Welcome to February’s #WATWB, We are the World Blogest, where a group of writers join together to post a good deed going on in the world to deflect from negative news.
For this month, I’ve chosen to share this wonderful story about eight year old, Selah Thompson’s mission to give away two million books. She was inspired to do this since she was five years old and already noticed that some kids her age didn’t know their ABCs. In 2018, Selah’s parents helped her create a non-profit reading program, Empower Readers Literacy Project.
Selah’s goal is to be able to give away “20 hundred thousand books”. So far she’s surpassed 8,000 books, well on her way!
This 8-year-old Girl’s Mission is to Give Away 2 Million Books
Selah Thompson shares her love of reading and even creates her own series.
Books have the power to transport you to another place and make you feel like you are part of the story. A love of reading should be developed at a young age so children can see books as something magical. That’s the gift that 8-year-old Sela Thompson from Atlanta, Georgia, received from her parents and wants to pass on to other children.
When Selah was five-years-old she came home from her first day of kindergarten and told her parents that many of her classmates didn’t know how to read, according toCNN. Her father, Khalil Thompson, told CNN, “She said that a lot of her new friends at school didn’t know their ABCs.” This really bothered Selah and she wanted to do something about it.
She then asked her parents to give away “20 hundred thousand books,” Selah’s mom Nicole Thompson told the Atlanta Journal Constitution; “this equals two million books!”
Please continue reading about this amazing little girl HERE.
If you’d like to join the WATWB last Friday of each month posting on random acts of kindness, please feel free to add the link to our Facebook group page or directly by adding your URL link to LINKY.
I was surfing around Youtube and came across this video.
I love this song ever since the first time I heard it four years ago. It touches me on so many levels and goes back to grass roots, respect and empathy. And if the song isn’t enough, there couldn’t be a more perfect video to paint the words.
It’s also been the ringtone on my cell phone since the first time I heard it.
Take four minutes and twenty-nine seconds to enjoy listening (and looking at) to Tim McGraw and his reminder song about humility and kindness. The music and lyrics are beautiful and the video is reaffirming – extra touching at this seasonal time of the year. And a little more powerful because it reminds we are all one globally.
Welcome to my Sunday Movie Review, where I share a review for movies I’ve watched that I feel deserve attention.
HBO special- I am Greta – the journey to becoming Greta Thunberg, documented. I watched this documentary two weeks ago when I came across it as I searched my saved lists of docs to watch. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to elaborate on who Greta Thunberg is – the teenager from Sweden who has Asperger’s and created a global movement for climate change. This doc is the story of how Greta’s movement gained world attention, from its inception to the global stage her protests grew into.
My 5 Star Review:
The documentary begins with 15 year old Greta’s concern with the state of the planet and climate change, and nobody seemed to care.
One lone girl, Greta, sits on the pavement in front of parliament on a Friday afternoon in Sweden with a protest sign, handing out papers she’s written about the danger in the world of climate change globally. Greta has Asperger’s and explains how she has no friends, often doesn’t like to speak, and her best supporter is her father, who tells us Greta has a photogenic memory and that Greta began pulling out plugs and turning off lights at a young age to conserve energy.
Greta begins gaining national attention when her Friday protests grew bigger as her movement eventually reached global attention. She’s eventually invited to speak at the UN. As her cause and popularity get noticed around the globe, the Friday ‘no school’ climate protests catch on around the world where thousands of kids join the fight.
“I don’t care about being popular, I care about climate justice and the living planet,” Greta laments. “It will be over soon and nobody will recognize me,” Greta says after a big televised conference. But nobody did forget Greta. The press began to follow her closely. Greta gained worldwide attention and supporters who said they cannot let her do the fight on her own, as she raises awareness everywhere she travels, thousands of teens join the fight globally. The official hashtag for Greta’s mission becomes #FridaysfortheFuture. This girl’s dedication, despite the flack and obstacles she encountered, is and was relentless. I cried my eyes out on so many levels as I took in the magnitude of her plight.
