A complete list of our posts addressing various citizenship issues can be accessed by clicking through the chronological list on the right hand side of this page. Alternatively you can use the 'Search This Blog' option below the Torquay Girls Grammar School Logo.

Please note that comments for pre-2013 posts have now been disabled. However, we encourage you to leave a comment on any of the new 2013 issues that interest you by clicking on 'comments' at the end of each post. All comments are moderated by school staff prior to posting.


Tuesday 18 September 2012

Send a Cow. We should all do more to help the people of Africa!

Hello my name is Charlotte; I would like to thank you for taking an interest in my blog. I am trying to raise awareness about my charity, Send a Cow, and the fantastic things they do. Send a Cow is not a well-known charity so you may not know anything about it. Hopefully after you have read this you will feel more informed.

Firstly I would like to explain to you what Send a Cow do. Send a Cow works with poor families teaching them the skills they need to escape from poverty. They provide seeds, livestock, training and long term support to allow people to be in control of their own lives without depending on others for aid.

I am now going to explain why I think you should support Send a Cow. Send a cow is different to other charities because they don't just offer a quick solution. They provide up to five years of training. They also teach about issues such as gender equality, health and family harmony which are just as vital to the success of development programmes in Africa as simple livestock provision. This balance of practical farming skills with social-life skills is a mix that produces remarkable results. One of the best things that Send a Cow does, is have a ‘Pass on System’. This is where each farmer agrees to give the first female offspring of their livestock to another member of the community. This helps to build strong bonds within the community and helps to carry on the struggle to escape poverty. People do not only have to pass on an offspring of their livestock they also pass on their knowledge and skills. Because of this system every one person that Send a Cow help ten more people indirectly benefit.

Send a Cow raises money by donations, fundraising activities and selling products. The money used to send farm equipment and gardening materials over to Africa is raised by volunteer workers in the UK. Products are also sold on the website and in shops around the country. Fundraising activities are carried out by people all across the country and a lot of the money raised is done by Church fundraising events. As you can see many people work with Send a Cow to bring the people of Africa out of poverty. However this is still not enough.  Last year the organisation managed to help 14,000 people to escape from poverty forever.  That means 1.4 billion people still live below the poverty line in Africa. But you can help just £12 could provide a family with seeds so that they are able to eat three meals a day. Just £6 could build a tap that will prevent bad hygiene and reduce disease. These donations could change a family.

From This                                                                      To This










Thank You for reading my blog. Please post all your thoughts and comments. It would be a great help if you could also answer the questions at the bottom of the page. Please visit the website http://www.sendacow.org.uk/home to find out more information so that together we can help the people of Africa escape poverty! When posting your comments please note where you come from e.g. town/city and country.

  • Had you heard of the charity Send a Cow before you read my blog?
  • Do you now feel more informed about how Send a Cow works?
  • Would you be prepared to do any of the following things in order to help people to escape from poverty...?
  1. Make a donation to Send  a Cow?
  2. Start or join a fundraising campaign?
  3. Sign up to receive regular newsletters and information about the work of Send a Cow? (You can do this via the website http://www.sendacow.org.uk/home)
  4. Tell your family and friends about Send a Cow?

Animals in Distress - For a Cruelty-Free Tomorrow

Firstly, thank you for taking the time for reading our blog, we’re Livvy and Hannah and for our Citizenship GCSE we have chosen to be advocates for a charity very close to our heart ‘Animals in distress’. As we know that you have probably heard of ‘animas in distress’ before, in our time supporting this charity, we would like to show people how they can help stop the problem of animal cruelty forever.

Helping out ‘animals in distress’ through donation is a big way in which you can do your bit to stop innocent lives being miss-treated. However, this doesn’t have to be money, spent and then nothing given back. You could give time by walking the dogs there, which is a simple enjoyable thing to do that means they don’t have to pay as much for staff to do this job. Or you could visit an ‘animals in distress’ charity shop; there are some in Babacombe, Brixham, Paignton, Newton Abbot, Dawlish, Totnes and Bovey Tracey. But money would be gladly appreciated as any donations in cash could be put towards more awareness of animal cruelty, rescuing abused and abandoned animals, and creating better facilities for the animals in their care. In addition, you could take a big step and adopt a dog, cat, rabbit, or a guinea pig. If you bought a dog from a breeder or such like, depending on its pedigree, it could cost from £200 to £700 or more. In ‘Animals in Distress’ a dog is just £120. It will have been cared for brilliantly from the first day it came to ‘animals in distress’ and whatever fear it may have had, will be cured as well as it could be. Furthermore, you might not want to go that far so you could adopt an animal who may not be ever ready to be rehomed; this could be a guinea pig, a cat, a goat, a cow, a horse or many more. To sponsor any of them, it only costs £20 a year. Here is a before and after picture of a puppy who was abused. Please help ‘animal in distress’ help other animals like this poor pup.












You may be thinking, ‘why should I care’, and we shall tell you this, because of humans these animals have been taken from their family’s and dropped into an alien world of human activity. Once they learn to respect their owner then they have a master, and hopefully a friend, for life.

