Caring at Christmas
05 November 2008Volunteers are needed this Christmas to help out a local organisation providing food, shelter and entertainment for homeless people. There is a variety of stuff to get involved in: serving food, doing admin, performing etc
Want to help with art / music/ writing workshops?
In a band or choir?
Caring at Christmas needs people to help entertain our guests at our homeless shelter, any day between
Wed 24 December to Tues 30 December
If you are skilled / qualified in any of the following (or anything else that might be interesting) or know anyone who is and they are interested in volunteering please let us know.
If you have other skills / interests to share please get in touch!
Call Gary Jenkins on 0117 924 4444
or email: info@caringatchristmas.org.uk
Want to help with art / music/ writing workshops?
In a band or choir?
Caring at Christmas needs people to help entertain our guests at our homeless shelter, any day between
Wed 24 December to Tues 30 December
If you are skilled / qualified in any of the following (or anything else that might be interesting) or know anyone who is and they are interested in volunteering please let us know.
If you have other skills / interests to share please get in touch!
Call Gary Jenkins on 0117 924 4444
or email: info@caringatchristmas.org.uk
International students and volunteering
23 October 2008Reminder for non-EU students on a Student Visa If you hold a Student visa, volunteering is considered to be part of the 20 hours of work a week that you are allowed to do in term time. There is no restriction on your hours in recognised vacations. Remember this when you are planning your volunteering, as you must not exceed 20 hours.
CSV Make a Difference Day!
21 October 200825th October is Make a Difference Day! Thousands of people accross the country will be having a go at volunteering! Do you want to get involved?
Getting involved at UWE:
THIS SATURDAY is CSV MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY! Want to do some Conservation work, try your hand at some volunteering, no ties and no responsibility, just one day's fun. :) Come along to Grimsbury Farm Saturday 25 October 2008, 09.30 - 16.00 To help plant a hedge!
This working farm is on the urban fringes of Bristol and is visited by many local families. It is the base for a number of organisations aimed at providing activities for people with special needs and is also home to the Tree Life Centre, a community tree nursery, growing native trees and wildflowers propagated from locally collected seed.
No experience necessary and minibus transport will be provided from the City Centre and Frenchay Campus.
For more information email junction49@uwe.ac.uk or cvp@uwe.ac.uk.
This event is being run in conjunction with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, CSV Make a Difference Day and Junction 49.
Getting involved at UWE:
THIS SATURDAY is CSV MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY! Want to do some Conservation work, try your hand at some volunteering, no ties and no responsibility, just one day's fun. :) Come along to Grimsbury Farm Saturday 25 October 2008, 09.30 - 16.00 To help plant a hedge!
This working farm is on the urban fringes of Bristol and is visited by many local families. It is the base for a number of organisations aimed at providing activities for people with special needs and is also home to the Tree Life Centre, a community tree nursery, growing native trees and wildflowers propagated from locally collected seed.
No experience necessary and minibus transport will be provided from the City Centre and Frenchay Campus.
For more information email junction49@uwe.ac.uk or cvp@uwe.ac.uk.
This event is being run in conjunction with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, CSV Make a Difference Day and Junction 49.
Children in detention, what do you think?
03 October 2008Please read the below about the detention of children in immigration centres - a policy which is seen as being harmful and unnecessary - and consider signing the petition.
No place for children petition
The 'No Place for Children' campaign is calling for an end to theUK government's senseless and brutal policy of sending 2,000 childrena year to immigration detention centres. Children in detentioncentres do not have access to adequate healthcare andeducation, and they can be held for an unlimited period of time.The psychological and physical effects areoften devastating. It will take no more than a couple of minutesfor you to sign the:
No place for children petition
http://www.newstatesman.com/2008/09/children-petition
Once you have signed your name please forward the link to friendsor colleagues.
Many thanks
Alice O'Keeffe
Arts editor
New Statesman
Articles on this issue, testimonies from detainees and otherinformation on the No Place for Children campaign can be found here: http://www.newstatesman.com/subjects/no-place-for-children
The New Statesman 'No Place for Children' campaign calls on thegovernment to end the detention of children for immigrationreasons
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There has been much hype andmuch misunderstanding in the media over the last week on theGovernment's announcement that the UK will be come a full signatory tothe 'UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)'. It will notend the detention of children in the UK asylum estate, read on . ..
One step forward . . .
Alice O'Keeffe, New Statesman, Published 25 September 2008
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/09/children-rights-immigration
The government has announced a new commitment to equal rights forasylum-seeking children. Now they must put it into practice
The government has taken an important step towards a more humaneimmigration system for children. At a meeting with the UN's Committeeon the Rights of the Child on 23 September, it announced that it wouldsign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in full. Forthe past 17 years, the UK has retained an immigration'reservation' to the UNCRC. In other words, it has said thatrefugee and asylum-seeking children who live in Britain do not havethe same rights as those with British citizen ship. During that timeit remained unmoved as hum an-rights organisations - and the UN itself- criticised the hypocrisy inherent in the reservation. As onecampaigner has said: it 'contravenes the whole spirit of a treatythat sets out universal children's rights'.
