Gorrolla Flight-to-Freedom needs YOU!

Today I am asking you to help six orphaned gorillas take their final flight to freedom.

Pinga, Serufuli, Itebero, Ntabwoba, Dunia and Tumaini were all rescued from poachers and need our help to return to the wild.

They are between 5 and 9 years old and have outgrown their temporary facility in Rwanda. Now they must be flown back to their homeland in the Democratic Republic of Congo where, after a quarantine period to assure their readiness, they will be able to have access to native forest land to prepare for eventual freedom in the wild.

IFAW has pledged US$30,000 for this flight to freedom, supporting the renowned Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, who has built the wonderful GRACE Centre in the DRC, a state-of-the-art facility on 350 acres where the gorillas will learn how to survive in the wild in preparation for their long hoped for release.

What an incredible moment that will be!

I am asking you to be a partner in that moment - to help me sponsor one of the world's last gorillas back into the wild - where he will be free to create a family group, to have gorilla babies, to help increase the numbers of the last of these beautiful animals.

Your gift will also help us continue our critical work rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing animals in crisis.

Can you please donate today?

Overcoming challenges is easier than you think!

"Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have."Norman Vincent Peale

Never too late to graduate!!

One of the best pics of my life!! My dad may have waited longer than most fathers for this picture to be taken - but it finally happened.

I may be 45 years old, but I think I can quite honestly say (in retrospect!) that the last five years of my life have been the most productive and creative for me since I was at school in my teens!

It just goes to show you that finding yourself in a position of complete change does not necessarily mean there is nothing left - it just means there is nothing left of that part of your life.  This clears the way for new beginnings, new goals and new achievements.  

I have achieved more in the last five years than in the 15 years before.  I just didn't realize how stagnant I had become until now.  

That realization is liberating in itself.  Life really can begin again at 40 x

UK Badgers due for pilot cull in 2012

Badgers are considered a protected species under UK and European laws but on Tuesday, Caroline Spelman, Environment Secretary said she was “strongly minded” to allow culling, after details of the methodology was sent out for consultation.  Ministers have authority to approve culling of protected species in consideration of health issues.  Dairy farmers are delighted; animal advocates are annoyed.
Responses will be examined and can be emailed to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs at tbbc@defra.gsi.gov.uk .  The DEFRA website requests “When responding, please state which organisation you are responding on behalf of.”
The long term UK study, Randomized Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) performed between 1998 and 2007 concluded:

“First, while badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better. Second, weaknesses in cattle testing regimes mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely to be the main source of infection. Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of disease can be reversed and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone.”

What the People Want
Many animal advocates including the RSPCA do not believe in badger culling as a viable option.  A poll performed last month in the UK found the majority of UK citizens do not want a badger cull to take place.  According to BBC, the poll showed 63% said badgers should NOT be culled for cattle TB with 31% in favor and the remainder is undecided.
What You Can Do
You can read about England’s Bovine TB Eradication Program.  Despite public opinion, it looks like the UK will proceed with badger culling beginning next year.  Please let your feelings be known.

• Email tbbc@defra.gsi.gov.uk
• Sign the Open Petition
• Follow RSPCA’s Facebook campaign to stop the badger cull
• Learn about Badgers

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/uk-badgers-in-danger.html#ixzz1SvwrazpW

Kenya to burn almost 5 tonnes of stockpiled ivory

On 20th July Kenya will burn almost 5 tonnes of stockpiled ivory (4.96 tonnes), which originated from Eastern and Southern Africa and was seized in Singapore in 2002.
It is over 20 years since Kenya last drew media attention to the extent of the illegal ivory trade when then President Moi ordered the burning of almost 12 tonnes. Demonstrating Kenya’s then determination to win a ban on the trade in ivory. That ban has sadly been lifted twice since for ‘one-off’ sales, the most recent a few years ago, which opened the floodgates for a revised illegal trade.  Today elephants are again being poached in high numbers, with daily reports of bulls and matriarchs being found with their tusks hacked out.
Next week’s burning is a positive step, drawing media and government attention to this issue and the DSWT’s founder Dame Daphne Sheldrick will be there with the charity’s UK Director to witness the event, to be attended by the President of Kenya, Ministers and leading conservation groups. This event is though just the tip of the iceberg, more stockpiled ivory remains in stores and elephants are being killed every day for their tusks!
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/19/world/kenya-in-gesture-burns-ivory-tusks.html
http://www.kbc.co.ke/news.asp?nid=71230https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-david-sheldrick-wildlife-trust/kenya-to-burn-almost-5-tonnes-of-stockpiled-ivory/10150273828529889

Robbie Williams latest blog...E.Africa needs your help.

