What my 9 year old daughter knows (and you should too)

A few months while ago in an airport in America I inadvertently had a conversation with my daughter about the evils of a certain conglomerate company. I was slightly jet lagged and slightly bored and so were the kids, so as we sat around listlessly waiting for our next flight I commented on the bottle of water the 9 year old was drinking from - or more speciically - who produced it.

Although the conversation quickly left my sleep adled mind the topic had a profound affect on my daughter, as it should really on all of us, although I fear that as adults we are now so used to the conversation that it fails to shock us as it should anymore.

My 9 year old showed me a short post she had written not long after that and I promised to put it on my blog (and then promptly forgot).

Then this morning on Twitter @janey_uk tweeted a link to David Mitchell's article in The Guardian about the unlikely union of Google with Nestle. He states 'So it's odd that it (Google) would voluntarily couple one of its products with that of a company with a shameful history of wringing money from the poorest people on earth.'

I was immediately reminded of my daughters piece and promised her that I would publish the post, absolutely definitely today. 

Later today at lunch I was given the final reminder to pull my finger out:

So here it is - take it away Kaya....

Nestlé are a big company, who own lots of different things. For example things like... cereals, chocolate, biscuits, and water. They also sell baby milk. And a horrible thing they do is they lie and trick the mothers that are poor. They tell a lie and say to the mothers that their milk is better than breast milk. (It's not actually better they're just faking). But the mothers just love their baby's to bits, and they're just trying to do the right thing. But they don't know they're being tricked so they think that giving their baby Nestle's milk is the right thing!  ( but it's not! especially as they need to use bad water to mix it with) so basically they're spending all their money on milk that's not as good  for their baby instead of getting milk that's free and good for their baby.

So please - Don't buy Nestlé!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Kaya

Age   9

So there it is - a very simplified version maybe but it pretty much nails it all the same. For more in-depth information on this (and it really is worth educating yourself about it) read this post from my lovely blogging friend Thinly Spread who has worked with Save the Children on this very topic. Jaw dropping stuff. 

Two years on #SyriaCrisis

Did you know that it's been two years since the start of the horrific fighting in Syria?

Coming up to one year ago myself and two other bloggers started 'A day of protest' in response to a horrific Times article about what was going on. You can read my post here. Around 90 other bloggers wrote posts too and we gained hundred of thousands of impressions and took over Twitter for the day. It was an amazing response because people cared enough to do something, even if that something was simply a tweet about what was happening.

You may ask what difference does it make. I know I sit here asking the same question. But what is the alternative. To do nothing?

Today Save the Children are marking the two year anniversary with a global vigil.  And you can help.

Why should you?

This is a picture of my 6 year old boy, sleeping peacefully as every 6 your old boy should.

And here Cat Carter reports on another 6 year old boy.

It's only geography that separates those two boys.

For these past two years Syria’s children have endured appalling suffering.

The plight of children is the hidden outrage of this conflict. This HAS to end. Together, we can bring this back to the top of world leaders’ agendas – but only if we act now.

Show the children of Syria that they matter, that we are watching, and that we are here to help. 

Show the world's leaders that we care and therefore they must too. 

How you can help:

Join the Global Vigil, Donate, or Tweet this post or any of the links below: 

Find out more about the crisis in Syria: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/savesyriachildren

Link to join our Global Vigil: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/savesyriachildren/takeaction

Link to donate: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/emergencies/syria-appeal

Time to help

A few months ago I wrote a post called 'Will you look away?' about the atrocities in Syria. Along with two other bloggers we called on fellow bloggers to get involved and spread awareness of what was happening there. About 90 bloggers took up the cause and in one day we reached hundreds of thousands of people causing over 3 million impressions.

Some of those people reading shrugged their shoulders and asked what good would it do. I couldn't answer that question but knew with every fibre of my being that it was better to do something than nothing at all. Better to write a blog post that no one read than to not write it at all.


Sadly three months on the people of Syria still need our help. But we CAN help.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking is a line I read from Wael, 16 who says “This six year old boy was tortured more than anyone else in that room. He only survived for three days and then he simply died.”
A six year old boy. I have a six year old boy. Six years old. He has blonde hair and a cheeky smile. He plays football and nintendo, he rides his bike down the road and cries if he has a bad fall running home to be comforted. A six year old boy just like that other six year old boy. No difference. I wonder if his mother was there, in that room, watching, unable to comfort or save her beautiful boy.
Save the Children are acting on two fronts - 

Image: Save the Children

Save the Children, who fight for the rights of children in over 120 countries, has just launched a campaign to come to the aid of Syrian children and have produced a collection of first-hand accounts of the conflict from children and parents receiving help from Save the Children after fleeing Syria. 




