Violence against Women: Government says it's Time for Action

By The Body Shop Values Partner - The White Ribbon Foundation.

Today the White Ribbon Foundation welcomed the Australian Government’s response to Time for Action*, the $41.5 million immediate funding announced, and the focus on primary prevention through attitudinal change.

White Ribbon now urges both Commonwealth, and State and Territory Governments to agree at tomorrow’s COAG meeting to work quickly together to provide further funding to ensure that all recommendations in the report will be implemented without delay in early 2010.

“Time for Action is a carefully crafted road map that can lead us away from the horrifying levels of violence many women and their children face in our society today, now all governments must take steps to begin the journey,” said Isabel McCrea, Executive Director, White Ribbon Foundation.

“White Ribbon fully supports the long-term and coordinated approach to government and community action called for in the report however more significant funding will be required across all the strategies outlined in the report, if the sweeping changes necessary to eradicate violence against women are to take place.”

White Ribbon also called on the federal and state opposition parties to endorse the Time for Action report as a bipartisan approach will be vital to ensure the success of the 12 year plan.

“We know that during an economic downturn, poverty and unemployment – known determinants of violence against women – increase, so given the current economic climate, it is more vital than ever that Governments makes a strong, long term commitment to this issue,” said Ms McCrea. “With the cost of violence against women predicted to rise to $15.6 billion by 2021, it makes good economic sense if the scale and urgency of the problem is
reflected in this year’s, and future Commonwealth, State and Territory budgets.”

The White Ribbon Campaign is working to end violence against women in Australia by engaging men and boys to promote culture-change. The White Ribbon Foundation appreciates the opportunity to have a seat on the National Council which drafted Time for Action.

*Time for Action is the major report of the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women

The Long Walk - Saturday May 23, 2009

By Deb Baxter - The Body Shop
As The Body Shop prepares for the launch of our next in-store Values Partner campaign with ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) May 18 - June 7; elsewhere, preparation takes place for The Long Walk 2009.

Committed to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australia; believing ALL Australians are entitled to a home, a job and an education; The Long Walk is a charity, focused on achieving equality between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians.

Inspired by Michael Long's 2004 walk to Canberra, to get the lives of Indigenous people back on the national agenda, The Long Walk is now an annual event in Melbourne. This year's walk takes place on Saturday May 23, commencing at Federation Square at 4:00 pm and heading straight for the MCG for an evening of entertainment, including Richmond vs Essendon if you just happen to be a footy fan!

If footy's not your thing but you would like to show your support to The Long Walk (whatever State you live in) then you can register your own walk. Either way, a great cause.

Haiti's maternal mortality rate soars

Image: Part of Pulitzer Prize Winner Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald's work during the humanitarian disaster in Haiti after Hurricane Ike Photo Gallery.

A woman experiencing pain moments after delivering her baby lifts herself off the table to head outside for recovery, so another woman can lay down and give birth at a clinic just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti.


From the article:
"Haiti's maternal mortality rate soars"
16 March 2009
By JONATHAN M. KATZ | The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The pain was different from before -- deeper, sharper. Everyone else was sleeping in the banana grove shack, but Yslande Aristide could not bear it. She stood on the dirt floor and started to scream.

In rushed her sisters with candles and water. Then came the midwife, who made tea from a leaf called ti-zan and told the howling 23-year-old to drink it.

Then she looked under her patient and saw the baby's foot. Aristide's fifth child was breech, a life-threatening birth position that under normal medical care would require a Cesarean section.

Late at night, with no money to reach the nearest hospital, the midwife frantically tried to get the baby out by smacking Aristide in the rear.

Giving birth is dangerous business for Haiti's poor, who suffer the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. Some 630 of every 100,000 women died of pregnancy-related causes in 2006 -- more than five times the Latin American and Caribbean average, according to the United Nations.

"The maternal mortality rate in Haiti is embarrassing to the Western world ... these are preventable deaths," said Dr. Wendy Lai, an emergency obstetrician with Doctors Without Borders Holland.

The problem is heartbreakingly simple: Millions of women either cannot access health care, or cannot afford it.

Interested? Finish reading the article here.

Want to help improve maternal health for the poor?

• Birthing Kit Foundation is a voluntary, not for profit NGO that provides birthing kits and education in clean birthing practices to women who give birth at home in remote regions of the developing world.
  
• Alola Foundation aims to improve the maternal health of our close neighbours in East Timor. (Did you know Timorese women are ten times more likely than Australian women to die in childbirth?)
• International Women's Development Agency aims at improving gender equality and women's reproductive health
  

On the floor

(ARIANA CUBILLOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS / March 5, 2009)

Severin Carole, 31, gives birth on a mattress on the floor at the maternity ward of Cite Soleil's hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, March 4, 2009.

A new life
(ARIANA CUBILLOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS / March 5, 2009)

A nurse holds a new born baby, who was born on a mattress on the floor, at the maternity ward of Cite Soleil's hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, March 4, 2009.

