Easter Sunday - The Final Blog

Easter Sunday 2016!

 Happy Easter - Hallelujah - It's our Final Blog!!!

Hello everyone and first of all, a really big thank you for visiting our blog. We have loved making all the videos - it's been hard at times - but we've learned a lot along the way.

The first attempt at making the video for tonight took us over 10 minutes because really we'd love to talk about all the things we've learned by going on our lent adventure!                              

The main thing we'd like to say is that we discovered how important it is to have a Growth Mindset - to keep on learning and be determined to keep on learning and understand that no-one has all the answers. 

We've learned things we had no idea about, like Palm Oil destroying the rainforests, that factory farming of rabbits even exists (!!!) and that there are lots of things you can do to help causes you care about - like signing petitions, not buying certain products and just spreading the word about important topics, like we have with our blog. We've  learned  that some things are very complicated, like the refugee crisis and that some people would rather not help other people - but that made us more determined to keep going because there are so many people who need help.

There are lots of things we have changed about how we live our lives. We eat less meat, read labels more carefully and think twice about some of the stuff we throw out and how we can save energy.

We hope we've been able to make a difference and that by doing lots of small things, working together, we can change the world and save our planet. Here is a list of some of the things we've tackled on the Blog:

Day 1 - Litter
Day 2 - Sock Apples (recycling!)
Day 3 - Switch it Off
Day 4 - It's About Love
Day 5 - If it's not Dirty was at.... (think about our habits!)
Day 6 - END THE CAGE AGE!!!!!
Day 7 - We're Talking Rubbish
Day 8 - Stay Safe Online (and be Kind!!!)
Day 10 & 11 - Helping Refugees
Day 13 - Helping the Birds
Day 14 - Fight Against Cancer
Day 16 - Saving Our Libraries
Day 18 - Fairtrade Sunday & Thinking Beyond Fairtrade
Day ??? World Book Day - help the world love reading
Meat Free Monday - cutting down to save the planet!!!
Going Organic & Ending Factory Farming
Recycling helps others too
Animal Rescue - our story
Say No to Palm Oil
Cleaning up for Earth Hour
M'on the Bees - Saving our environment - we can all help

It's quite a list and we could have done so much more. If there is one thing we hope though, it's that everyone in the world adopts a Growth Mindset. If we learn every day and we are willing to change our minds about little things, maybe we will change our habits and work together for change.

We did this blog as part of Lent, rather than giving up something, we wanted to do something positive for the planet. We aren't experts about the Bible but we think Jesus would have learned a lot about himself by going into the dessert and fasting for all that time. He had to find the strength to face what he knew was coming because even if he believed he was the son of God, it must have been really hard.

No-one knows for sure if Jesus was the son of God or even if there is a God - that is for everyone to decide for themsleves what they believe. We think though, that the important thing is that he is someone who wanted to make the world a better place for everyone and that he wanted to teach people how to be good and kind to each other and have more love in the world.

We hope that by doing our blog we have tried to follow Jesus' example and play a small part in making the world a better place.

Wherever you are in the world and whatever religion you follow or whether you don't follow one at all, we hope you have enjoyed our blogs and we thank you for visiting our site.

Happy Easter to you all and many many Easter Blessings to everyone,

Amelie and Erin xxxx

Day 19 : Fairtrade - Use your Brain, not just your eyes

Day 19 : Monday 29th February 2016

Fairtrade - Use your Brain, not just your eyes

Hi everyone, today is the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, so we are going to stick with the Fairtrade topic we began talking about last night.

On the video we showed you some Fairtrade items that were basically food, but Fairtrade is about much more than just Bananas, Chocolate and Coffee. There are lots of things which come from the

Third World like clothes, gifts, flowers and just about anything you can think of. 

While it's good to be looking for the Fairtrade symbol wherever you can, lots of things aren't covered by Fairtrade schemes but you should still be looking at ways that you can buy things where people have been treated fairly and ethically.

Clothes are an obvious place to start because we all use them . A lot of clothes companies don't treat their workers well, and they might even use children to make their clothes. It is somtimes hard to tell but if you are buying a top for less than the price of a couple of pints of milk, that's probably a good indication that it isn't a fair trade.

That doesn't mean that if something is expensive, the company will be treating their workers well, but you can do some research into the sorts of policies companies have and decide which shops and companies you are happy to buy from. If you make those decisions before you go shopping, it is a good way to avoid getting sucked into buying cheap things just because you think they are a good deal.

Some companies seem to use Fairtrade in a bit of an unfair way too. They might get one or two of their products to get the Fairtrade symbol but then not treat workers fairly in lots of other parts of their companies. I am not going to say who those companies are but you can so some research for yourself, because they do exist. 

It's a bit like the school bully sucking up to the teacher and getting lots of praise for being good but then behind their back, they are really mean and nasty to everyone and treat people really badly. 

My main message tonight is that Fair Trade is a really good thing and a really good place to start when you go shopping. But you have to use your brain too and think about what you are buying, so that you can see the bigger picture.

If we all do what we can to shop ethically, we will make the world a better place.

Thanks for visiting the blog today - bye......Amelie ; ) 

(Erin is asleep...but we think she's dreaming of eating Fairtrade disc shaped chocolate, covered in delicious crispy multi-coloured shells....)

http://fortnight.fairtrade.org.uk/learn-more/#breakfast-map

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

Day 18: Fairtrade Sunday

Day 18 : February 28th 2016

Fairtade Sunday

Hello Everyone. We're just back from shopping and Mum let us buy some chocolate from the supermarket......but we had to make sure it was Fairtrade first!

Fairtrade is something which is really important to us and we're going to talk about it a bit more on the blog over the weeks ahead.

Basically, when you buy something which is Fairtrade, you are making sure that the people who made the things you are buying, were treated fairly and paid a fair price for the work they did.

Lots of things you buy which are fairtrade come from countries where they don't have laws to protect workers. In this country there is a minimum wage and lots of rules about working conditions but in other countries it isn't always like that, so it's easy for companies to treat workers badly so they can make more money.

If we all work together to buy Fairtrade whenever we can, we will show companies that people care about how workers in other counties are treated and they will have to act to protect their workers.

We particularly want to talk about Chocolate because it's coming up to Mothers' Day and maybe you are thinking about buying her some chocolates as a present. Our mum already has too much chocolate (!) but if we were buying some for her we know she'd appreciate knowing that people didn't suffer for her to have treat and your mum probably would too.

There are lots of other Fairtrade things you can buy but if we all start somewhere, it will help to make the world a better place.

We're off to eat OUR chocolate.....bye.....Amelie and Erin xxxxx