Just a little update.

Happy March, everyone!

Last weekend was training for Global Poverty Ambassadors, and what an incredible weekend it was. I’m currently making a video log of some of the Ambassadors and their feelings about the weekend and it will be updated by Sunday. But for now, I’ll tell you a little bit about our current campaign, Protect Point 7.

There’s no better way to say it than how Sam did in the Global Poverty Project blog,

“12 years ago at the UN Millennium Summit, all 190 UN nations re-stated their commitment to work towards spending 0.7% of their countries income on international aid to help end extreme poverty.

The UK has been one of just a few countries to stick to this commitment. On March the 21st, the British Chancellor George Osborne will present his annual budget to Parliament. He will lay out his plans for the economy at a time when unemployment is still rising, the Eurozone is in continued difficulty and consumer confidence remains low. On the face of it, keeping this commitment to aid looks like a hard task.

And of course, this comes just weeks after the news that an opposition politician in India claimed that India neither wanted nor needed British aid. This lead to discussions of whether spending part of the little money we have as a country on international development is still a justifiable option. The government is under pressure to cut our aid budget, and with it, withdraw a lifeline to millions of the world’s poorest people.

While the government of India may be signing contracts to buy new military jets, 300 million people in the country continue to rank amongst the world’s poorest people. And more than this, regardless of how we feel about India, India is not the sole recipient of UK aid.

Whatever spending decisions the Chancellor decides to make, and however tough the current economic climate may be, we know that few people in this country will be left to try and live on only a pound a day. Yet across the world, for 1.4 billion people this is reality – trying to manage their food, heath, rent and travel all on the equivalent of just a pound a day (the definition of extreme poverty).

International aid can have an incredible effect on saving lives; the number of children dying before their fifth birthday has more than halved in the last 50 years, and since 1990 international aid has helped lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty. Our aid has contributed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, helping to save at least 4,000 lives every day, and has saved an estimated 7.7 million lives in 150 countries.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell have repeatedly said that as a country we would not ‘balance the book on the backs of the world’s poor’. All three mainstream political parties committed to the 0.7% target before the last election, and it features in the coalition agreement; yet it is at risk in the 2012 budget.

That’s why today we are asking people to take action and contact their MP to tell them they believe that aid spending is important. We’re asking MPs to ask questions at the next International Development Questions on March 14th to ensure this government understands that taking money away from the world’s poorest option is not an option in this budget.

The government spends money on what it believes to be priorities, and without a vocal appreciation of the importance of aid and people standing up to protect it, we are in danger of losing it. So please, click here to take action and show your support for the 0.7% target, and ensure the Chancellor knows this isn’t a budget he can cut.”

If you would, go on facebook and “like” the page we have created for Protect Point 7 at this link http://www.facebook.com/protectpoint7 and post a photo of yourself holding a sign that describes your appreciation for the government to Protect Point 7. If you really want to help, write a letter to your MP! Also, you can tweet to #0.7

We will also be going to Parliament to lobby on March 6!

As for Rowing, Women’s Head of the River is on Saturday! I’m looking forward to the 7km race that will test not only my strength, but my determination and will.

I’ll get back to you with more info related to everything soon.

xx Kerry

Bill Gates, Hans Rosling and even Ginny Weasley at The Global Poverty Project

I told you I would update a post after this amazing day, and I like to keep my promises. Here’s a short video that I made to summarize the day in short.

But if you don’t like videos for some reason and prefer a summary in written form, I will provide that for you as well. In my post from a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I was selected to be a Global Poverty Ambassador for the Global Poverty Project for the year 2012. I could not be more excited for what is to come. Today was the launch of the program by the Global Poverty Project and The Co-Operative with Bill Gates and Hans Rosling at the LSE.

This morning, I was extremely nervous. I did not know what to expect for what was to happen today and my nerves were intense. I went to Uni and went up to Shaw Library in Old Building to check in with the GPP and get my shirt, name badge and mingle with the other ambassadors. I won’t go into detail about the mingling that took place so *mingle, mingle, hand-shake, mingle* and then we heard the introduction by Elisha London to the Global Poverty Project. To find out more about the program before I can give you the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation myself, go here.

