Patricia Sands

Author

Toronto

KIDS HELP PHONE-how you can help!

by

Today I’m reblogging Patricia Caviglia’s latest post. Patricia is a very talented writer – a WANA112 Alum – and great friend and, YAY, we actually get to see each other in person!!! Whether we are attending our local Writers & Editors Network monthly breakfast meeting together or a 6-hour outdoor rock concert in a park (seriously … and she didn’t care that I was the oldest person there … neither did I!) , we always have a lot of laughs and great conversation. Besides that, I’m here to attest to the fact she makes a mean gnocchi tricolore from scratch! I’m happy to support this latest project of hers and hope you might join in too and pass it on. Thanks!

This fantastic blogging community often talks about ways we can pay it forward. Here’s another opportunity for a very worthy cause. If all you can do at the moment is to spread the word, that in itself is an enormous help. Thanks!

Follow-up on BULLY-have you seen it yet?

by

The jury is still out judging from the wide range of opinions in reviews for Lee Hirsch’s “Bully”, otherwise known as “The Bully Project”.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed but still feel it’s an extremely important film for adults and teenagers to see. Every school should incorporate this film into its programming  even though some of the school staff in the movie are shown to be dismally ineffective. The issue of bullying is one we all need to repeatedly bring into focus and work towards ending.
IMHO, the demographic studied in the documentary should have been more far-reaching  in order to impact a wider audience. This was a great opportunity to make a tremendously powerful statement and somehow it didn’t quite achieve what I had hoped.
Here are some other opinions:
The Bully Project is an intense, heartbreaking movie that every parent and school official should see. Kids may be kids, but abusers are taught. Here’s hoping this movie will have a positive effect and not just be ignored like the kids it’s trying to help. – Click here for the full review. FilmSchoolRejects.com
 But it also reveals Hirsch and Dwyer’s real priorities. Their victims cannot be empowered but rather pitied for their status as social pariahs. Difference is not a good thing in “Bully” but rather a frail quality and a mark of outcasts everywhere. The good intentions of everyone involved in making “Bully” don’t matter when the underlying logic to their film is so latently disparaging. Read the full review – Indiewire.com The Playlist
“Bully,” Lee Hirsch’s moving and troubling documentary about the misery some children inflict upon others, arrives at a moment when bullying, long tolerated as a fact of life, is being redefined as a social problem. “Just kids being kids” can no longer be an acceptable response to the kind of sustained physical and emotional abuse that damages the lives of young people whose only sin is appearing weak or weird to their peers. Read the full review here – NY Times.
I went to see BULLY today with some of my favourite people: our daughter, May and two of our granddaughters, Jessica, 11, and Megan, 13, along with a friend of theirs, Lucie, also 13. Over a post-movie lunch, we had a great gab about the movie and bullying in general.
I asked the girls to e-mail me some of their thoughts. I’ll qualify this by saying they  attend a small private school where a great deal of energy is spent focusing on community and respecting differences. As a former teacher, I firmly believe every classroom should share that focus in schools large or small, public or private. It can be done. Does it take work? YES. Is it effective? YES.
Lucie and Megan – We thought seeing the movie was a good experience because it opened our eyes. At our school there’s hardly any bullying so neither of us have really been bullied. Seeing the movie, it was hard to believe the amount of bullying taking place regularly and the huge impact it has on kids. The most shocking part is that often the school staff either doesn’t know about what’s happening, or doesn’t do anything about it. The number of kids that have committed suicide because of bullying is crazy and completely unnecessary. It’s horrible to think the families of some kids getting bullied don’t even know it’s happening. People getting bullied need to speak up in order for it to get better. We’re glad we saw the movie because it helped us understand the affect bullying has on kids of all ages. At times, Bully got repetitive – it could’ve had a wider variety of families/backgrounds. We’d recommend people see it though, because it gives you a whole different perspective of bullying and how serious it is.

Jessica – I found the movie very sad just because it’s terrible to think that these things actually happen and kids actually take their own life because of what others do to them. I cried A LOT during the movie because I feel like these kids are innocent and they just feel alone because the movie even showed how the parents and teachers really didn’t do much. If I were to change some parts of the movie to make it better, I would make it so that some child counsellor could maybe talk a little about why children bully. Also the ending of the movie seemed unfinished, and it seemed like they didn’t really come up with a solution. 

 
It’s very hard to think of ways to stop bullying because we’ve already done so much to try. Something some schools could do like we have at ours is have the teachers talk to the students about how wrong bullying is on a regular basis. I think this would really help because even though the bullies know what they’re doing is wrong, talking to them and making sure they know it’s unacceptable, how much trouble they could get into and how much damage it can do to the person getting bullied.
 
Overall I think Bully was a very good lesson. I would recommend this movie for children around age 10-16, but it’s good to let anyone know about how stupid bullying is.
Have you seen BULLY yet? What are your thoughts? Are you aware that your schools are working effectively to combat this unacceptable behaviour? You know I love to hear from you so leave a comment and share your thoughts. Thanks!

OneChild – what one young person can do

by

Whew! I’m still on a whirl from all the incredible activity around International Women’s Day last week! Wasn’t it a fabulous time, bringing focus to so many issues that affect all of us?

We celebrate women every day but that one official recognition day offered some great opportunities to get connected in ways we might not otherwise. And that’s a good thing!

