Live Below The Line 2015 - Prep Time!

It's that time again! Time to start preparing for Live Below The Line 2015! Last year I did it for The Hunger Project UK and raised over £150, you can read about how I got on right here at Project52.





This year I'm doing it for Unicef (Unicef.org.uk) and fingers crossed I'll make my target of £200

I won't lie to you: It was hard! I'm used to huge plates of food and being able to graze on snacks whenever I want to, all of that goes out of the window when you have to weigh out your food and calculate the cost per portion so you know if you can have that extra cheap rich tea biscuit as an evening snack, but that rumbling tummy reminds you of just how the people who will benefit from your funds raised feel on a regular basis. Five days isn't a long time to go without the luxury of convenience foods, especially when on day six you can treat yourself to your favourite foods knowing that it's all over for the year, but for those who are living in poverty, it's a lifetime without the things that others take for granted.

So here I am, prepared to do it all again for a good cause. wish me luck!
- See more at: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/vegankitten
you can also follow me on my other blog, femveggeek.wordpress.com  to see what I do when I'm not working on Project52!

June & July - Petitions and Peaceful Protests

The summer months are often the key time of year for peaceful protests, the weather is good, voting for new parliament / MP's has taken place in the UK, and new policies that effect the residents of the country or state are being brought in for public debate and reaction. This is the time of year that it is not uncommon to find protests and marches taking place on a weekly basis on a country wide or even global scale.

Why Protest?

Peaceful protests are often a very loud and visual way of getting your view point across whilst also raising public awareness for your cause. Project52 would never ever encourage violence at a protest as while those present may feel very passionate for their cause, we as individuals have a right to our own opinions and this right should be respected as free will / freedom of speech.

A positive example of peaceful protesting and a good use for petitions from recent months was the ones held against the use of Angora, taken from the Angora Rabbit, often in an inhumane manner. Many of the protests against the use of Angora held outside stores that stock Angora products were non violent, entry to the stores was never blocked - a suitable distance was always maintained, and petitions against it had thousands of signatures to show that the residents of the UK did not approve of Angora use. As a result, several shop chains stopped ordering new products made from it after being shown the reality of how it is collected. An internet search engine will give you results displaying how it was collected from the rabbits if you are unaware of this particular issue.

Why use Petitions?

A petition is a document or file on which has a key statement about something the author of the petition would like to change. It is then signed by people who agree with that key statement and are willing to declare that agreement.

Petitions are usually kept at an information table during a protest or march sign up location, or in recent years, are hosted on a specialist site, such as Care2 for example, and then shared through social media, collecting digital signatures, names and addresses for the signatures so that it may be verified if necessary at a later date.

Due to the speed and usage of modern technology today, a petition can often surpass it's signature goal within weeks, making it into a viable legal document that can be utilized as a tool for positive change much faster, resulting in the possibility for a bill to be presented in the law houses around the world in a more suitable time frame than previously done.

During the next two months, Project52 will be presenting petition links of interest to the readers (you) that will have been signed by myself, along with background information where ever possible focusing on the petition itself,  along with lists of dates and locations for protests / marches planned by other groups/causes that may be of interest for the readers of Project52.

Together we are stronger, united we stand. 

May - Choose your cause

So far here at Project52 we have looked at helping causes through donation, sponsoring animals, helping the homeless, animal shelters and letter writing campaigns. Which is fine if you are like me, but you are not me, you may be nothing like me, as you are you. your own self. So what are your causes?

Are you an animal advocate? An humanitarian? Do you follow environmental issues? Are you more of a Medical research enthusiast (more charities and foundations focus on medical research for disease or disability than any other cause type), conservationist, children's charities, or seek for others to have the right to be an individual?

Or, are you still undecided? It is fine to be undecided, as then if you do choose to get behind a cause it will be of your own free will, and not because a parent or partner believes in it.

The big question around it all is this: "What gives us the right to decide? Is a dog's life more important than a cow's? What if that cow, saved from slaughter saves the life of an owner's child one day by raising the alarm that help is needed or by using body heat to keep them warm? Is a child more important than a dog? what if that child grows up to become a serial killer, and the dog, if given a second chance, saves an owner from a house fire? sniffs out a bomb/drugs?  The difference between an ex-convict and a newly graduated student? The student could end up doing nothing to benefit society at large, but the ex-convict could live by example and help stop others following his/her path. Who are we to say which life has the most value?"

While each month here at Project52 focuses on different actions or umbrella groupings for causes eg homeless aid could be shelter, therapy, food donation - these are all separate methods of helping the end cause.  This month [May] shall take a slight change of direction by looking at different examples of some of the causes listed above, such charities and foundations that campaign for others to have the right to be individual or LGBT groups, and rather than making larger active gestures towards those causes over the month, smaller acts will be made instead due to the varying nature of May's focus.

As well as discussing some of the support groups and charities that are aimed at LGBT, myself and a friend who I have invited to guest-blog, will also be talking about M.E. as it is a serious, debilitating disability, but so little is known about it, as it is an 'invisible' condition. May 12th is M.E. Awareness Day, and here at Project52, I am proud to support it. If any of the readers of Project52 have any comments or thoughts on M.E, please get in touch! You can do this through the contact me option on the left.

On top of this, I will also be looking at other lesser recognized conditions, but these will pop up as the month unfolds.

**Content published during May 2014 are the sole thoughts, political and ethical beliefs of the author and are by no means connected to the charities, foundations, researchers or other trademarked groups and are not intended as defamation of character of said groups and causes**