Staying Alive has a strong sense of contribution to world affairs and has adopted three areas in the world that are under suffering, which impact the future of our children and the planet.
The first area affects children directly in sub-saharan Africa inside of Uganda. We support a small charity operated from the UK, who has a strong passion for changing the suffering of children in the World.
Aim for Change began in September 2003 with the purchase of a single cow for the village of Kokoa in the district of Luwero, a village north of the city of Kampala Uganda. This work began with just the support of our family but due to the fact that funding was being given directly to the people of Uganda it quickly began to grow. Shortly after the purchase of the first cow came the second cow, then pigs, goats and chicken. Within a few months realization came that this work which began through a money box in the kitchen of our home needed now to become a registered charity.
More people were interested due to the fact that all funding received was given directly to where it was needed. Within 6 months we had 3 animal projects and we were asked to help orphan children whose parents had died of AIDS. Now three and a half years later we support many orphans paying all costs for the children's education, welfare and health care. Education in Uganda is expensive and we are always looking for people to help sponsor the children
We cover things like, exams - lunch during the day - all educational equipment - toilet rolls - cleaning brushes and of course uniform and shoes, they go through shoes very quickly! Cheap clothing and shoes can be purchased but it is our policy to care for these children to the best of our ability. Also in our care are children in Mbarara, south west Uganda; these are children mostly of the streets and were previously scavenging amongst the rubbish for existence. Here there are 60 children and for these we also need more sponsorship. We also look after refugee children who are now in boarding school from the town of Lira, northern Uganda.
The charity has many animal projects in districts all around Uganda; some of these are given to individual families to enable self sufficiency within the family and education for their children. These projects include cows, pigs, goats and chicken, one area has their own hatchery. Land cultivation is another area the charity supports; land is aplenty and fertile.
The charity has sponsored many water boreholes making a difference to hundreds of lives; so many people and children suffer disease through the lack of fresh clean water; in La Bongo, Masindi, north east Uganda, bricks are being made from the overflow of water. One of boreholes has been constructed in a Christian colony in Pakistan.
Work commenced in Asia one year ago but a great deal has been achieved in that time; for example, in another Christian colony the charity has provided: mains sewerage - fresh water piping to individual dwellings - tarpaulin together with wooden structures for basic dwellings - roofing for more permanent homes - food and medicine. Education is also badly needed in these colonies.
Temporary structures of steel sheeting have been erected for people of the earthquake region in northern Pakistan; as many as half are still living in tents since the quake struck almost 2 years ago. At the people's request we have recently constructed piping for fresh mountain spring water to their dwellings; but they are in need of so much especially warm blankets. Beds and bedding has been supplied to the colonies and also the earthquake region.
In the brick yards of Pakistan each family, including the very old and very young have to produce 1,000 bricks per day in order for them to cover a generation debt; this is where monies have been borrowed by people who have no work or assets; for the owners of these yards the people work generation after generation not knowing when their debt is finalised. At the people's request and with the owner's permission we are now employing a teacher for children and adults when work is completed. Animal projects [chicken] are also doing well in two sections of the brick yards, there are many sections each with 20/35 families. In time we will reach all sections.
In Uganda small business are beginning to make a difference to many people, these include: 2 hair salons - popcorn machines - 2 sewing machine projects - shoe shine - taxi bikes - at the orphanages the children are learning local jewellery crafts and these are already being sold. Many hundreds of mosquito nets have been purchased and mostly given to people and children in rural areas. Also purchased has been a great deal of medical equipment which has been given to clinics and hospitals along with medication.
This charity continues as it began, all funding received goes directly to the work supporting children and adults. During visits to both countries many individuals are helped.
To sponsor an orphan for £18.00 per month, please go to our orders page and click book now to pay for one year's sponsorship. Alternatively, download the pdf and pay monthly. You can also make any donations by going to our Just Giving website: www.justgiving.com/stayingalive
The second area is about Climate Change and Michael is passionate about encouraging people to take self-responsibility. Find below his press release announcing the project Global No Drive Day!
With green issues increasingly on the agenda, individuals are desperately asking what they can do - beyond recycling and refusing to use plastic bags - to help reduce their own carbon footprint.
One such individual is Michael de Groot, a Dutchman living in the Midlands, who's spearheading a campaign to declare Sunday October 28th 2007 as the planet's first "Global No Drive Day!"
And de Groot, whose company ‘Staying Alive!' specialises in health & wellness, isn't content to stop there. He's so determined to ensure that the movement gathers momentum that he's hoping to persuade growing numbers of individuals to leave their car at home every last Sunday in the month.
"There are 600 million cars on the Planet today - if we all left them at home for just a day, we'd stop 10.8 billion of carbon dioxide being emitted in just one day*. What we can all achieve by collaborating in this way would be amazingly powerful!"
de Groot's major fear is that individuals - in the absence of a government led initiative - feel that there's nothing they can do individually to make a real difference.