I know you want to help, and reading this and feeling like there is nothing you can do is hard, so here are three very real ways that you can:

1. Sign the petition. Save the Children are determined that the perpetrators of these horrific crimes against children are held to account and are calling on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure the UN and its member states are doing all they can to make sure every crime against children is counted.

2. Save the Children is on the ground on Syria’s borders, providing emotional support to thousands of children who have fled to neighbouring countries, helping them recover from their experiences and rebuild their lives. The agency has launched an appeal to help fund its work in the region.  You can donate here to make a real and immediate difference to these children.

3. If you are a blogger please, please consider writing a post to spread the word to increase pressure and funding. It might just be the post important post you will ever write. If you are not a blogger then please share this post on Facebook or Twitter (#savesyriaschildren). 


It's time to help these children, because their own mothers and fathers aren't able to, and just imagine for a moment how that must feel.  

Serious Sunday

Once upon a time there was a little boy in Ireland who got sick. His mummy tried her best to make him better but when she couldn't she got very scared and so, in the middle of the night, she bundled him into her car and drove him for one hour to get to the nearest hospital. The doctors looked after the little boy until he got better, and they all lived happily ever after. The End.

Credit: Save the Children

Once upon a time there was a little boy in Africa who got sick. His mummy tried her best to make him better but when she couldn't she got very scared and so, in the middle of the night, she bundled him into her arms and walked for three days to get to the nearest doctor. She didn't make it and the little boy died. The End.

Shocking isn't it? And yet this is happening on a massive scale this very minute.

Is this acceptable?

No.

Is this preventable?

Yes.

Do you want to help?

Then take 30 seconds to Sign the petition that will be given to David Cameron this week at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Save the Children and Christine Mosler of Thinly Spread will be there to ensure our voices are heard.

It worked before, it can work again.

Want to do more? Then visit Mummyfromtheheart and read on.



Some good news: Here's the story of little Bishara pictured above:

Save the Children's Free Blogging Conference - Sign up here! (2011)

Exciting news!!

Save the Children are running a free blogging conference on 17th September in London which is open to all bloggers and vloggers. There will be inspirational speakers, workshop sessions, plenty of blogging tips and even a free lunch (so there is such a thing after all...)

Save the Children are also hoping to raise awareness of their health worker campaign which follows their hugely successful Vaccines for All campaign.



Save the Children is part of a growing global coalition calling on the world’s leaders to invest in health workers as the best way to achieve the goal of reducing child and maternal deaths. 
From September 19^th to 24^th the United Nations General Assembly is meeting in New York. World leaders, including David Cameron, will meet to assess progress on women and children’s health and discuss ways forward. You can learn more and find out how you can get involved at the blogging conference on the 17th.


You can read more about it and sign up now at Save the Children or here:



Oh - did I mention that I'll be on one of the workshop panels alongside the wonderful Christine Mosler of Thinly Spread?

Yikes.

Listography - Decisions

This week Listography is inspired by the amazing Christine Mosler at Thinly Spread. If you have been living under a rock with an eye patch on each eye and bananas in your ears you may not have heard about the Save the Children 'No Child Born To Die' campaign. If this is the case please click this link immediately to sign the petition before coming back here to read on.

Off you go now.

All done? Ok, to continue....Christine is currently in Mozambique raising awareness for the campaign. When I read her original post 'Leaping Out Of My Comfort Zone' about receiving the email requesting her to go on the trip I immediately thought of the huge weight that must have been placed on her shoulders. She wrote 'My heart has been beating like a drum and my brain on over drive ever since the email landed in my in box on 27th April as I was cooking the children’s tea. Life changes in a heartbeat. I have been given an amazing opportunity to make a difference.'

So being the amazing person that she is she made the brave decision to go, and is currently doing a fabulous job of raising awareness and promoting the Save the Children Petition. This week one of her blog posts was picked up by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was featured on their front page. Powerful stuff.

Which brings me to this weeks Listography - Top 5 Decisions I'm Glad I Made.

