Vaila McClure, Schools Engagement Officer

Fairtrade Fortnight will run between Monday 27th February and Sunday 11th March this year and we have a couple of ideas to help you celebrate successfully at school!

Learn

We have updated our free, downloadable ‘Fairtrade and Chembakolli’ PowerPoint for 2012. Your learners will discover how Nilgiri Tea is produced by the Adivasi people living in villages around Chembakolli and how it is traded fairly.

Investigate

Your Key Stage 2 class can explore what is meant by ‘fairtrade’ by listening to stories, touching artefacts and taking part in activities, which are all part of our Chembakolli tea party workshop. Find out if there is an ActionAid teacher in your area.

Take action

You can buy the Nilgiri tea grown by the Adivasi people from our schools shop. Each packet of tea comes with a tablecloth showing how the tea travels from India to the UK, so why not hold your own Fairtrade tea party with Fairtrade biscuits and cakes?

Whatever you do, we would really like to hear about it – you could even appear on our schools blog! Get in touch with your stories and photos at schools@actionaid.org

Vaila McClure, Schools Engagement Officer 

The Old Theatre lecture hall at the London School of Economics (LSE) was packed last Wednesday with students, press and international development experts invited to hear from none other than Hans Rosling and Bill Gates.

Hans Rosling, professor of Global Health at the Karolinska Institute and co-founder of Gapminder Foundation, gave a very entertaining talk on why the world population will reach 9 billion by 2050 (you can see a similar talk by Hans on the Ted Talks website). 

Hans was positive about the outcomes of a growing global population provided serious investment is made in health and family planning.

Bill Gates used the occasion to launch his Annual Letter with innovations in health and agriculture the two key themes for tackling extreme global poverty.  The Gates Foundation, of which Bill is co-chair, remains committed to helping to eradicate polio through an extensive vaccination process. 

Childhood vaccines have already helped to reduce polio by 99% and Bill emphasised that it is possible to bring an end to polio once and for all.

We were pleased to hear that the call for investment and innovation in agriculture echoes ActionAid’s HungerFREE and food rights campaigns.

In his closing remarks, Bill commended the UK on working to achieve a 0.7% contribution to overseas aid, but he also warned that we must not let current global financial difficulties along with myths about aid and a reluctance to believe good news aid stories affect the progress made so far.

The event was held at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London to mark the launch for the Global Poverty Ambassadors initiative. 

The initiative has been set up by the Global Poverty Project in partnership with The Co-operative to raise awareness and inspire communities to take action on behalf of the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty.

Schoolchildren from around the world have been invited to write their own annual letters and email them to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org.  You can read a selection of the best annual letters received so far. 

Bill Gates will be answering and talking about the ideas in the letters in a live webcast on Thursday 2nd February 2012 on his Facebook page.

Marni Craze, Schools Engagement Manager

Fort Pitt Grammar School in Kent sponsors five children with ActionAid. The school, for girls aged 11-18, chose to sponsor as part of their ‘excellence in the community’ initiative – an initiative looking at young people’s roles in their local and global communities.

The school is split into houses and each house takes responsibility for sponsoring a child. Reports on the progress of each child are shared during house assemblies which are organised and led by Head Students.

 Aston and Shani, two of the school’s Head Girls, explain more:

“Sponsoring girls in various developing countries has helped to strengthen our sense of community at Fort Pitt Grammar School.

It is fulfilling to know that we can support and help to improve the lives of these girls, who are not really that different from us. 

We hope our help can continue to make a difference to them in the future.”

Sponsorship money is raised during a House Charities Fair.

At this 2 day event (held during break and lunch times) a variety of activities is organised by each house, and members of the school community are encouraged to part with their hard earned cash.

In previous years amounts raised have varied between £900 and £1448 - an amazing achievement!
 
Fort Pitt’s Headteacher, Mrs Winn, describes the event:

“Our House Charities activities, normally held in the week prior to the spring break, are not the healthiest events in the school calendar!  Sweet treats as well as games and competitions make for an exciting couple of days.

There is usually a rush for sweets, ice creams and cakes at break and lunchtime; often fruit kebabs provide a more healthy option (perhaps less so when a chocolate fountain is available for dipping purposes!).

Wii activities and other games such as treasure hunts and lucky dips offer alternative money-making opportunities.”

Our immense thanks go out to all at Fort Pitt Grammar School for their fantastic support!

Find out how your school could sponsor a child.

Vaila McClure, Schools Engagement Officer 

An exhibition of artwork by UK schools participating in the 2011 Global Campaign for Education (GCE) ‘Send My Friend to School’ campaign was held in the Upper Waiting Hall at the House of Commons last week. 

Last year the ‘Send My Friend to School’ campaign focused on girls’ education, becoming ‘Send My Sister to School’ for the year.