East Africa Needs Your Help

14 Jul 2011

East Africa is in a state of crisis and, as UK Ambassador for UNICEF, Robbie is asking for your help.
The devastating drought, the worst in 50 years, the conflict and the rising food prices have together created a situation that means over 2m children under the age of five in the region are currently at risk. Risk of disease. Risk of starvation.
In just one refugee camp in Kenya, there are nearly half a million people in urgent need of food, water and basic healthcare. The situation throughout the region is becoming more and more critical; the threat of starvation is very real. 

UNICEF is on the ground doing what they can but need to raise much more vital life-saving funding. They need your help.
Please donate what you can, any amount is welcome, to help UNICEF to bring aid to those suffering in East Africa.

How to donate

Online: Click here to donate via UNICEF's website
Text: Text DROUGHT to 70007 to donate £5

What's the point of a Life Coach?

I can't remember the number of times I saw adverts for 'personal development coaching' or 'life coaching' years ago and thought "WHAT IS THE POINT!?" before I actually decided to try it and see for myself.  Now, retrospectively, I would answer like this:

I've always been into keeping fit and have had a gym membership on and off throughout my adult life.  I only ever really did the induction classes, figuring the rest I could do myself through books, magazines and friends to train with.  It worked quite well too! Until one day I was given a personal training course as a birthday gift - WHAT A REVELATION!!  I realised I had not been using most of the machines to their full advantage, and had not been working on the best muscle groups for what I was trying to achieve.

In the same way I can liken a life coach to my gym trainer.  I had been interested in personal development for many years, and once again through books, magazines and friends - I had 'personally developed' myself well enough through various ups and downs in my life.  I hit a particularly low point and decided to try a life coach.  In the same way the gym trainer showed me how to use the machines properly to develop those muscles I needed to work on the most - my life coach showed me how to use the tools I had already been using to their best advantage.  My life coach was also able to see issues from a different perspective and offer different combinations for using those tools (as well as giving me many more).

If you subscribe to a personal gym trainer helping you to develop your physically to be at your best, and achieve those physical goals you have always wanted - why is it any different to seek the services of a life coach to help you achieve those life goals you always aspired to?

I was so impressed, and was so converted - I became one!  If you have any queries or would just like more information - you can find me at www.jacquihughez.co.uk.

Success - Real or Virtual?

In general, when we think of success, we tend to think of it as something in the future; something we have to aspire to; somewhere  we need to go or have to be.  This almost makes it a 'virtual' state of being.  This to me makes it a constantly moving boundary, like the carrot in front of the donkey that it never actually ever gets to eat! It's no wonder so many people eventually give up trying to reach their goals in life.

Surely it is better to think of yourself as successful already, and anything you achieve from this moment forwards is just more success!  We are all successful in on way or another, whether you are a housewife or single mum just getting the kids sorted, housework done and life in general order; whether you are a breadwinner making a living each and every day.  Each of us has something they achieve every day that they can say is a 'success'!

So why not see yourself as SUCCESSFUL NOW!!

This small change of attitude could be the start of something wonderful happening in your life.  Try it - what have you got to lose?

Stop Makers of Barbie from Destroying Wildlife Habitat!

As little girls all over the world play with their Barbie dolls joyfully, Mattel is destroying critical wildlife habitat in order to package these dolls in cheap, throw-away packaging. It's just disturbing.

Tell Mattel to stop destroying rainforests for Barbie's packaging. »

Mattel uses paper packaging from one of Indonesia's most notorious companies, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). Rainforests are torn down and turned into paper products, while the empty land is converted into pulpwood plantations. The wildlife that rely on these areas are hopeless against the rapid devastation that occurs.

Email Mattel now and demand that it stops playing around with deforestation.

Thank you for taking action! Emily L. Care2 Campaign Team

Take action link: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AgkR./zlTo/AEciK