As LBTL Approaches its time for a game plan!

Ok, so LBTL is coming up soon. I have stopped badgering people into joining me and manages to recruit the lovely Stacey. Happy with that :)) I think there is a point where there is overload, especially when its mostly on facebook and twitter and therefore its the same people that are getting the message over and over again.

So, its time to step it up and reach new audiences. Today I am going to write a letter to all my MPs, MSPs and local Councillors to see if any of them are up for the challenge. As many of you know the 19th Ayr Girl Guides are going to live below the line for one day in support of me. So I am drafting a letter today to send to Mums and Dads to inform them of their amazing caring daughters and their charity event!

I have to say I am getting slightly frustrated at the GPP just now. We were promised a press release that hasn't came, and I feel I've missed a good opportunity to get the local press on board for this, so I am currently drafting my own, to e-mail out tomorrow in the hopes they will come to the guides a week on Tuesday for photo opportunities. I appreciate how busy they are, all of them, but I ask and I'm told its coming then it doesn't come. It is difficult enough doing this on your own. Thing is I am using their name, I don't wanna be doing something wrong or saying something wrong and getting into trouble.

But I will be sending another e-mail in the hopes the press release will be coming in the next day or two. In the meantime I am heading to the library tomorrow to print off some posters, and conversation has begun with other Scottish ambassadors in some sort of group to promote this, maybe just charging down suchiehall street with a banner :))

1st 1.4 billion reason presentation

Well, tonight I did it, my 1st 1.4 billion presentation was...well presented! To the 19th Ayr girl guides, all aged between 10-12 and some of the most mature and clued up girls I have ever met! (and I am not just saying that because they are mine!)


I am super dooper nervous. One thing I will say is it is definitely doing it in front of a group that you are comfortable with. The girls may be a tough crowd, but they know me and I know them. I talk in front of them every week, so they don't scare me. At first there were maybe one or two girls who were already very active already (members of the fair trade committee at school etc) who engaged, but as the presentation went well the hands began to go up, and I genuinely think every girl there, including me, learned something to night.

I know that I defo need to do a bit more learning with the presentation and defo plan more in advance. I had removed some slides due to the age of the girls but that meant I lost track one or two times because I had literally pulled the slides out ten mins before I left the house...rookie mistake, won't happen again!

On the other hand now that I have got the first one out of the way I am full of hope for future presentations. The reaction was generally of amazement and interest, the 2 adults in attendance made commitments and all the girls agreed at the end that they believed extreme poverty could be eradicated! Pretty much a win in my book!

Time to Step it up for Live Below the Line

So, on my usual hungover Sunday I have been forced to actually sit down and take some time to look at my new moves with the live below the line challenge. I have managed the catch the ever busy Mr Bacon, media campaign officer extraordinaire and explained about my super duper guide troop and how they are going to support my own live below the line challenge.

The Lovely Stacey who is now on Team Conway!

So this week I am going to step it up big time. I have managed to source a local printers so I am going to get posters all made up and see if the local libraries and community centres will put them up! Sponsor forms will be printed and the facebook event is growing every day. Things are starting to look super exciting and 1 of my friends has agreed to join me as well WOOHOO!

I'm also hoping the angle with the guides will get my local press interested big time. So once my press release guidelines are received from GPP Headquarters I shall be adding the guide element and hopefully some photo shoot stories as well! Even going to attempt a pitch to the local radio station as well :)

Why not, aim high right? Getting super excited for LBTL...silly I know. Another friend of Fiona has just completed her LBTL challenge. I was surprised and how hard even she found it, as she is vegan and therefore didn't have to give up meat and dairy the way I will have to. But she had it all, sore head, grumpy, low concentration, fatigue etc. She did so well though and I was very proud of her as this was the first time she had attempted it!

This is my 2nd year doing it. So...technically...I should be more prepared. hmmm...technically....

1st Presentation Booked! 2 Pending!

Things are really starting to take shape now with the Global Poverty Project volunteering. After acing my sign off on the presentation I had a real motivation to get cracking with reaching out to the local community. As I work 9-5 and don't have unlimited mobile minutes, I opted for e-mails to schools and further learning establishments, with the promise of follow up phone calls in a few weeks.

