Archives for March 2016

Party Bags with a Difference!

The latest fair trade offering from Empathy Action provides a distinctive and ethical way of saying thank you to guests of your child’s birthday party.

Action Packs, from Empathy Action, are a fantastic way for you and your family to support communities living in poverty around the world.

Purchasing from a selection of handmade, fair trade gifts helps build livelihoods in these communities, and is a powerful way of combatting poverty in the region.

Action Packs – Party Bags that Give Twice

For more information email contact@empathyaction.org.

Time Running Out For Calais Jungle

Empathy Action Trustee, Paul Williams, visited the Calais refugee camp know as ‘the Jungle’ and was shocked at the conditions he found there.

A Stark Contrast

I sat with 12 others in a minibus emerging off ‘Le Shuttle’ into the bright sunlight of a late January day in France. As we drove through the streets of Calais one of my fellow travellers remarked how refreshing and exciting it is to experience a different culture. The contrasting cultures of Britain and France have always fascinated me. But these subtle, and some not so subtle, differences that we sometimes find enriching, sometimes mystifying are as nothing compared with the contrast we experienced as we moved from western European urban society to the encampment of refugees on the edge of town known as the Jungle.

Slum On Our Doorstep

It is a slum, but not a slum we would find elsewhere in Europe – this would rival those found in many parts of the developing world. There is basic communal water and sanitation provided, but many refugees have no one else to rely on to provide shelter from the elements. How desperate they must be to leave their home for this! Desperate – yet hopeful of a better life. Hope that drives the young men we saw with bandaged hands – concealing the wounds inflicted by trying to scale the razor wire onto the trucks, trains and ferries to the UK – to try again night after night. Others who had no hope of scaling these defences were resigning themselves to living in the Jungle for the forseeable future, preferring this option to sacrificing their freedom to live in the containers being provided by the French government.

As we reach the middle of March, growing protest from anti-refugee groups and the destruction of parts of the camp by the authorities mean that options for residents of the Jungle appear to be running out.

Paul travelled with a team from Care 4 Calais. Various other groups are welcoming support from volunteers and a quick search on the internet will provide opportunities for those wanting to help.

Stories For Change

Tearfund’s discussion paper, The Restorative Economy, considers what our 21st century economy might look like if it were based around principles of justice and equity. It’s a challenging and hugely encouraging read.

Of particular interest is a section on how change happens:

Looking back at key moments in history, it’s clear that the tides often turn because of the emergence of a movement for change. Right now, we need such a movement, one that follows in the footsteps of the anti-slavery campaigners, the US civil rights movement… who together achieved the impossible.

What gave the most successful movements the motivation and courage they needed to take on the vested interests and sometimes hostile public that opposed change? Above all, we believe it was a resonant story.

What we need are stories that help people and societies to make sense of where they are, how they got there, where they are trying to get to and how to achieve change. Stories that define our worldview and have the potential to create our reality as much as they describe it. Stories like Jesus’ parables or the ones that Churchill told Britain in 1940. Stories that marry unflinching realism, a profoundly hopeful vision of the future and above all, a deeply encouraging view of what people are capable of.”

At Empathy Action we hope that the stories we include in our simulations, such as ‘The Poverty Trap’, do encapsulate that realism, vision and view of what people are capable of.