Here's mine:

1. Going to University.

My lovely Uni.

I was lucky enough not to have had to make too many big decisions in my life before leaving school. Choosing my University was probably my first, possibly-life-changing decision.  The University that I chose, or rather that chose me, was far enough from home that I had to live away and close enough that I could come home every weekend. It's where I drank too much cider, listened to too much Pink Floyd, kissed too many boys and went to too few lectures. This is also where I got the opportunity to:

2. Go to Mexico.
Sent by the University as part of a group working with the people who lived in the shanty towns of a border town. It turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done. Amongst other things I taught some English, played some sports, got taxis with old women carrying live chickens, acted as a dental assistant and drove a pickup truck with 20 kids in the back  I went back a few years later to visit the people I'd met and worked with but I'd forgotten all my Spanish by then so there was a lot of sitting in rooms smiling and nodding at each other.

3. Leaving my cushy job and going to Australia.
Oh dear, I hadn't actually realised before I stated this that it would turn into my personal travelogue...sorry about that. Anyway, I went to Australia at 25, met my husband and had the best time of my life. Not much more to say about that.

4.  Having my kids when I did.
I had my first child at 30 and squeezed in another 2 in the next 4 years. It was a little hairy for awhile there (insert your own joke here) but the youngest will be 3 this year and I finally feel like I'm out of the woods. Fabulous at 40? Bring it on.

5. Starting my blog.
Who could have known that such a little decision would be so life changing? I love my blog. I love lots of other blogs. I love the fact that I'm going to meet loads of other bloggers this month at Cybermummy. I love the opportunities it brings to my mailbox and I love the fact that I am building a role working for myself. I also love your comments so don't be shy now :)

So now it's time to tell me your Top 5 Decisions. Just write your post on your own blog and then come back here to enter your details in the linky below. (And don't forget to throw in a mention to Save the Children!)

Quick Quick - Clickity Click

So this isn't my usual mindless nonsense type post. This one is important.

You know the way when you're sitting all comfy in your pjs with a glass of wine in one hand (if you're me) and a bar of chocolate in the other watching TV and one of those ads come on? You know the ones - the ones that show you pictures of ill and starving children that you can't bear to see and frankly find it even harder to deal with now that you've had kids yourself.

So maybe you switch over. Save yourself having the images run through your head when you kiss your own children good night. There's nothing you can really do to help anyway.

Well now you can. And it's just one easy click away (just not yet I haven't finished).

So here's the deal, as explained by the wonderful Josie from  Sleep is for the Weak:

Save the Children’s most ambitious campaign to date [is to] bring into focus the fact that 8 million children a year are still dying from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea.For the next few weeks the No Child Born to Die campaign  is shifting its focus on to vaccination programmes in developing countries and we need YOUR help to make some noise.

In June, David Cameron is hosting a hugely significant conference in London attended by world leaders. This meeting marks the chance to ensure the funding shortfall for vaccinations (4.7 billion) is met by all the donor countries – it might sound a lot but this easily achievable, even in the current economic climate. It just takes commitment from those in power and holds the potential to save the lives of millions of children.

Now if those same world leaders can save the bankers surely they can Save the Children too?

Save the Children are also sending three influencial bloggers to Mozambique to follow the journey of a vaccine form 'coldhouse' to child and report back on their experiences. 

The power of Social Media is strong and has worked before so let's use it. If you're reading this simply click this link to sign the petition and then pass the link on to as many friends as possible.

In order to carry on this blogging juggernaut I'm tagging 8 more bloggers to join in. Just follow these steps:

1) Get your child to either draw or craft a self-portrait of themselves now or in the future, perhaps imagining what they will look like or what they might do. Here's mine doing 'What I want to be when I grow up'.

The picture on the left is my daughter being a vet and the alien on the right is my boy being a scientist, apparently. When asked why he said - 'cause Alan is one and he cuts up cows brains. Nice. The 2 year old wants to be a lion.

2) Sign the Save the Children petition and share news of it with your friends.

3) Come back and join the linky on Josie’s Sleep is for the Weak blog or over at Red Ted Art.

4) Tag 8 bloggers to do the same.

Here's mine:

Mummymummymum

Mid30slife

Motherventing

Motherporridge

Beadzoid

Hello it's Gemma

Alexander Residence

Witwitwoo

Now #passiton