Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NYP) Women's Council

By Deb Baxter - Values Coordinator - The Body Shop





























Images provided by Angela Lynch - NPY Women's Council

Look at these beautiful photos. I was quite overwhelmed when I received these; taken at the "Tjilpi Pampa Festival" - a festival for aged men and women from remote aboriginal communities in the cross border area of Central Australia.

Gathering about 100 elderly Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara speaking people from around twelve remote communities, the NPY provided an amazing week of song and dance, painting, weaving, bush tucker trips and pampering sessions.

At the same time as The Body Shop are supporting ANTaR in their pledge against Racism, I am happy to say we have once again supported a number of Indigenous organisations through our Mother's Day Gift Giving Programme. The NPY are one of these organisations and were thrilled to receive our products to share with their participants.

To find out more about the NPY, visit http://www.npywc.org.au

Olympic Torch Relay & Defending Human Rights

By Kathryn Nesbitt - The Body Shop Store Manager - QVB Sydney.

Image: Gabrielle Liddle The Body Shop NSW Trainer at the Olympic Torch relay in Canberra.

On Thursday 24th I was lucky enough to join Amnesty International on their trip to our capital city Canberra.

The aim of this trip was to attend the Olympic torch relay and highlight the human rights abuses in China and Tibet.

It is easy in Australia to take for granted the freedoms we enjoy,free press, uncensored internet access,a transparent legal system,the right to peaceful protest and even the right to choose the number of children you have. None of these things are available in China.

We have all heard about the disturbing abuses of human rights in Tibet but we will not be able to fully ascertain their extent until the Chinese authorities allow independent observers, including the UN, access to the region.

I have visited both China and the northern regions of Nepal,home to large numbers of Tibetans, so this is an issue I feel passionate about.

The day of the torch relay itself saw emotions running high on both sides. Human rights supporters were hugely outnumbered by a large often hostile group of pro China supporters.

After one quite ugly incident where our group of 45 were surrounded by hundreds of angry pro Chinese screaming at us to "go home" and "stop lying" we had to have a police escort to a meet up with other human rights supporters where it was felt there would be safety in numbers. I had never experienced anything quite like this and have to admit it made me both angry and fearful.

I have come away from that day with an even stronger conviction to speak out against what I see as major human rights abuses. Free speech is both something to respect and use. Please take the time to check out the Amnesty International website at www.amnesty.org.au
or check out their Uncensor China Campaign website or join the cause on Facebook.

As a very wise woman* once said "IF I WANTED TO BE QUIET I'D WORK IN A LIBRARY"

I don't!

~ Kathryn

Defending Human Rights at The Body Shop
By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager


















As a side note to Kathryn's excellent post. One of The Body Shop's core values is Defending Human Rights. In a show of solidarity with an ever growing, vocal and global community lobbying China to use the Olympics as an opportunity to improve its human rights record... all our staff will soon be wearing one of the above Defend Human Rights badges in our stores.

~ Adam.


* Anita Roddick

Save the Mary River Turtle!

YOU ARE LOOKING AT A THREATENED MARY RIVER TURTLE!

I think this is quite possibly the coolest turtle in the world! He has his own grass patch on his head and can breathe out of his bum!

The Mary River Turtle is an endangered species which only lives in one river in the whole of Queensland. Unfortunately, the Queensland Government is planning to build the Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River that will destroy 36.5 km of the river, flooding the habitat of turtles and many other rare and endangered species.

Find out more and join the ACF campaign to save the Mary River Turtle

(Photo: Chris Van Wyk)


Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Racism Makes Me Sick!

Racism Makes Me Sick campaign with The Body Shop.

Many Australians felt a new level of optimism as the Prime Minister committed his government to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. But ‘closing the gap’ is not just a task for governments, it needs all of us.

Better health care may not eliminate health inequalities unless basic changes also occur in how non-Indigenous people behave towards Indigenous Australians. Misconceptions, stereotypes and myths about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders abound in Australian conversations, media and psyche.

Personal experiences of racism have a dramatic and negative impact, contributing to heart disease, premature births, hypertension and mental illness for those affected. Stereotyping and labeling, for example about willingness to work and levels of morality, have negative effects through both direct stress and trauma, and through effects on the life opportunities available to Indigenous people – like employment, wage levels, housing, and school retention, which are recognised ‘social determinants’ of health for everyone.

Tackling these stereotypes is a job for all Australians. We all have a role to play in changing the perceptions and behaviour of our fellow Australians to ensure that racism has no place in our communities, homes and institutions.

GET THE FACTS

Your efforts will be a driving force for success of the new ANTaR 'Racism Makes Me Sick' campaign, launched nationally on 21 April 2008.

To ensure that 'Racism Makes Me Sick' reaches as many people as possible, ANTaR is collaborating with The Body Shop. We will be promoting the campaign in our stores for 21 days (from 21 April 2008) as part of our commitment to defending human rights and promoting reconciliation in Australia.

