Christian Aid have launched a new TV ad, to coincide with Christian Aid Week. Now, I’m no expert in Charity TV advertising, but I quite like the positive story telling vibe to this one.
Details about the making of the advert can be found at the Christian Aid website.
Well the theme for Aprils #Digidisciple posts is the book of Numbers. After a few days pondering for inspiration for a post I decided to blog about numbers, inspired by Numbers. Therefore in the spirit of past Church Sofa lists, here are 21 numbers inspired by Numbers:
[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaam
Any other notable numbers that inspire you from Numbers?
Post originally appeared on the Big Bible website
The latest video from the”If” campaign.
Well, we’ve mentioned it a few times now, and tonights the night that The Church Sofa Lads sleep out as part of the Exeter YMCA Sleepeasy event. You can keep an eye on the tweets from and about the event below:
Kirk Jones, creator of ‘What to expect when you’re expecting’, has directed his debut political spoof, a short film made especially for the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign.
According to Tearfund:
By casting children to play the roles of G8 leaders, including David Cameron, Barack Obama and Angela Merkel, the film uses children speaking the truth to point out the ludicrous faults of the adult world. When they are served lunch with one plate missing, the shortage of food is easily fixed – they re-distribute their fish fingers and everyone
eats.If only things were that simple? Well in fact the world does produce enough food for everyone. IF all the food in the world was shared equally, there would be enough for every woman, man and child to consume 2,700 calories every day. That’s more than enough, as it’s the equivalent of almost five Big Macs or 33 boiled eggs every day.*
So if there’s enough food for everyone, why does one person in eight go to bed hungry every night? Many people can’t get their hands on enough nutritious food – they can’t grow enough or afford it. The IF campaign, launched earlier this year aims to change that by persuading G8 leaders to tackle some of the underlying causes of hunger.
The first of a series, the short film highlights the injustice of hunger and urges people to sign up to the campaign to persuade governments to take action to ensure that everyone can have enough food.
Kirk Jones said:
“I committed to this project when I started to hear the figures. Two million children die from malnutrition every year. Unpaid taxes by multinational companies cost the poorest countries $160 billion every year and the biggest myth of all is that there is not enough
food for everyone in the world.”“I’ve worked with children on feature films and commercials for a number of years but it was still a challenge to find eight children to play world leaders complete with their original accents. We took our time casting but ended up with a great bunch of kids who really helped to sell the idea that solving life-threatening problems like world hunger can be as simple as child’s play IF governments want to make it happen.
“We had a lot of fun shooting the films as though they were a real movie complete with helicopters and stately location.”
Enough food for everyone:
• IF governments keep their promises on aid, invest to stop children dying from malnutrition and help the poorest people feed themselves through investment in small farmers.
IF governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries, so that millions of people can free themselves from hunger.
• IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land, and use the available agricultural land to grow food for people, not biofuels for cars.
IF we force governments and investors to be honest and open about the deals they make in the poorest countries that stop people getting enough food.
The first film can be viewed now with further films going live in the run up to the G8 summit in June.
More information can be found at enoughfoodif.org
Each year around 75000 young people experience homelessness, approx 1 in every 100. Do something about it
Continue Reading...Every now and then an idea surfaces which makes me wonder, why hasn’t this already happened?
The concept seems to be so simple:
1000 people die each year waiting for a transplant.
7000 units of blood are needed every day to meet hospital demand with approximately 225,000 extra blood donors needed per year.
The Church teaches us to give our time, money, and resources.
Do our bodies count as resources, or gifts given to us by God?
If so, what do we do about it?
Check out fleshandblood.org
We’ve been given some details of this years Exeter YMCA Sleepeasy event happening in the Guildhall
Shopping Centre:
Whats Sleepeasy?
Sleep Easy is a national event that YMCA’s up and down the country will be participating in. Last
year over £200,000 was raised by over 1,500 brave participants. The Exeter event, now in its third
year, calls on members of the community to spend ‘one night sleeping rough, so others don’t have to’
and this year Exeter YMCA is hoping to attract its largest number of participants yet.
Whats happening?
Exeter YMCA is calling for people to take a stand against youth homelessness by joining up to
500 others for the biggest ever sponsored sleep out event in the charity’s 20 year history. Since its
opening in September 1993, Exeter YMCA has accommodated and supported over 500 homeless
young people. On average a young person stays at the YMCA for a year, giving them time,
with the right support, to overcome the issues that led to their homelessness and build positive
futures.
Exeter YMCA’s event organiser, Tom Wyatt, says: “It would be wonderful to have 500 members
of the public sleep out with us and also quite symbolic – as it would represent really closely the
number of homeless people we have housed since we opened 20 years ago.”