We then got into a formation for a group ambassadors picture with Bill Gates. This is one of the only times that I do not like being relatively tall, because I had to stand near the back. Bill came in and we all greeted him as we took a couple of photos with the Royal photographer. By the way, he said that his favourite Royal was Prince Harry because he is the most fun to talk to, but apparently Prince William is warming up to conversation. Bill Gates is pretty cool. You would expect a man whose net worth is $59 billion to be pompous and superior, but Bill was certainly not. The group then ventured down to Old Theatre where we took our seats in the lower level to watch the presentation.

What an incredible presentation was in store. I highly encourage you to watch the recorded lecture when it is available on www.globalpovertyproject.com Hans Rosling and Bill Gates gave valuable information related to eradicating poverty, where poverty is going in the next 40 years, and what we can do to stop it. These things range from increasing the education of underprivileged individuals, creating sustainable agriculture, and eliminating Polio and Malaria. Bill Gates presented information from his Annual Letter that you can read here. You can also re-read all of the tweets I posted live from the event in my sidebar or on twitter @kerryrad Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) was also in attendance of this lecture and was at the reception afterward!

After the presentation there was a reception back in Shaw Library to celebrate the UN International Year of Co-Operatives with cake and more mingling. We chatted with Hans Rosling about various things, and he is really exceptional. If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing who he is, I highly encourage you to check out his website at http://www.gapminder.org/

The afternoon had come to a close and I had not only had a life-changing day, but one of the best I have had in a long time. I can genuinely say this week has been absolutely splendid and I hope it can only get better from here. I am really hoping for the best in 2012 and I believe that the best can happen.

I will have a lot more information about the Global Poverty Project and our goals after our training weekend here in London on February 25-26. I plan on making a vlog to present the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation to you all as well. I really encourage you to help me spread the word about extreme poverty around the world by watching my vlogs, reading my blogs, and passing along the link to my blog to your friends and family. Together, we have the power to raise awareness about this global issue and with this awareness we have the opportunity to eradicate extreme poverty.

So, I met Bill Gates, Hans Rosling and Bonnie Wright today. I realised that I have a genuine passion and life-calling for campaigning and advocating for human rights and the eradication of poverty. I even made pumpkin and dark chocolate pancakes and skyped my friend Marshall Wieczorek from the band Wretched.

I hope you had a great day as well.
–Kerry

I could write this tomorrow…

But there’s no time like the present. Many a great things have been happening over the past week and I will fill you in on what they are!

To start off, if you haven’t read my previous post about Blink-182 and how I won two tickets to any show on their European tour, you should probably check that out. That pretty much covers Thursday. Unfortunately the day came to a low point upon finding out that my Grandmother Patricia Chartrand passed away. She had been suffering from a very aggressive brain tumour and it had finally taken over. In a way, I’m glad that it came quickly so that she didn’t have to suffer through the pain but on the other hand, I wish she could have had a bit more coherent time with Grampy. Hopefully all will be well.

Friday wasn’t a very memorable day other than some lovely banter before Macroeconomics class with Caroline, Nikita and Tom. I made sure to have an early night because I was looking forward to a day of rowing on Saturday!

Which obviously brings us to Saturday. Having not been out on the water since the middle of Michaelmas term, it was pretty safe to say I was anxious to get out for some rowing. I woke up a bit early, got a little breakfast and then took the Tube from Southwark to Westminster and then to Turnham Green to meet up with the girls to take the bus to the boat house. After a while of waiting for one of the girls on our crew to show up, we decided to wait inside of the boat house instead of the in the rainy and windy exterior. Then we got the black 8+ out and the rain lifted up a bit. We have two crews set for this term. One crew is training for the Women’s Head of the River on March 3 and the other is training for a race we are doing in Toulouse, France called Supaerowing the weekend of March 9-11. I should be competing on both crews so I have two races to look forward to towards the end of Lent term! Though, if we feel we are prepared enough as the Head crew, we might be racing in the Hammersmith Head on February 19. I thought that I had a very good outing for it being only my second time on the water and I’m looking forward to rapidly improving. If you want to check out the video of our first outing as a set crew here’s the link. CLICK ME!