Greta stands true to her beliefs. As her mission is to cut emissions and pollutions – Greta’s movement was expanding globally and she had to begin making appearances to support her movement and embolden her supporters. But Greta would not fly in airplanes, it went against everything she fights for, but she takes the long road and becomes a globetrotter to show up for the cause and protests, as her father staunchly supports her and accompanies her on her missions taking long train journeys throughout Europe. President Macron invites her to Paris, in a televised conversation, he shares the importance of rich countries needing to help lead the way to climate change. Macron: “How do you manage school doing this?” Greta tells Macron she’s a nerd who makes up for missed school at home.
As Greta gets invited to more European climate change summits where her fight grows in recognition, she begins to question why she is getting so popular, “I honestly don’t understand why I get invited, so they can be spotlighted to look like they care as if they’re doing something. They’re doing nothing.”
Greta is challenged with her Asperger’s and her struggle for wanting to be left alone and her need to spread the message. Preferring to be alone, Greta must conquer her struggle while rallying up a charge and taking up those invitations requesting her presence. Her frustration often requires alone time. “Everyone promises to do things better, but they never do. Pretending feels kind of fake. What matters is emissions must be reduced and has to start now.”
Greta visits the Pope who encourages her to keep up the fight as thousands gathered outside the Vatican shouting Greta’s name, chanting for ‘Greta to save the planet.’ But of course, with glory also comes the bad press and negativity from some of the more ‘authoritarian-type’ world leaders who don’t seem to be interested in saving the planet. Putin thinks it’s a bogus cause, Trump makes fun of her, Balsenaro cuts her up, and her own government says she’s just a kid, in fact, most world leaders interviewed and asked about her, feel the same way – except Macron.
Then come the death threats as social media starts picking on her. But Greta said she didn’t care. “Humanity sees nature as this giant bag of candy, that we can just take what we want. But one day nature will strike back, I don’t know exactly how but there are heatwaves and floods and fires.”
She’s invited to the EU parliament to speak among hundreds of diplomats and gives a well researched speech on the devastation of climate change, through tears she shoots her words and finally gets a standing ovation. Greta is asked, “Why did you cry during your speech?”
Greta: “Animals and people are dying.”
“Why do some think of you as a radical baby who can’t really do anything,” one politician asked her.
“Sometimes I feel like the microphone isn’t on. Is it on? Because I’m begining to wonder. You lied to us and gave us false hope. Nobody is talking about it, nothing has changed. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.”
Greta gets invited to speak in the USA at the UN climate summit in New York. “Since I don’t fly because of the enormous climate impact on aviation, it’s going to be a challenge.” It took two weeks for Greta and her dad to sail to America.
“I don’t want to be a person who says one thing and does something else. I don’t want to fly across the world because it’s easier that way,” Greta says as as she and her dad prepare the journey across the Atlantic from Plymouth, England. Droves of people wish them well as they sail off on rough waters in a sailboat. Greta encounters both seasickness and homesickness on the trek. “I don’t want to have to do all this. It’s too much for me, around the clock. I know that it’s important and what’s at stake. But it’s such a responsibility. I should be back in school, not the other side of the ocean.” Greta writes and dictates during the journey, questioning herself if her cause has taken her too far out of her comfort zone, in awe that her meager beginnings of being a solitaire young girl who began her lone protest sitting in front of her parliament building with a sign, one Friday afternoon.
The sails are up as Greta and her dad reach New York harbor. The crowds of people awaiting her were magnificent in size and chant. Greta shouts to the people, “We are dependent on each other to survive. If you see a threat it’s your responsibility to sound the alarm. I feel like this is my responsibility in a way.”
Greta goes to the 2019 climate summit in New York where world leaders congregrate. Her speech begins, “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I want you to panic. The world is waking up and change is coming whether you like it or not.” The speech ends with, “If you deal with problems in time instead of waiting, your problems won’t get as big because if you do that, you come out on the other side and there it’s better.”
