A message from Mika last week on the one year anniversary of the Beirut blast and a new performance of his song Heroes:
" Originally inspired by the A.E. Housman poem “The lads in their hundreds” Heroes, speaks of the challenges of conflict and the more hidden victims of disasters and violence. The hidden victims, survivors, far from everyone’s eyes and ears.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to give you a bit of info on how the 1m Euros raised last year was used by Lebanese Red Cross and Save The Children.
Lebanese Red Cross used funds to provide immediate assistance to 15,000 affected people for Health, Emergency Medical Services, Blood Transfusion Services and Basic Assistance through the provision of food and Non Food Items distribution. Your donations contributed to the 39804 Ambulance missions, 20838 distributed blood units, food parcels and hygiene kits to more than 20,000 households and support of 15,000 people with Primary Health Care.
And with the help of your donations Save The Children were able to:
Provide 16,800 hot meals to families, help 535 families to repair their homes, give 5,000 kits with equipment to help clear the debris and rubble from the streets, help 236 families with cash for rent and provide multi-purpose cash transfers to 1,914 households plus support for small and medium businesses, benefitting their families and communities. Donations also helped provide mental health and psychological support to 1,358 people and one-to-one support to 277 children, give children kits, including learning resources, games and activities for their wellbeing and mental health, provide 1,250 disinfection kits to help families and 1,143 menstrual hygiene kits for women.
Thank you again to all of you who were so generous. Of course if you want to get involved again there is further information available via Lebanese Red Cross and Save The Children."
Red Nose Day arrived this year on the 18th March, also the day that marked one week on from the earthquake and tsunami in North East Japan. A friend of mine commented that they felt the event should be posponed as people would be giving to organisations, like The Red Cross who are helping with the disaster relief effort. My friend was wrong, at the end of the night £74,360,207 had been raised, which the presenters announced was a record breaking amount.
Whilst watching some of the films made for this year's event, I learned about the Kibera slum area of Nairobi in Kenya. I will never forget one film showing Bernard aged 16, one of many ophaned children all over the world who is caring for his four younger siblings. At 12 Bernard had had to identify his father's body, his father had been killed in riots that occured following the 2007 elections in Nairobi. His mother died a few months later, she was aleady ill with HIV when her husband was killed. Since that time Bernard and his siblings had been living in one dark room next to a toilet used by 50 other families, the toilet sometimes overflowed and ran through their home. Bernard wanted to get an education but often had to miss school due to having to raise money for food to provide a meal a day for his family. The grief this young man was suffering from was very evident in the film, and so was his commitment to his family and his courage. The celebrity taking part in the film and placed with this family, decided to take action straight away to change things for this one boy and his siblings.
I couldn't post the film here but I found another film about the children of Kibera, made by the "send my friend to school" campaign which raises awareness in UK schools and is the UK part of a worldwide movement, the Global Campaign for Education. The campaign lobbies the UK government to deliver on its promise to realise education for all by 2015.
Since 18th March, and as is the case every year that Red Nose Day uses television reports to inform us and to touch our consciences, there are critics who question the motives of the celebrities involved or who tell us that our giving should maybe be a little quieter and more continuous. I'm not going to address these issues here, though there are questions here that I also feel uncomfortable about. What is clear to me is that Red Nose Day, and other such events that were the result of Live Aid, started the very important work of raising awareness of how change could be made, instead of sitting and watching and feeling helpless(as many were doing in the mid-eighties). This article discusses a recent report: The new state of donation: Three decades of household giving to charity, 1978 - 2008, and captures both the concerns and the positives, about high profile events like Red Nose Day very well indeed. It also gives some figures about how the number of households giving to charity has fallen since 1978 and points out how Red Nose Day and Sport Relief are raising awareness amongst a younger generation who are less likely to members of community groups linked to churches, for example.
Whilst I feel that there is more than enough to go round, and that those of us that regularly try to reflect on what and how we do give (and what more we can give), I also feel that there is never enough and that those of us who can, also need to be involved in creating change within our systems. The 2011 "Send My Sister To School" campaign and The Girl Effect are just two ways that our giving and our actions can become more mindful. They also show us, as does Comic Relief, how joining together with others, adding our voice to many, and giving with joy, creates change for all of us around the world.
Folllowing the distaster in Japan there were those who responded by telling us not to give to such a wealthy country. Some excellent advice is given by Good Intentions Are Not Enough regarding this question and how to ensure that if you want to give to Japan, which many of us did when we saw the horror unfolding on March 11th, that you do so in ways which help not hinder.
It can all get so complicated can't it? As I have said earlier there is more than enough, and however we choose to do it, however small our voices, let's just keep on giving. Wherever there is suffering, how can we not? Our money, our time, our attention, our skills, our love.
I've been feeling a bit washed up and washed out this week. The world is in turmoil. The news is just terrible for so many people.
Much closer to home too, events are happening that are out of my control and will change my life.
Today I received messages from the universe which contained some much needed energy and hope.
The tide is fierce and unrelenting.
While out walking I saw a mother with her two children standing right on the edge of the sea wall. Three tiny figures. She was almost as small as they were and holding their hands tightly. She had dressed the children in those all-in-one waterproof suits before setting off, and right now they had their hoods up and tightly fastened around their chins.
Three figures holding on tight to each other as the sea crashed very close to them, their faces full of delight and wonder. I could hardly hear their screams of excitement above the roar of the tide.
Further down the coast, these birds were also making the most of the tide coming in. They looked incredibly beautiful flying in unison, just above the water. The tide washes up much of value.
I am lucky enough to still have some choices about how the coming challenges affect me and my family. Choices about my thoughts, if not about my feelings. Choices about taking action for others. The energy sent from the universe today, has led me back to this. Choices.
