Month: July 2013

The final ACT! (maybe)

I had my last day at ACT! on Friday (and woke up pretty hungover on Saturday). I finished my project and discussed it with Charles – he seemed pleased with my work which was a relief. My framework for city ‘greening’ will be put together with a number of other parallel projects (focusing on energy, transport or land taxation for example) to build up a complete sustainable city model. With Bristol crowned European Green Capital 2015 the city has a lot to achieve ‘greening-wise’ in the next two years – so who knows, hopefully our sustainable city model will come to some use in Bristol…

I’m sad to leave Bristol, it’s such a lively and striking city, and I was so lucky with the weather – I spent many evenings on the Clifton Downs with some of my colleges from ACT! It was exciting to be a part of something so new and dynamic. At times things were a little muddled but that’s all part of an organisation’s growth and development at the early stages. I’m looking forward to seeing how ACT! progresses and hoping I’ll be back again in the not too distant future. It’s been a privilege – thank you Charity Insights for giving me this opportunity, and now I’m looking forward to my holiday!

 

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The LUCIA Library at Saria

This is a photo of the library that LUCIA built at Saria – I fundraised for it last year (my school raised £5000 in a term) and I’m reviewing the project now as part of a grant proposal for a girls’ toilet block and handwash station on the same site.

Unfortunately there’s been a bit of an issue with the stoves project, so I’ve shifted my research focus into Bees! Ethiopia produces about 40000 tonnes of honey a year, and we’re looking into developing a bee project of sorts to help communities make money. I’ve got no experience with bees – so I’ve been doing a huge amount of product analysis, reading papers and reports and budgets for the different kinds of beehives (who knew you there were so many different types of beehive!?), and I’m currently chatting with my supervisor about us running the project itself, instead of going through an NGO – which would be a first for the charity and really exciting! 🙂

Of meetings and speeches

I’ve just come out of a meeting that I arranged with a local ‘Green Business Advisor’ and an ‘Ethical Business Coach’. We discussed issues around green infrastructure, general ‘green’ practice in businesses and their experiences working in Bristol. It was good to get some first hand, local expertise and heartening to see two old guys still passionate about what they do. They also told me about some interesting examples that I might use as case studies in my project.

I’m now well underway with writing up my project – a framework for the further ‘greening’ of UK cities. Sure enough, my preparatory research was not enough and I’ve been finding out more and more as I’ve been writing (I came across a speech by Iolo Williams which is the best, most moving speech that I’ve ever seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnJQjtvngqA). It’s a lot to get your head around in just a few weeks – just finding and understanding all the relevant legislation and policies (at international, European, national, regional and local scales!) has been a challenge, but a valuable challenge. I’ve not had much experience writing about law/ policy and planning before, after all.

 

A New Farm

So on Wednesday I submitted the memorandum of understanding for my first project.

I didn’t do a lot of work on this one, but I took it over because it was convenient and I’m waiting on a reply from our people in Ethiopia before I can go on with the stoves and wash-station one.

Basically, we wanted to build a farm at the Saria Kebele Primary School in Amhara, Ethiopia. This is all well and good – but how is it going to work? Our contact in Ethiopia had put together a budget and a proposal for us, and I had to go through it and put it into a Memorandum of Understanding (basically, the sort of contract that NGOs use).

 

The scale of the problem is really quite startling: the farm is not just to make money, it’s to make sure that the kids have enough food to eat! Hopefully, we’ll be able to teach them some good farming practices as well, given that poor management is such an issue in Ethiopia. Other than that, I’ve been reading the latest UN report on the Millennium Development Goals in order to target our governmental requests for funding as accurately as possible. You can read it here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf  Apparently, after 43 years, the UK is going to meet its target of spending 0.7% of GNI on foreign aid. This should be great for us – hopefully it’ll become easier to get DFID funding for our projects!

1st Week at DWT

Last week I started my internship at Durham Wildlife Trust (DWT). I’ve always had a love for nature but it is only recently that I have thought about working for a conservation charity. At the trust, I am working on a project concerning GIS maps of ecosystem services. GIS maps are a relatively recent development in ecology and aim to map ecosystem service demand and supply. This information can then be used to identify areas that provide valuable services and should therefore be conserved, but also “gaps” or areas where there is demand for a service but supply could be improved. A technical user guide for producing the maps has already been made, but my job is to start a more user friendly guide for interpreting the maps for potential users of the maps such as DWT staff or housing planners who have little experience of GIS mapping. For a break from the office, I did some practical work with the reserves team on Thursday at one of DWT’s reserves, Hawthorn Dene. Work involved removing an invasive plant species, called Himalayan balsam, from the woodland. Himalayan balsam was introduced to Britain in the Victorian era, when it was brought back from the Himalayas for its pink flowers. However, the plant is an excellent propagator and can completely take over habitats, out competing native species. Overall, my first week has been a great experience to see how a conservation charity is run and what kind of careers are available in this sector.

Mingling with Bristol’s greenies

I’ve recently been to the monthly Bristol Green Mingle with Charles and Fi. It was the first time I’d been to a mingle and I didn’t know quite what to expect – but unsurprisingly, it was just people (specifically Bristol’s greenies) drinking, eating and chatting. I met an interesting mix of people including local MPs, an ecologist and the director of the Bristol Green Capital initiative (who’s become a local hero after Bristol won the European Green Capital Award earlier this year). As well as being an enjoyable, relaxed and interesting evening it was also very useful – I gained a few handy contacts who seemed to know something (if not a lot) relevant to my internship project.