Greta planted the seeds of hope and still runs her protests every Friday since 2018. Since that time, over 200 activists have been murdered for fighting for clean air. In 2019, more than seven million people joined Greta’s protest. Despite Greta’s efforts, the world is still not on track yet to meet the requirements for the Paris Climate Accord.
“We will not stop until we’re done” ~ Greta Thunberg
It’s that time of the month again, WATWB – the last Friday of the month, and time to share a good deed going on in the world to celebrate goodness and deflect from the negativity in the world for the We are the World Blogfest.
Today once again, I’m thrilled to share this initiative I came across, happening again in my own city of Toronto, where a carpenter, Khaleel Seivwright, has put his skills to work to build tiny shelters for the homeless. With our cold Canadian winter already taking effect, and the numerous amount of growing homeless growing with the evictions taking place in this pandemic, sadly, we can expect more of the same. But Khaleel has started a Gofundme to raise monies to continue to build these shelters – fully insulated, complete with a window and a door.
As much as I appreciate people like Khaleel and his efforts, it’s a sad situation to know people are homeless, but somewhat of a comfort to learn that they won’t freeze to death. Read on to learn more about this endeavor.
Toronto Carpenter is Building Insulated Shelters for the Homeless
Winter is almost here and in Canada, that means very cold weather. It also means bundling up outdoors and staying indoors more. Nothing is more relaxing than drinking hot cocoa by a fireplace and watching the snow falling outside.
But for people who don’t have homes to warm up in, Canadian winters can be treacherous. That’s why Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter in Toronto is building and giving away tiny portable shelters to people who are homeless according toCTV News.
He told CTV that he wanted to build “something that would be useful for people that are staying outside this winter.” He knows they work because he built the first one for himself a few years ago in British Columbia and it kept him warm in -15 degrees Celsius. Seivwright has already dropped off two shelters.
The tiny shelters are built of wood, insulated with home insulation and have a door and a window. They have caster wheels to make them portable and each one has a smoke detector to keep occupants safe. There is just enough room for a person to lie down in it. Each of the homes cost around $1,000 to build. . .
Welcome to October edition of #WATWB – We are the World Blogfest, where bloggers join in and post something positive that is going on in the world, random acts of kindness.
This special coffee company is in a rainforest in Mozambique, with a mission to build 100 schools – helping to keep girls in school one cup of coffee at a time. Every bag of beans sold globally benefits rainforest deforestation, wildlife conservation, or girl’s education.
“Educating women is educating a nation”
“I don’t want to get married, I want to go to school”
This Coffee Company Keeps Girls in School and Protects the Rainforest
Many girls in Mozambique drop out of school by the fifth-grade because many families cannot afford secondary school for their daughters. And child marriages are prevalent in the country with 48 percent of girls married by age-18 and 14 percent by age-15 according to the organization Girls Not Brides.
The company’s mission, Eric Wilburn, director of Gorongosa Coffee, told Global Citizen, is for every girl who lives in the national park to complete high school. It could take 15-years for that goal to be fully recognized.
“It costs right now about $500 a year to send the girl to boarding school in Mozambique, and that’s for tuition, room and board, clothes, books, travel — yet most of these families earn less than $1 a day,” he said.
The coffee project’s website tells the story of its founding in Gorongosa National Park – one of the most biodiverse places on the planet – and about the resiliency of the people and land of Mozambique.
After the 17-year civil war ended in 1992, the land and the people were scarred and suffering. It took a few years but a ground-breaking conservation project to restore the wildlife and ecosystems in Gorongosa National Park began in 2008.
Part of the restoration included investing in the health, education, and employment opportunities of the people who live there, the company said. This, “empowers them to be the guardians of Gorongosa.”
In 2015, the project partnered with local farmers and coffee growing experts to plant coffee on Mount Gorongosa with the goal of restoring the rainforest that had been destroyed by the war and unsustainable farming practices as well as to give farmer’s a dependable income source.