The decision to drop the reservation signals a significant moralvictory for all those who have worked to expose the brutal treatmentof children in the UK immigration system. It establishes the principlethat the best interests of children are more important than governmentdeportation targets. And, although the UNCRC is not enforceable in UKcourts, it will add force to arguments put forward by detainedchildren's legal representatives. It also increases pressure on thegovernment to amend legislation such as the 2004 Children Act toinclude measures to cover refugee and asylum-seeking children.
There is little doubt, however, that this is primarily symbolic. Ithelped to show goodwill in the UN committee meeting, in the face ofstinging criticism of UK immigration practices from the children'scommissioners and other human-rights organisations.
It does nothing to change the reality for the thousands of childrenwho pass through the UK's immigration detention centres every year.Indeed, far from decreasing the number of detained children andfamilies, the government recently announced plans to increase thecapacity of the detention estate - including plans to double the sizeof Yarl's Wood, where children and families are currently held.
Only when the government brings in practical measures aimed atchanging the culture and practices of the Home Office and the UKBorder Agency, which currently show such cruel disregard for childwelfare, will it have realised its commitment to uphold the rights ofall children. As Lisa Nandy, asylum adviser at the Children's Society,says: 'Having sent a clear message that these children matter asmuch as any other, the government must now go further and end itspolicy of detaining children and their parents.'
No place for children petition
The 'No Place for Children' campaign is calling for an end to theUK government's senseless and brutal policy of sending 2,000 childrena year to immigration detention centres. Children in detentioncentres do not have access to adequate healthcare andeducation, and they can be held for an unlimited period of time.The psychological and physical effects areoften devastating. It will take no more than a couple of minutesfor you to sign the:
No place for children petition
http://www.newstatesman.com/2008/09/children-petition
Once you have signed your name please forward the link to friendsor colleagues.
Many thanks
Alice O'Keeffe
Arts editor
New Statesman
Articles on this issue, testimonies from detainees and otherinformation on the No Place for Children campaign can be found here: http://www.newstatesman.com/subjects/no-place-for-children
The New Statesman 'No Place for Children' campaign calls on thegovernment to end the detention of children for immigrationreasons
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There has been much hype andmuch misunderstanding in the media over the last week on theGovernment's announcement that the UK will be come a full signatory tothe 'UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)'. It will notend the detention of children in the UK asylum estate, read on . ..
One step forward . . .
Alice O'Keeffe, New Statesman, Published 25 September 2008
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/09/children-rights-immigration
The government has announced a new commitment to equal rights forasylum-seeking children. Now they must put it into practice
The government has taken an important step towards a more humaneimmigration system for children. At a meeting with the UN's Committeeon the Rights of the Child on 23 September, it announced that it wouldsign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in full. Forthe past 17 years, the UK has retained an immigration'reservation' to the UNCRC. In other words, it has said thatrefugee and asylum-seeking children who live in Britain do not havethe same rights as those with British citizen ship. During that timeit remained unmoved as hum an-rights organisations - and the UN itself- criticised the hypocrisy inherent in the reservation. As onecampaigner has said: it 'contravenes the whole spirit of a treatythat sets out universal children's rights'.
The decision to drop the reservation signals a significant moralvictory for all those who have worked to expose the brutal treatmentof children in the UK immigration system. It establishes the principlethat the best interests of children are more important than governmentdeportation targets. And, although the UNCRC is not enforceable in UKcourts, it will add force to arguments put forward by detainedchildren's legal representatives. It also increases pressure on thegovernment to amend legislation such as the 2004 Children Act toinclude measures to cover refugee and asylum-seeking children.
There is little doubt, however, that this is primarily symbolic. Ithelped to show goodwill in the UN committee meeting, in the face ofstinging criticism of UK immigration practices from the children'scommissioners and other human-rights organisations.
It does nothing to change the reality for the thousands of childrenwho pass through the UK's immigration detention centres every year.Indeed, far from decreasing the number of detained children andfamilies, the government recently announced plans to increase thecapacity of the detention estate - including plans to double the sizeof Yarl's Wood, where children and families are currently held.
Only when the government brings in practical measures aimed atchanging the culture and practices of the Home Office and the UKBorder Agency, which currently show such cruel disregard for childwelfare, will it have realised its commitment to uphold the rights ofall children. As Lisa Nandy, asylum adviser at the Children's Society,says: 'Having sent a clear message that these children matter asmuch as any other, the government must now go further and end itspolicy of detaining children and their parents.'