I’m coming to the end of my preparatory research before starting the write up the report/ action plan framework for city ‘greening’, although I feel like there’s so much that I’ve still not uncovered – there is just so much out there on it! I just need to bring it together. In outline I’m preparing an evidenced case for the literal ‘greening’ of cities (via planting trees, installing green roofs, creating wetlands etc.) for multi-functional benefits such as increased habitat connectivity, better water management, air purification and climate amelioration. There are some truly innovative and magnificent ways to ‘green’ urban areas – vertical gardens for example (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFZn1DYCz2U), which beg the question: why aren’t our cities already greener?

Bordeaux Quay - venue for the Green Mingle

 

 

ACT! in Bristol

I’m now 2 weeks into my internship with The ACT! Alliance in Bristol. The ACT! Alliance is a newly set up campaigning organisation which differs from those that already exist in that it seeks to pool the efforts and resources of existing organisations to gain strength for change, rather than all working in an isolated and fragmented way. Importantly, ACT! does not compartmentalise the issues that we face, seeing that the deteriorating environment, the faltering economic system, failing politicians and poverty are all interlinked, and so are the solutions. Broadly, ACT! campaigns for sustainable development in environmental, economic and social systems. I am helping to launch their ‘Nature Reborn’ project, which is part of their wider ‘Restoring the Earth’ initiative. For more information on The ACT! Alliance visit: http://www.theactalliance.com.

During my first week I had a couple of meetings with Charles (my supervisor and director of ACT!) to refine my project aims and structure. That’s one of the best things about working for a small and new organisation – I’ve been able to have increased input into my project design, allowing me to focus more upon issues which are of particular interest to me. So I’m researching and writing a report to help further ‘green’ (literally!) UK urban areas for conservation, recreational and climate adaptive purposes. So far so good, I’ve really enjoyed working alongside others at ACT!, Fi (one of my managers) took me for lunch on my first day to chat about ACT! and the work I’d be doing, and also just to get to know each other.

ACT! offices - just off Park Street!

Aside from my project I’m enjoying vibrant Bristol! It’s a perfect size (much less daunting than massive London) and there’s so much going on! I went to St. Paul’s carnival last Saturday – although missed the parade (whoops!) – the weather was gorgeous, and so with Red Stripe and Jerk chicken in hand I boogied on down with the 1000’s of other carnival goers.

My friends at St. Paul's carnival in the evening

 

Coming up to the end of the first week!

So I’m coming up to the end of my first week. It’s actually been really good!

Yesterday I went to one of the trustees’ meetings and had a quick chat about some of my ideas (they’ve been in the pipeline for about a year, so a lot longer than the placement). They seemed really enthusiastic about them, and how the charity is going to be moving forward. I would really recommend working with a smaller charity – there are only 8 trustees of LUCIA so I actually feel like they value my input and will consider my suggestions seriously.

Other than that, I’ve done some initial research into the stoves project and how to apply for funding. Some of them are really elegant – reducing the time needed to gather firewood by 50% for the sake of £1.50 or so! Hopefully they’ll hold up to scrutiny. I’m just waiting for an update on the project proposal from our partners in Ethiopia, and am taking the time to do some reading (always good!). This seems very relevant but quite shocking – www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/docs/Dangerous-delay-UK-version.pdf It details the failings in the response to the recent famine in the Sahel. With the farming project that I might work on at some point, I’m trying to use it for guidance to building in safeguards. But more on that later!

 

 

Ben Fernando – first day at work!

So I’m just on lunch break for my first day at work! I’m at LUCIA (Life Uplifted by Change in Africa), a small Birmingham based charity that works with women and children in Ethiopia. I’ve been working with them for a while  now doing fundraising, and I decided to do Charity Insights so that I could get more involved with the research and problem-solving skills that they do.  You can find out more at http://www.luciacharity.org.uk/

So far I’ve had the usual introduction and health and safety talk, and discussed my project with my supervisor. Initially, I’m going to be looking at how to get funding for the grassroots projects that they’re looking at in Rural Ethiopia. Once we get some idea of how much money we have, we’re going to start investigating the products and solutions to problems that can be put in place to help a local school. We’re trying to make sure that they have adequate sanitation, for example.

This is obviously important because there are so many waterborne diseases that are prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Once I can ensure that we have funding for the project, I’ll be doing some product analysis to find out exactly what’s in the market in Ethiopia and what the preferable solution will be.

But for now; I’m having a great time! Given the nice weather, we’re working outside reading through and analysing previous grant proposals and hoping to get funding for our ideas. I’m  looking forward to discussing my research at the LUCIA stall at a county fair this weekend, so fingers crossed that the good weather continues!

Internships are well underway!


The first of the Charity Insights participants started their internships last week & Eileen and I are delighted to see the blog posts starting to come in. We are really looking forward to hearing more about everyone’s internships.

We have another participant to announce – Will Prince, third year Physics who will be doing his internship at The Big Issue Foundation.

Just before the end of term we ran a preparation workshop for our participants. This was a great chance for all the interns to meet each other and to hear about the projects that they will be embarking on!

L-R Lydia, Eleanor, Helena, Frances, Emily & Alex