WWF Climate Change Billboard

Image: Supernova

Here's the video.
It's pretty self explanatory.
(and brilliant!)

Stickers (NZ) & Kiera Knightley (UK) vs Domestic Violence (Everywhere)

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

As many of you know our global campaign this year is switching to fighting against child sex trafficking. That doesn't mean we're forgetting about the previous five years of campaigning against domestic violence (DV) and abusive relationships.

Right now we're busy distributing thousands of The Body Shop's bath and shower products to DV Shelters around Australia in time to help pamper and hopefully in some small way activate the self esteem of survivors, for Mother's Day.

This blog will also continue to help 'break the silence on domestic violence'. Here are a couple of related initiatives you should check out.

Preventing Violence in the Home, a New Zealand charity, has developed a roll of stickers (pictured above) to help fight relationship abuse. How you ask? On first glance they just look like garden variety bar-codes. They are however, the charity's helpline in disguise! The idea is for the cheap and simple sticker to be stuck on to any domestic object and go completely unnoticed by controlling partners.


Hospitals, GPs, community organisations and government agencies are all starting to use the stickers as they're proving very popular with the victims of abuse. I love it when organisations dedicate smart design to solving social problems instead of just making more profit. This bar-code sticker is perfect - their agency should be showered with awards!

###

The second thing I'd like to share with you needs a little warning. It's disturbing and upsetting but very effective CSA video called 'Cut' and stars Kiera Knightley. It's part of a very successful viral campaign by Women's Aid UK.




It's very graphic and horrible but even more disturbing is the fact that someone you probably know and love (at least one in three Australian women) has suffered at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006 Survey).

If you decide to click and watch Cut and it upsets you please channel that emotion into fighting the problem. Don't turn a blind eye anymore. Say Cut! Support the White Ribbon Foundation or visit our www.stopviolence.com.au website for tips on what to do to help your friends.

Why not buy a Marie Claire / White Ribbon Scarf to show your support? Order here or available soon at General Pants stores.


Image Credit: www.keirapictures.com

An Indigenous Campaign Soundtrack

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager






















Exciting news today! Our ANTaR Respect [for Indigenous Australians] campaign next month will feature a super cool Kev Carmody driven soundtrack - yay!

It's a really appropriate choice of music too because each of his songs are like little activist campaigns in their own right for mutual respect and rights of first Australians. I'm sure it will help bring our in-store activism alive. It's also really rewarding to continue to push some creative boundaries with our campaigns.

According to Amazon's blurb on the CD:
Kev Carmody is not only one of the most respected singer/songwriters in the country, but also one of Aboriginal Australia's most visible ambassadors. This release will be packaged as a 2-disc album, the first disc featuring some of Australia's finest singers/songwriters paying tribute to the highly respected & admired Kev Carmody, and the second containing Carmody's original versions. The high calibre of artists featured - Bernard Fanning, The Herd, Tex Perkins, The Waifs, Missy Higgins, Augie March, Clare Bowditch, The John Butler Trio and many more) is testament to the level of respect shared amongst the Australian musical community, and also the impact that Kev has had on Australian music. The album was put together & recorded throughout 2006 by Paul Kelly, who describes Kev Carmody's body of work as one of our "great cultural treasures, incorporating oral history, the ongoing hurt of dispossession and the healing power of nature...influential and highly regarded in all corners of the country"

I've been listening to the CD all day, it sounds ace! I think Kev's originals definitely still stand up, however there are some very amazing interpretations / covers too. My favourite so far is the Waif's version of 'From Little Things Big Things Grow'. If you'd like to hear it you can buy it at all good record stores or online here. Alternatively, you could stand in our store for 2.3 hours and listen to it, but let's face it that's creepy and weird.

Another innovation of the Respect Campaign will be a special ANTaR t-shirt that staff are buying with their own money and wearing during the campaign to show their support. Here's a sneak peak, more later.

I'll leave you with the video of Kev Carmody, John Butler and Paul Kelly singing 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' at the Make Poverty History concert from a couple of years back. I was there and loved it when he said: "My t-shirt says: Make INDIGENOUS Poverty History!"

Enjoy:

What you can do TODAY to fight climate change!

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) climate change campaign is stepping up...

The Rudd Government's weak climate change policy is about to be exposed to democracy in action. The Senators you voted for are set to put the Rudd Government's weak 5-15% target and flawed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through the wringer! Click here and let your representatives know you want action on the climate crisis!

Is Madonna a "Material" Girl?

"By Katie Phillips - The Body Shop - The Glen (Vic) - Store Manager"

The past few days the media has pounced on Madonna and her adoption attempt for a little girl in Malawi. The question is, is this child another collection to an "instant family" similar to the Pitt/Jolie clan, or a true attempt to create more awareness around a country that has a high infant mortality rate and alarming high HIV statistics. Madonna has already a son little David, whom she adopted from the same country in 2006.

Having been to a third world country I have seen children that are "poor" that live with a family that loves them and offers them basic living standards and have been amazed by their happiness. I often think that we in Western society are the "poor" ones living on material wealth and measuring our happiness thru disposable means ie; owning the newest i-phone or having the latest gizmo.