Individual anti-racism action is the aim of the campaign. If you have ever felt powerless, or at a loss for ideas on how to end Indigenous disadvantage, this campaign will help you make a real difference.

You can sign a Personal Pledge to show your commitment, at www.ANTaR.org.au, where you can also find fact sheets and hints on how to effectively speak up when you encounter racist or misinformed comments.

If you care about Indigenous health crisis, please visit the website, sign on, talk to your friends, colleagues and networks about this campaign, and contact us with your ideas on how to take it into communities and workplaces.

ANTaR has prepared 9 useful tips to help you speak up against racism in your everyday conversations.

You can make a positive difference!

• Do something positive at home
• Do something positive in your the work place
• Do something positive in your school
• Do something positive for your community
• Support Indigenous businesses when you shop
  

Resolve to tackle racism and the Indigenous health crisis in Australia by signing this personal pledge.


Adam Valvasori - Sick of Racism

Who Says 2cm Can't Make A Difference?

Prototype of our new receipt which starts today. It's 2 cm shorter than yesterday's receipt!

A lot of TBS staff including myself are passionate about reducing our paper usage.

One idea many of us have had is reducing the size of our receipts. We have investigated this and unfortunately we are restrained by the Point of Sale (POS) system we use. The line spacing and font size for example are permanently fixed until we change the whole system.

Some good news though, our POS Master John Bartlett recently discovered a way of dropping the 3 lines of the store's address! We save exactly 2cm of paper per receipt. This might not sound like much but we’ve calculated that based on last year, when we used 3 million receipts, we can save 765 rolls a year which is the equivalent of 63.75 km of paper! As the map below shows, that's like our head office in Mulgrave to Bourke street and back!


View Larger Map

If you're a staff member or The Body Shop customer / fan and have an idea on how we can reduce our tread on the planet, please email me; values@thebodyshop.com.au or just post a comment below!

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Hay Street's Hardcore Recyclers

Melissa Lecocq - TBS Hay Street Store, Perth showing a typical amount of recycling rubbish they take home every night.

I just got back from a trip to Perth, where I got to speak to our Perth Store Managers and introduce Roger Cook, the National President of ANTaR, to them. Roger briefed our staff about the upcoming in-store campaign "Racism Makes Me Sick" (Stay tuned).

Maybe it's my home state biased but I think we should give credit to the sandgropers for more than just good footy players, great beaches and sunny weather. Out of all the states it was WA that sold the largest percentage of Get Lippy special edition Lip Butters which raised money for Staying Alive to prevent HIV.

I visited the Hay St & Murray St Mall stores with instructions to talk to staff about their "recycling issues". They haven't had their recycling picked up for several months. Apparently our recycling collection company blamed the Perth City Council, stating they weren't allowed to drive into the malls anymore. Don't worry, I'm currently 'on the case' (and on first inspection I don't think it really is the council's fault!)

Congratulations The Body Shop Hay Street!

The point of my story is really to congratulate the Hay Street Store for overcoming this obstacle to live out The Body Shop's value of protecting our planet. I'm so impressed that each day a staff member takes the store's recycling rubbish home with them to add to their own recycling bins! They could have easily stopped recycling and said "too hard" but instead, they've taken personal responsibility and the environmental high ground.

More:
Planet Ark has a very useful website to help you in all your recycling missions: www.recyclingnearyou.com.au

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

The Body Shop Volunteers

Darshini Dave (TBS Murray Street, Perth Store) loved her Community Project experience at Princess Margaret Hospital working with sick kids.

If you work at The Body Shop you need to find and complete a Community Project.

This means volunteering for a charity in your local community for one or two days a year. There are hundreds of fantastic stories from a wide variety of projects we get involved in from cleaning up local environments to helping people or even animals through tough times. We feel privileged to be active in our communities... to be helping. We recently received a a great email about one of our staff's Community Projects in Western Australia. As Deb (Our awesome Values Coordinator) said: "Never underestimate the difference we can make through Community Projects."

Dear Body Shop,
A few days ago when my wife and I visited our 15 year old daughter in Princess Margaret Hospital we noticed that she had a real glow to her. She had been visited by someone from The Body Shop who applied gentle make up to her face and gave her frail little hands a massage. She has anorexia nervosa and suffers from very low self esteem and severe depression. She was looking beautiful and was really happy.
We do not know which store these very kind people came from, but we would sincerely like to thank you for what you have done for our daughter.

Thanks
Darren - Shelley, Western Australia

This 'thank you' belongs to Celina, Cara and Darshni from The Body Shop - Murray Street store! If you'd like to volunteer in this area contact your local children's hospital or eating disorder charity.

Websites for information that can help, if you or a friend are experiencing low self esteem as a result of body image issues...



The Butterfly Foundation
Eating Disorders Foundation (of Victoria)
Reach Out
Anorexia Nervosa (Wikipedia)


Adam Valvasori - Values Manager