One school has got back to me, very interested. In addition I have a community garden group pending approval.

HOWEVER, even more exciting is I have BOOKED my 1st Presentation!

I volunteer with the 19th Ayr guides, and they have agreed to a presentation next Tuesday :))

Also, the girls have agreed to Live Below The Line with me for 1 day! Its part of a badge (well, they are 10-12 year olds, they don't do nothing for nothing...smart girls!) but it's also a huge media opportunity that the local press will lap up big time! Its a great way to get sponsors, but mainly to raise awareness of the issues.

The Badge the girls are working towards!

The guides amaze me, they have such an amazing awareness of world issues and they ask the most difficult (but incidentally honest) question:

They ask why!

These girls simply want to know why girls, like them, who live in this world, like them, have such terrible conditions, lack of opportunities, no school, and inequality.

For me, this question is unanswerable, I know some reasons, I have some explanations, but I can't give them the answer that they want. What they do know is that doing something is better than doing nothing. So I am looking forward to living below the line with my guides, and hopefully a few other people as well!

Why I am doing it? Why you should join!

Hi and welcome to my blog which I am going to use to track my progress as I live below the line for 5 days.

My Breakfast on LBTL last year!

My £7 Breakfast!!

I became interested in global poverty when I attended the Scottish launch of the Global Poverty Project's campaign to end extreme poverty in our generation. I was so inspired that since I have been reading and learning all about global poverty, the impact that we in the West have and the work that is going on across the globe to try and lift whole generations of people above the extreme poverty line.

So why am I doing this. Well I am joining thousands of people across the UK, Australia and the USA because whilst we choose to struggle to Live Below the Line for one week, there are 1.4 billion people who have no choice other than to do it every day.

Think about that figure - 1.4 BILLION - that's over 20 times the population of the UK - living every day to live in the most abject poverty.

"It's not that bad," you might say - "£1 goes a lot further in developing countries". - Unfortunately not. The £1 figure represents the amount someone living in extreme poverty in the UK would have to live on.

And for people who live in extreme poverty that £1 has to cover far more than food and drink - we're talking everything - health, housing, transport, food, education... It's impossible to imagine, but it's the incomprehensible reality for an incredible number of people.

So if you haven't already then please sponsor my attempt to try and understand a little of what 1.4BILLION people face everyday of their lives

 or better yet JOIN ME and my Team: Conway's Usual Suspects and raise money, and more importantly awareness, with me!

I PASSED!!!

Well after weeks of nerves, anxiety, fear, excitement :the day for me came to present a small chunk of the amazing 1.4billion reasons presentation to one of the amazing people who run the machine that is the Global Poverty Project!

I was secretly glad I got Sam Bacon to present to! Apart from his inherit good looks and charm he is also not Simon Moss. I don't have a particular issue with Simon, in fact I completely admire him as one of the CEOs of the GPP. Thing is, Simon was instrumental in creating the 1.4billion reasons presentation, presenting it back to him is the equivalent of explaining the theory of relativity to Einstein!

As nice, and temptingly reassuring as Sam was (including a well timed compliment) I could feel my palms getting clammy, and a little tremor in my knees! Once I got going though I was totally fine, and apart from a few tiny memory lapses I was very proud of how well I did!

Thing is, I know that public speaking is one of my strengths! For all my days on the peripheral of campaigns and charity events I never felt like I was able to really get involved to the best of my abilities. I can't commit to full weekends, I am not confident enough to get in amongst groups of people, I've never been brave enough to try and do more.

But when I heard that the GPP needed ambassadors, people who could stand up in front of groups and deliver a presentation (which to be fair, could probably sell itself), people who could spend time at the computer, stay active in social media and network at their own pace, I knew, KNEW, that this was my chance to shine. This was my skills, my abilities that were being valued!

As a result I placed way too much pressure on myself to do well, to get through this sign off. And I DID!! So here we go...no stopping me now!!

Because If I can master the chopsticks I can do ANYTHING