"'Global No Drive Day!' is something that everyone can support now - without having to wait for the government to take a lead. And let's face it, the government couldn't afford to come up with an idea like this - it'd cost too much in lost taxes."
de Groot points out that his fears are underscored by recent movies such as Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore) and 11th Hour (Leonardo di Caprio) - which just encourage people to recycle more while at the same time waiting for the government "to do something".
"But it's up to us as individuals to take action. Like many people, I'm really concerned about the future of the planet - and like many more people, I've sometimes wondered whether what l can do personally will actually make any real difference."
"But then - ironically enough, when I was driving home one evening - it suddenly dawned on me that we could all make a spectacular difference if we collaborated and chose not to use ours cars on a specific day."
A realist at heart, de Groot knows that he's aiming impossibly high - and that the chances of everyone choosing to opt for public transport on a single day each month are pretty slim.
He is however, hopeful that the "Global No Drive Day!" campaign will raise awareness - and more importantly encourage others to recognise that each of us as individuals is responsible for the future of the planet. And as he points out, it HAS been done before - in the 70s during the oil crisis, when governments did all
they could to keep cars off the road to preserve oil. Ends.
Notes to Editors
1. *One day per month could conceivably prevent 10.8 billion kilos of Co2 going into the atmosphere.
(Based on 600 million cars and just a 50 mile journey)
2. Formed in 2005 Staying Alive (UK) Ltd is primarily concerned with ‘Wellness' in individuals through
workshops, retreats and coaching programmes.
3. "Global No Drive Day!" has no financial incentive or revenue model. It is purely voluntary for
individuals to join and share their stories from Global No Drive Day.
The third area is the treatment of adults and also children with regard to mental health around the world. An organisation that is highlighting the plight of millions of people under drug treatment by psychiatrists in the world and the devistating affects to their health and their lives.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit, public benefit organization dedicated to investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights.
It also ensures that criminal acts within the psychiatric industry are reported to the proper authorities and acted upon.
What are Human Rights?
It is your human right to be free from false accusation when you have not committed any crime. Within psychiatry, patients are involuntarily committed, imprisoned, or detained without committing an offence whereby "patients" or prisoners are often forced and subjected to unwanted, brutal and harmful practices against their will, that don't produce cures. This would be a violation of your human rights.
Humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard, described human rights in the following way:
"The very basis of human rights is freedom from false accusations and from brutality and punishment without offense."
Citizens Commission on Human Rights documents, investigates and exposes psychiatry's crimes against their patients. We fight for your right not to be accused of something and then brutally punished by psychiatrists. We champion human rights, freedom from false accusations and from brutality and punishment without offense.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights in the United Kingdom:
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) United Kingdom is one of a number of CCHRs established in 34 different countries all dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. At that time the victims of psychiatry were a forgotten minority group, often kept in appalling conditions in institutions around the world, and denied the most basic of human rights. Because of this, CCHR formulated a Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights, that serves as its guide for mental health reform. Today, CCHR has more than 135 chapters in 34 countries.
Acknowledged by the special rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Commission as responsible for "many great reforms" that protect mental patients from human rights abuses, CCHRs have documented thousands of individual cases. Their work has helped save the lives of thousands and prevented needless suffering for thousands more. Many countries have now mandated informed consent for psychiatric treatment and the right to legal representation, advocacy, recourse and compensation where abuses occur.
CCHR members include prominent psychiatrists, doctors, lawyers, artists, educators, civil and human rights representatives and professionals who see it as their duty to "expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging practices in the field of mental healing". They work to accomplish these clearly stated aims with many like-minded individuals and groups, including politicians, teachers, health professionals, government, law enforcement and the media.
What does the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (UK) do?
Thousands of individuals contact CCHRs each year to report abuse and criminality, false imprisonment, fraud, sexual abuse and inhumane treatment and conditions in psychiatric institutions. CCHRs document the abuse and help the individual report the matters to the proper authorities. They also conduct investigations into wider psychiatric issues, such as insurance fraud, high death rates reported in institutions or the inappropriate drugging of children.
In the last ten years, CCHR investigations have led to the prosecution of over a thousand psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers around the world for the criminal abuse of patients and fraud.
Through CCHR's achievements, thousands of abuse victims have been rescued, patients have regained legal and civil rights, mental health acts have outlawed the arbitrary use of electric shock and psychosurgery and banned these practices on children, and legislation has been enacted to ensure psychiatric rape of patients is dealt with as a criminal offence.
CCHR does not provide medical or legal advice. However, they work closely with psychiatrists and medical doctors, and criminal, medical negligence and human rights lawyers.
Postal Address: P.O. Box 188 East Grinstead West Sussex RH19 4RB
Dianne Lang Foundation
''What Would It Look Like?''
As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respond with the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set of unexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization?
Global Oneness Project's new 25-minute retrospective, "What Would It Look Like?", encourages us to reflect on the state of the world and ourselves, and to listen to what is being asked of us at this time of unprecedented global transformation.