Who is involved?
Exeter YMCA’s Community Relations Manager, Sophie Hodge, says:
“As we celebrate our 20th anniversary we would love to make our Sleep Easy event the biggest
ever! We are confident that with the support of the Exeter community we can make it happen.”
The campaign has already attracted the attention of Exeter’s business community with support
from thebestof Exeter, a local networking forum and Gilbert Stephens LLP Solicitors, who have
also selected Exeter YMCA as one of their nominated charities in 2013.
Philip Luckham, CEO for the Devon-based law firm, comments: “We are really pleased to be
supporting such a great campaign and look forward to helping drum up as many participants as
possible from our extensive network of professional contacts. We already have some interest from
staff members and we hope the event will help bring the issue of homelessness in the region to the
forefront of people’s minds.”
Why?
The event will not only raise awareness of youth homelessness in Devon but will also help raise
vital sponsorship to continue Exeter YMCA’s work providing 15,000 nights of accommodation and
support a year to homeless young people in Devon.
Dave Barr from thebestof Exeter says:
“I will be sleeping out with the YMCA because I want to make a difference in the lives of young
people who have had the worst possible start in life. I’m hoping that many small local businesses
will join me.”
Any other details?
The event will start at 8pm on Saturday 16th March and finish at 7am the next day. Teas and coffees will be available
throughout the night to keep people warm.
For more information or to register online, visit www.sleepeasyexeter.org.uk. Alternatively call
event organiser Tom on 01392 410530, email events@exeterymca.org.uk, or text “sleep” to 07535
463178 and Tom will call you back.
Well, around a year ago, a number of events were set in motion. A church notice here, a pub conversation there, and before we knew it, both Church Sofa lads found themselves at the Exeter YMCA Sleepeasy event. The YMCA sleepeasy events are to help fight against homelessness, by having the participants raise money by sleeping in cardboard boxes for a night. Whilst one of us didn’t bother trying to sleep, the other found themselves climbing inside a cardboard box for the night.
The following post from last year was started in a cardboard box:
It’s approaching two in the morning of the YMCA Sleepeasy event, and I’m tired. Yet I didn’t really fancy the idea of bed. Maybe it was the light, maybe the noise, perhaps it was the idea of trying to clamber into my “house” that you can see on the right hand side.
So, I kick off my boots, lean down, drag my sleeping bag out, just to see my loving crafted house fall to pieces on me. Leaving the bigger box standing, feeling uninspired to start again I wiggle into place. I lay down, very aware of the concrete underneath, shuffling around trying to blot out the light in front of me, leaning to my side… I’m aware of a church tower somewhere chiming that its two in the morning.It was at this point that I realised, that I was now more awake than I was when this whole box thing started. More photos were taken, tweets were read, web pages scanned, and I opened my eyes again.Before I knew it, that church tower was chiming for three o’clock.At somepoint after three I went back to sleep “properly”. At somepoint I closed my eyes, and drifted off.
It was at 4:49 when I woke up. Rain thundering down on the shelter over us, my nose well and truly blocked up, and very aware I was in a cardboard box.
Very awake, very aware I was in a cardboard box, and oddly angry at the injustice of people needing to wake up like this. As I was laying there wondering what to do between actually getting up, and having breakfast, I wondered how we all got into a state where we accepted the fact that people have no choice but sleep rough on our streets, scared and sleep deprived, simply existing from one moment to the next
It all made me wonder how long I could survive on naff all sleep, spending my time waiting for something to happen.
Look, I’m not going to say that the SleepEasy event was anything really like sleeping rough for any length of time: For starters we were secure, we had people awake and watching over us, bacon rolls, there was a shelter over our heads, and we knew that no matter how long the night was, we had a home to go back to.
If you get a chance, look out for SleepEasy events next year, and have a sample of what it’s like waking up in a box.
That was last year. This year its happening again! Can you join us to sleep under the stars and help raise funds to support Exeter YMCA’s work with young people?
According to the Exeter YMCA website: Music and other entertainment during the evening will make sure you have a great time and food and hot drinks will be available. All you need to do is make sure you’re well wrapped up!
We ask everybody to do their best to raise a minimum of £50 – most people raise much more. All funds raised will go towards Exeter YMCA’s vital work providing 15,000 nights’ accommodation and support each year to homeless young people in Devon. We don’t pretend this will give you a real rough sleeping experience (after all you will be entertained, fed and kept safe), but we do promise you a night you will remember for a long time. And your efforts will make a real difference to the lives of homeless young people in Devon.
So are you up for getting your own cardboard box memories?
Check out sleepeasyexeter.org.uk for more information