The issue sits around the reason as to why this child should be adopted or "saved" and it seems that everyone has an opinion on the matter.

Malawi is among the world's least developed and most densely populated countries. The economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet development needs, although this need (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in growing the economy, improving education, health care and the environmental protection and becoming financially independent. Malawi has several programs developed since 2005 that focus on these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving, with improvements in economic growth, education and health care seen in 2007 and 2008.
Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. There is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, which is a drain on the labor force and government expenditures, and is expected to have a significant impact on gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010.

Extracted from Wikipedia

Judge Chondo who ruled on the court matter said that Mercy, whose name translates as Chifundo, has no need to be be rescued as she is being raised in one of Malawi's best orphanages.
"It is evident that Chifundo James no longer is subject to the conditions of poverty at her place of birth, since her admission at Kondanani orphanage," the ruling said.

What caught my attention to this latest celebrity news are these words; Allowing Madonna to adopt orphan Mercy James could have "facilitated child trafficking", according to the judge who rejected her application. This is a heavy statement as we think of child trafficking as something done in the darkness of the night, conducted by criminals and organised crime, not of a Pop Star by whom has made her intentions clear and transparent.

Authorities have made their decision, tho Madonna plans to appeal and with power and money could sway the next outcome.

TBS congratulates the government on Indigenous Rights pledge

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Today, we'd like to thank and congratulate the Rudd government for advancing human rights in Australia by pledging its strong support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Good timing too, being the day after 'Close the Gap Day'.

Up until now Australia was one of only four countries in the world that voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples when it was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2007.

The Declaration is a set of principles which describe equality, non-discrimination, partnership, consultation and cooperation between Indigenous peoples and governments. It is a comprehensive standard on human rights for Indigenous Peoples.

Article 46 of the Declaration states that the ‘Declaration shall be interpreted in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith’.

For an overview of the Declaration follow this link to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Next month, The Body Shop and Australians for Native Title & Reconciliation (ANTaR) will be launching a campaign for mutual respect between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians as a way of progressing this issue... stay tuned!

A day in the life of Lucy the 1950's housewife

By: The Body Shop Miranda (NSW)
Starring: Claire Morgan as "Lucy"
Co-Starring: Vixen Condoms "with Vixen women always come first"

1. Lucy was preparring some banana muffins for her husband Maca
















2. Lucy couldn't believe it wasn't butter!

















3. Lucy was excited by her discovery and couldn't wait to root Maca... safely!















4. Lucy quickly called all her friends to tell them to buy up big on the so called "Butter"














5. Ignorance is NOT bliss as Lucy Discovered.


The moral of the story: Support The Body Shop + MTV's "Yes Yes Yes! To Safe Sex" campaign and buy a limited edition Tantalising Lip Butter to help stop the spread of the HIV virus. Oh, and always use a condom!

Happy Fair Trade Easter

By Katie Phillips - The Body Shop - The Glen (Vic) - Store Manager

Make your Easter an even happier one this year, by buying Fair trade chocolate and Easter eggs from Oxfam shops, and other retailers that support Fair trade.

By buying Fair trade chocolate you can be sure that growers are being paid fair and stable price for their cocoa and no enslaved child or trafficked labour has been used to produce the cocoa.

Some facts that I found on the World Vision Australia web site;

• In West Africa's cocoa region, which produces 70 percent of the world's cocoa, over 284,000 children work in hazardous conditions.

• The fall in price of raw cocoa has forced small farmers in the cocoa region to cut labour costs, in order to make enough from their crops. This has been linked to the re-emergence of slave labour.

• Over 15,000 children are suspected to have been sold into forced labour on northern Ivory Coast plantations in recent years. These children – mostly under 14 – are involved in dangerous work, including spraying pesticides, using machetes and carrying heavy loads. They have no access to education or health care.

• Physical abuse is also common. "The beatings were a part of my life," said a former bonded labourer, Aly Diabate. If he fell while carrying the heavy bags of cocoa, no-one would help. "Instead, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again."

• The situation is so serious that in 2002, an International Cocoa Initiative was launched to bring the international chocolate industry, aid agencies and corporate stakeholders together over the issue.

If companies such as The Body Shop can purchase Cocoa through Community Trade/ Fair Trade which they have done since 1996, so why cant candy makers do the same? Cadbury have started to get the ball rolling and proudly announced in March 2009 that the Dairy Milk in the UK would be going Fair trade.

This is the link to the You Tube - Cadbury Fair trade press release.

A fact that I have found interesting; 2002 -05 Financial Year The Body Shop International purchased 480 Tonnes from the Kuapa Kokoo Ltd Farmers Cooperative in Ghana which is the equivalent of 15 million bars of chocolate.

How will you purchase your Easter eggs this year? Yes fair trade often is more expensive but really how can you put a cost on a child's life! Don't purchase blind and pretend it does not exist because you cant see it.

Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living - Anita Roddick

BUY FAIR TRADE THIS EASTER!