Coffee thrives in the region, and today, farmers are planting 200,000 coffee plants a year along with 100,000 rainforest trees that help the coffee grow. The Gorongosa Trust was set up to fund all the conservation and community efforts. . . continue reading
If you’d like to join in and share a feel good post, you can add your post to the #WATWB Facebook page HERE. We post the last Friday every month. This month’s hosts are:
Welcome to September’s edition of #WATWB – We are the World Blogfest, where writers can hop on to this monthly, last Friday of the month effort, by sharing some of the good things going on in the world to deflect from the negative. This month I’m sharing how my city, Toronto, has been donating over half a million meals to those in need.
Cheers for Team Toronto: Local Stadium Donates 500,000 Meals
Toronto scores big with a food project that helped the needy.
Just over a year ago, Toronto fans celebrated the Raptors’ win of its first NBA championship. Over two million fans, about one third of the Greater Toronto Area residents, came out for the victory parade on June 17, 2019. Although the stands in the Scotiabank Arena have been empty, Toronto celebrated a recent win in their beloved stadium: the provision of over 500,000 meals for the needy.
It all started on March 12. The stadium’s 24 arena chefs, FoodService and Hospitality reported, were busy prepping in the kitchens. They were readying meals for thousands of hockey fans who were coming that night to watch the Maple Leafs play the Nashville Predators. With four restaurants, 88 concessions, plus 44 corporate suites, the kitchens were hopping. At noon, when a pandemic was declared by the WHO, management decided to suspend the game.
Chris Zielinksi, head chef for Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), was quick to respond, shipping out 27,000 pounds (12,247 kilos) of the prepared meals to food banks the very next day. . . Read the full article
Welcome to this month’s #WATWB – We are the World Blogfest. This is a collective effort by many authors who’ve joined in to share something good, inspiring and uplifting going on around the world to deflect from the negative, every last Friday of the month.
In this post I’m sharing a beautiful initiative taken on by 17 year old Isabella who is making masks to help the hearing impaired. She first began sewing masks when the Coronavirus broke out then switched to making masks for the hearing impaired. Below is Isabella’s story. The article is from Goodnet.com, written by NICOLE NATHAN BEM.
“Wearing a face mask is mandated in many countries around the world, providing well-needed protection. Yet people who are hearing impaired and rely on visual cues and lipreading, are having difficulty communicating with those who wear masks. Isabella Appell, a compassionate 17-year-old teen from Thousand Oaks, California, has decided to lend a hand. She is voluntarily sewing transparent masks and donating them, reopening the world to the people who are hearing impaired.
Isabella, pre-coronavirus, had been attending high school by day and sewing by night. When the pandemic first arrived, she started sewing regular face masks for other people.
She was soon troubled to hear there were no transparent masks readily available to assist people who need to lipread. As a result, she decided to make them herself and created a home-grown venture called Talking Masks. Her home-made vinyl masks are specially coated with an anti-fog spray that enables people to clearly read lips. . .” please continue reading Isabella’s story
If you’d like to contribute to #WATWB with a story of your own, you can add your link HERE to share a good deed in the #WATWB Facebook group.
#WATWB Welcome to this month’s edition of We are the World Blogfest where a group of writers post something positive going on around the world to deflect from the negativity. This month I wanted to share this video of this amazing woman who collects empty foil bags from potato chips, etc. to create thermal blankets for the homeless.
Around the world so many people are stepping up and doing amazing projects to help the disadvantaged. I also want to give a shoutout to he many women around the world making masks in their homes and donating to medical facilities and to individuals in need of a mask. The world may look crappy at the moment, but with so many heroes in our world, we will all prevail!
This woman in the UK collects crisp (potato chip) and another foil bags from snacks and creates the heat blankets to keep the homeless warm and protect the blanket underneath from the elements.
DGKayewriter.com 