Please could you comment on these questions:

Do you agree that this issue is important?
Do you feel more aware about this issue?
Have you changed your opinion on this issue?
Would you support them now after what you have heard?
Thank You for Your Time

Thursday 6 September 2012

Turtle Trauma - save our endangered ocean animals, with the MCS.

First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to read and take interest in my blog. I’m trying to raise awareness on the wonderful work ‘The Marine Conservation Society’ are doing every day, but can only do with your help. I would also like to show my support to MEDASSET a charity in partnership, in America with ‘The Marine conservation Society’(MCS) who take in the calls and complaints of a turtle’s well-being.

There is an amazingly enormous amount of cruelty against turtles; they have 2 predator’s sharks and more importantly us, as humans. There population has been decreasing in huge amounts at alarming rates over the last few decades. Turtles, especially the leatherback turtle, are clearly under the threat of extinction. Action is obviously needed to reverse the turtles decrease in population. There are approximately 300 species of turtle. They have lived here for two million years in every continent apart from Antarctica. Though they are safe in England where most people keep them as pets it is different in other countries where turtles are a common delicacies and turtle poaching is the norm. Turtles are also sold to unknown owners without enough information for them to keep their well-being up and are mistreated and being fed the wrong things in the wrong conditions. This tends to cause death even the breaking of their shells. There is a campaign going on right this minute to create a law against selling turtles/tortoises without enough information to keep them alive.


But the main threat against turtles is the loss of their habitat, by us polluting the ocean they get caught in waste; they mistake plastic bags for jelly fish and choke. Light pollution confuses baby turtles, and people stand on their eggs, and destroy their nests!

Only 2 out of 30 turtle eggs will grow up to reproduce 18 of those eggs are killed by us!
The MCS are trying to help in thousands of ways, they run an adopt the turtles scheme where you can support 1 or more turtles they run a beach clean-up campaign, where people are encouraged to help their community by cleaning up there local beaches, this helps stop pollution which helps the turtles. They run a turtle tracking activity in which you can follow a turtle and see where it goes. They do as much as they can, but they can’t do any more without your help.

Please visit the MCS website at http://www.mcsuk.org/

I would like to again thank you for taking the time to read my blog it would be a real help to me and the cause if you could answer the questions below in as much detail as you can, thank you I deeply appreciate your help.
  1. Have you learned about the MCS from reading my blog?
  2. Would you now be willing to donate towards the MCS?
  3. Would you start or join a fundraising campaign to raise money for the MCS?
  4. Would you sign up to the adopt a turtle scheme or a beach clean?
  5. Would you tell your family and friends about the MCS and encourage them to help support the MCS?
  6. Would you be willing to sign up to the MCS newsletter?
Please could you also tell me your home town and the country you live in.
Thank you, Abbie.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

We should support ShelterBox - disaster relief that saves lives, changes lives and ‘makes a difference'


Hi, I’m Lucy. Thanks for reading my ShelterBox blog!  It’s hard to imagine losing everything you own including your home and finding difficulty to get food and water but that’s what happens to millions of people around the world who suffer in disasters such as tsunami’s, earthquakes, floods, droughts etc.  Since 2000, emergency relief has been available for these people thanks to big green ShelterBoxes plus thousands of volunteers working on behalf of ShelterBox.  I feel strongly that we should support this deserving charity – a little giving can make a big difference – and I hope that reading my Blog will make you want to help.

One story is the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011.  Trying to think what it felt like to be one of over half a million people who lost their homes, families and possessions and spent days without food, water and heat in freezing temperatures is difficult when sitting in a heated home, but the ShelterBox team went to their aid and quickly supplied over 1,500 green boxes plus over 10,000 gloves, scarves and hats to provide shelter, warmth and dignity to those who were suffering. The photo below brings home the state of despair replaced by that of hope from contents of a ShelterBox.


 










ShelterBox have sent over 100,000 boxes to every continent to provide emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies in the last 12 years. A ShelterBox is tailored to each type of disaster but can help up to 10 people with basics to live, cook, keep warm, for storage and children’s activities.

Why should you care?  How would it feel to lose everything?  It costs just £590 to fund a ShelterBox and the charity aims to help 50,000 families every year.  ShelterBox rely on volunteers and fund-raising, from individuals and groups, people with passion and belief and those wanting to help to ‘make a difference’ to save lives of others.  

Before you snuggle up in bed tonight, check out the ShelterBox website - http://www.shelterbox.org – and donate… you can also follow a box you sponsor there!

Thank you for your interest in my Blog.  Please do post me a response with your feedback.  If you could include answers to my questions below, that would be great.  Could you also tell me your home town and, if not in the UK, your country too!  I hope you can help.  

  • Had you heard about the work that ShelterBox do before reading my Blog?
  • Has my Blog changed the way you feel about ShelterBox?
 
 Would you be prepared to get more involved with ShelterBox in any of the following ways: 
 
1.       Make a donation to ShelterBox
2.       Organise a fund-raising activity
3.       Arrange a ShelterBox talk for a club, group or school
4.       Go online and buy a ShelterBox item
5.       Buy something from a local shop that’s raising money for ShelterBox
6.       Tell your friends and family about ShelterBox and try to persuade them to help out

Many thanks!