Indian Girls getting an education - you can help!

These beautiful girls live at Barathi Girls Hostel and attend Thiruchuli High School

 

And these lovely girls attend the 

KGBV Residential School for girls 

aged 10-14yrs in Narikudi, Tamil Nadu.

Both the Barathi Girls Hostel (more than 50 residents now) and the KGBV School (104 students) are managed by ODAM india. I am a long time supporter of ODAM, after volunteering there since 2007.  Fundraising is just part of what I do to help. 

My friends and I are now doing a fundraising activity that you can join in with. We are selling these A $10 vouchers that entitle you to order a canvas print. There is an additional delivery costs (but that's set at one price for anywhere in the world).

To purchase your voucher (which is essentially a unique identifying number on the voucher for your online purchase), you just need to email me, so I can send you our bank account details or you can pay through PayPal. When you have paid into the account, I will email you the number you need to order your canvas print. It's that easy!

While the vouchers says 'only one per customer' - you can purchase multiple vouchers to give away to others to use. What a great mothers day gift!

Thank you for your support

Easter - Relaxation

photo (borrowed from online) - Mereweather beach

What an amazingly beautiful weekend we just had! The weather was unbelievable for Easter - which is typically the turning of the season. I mark Easter with the unveiling of the Heater normally, but it's still downstairs and I'm running around in a singlet!

I am delighted to say that my man and I did not succumb to the delights of chocolate that has assaulted us with every visit to a public shopping centre for the past 4 weeks. We have remained true to our resolve to be ethical in our chocolate consumption. The easiest way to do this has been to reduce consumption.  We were also impressed to see on the news this morning that one Sydney Diocese also promoted a slave free chocolate Easter - good news for children of the world!

I really didn't want to over plan and overextend myself this long weekend, and I am really happy with how it turned out. I went for a lovely 50km bike ride to the beach with some friends on good Friday, and spent the rest of the day in the garden. Saturday was in the garden and then to see the Leggo Movie... Sunday I went for a 30km mountain bike ride with friends to a new track for me in the bush near us. It had some technical challenges for me to practice on, but was generally a pleasant visit to a remote piece of bush. Today I enjoyed a beautiful beach walk and lunch at the beach with a friend. 

Reading goals are progressing, see last post, and I decided to focus on the Questions of Travel -  but if the sun insists on shinning, I must be be outdoors. (It's pretty difficult to read on my ancient tablet/kindle outside - I did try). However, the last of summer/autumn plantings were done - including beetroot, rhubarb, beans, spinach and corn.  Now I'm all set for the next long weekend - oh, that's next weekend!! Yeh!!

Can you see the mud? It's a sign of FUN!

Currently reading

So here's the honest truth - I'm not reading. But these are the open books on my kindle at the moment. Well not Right & Wrong - that's a real book that a friend has loaned me.
According to my Kindle, I'm 34% through Questions of Travel, 10% through the Signature of things, and I'm up to Chapter 4 of Right and Wrong. I'm thinking about starting the Inheritance of Loss to see if it inspires me more.

So for the Easter Weekend, we're staying home, doing some home reno projects, gardening, mountain biking and I'm going to read! Something! I'm going to reward myself (haven't decided yet what with) when I finish something this week.

Hope you have some lovely reading time this week too :)

Ethical Chocolate Part II

After significant delays in finishing this post, and therefore significant research (and soul searching), this is one of my favourite finds. It's a dark chocolate, with nuts, and it's fairtrade. It's just a little pricey.

I promised I would post some of the sites I found helpful in my research - and it's not a short list. Sorry.

Information sources

• Food Empowerment Project
• Fairtrade Companies
• Oxfam Australia
• WorldVision on Trafficking
• Facts about chocolate
• Freedom Project

Sales sites - Australian

•  Spencer Cocoa
• Shop Naturally
• Oxfam Au
• Tribes and Nations
• Heart of Chocolate
• Josophans

Other bloggers who did a much better job than I did!   Highly Recommend visiting....

• The art of simple
•  Kitchen Stewardship
• City Hippy Farm Girl

Give away option!

• Milkwood

Happy Easter my friends... My partner and I are not giving each other chocolate - but in the spirit of living simply - we've challenged each other to cook something new with ingredients we have access to locally. Making something new - fits with our belief that Easter is about celebrating the new.

What will you do to celebrate Easter?

Think before you buy....Chocolate

I really wanted to find out more about chocolate as part of my simply living focus. So I dedicated the month of February to researching it. So now its the beginning of April and I've come to terms with what I found out. It's not good. 

Chocolate is addictive. I know myself. It's helped me [not productively] through difficult times because it makes me [used to] feel good. 

Now Chocolate is going to be a luxury item in our house - one we're willing to pay the full price for, to ensure we're getting something that does not put others lives at risk. 

So what did I learn?

Thanks to many other more eloquent bloggers and valuable lobbying websites. 

 

 

My next post will refer to other bloggers and information links, and what I've decided to action.