Charging ahead, business style

So today has been a very productive day, with a total of four presentations secured in the last week and a further two prospective meetings half set up. Despite my previous concerns that things just weren't moving, today proves that maybe I haven't been hitting this with the right gusto.

As some of you know when I am not volunteering I also engage in some paid employment (you know to pay bills, eat and of course buy nice things from time to time...) Some of you may know that my paid employment is in fact that of a helping people variety, for by day I am in fact a social worker.

I love my job. Despite the stressful case load, long hours (9-5 my ass) and rollercoaster of emotions that come on a daily basis, I do actually love my job. The reason I am telling you this as part of my blog on my peronal experiences and thoughts on extreme poverty is because today I made a connection between the two.

I have sent e-mails, letters, contact sheets, to a variety of schools, churches, and comunity groups in my local area. I have had next to no response and was beginning to think that I was swimming against the tides.

Then I thought, I work with difficult people every day. People who avoid my calls, ignore my letters and dodge my visits. I don't just sit back and let it happen, I don't feel like a failure and most importantly I don't give up!

So today I applied my work ethos to my voluntary work and total divided my list of schools up into sections. Todays was the local acadmeys and I called each one. I applied my work skills: polite, clear, to the point, and instantly making people like me, I combined them with the excellent skills taught at recent ambassador training on campaigning (thanks Sam) and made sure I caught and hold their attention quickly. I used the unsuccessful e-mails to my advance, quoting them as a reference before politely asking if there was any interest in the presentations explained in the e-mails. Funnily enough almost all the people hadn't seen or read the e-mail but I was able to leave ne number, and have secured two further meetings with head teachers as a result.

Tomorrow I move onto another segiment of the list. At this rate I may need another ambassador to split the jobs!! haha!!

Oxfam Grow Campaign - a worthwhile cause?

This month's campaign is the Oxfam grow campaign. This campaign has been going for a while and is a worthwhile (and easy cause) to get behind.

We all eat, its a universal human basic need. Some of us eat too much, some don't eat meat, others have food allergy's, but we all eat.

What you may find amazing is the fact that 1/3 of humanity is feed by small farms in the developing world. Over 500million of them!! In sub-sahara Africa and Asia produce almost 80% of the worlds food.

However, the majority of smallholder farmers still lack investment and consequently struggle to produce much beyond subsistence levels. Moreover, 1 in 7 people around the world goes to bed hungry every night and global population is set to increase by another 2 billion by 2050.

The Co-operative believe that with the right tools, training and investment, smallholder farmers offer an excellent route to feed the world’s growing population fairly and sustainably. What’s more, if supported to form co-operatives, this enables them to pool resources, realise economies of scale and secure fairer prices. In fact, on the launch of the International Year of Co-operatives, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme all pledged to recognise and do more to enhance the contribution agricultural co-operatives can make towards food security and poverty reduction. 

During Rio+20, Nick Clegg announced that “Britain will help millions of small farms and communities adapt to potentially devastating changes in the climate and pull themselves out of poverty” and that “Over six million smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa and developing countries across the world will receive extra support as a result of Britain’s help”. Also, the Rio declaration itself affirmed that co-operatives are key for sustainable development.

This is a great starting point but that there is more to be done. 

·        Sign the petition

         Encourage others to sign the petition

Further reading

To find out more about The Co-operative’s Grow campaign you can visit

http://www.co-operative.coop/join-the-revolution/our-plan/tackling-global-poverty/campaigning-against-poverty/