An opening ceremony on Wednesday 18th January was hosted by Sheila Gilmore MP (Edinburgh East), who won a ballot to hold the exhibition. 

She became involved in the GCE education campaign having observed first-hand the enthusiasm and engagement of pupils from Preston Street Primary School and George Heriot’s School.

The audience also heard from James Kerr and Eduard Stoica, both 10, from Preston Street Primary School. 

Despite leaving their speech behind, they spoke confidently about how ‘Send My Sister to School’ impacted on their school and local community.  They said they had “learnt a lot and enjoyed a lot”.  The pair received a well-deserved round of applause.

Tony Cunningham MP (Workington) and Shadow Minister for International Development talked about his life-changing experiences teaching for VSO for two years in Africa. 

He spoke of the “passion of young people there” and the value of education campaigns such as ‘Send My Sister to School’.

The 2011 GCE young ambassadors were next up. 

Navdeep Bual and Yasir Yeahia from Seven Kings School in Essex described the impact of their trip to Guatemala last year to visit a Toybox project. 

Overall, they said that the two things that had affected them the most were seeing the local people living in poverty and, on returning to the UK, appreciating what they had at home. 

The pair were articulate and concise, and at the end of their speech, Sheila Gilmore MP was moved to say that their experiences were a “reminder of the importance of the campaign”.

Mark William MP (Ceredigion) and vice-chair for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education for All was the final speaker at the ceremony.  He was impressed by the “compassion [and] enthusiasm of the children involved” in producing artwork for the campaign in his constituency and was “struck by poignant messages” on display in the exhibition. 

He concluded by urging all his colleagues to sign the pledges.

MPs present at the opening ceremony were: Tony Cunningham MP (Workington) and Shadow Minister for International Development, Richard Drax MP (South Dorset), Mike Gapes MP (Ilford South), Sheila Gilmore MP (Edinburgh East), Julie Hilling MP (Bolton West), Karen Lumley MP (Redditch), Nicky Morgan MP (Loughborough), Chi Onwurah MP (Newcastle Central), Robin Walker MP (Worcester), Mark Williams MP (Ceredigion) and vice-chair for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education for All.

The exhibition ran from Monday 16th January to Thursday 19th January, and 32 pledges were signed. 

It's not too late for primary and secondary schools to sign up for this year's campaign. 

An Olympics-inspired campaign will run in the summer term, calling on world leaders to 'Go for Gold!' and keep their promise to get all children into school by 2012.  Visit the Send My Friend to School website for more information and a free schools pack.

Marni Craze, Schools Engagement Manager

This week marks two years since Haiti’s devastating earthquake which killed around 220,000 and left 1.5 million people homeless.

To commemorate the anniversary 7,500 people will march through the centre of Port au Prince to demand access to land and adequate housing.

Our 'Haiti one year on' update last year highlighted challenges around a lack of shelter and housing.

Our priorities for 2011 have therefore been to work with communities in Haiti to support them to campaign for their rights to shelter.

This is why we have funded and helped form the grass-roots movement, Je nan Je (Eye to Eye).

Unfortunately the rebuilding of Haiti is still being hindered by a complex set of land disputes and an acute lack of public land to rebuild. 

The Je nan Je movement will march to parliament on January 11th to press MPs and the government to reform land laws and enable land to be freed up to build homes for the 600,000 people still homeless.

The Director of ActionAid Haiti, Jean-Claude Fignolé reinforces the need for Haitian people to be central to the reconstruction process:

“Haiti’s reconstruction process has proved that fighting poverty and making progress are impossible when the people are excluded."

"Haitians and particularly those most affected by the earthquake should be empowered to play a role in their own development, and should lead on the planning, implementation and monitoring of all rebuilding activity."

"It is critical for the new prime minister to recognize that the traditional donor- and expert-led reconstruction models have failed the Haitian people so far - and the solution is in a people-led model.”

Looking forward to the rest of 2012 one of our major priorities in Haiti is to continue to train and sensitize Haitian people and decision makers to ensure that the right to decent housing and land tenure is guaranteed for all. 

Through the Je nan Je campaign we also intend to continue to advocate for the government to uphold good accountability and transparency practices, and good governance especially within the framework of Haiti’s reconstruction.

Thank you to all who donated money to support the reconstruction process in Haiti – please do keep in touch with ActionAid Haiti's work to see how your contribution has made, and is still making, a difference.

Marni Craze, Schools Engagement Manager

Happy New Year!

Make sure you and your learners keep track of important dates in the UK and India during 2012 with this free A2-sized Chembakolli wall planner.

We hope you’ve all had a relaxing break and the new term’s getting off to a good start.

Find out more about Chembakolli, a unique village in south India.