, part of our bigger Who Pays? campaign. It's one of our faves.

Posted by Lisa Telfer

We are looking for all you creative BTP supporters design or draw our website banner and Facebook page cover image.

You don't have to be a professional artist or designer - you just have to love Bollocks to Poverty and have the ability to channel your love through the art, man!

You can theme your artwork on any of ActionAid's campaigns for example, hunger, education, HIV/AIDS or even a Bollocks to Poverty themed piece of artwork.

And check out this amazing Education themed banner art from one of our awesome BTP supporters:

NAME: Sapna Shah 

AGE: 23

ARTWORK THEME: Education

INSPIRATION:

"My artwork embodies everything that comes to mind when I think of education. I wanted it to be colourful to highlight positivity and the hands reaching out represent the eagerness of those willing to learn if given the opportunity."

Have a look at some of the other bollocks to poverty amazing banner art that's been created for us in the past.

Get in touch bollocks@actionaid.org to get started.