Last Tuesday I attended a breakfast meeting at Verity in Toronto, where the speaker was a young woman with an incredible story to share. She tells it very well. Cheryl Perera is someone you need to know about and then tell as many other people as possible. Seriously.

In her mid-twenties, Cheryl is already an established children’s rights activist and the leader of her youth-based charity ONECHILD, a registered, non-profit organization since July 2005. In her teens she was recognized as one of Canada’s “Top Twenty Under Twenty” and a fine example of a growing throng of social-minded young charity crusaders who heed the call for change. Rather than turning to established foundations, they’re starting their own.

Cheryl has mobilized youth all around the world and particularly in Canada to join this campaign and set up chapters in their schools. Results of their efforts can be seen on the website. Powerful.

As the ONECHILD website states: Knowledge is power. By increasing the knowledge of young people about the reality of child sexual slavery, by dispelling preconceived ideas, and by challenging them to think critically, OneChild motivates those same young people to spread the word in their schools, their communities, and the world.

Cheryl first became aware of the shocking child sexual slavery trade that exists around the world when she was working on a high school project at the age of 16. She traveled to her family’s homeland of Sri Lanka to learn more. Bringing attention to children’s rights has been her focus ever since and her accomplishments are jaw-dropping. Please take a minute to visit the ONECHILD website by clicking here.

As we know, there are other international organizations also focused on this issue and working together, mobilizing people of all ages, progress is being made. However the uphill battle is steep. Let’s all do what we can.

I’ll be writing more about Cheryl and her organization in the future but I wanted to introduce her mission to you now. Please share this information and perhaps, in our own blogging voices, we can contribute to spreading this vital message. Every child deserves to be safe.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
–Margaret Mead, Cultural Anthropologist

Are there young people in your community who are dedicating themselves to social change? Let’s hear about them! Let’s support them! They are the future. 

March 8 is International Women’s Day

by

Let’s hear it for the ladies! International Women’s Day (8th of March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. For more information go to http://www.internationalwomensday.com.

Events are planned around the globe with the U.K. leading the way, followed by the U.S.A., Canada, Belize (!), and Australia and many others listed on the website.

We’re going to get a headstart here this week by turning the spotlight on a few extraordinarily ordinary women who had an idea, took on a challenge, and made good things happen. I just know you all know many other women who have done the same and I encourage you to show them some blog love this week … or any week for that matter! SHOUT IT OUT, LADIES!

The CANADIAN BREAST CANCER SUPPORT FUND is a new charitable organization. Its vision is to ease the burden of breast cancer patients who are facing financial difficulties. In fact, it’s so new you may not have heard of it yet … but you will! Their innovative approach is definitely going to attract a lot of attention, beginning with their motto: Green is the new pink.

Toronto native Donna Sheehan was the manager of a peer support program at Willow, a national charity that provides support and information about breast cancer. As she became more aware of the financial pressures that create hardship for many breast cancer patients and their families, she decided to focus on doing something to help alleviate those monetary challenges.

It’s one thing to cope with accepting a breast cancer diagnosis and the required treatment, but often we neglect to think of how the basic needs of an individual or family will be affected.

The cost of food, shelter, restorative therapies and treatments, childcare and even something as seemingly unimportant as parking can add up quickly, not to mention the strain of being off work for 8 to 10 months. Government benefits only provide support for 15 weeks and not everyone has access to private insurance coverage for short-term disability.

Although the funding arm for cancer research is well established, the funding arm for support is seriously lacking.  Donna, along with a very informed advisory committee as well as a board of directors, is doing her part to give this important issue a voice and a solution. Approved for status as a charitable organization, the past year has been spent establishing the framework necessary to allow CBCSF to swing into action very soon.

The “green” in their motto, Green is the new pink™, represents their intention to raise awareness about the links between breast cancer and the environment.

In one month’s time, Donna will be launching a new website called Holly and Ivy.The social enterprise will offer natural and organic skincare, cosmetics and personal care products all entirely free of toxic chemicals.

Keeping  toxic chemicals and carcinogens out of the environment by purchasing low-impact, earth-friendly products is another way we can all contribute to lessening their effect on our health.

Fifty percent of the profits from Holly and Ivy will be donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Support Fund. The hope is that this contribution will cover the administrative costs and in time 100% of your donation will go directly to providing short-term financial support to needy breast cancer patients.  This is the dream.

 Look for the Holly and Ivy on-line store to go live March 31st or you can reach it by going to the “Think pink Live Green” page on the Support Fund web site.

Be sure to take time to read their excellent website. It provides a wealth of vital information and suggestions for your support and there’s a Facebook page for you to  *like* too!

In the spirit of paying it forward consider giving up your grande Caramel Frappacino or Expresso Macchiato or your regular coffee (double, double) on Fridays and instead make a $5.00 donation to Canadian Breast Cancer Support Fund. Five Dollar Fridays Rock!

 

So three cheers to Donna for being a woman with a vision and making good things happen. Well done!

I’m adding here a link to a powerful movie, “Pink Ribbons, Inc” , featured at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and recently released and still available at some selected theatres.  It addresses the highly controversial subject of “cause marketing” and informs us about “pinkwashing” and the involvement of corporations in fundraising and the impact this has had on charities.

Tell me about a woman you know who is making a difference. We can do our bit by spreading the word. Celebrate International Women’s Day on Thursday … and every day after that! Why not?