Jersey One World Group Newsletter 6 - September 2008
A review and a look forward as we move to a new school year.
Subscriptions
It was agreed by the management committee that subscriptions should cover a calendar year. You are one of many who joined in April 2007 at the time of our inaugural AGM but have not paid in 2008. The subs remain the same. £5 for individual members and £10 for corporate membership. The treasurer's address is 'La Touche de Vie', 2, Grantez Cottages, Rue de Grantez, St. Ouen, JE3 2GR and cheques should be payable to 'Jersey One World Group'. (The sub for 2009 will remain the same for those who pay it now along with their 2008 sub !)
Review
Message in the waves
It is great to see the change in our 'bag habits' partly as a result of this video and partly as a result of the 5p change. Some copies of the DVD are still available from me. (Jean Le Maistre is away for several weeks).
School contacts
We now have over 40 books from Christian Aid and Oxfam in our library . Some are on loan to Jean Treleven at D'Auvergne School at the moment. This will develop over the coming year.
Foire de Jersey, May 24th - 26th and West Show, July 12th/13th
We had a presence at both these shows. Our stall at the Foire was in a good location with plenty of people passing, but was much more professionally laid out at the West Show, with help from Anna Anderson at the Co-op. At both we had the 'Message in the Waves' video showing and sold Fairtrade products We held a raffle for Fairtrade hampers each day which boosted our funds and those of the Jersey Fairtrade Island Group. We had a quiz on the Millennium Development Goals and a vote between 4 Oxfam posters on their new strapline 'On our own we are only human, together we are humankind' The most popular said 'Everyone deserves life's little luxuries - you know food, water, that sort of thing' At the West Show we also had Fairtrade posters from D'Auvergne and a display of CAFOD and Amnesty materials. We are very grateful to Jim Hopley and Jim Plumley at the Co-op for their financial support and provision of display boards and Fairtrade hampers.
Drop the debt
We highlighted the lack of progress in cancelling debts owed by developing countries by collecting paper chain links in the Royal Square in May. 230 were sent to join the protest before the June G8 summit in Japan. A UN Summit reviewing progress towards meeting the MDG's of halving world poverty by 2015 will be held in New York in September There is much to do.
Looking forward
The Centre
We still have no certainty about the long term location of the Centre as no final decisions have been made about La Pouquelaye School. We hope soon to have a telephone line there, taking over from the contractors who have been working along the road and using the school playground to store equipment. We now have a computer with Microsoft Office in working order We are looking to buy a new laptop computer that will be able to prepare and store talks and resources for use in schools and elsewhere. This will be bought from our funds.
Roger and Hazel Jones have done a good job in sorting our resources and preparing files of relevant articles from the JEP. We hope to make more use of the Centre over the winter period.
One World Week in October, 20th to 26th October
Maurice Lakeman and Mary Connell have a programme that includes 2 weeks of 'Thought for the day'. There will also be a library display. The theme is 'Growing together' A number of schools have asked for talks during the week and Maurice Lakeman is organising a team of speakers. A celebration of 40 years of Jersey Overseas Aid (it was £14,000 in 1968) will be organised by the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission.
Amnesty Film Festival
One of our member groups, Amnesty, are holding their film festival from Sept 29th. A full programme is now being circulated by the Arts Centre.
Stop the Traffik, see www.stopthetraffik.org People shouldn't be bought and sold.
Before heading off to New Zealand, Jean Le Maistre has set in motion our next project. The Bailiff has agreed to introduce the "Stop the Traffik" Presentation at St Paul's Centre on 20th November at 5.15 pm for 6.00pm (Presentation). It will be given by Jason Haines, a compliance lawyer from London and will particularly be aimed at leaders of our finance industry.
There will be a Dinner at 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm at Les Ormes (Tickets £20.00), to be addressed by Rev. Steve Chalke for members of the Faith community.
Stop the traffik is a movement to address the exploitation of people. These initial presentations will be followed up in 2009, especially in Fairtrade Fortnight by much wider publicity in the island. Dan Richards at Ogier is taking bookings. Contact him on. daniel.richards@ogier.com or phone 504252 (work). All the costs involved in BOTH events will be covered by Ogier and the Co-op. Our grateful thanks are due to them.
Development magazine
DfID (Dept of International Development) in UK send out, free of charge, an excellent quarterly magazine. To subscribe go to www.developments.org.uk.
I hope this brings you up to date and look forward to seeing you at future events.
Ed Le Quesne, Secretary, J.O.W.G.
September 2008