After our outing, Caroline and I went to Giraffe and boy is that restaurant delicious. We shared Huevos Rancheros and a Cheesebuger with Sweet Potato Fries. We are planning on going back there after our outings on Saturdays for the rest of rowing.

Which brings me to Sunday! And Sunday was a busy day. I woke up to do some work for Monday (hell day) and then made my way over to Hillsong London. Welcome Home. I love Hillsong London with such a passion. This week was my first week serving on the One27 team to make the packs with service information and provision envelopes with pens that go on the seats. Because we have Church in the Dominion Theatre that is usually host to the musical We Will Rock You, it poses a challenge to balance the packs on the arms of the theatre chairs, but I managed to catch the hang of it. After a couple of hours of serving it was time for the 18:00 service, which is widely known as the Young Adults populated service. I was so excited for this week because Pastor Brian Houston, the Head Pastor over all of Hillsong Church who generally lives in Sydney, Australia, was in London to speak to us! It was a great message, great worship, great people. Everything about Hillsong is amazing. If you’re looking for a Church to go to in London, Hillsong is definitely the place to be. If you’re not in London (as I assume most of you aren’t) Hillsong Sydney does a live feed and there are many podcasts that you can find on iTunes. So much love. I’m also really looking forward to Colour Conference in the end of April for the Sisterhood of the Church.

And now it is Monday; the most extravagant day of them all! I started the day off perfectly with scrambled eggs on toast and a cup of joe from Frank’s, which is around the corner from Bankside. I brought last week’s copy of The Economist with me and had a nice 20 minute breakfast session before heading over to Peacock Theatre for Macroeconomics lecture. I was early today, it was very interesting. After lecture, I had a meeting with the other heads of Women’s Rowing to make sure that we were all on the same page with racing and the running of the club. It was very productive. Then, I didn’t have my Research Methods lecture because my professor was ill! (Get well soon Jordi!) Class for Microeconomics followed and then I had lunch with Nikita in the 4th Floor Restaurant where we had Chinese food to celebrate the Chinese New Year! I will most likely go to some of the Chinese New Year festivities in Trafalgar Square this weekend if I have some spare time. After hanging out with Wisconsin (John) for a bit and returning some books from the Library I made my way to Old Gym to record the men’s Erg session times. 3 x 2000m! Some of them rowed in their racing onesies which is always entertaining. Jean pulled a 6:50.1 which was rather impressive for the Novice team. After my ritual of £3 Subway meals, I came back home to go to the gym and do our scheduled Erg session for the day which was titled by Vicky as the 30 minute “Ball-breaker”. And what a treat that was! The pain will be felt tomorrow from 3 sets of 4 minutes at a rate of 20 strokes per minute, 3 minutes rate 24, 2 minutes rate 26 and 1 minute rate 28. All for training and improvement. It will be worth it. It WILL be worth it. Especially when we race in the 7000m Head of the River.

I just realised that I didn’t even get to the best part of today. How silly of me to forget. I filled out an application a couple of weeks ago to be a part of a program called the Global Poverty Ambassadors of 2012. Many of you who know me personally know that I am a big supporter of non-profit organisations focused on human rights and the eradication of poverty. I have been campaigning for the ONE Campaign and Invisible Children for several years and continue to help out where I can. The Global Poverty Project, in conjunction with The Co-Operative, is an educational and campaigning organisation that activates citizens to be a part of the global movement to end extreme poverty. I found out this afternoon that I was selected to be a Global Poverty Ambassador! I will be training to deliver the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation to places in my community and elsewhere. Expect a vlog with the presentation! Not only will I be able to take a step up in my campaigning to fight global poverty, but I will be attending the launch of the Global Poverty Ambassadors at the LSE on Wednesday. You might ask, why is this so exciting? Bill Gates has chosen the launch of the Global Poverty Ambassadors to deliver his Annual Letter! I am incredibly thrilled to be a part of this momentous occasion and you can be a part of it to! Of course, the launch itself is closed to members of the general public, but there will be a live stream of Mr. Gates’ presentation of the Annual Letter and the launch of the Global Poverty Ambassadors! You can watch it HERE on Wednesday January 25 at 13:30-14:30. For you east-coasters that would be 8:30-9:30. It will be an event that you do not want to miss. I assure you I will have an update immediately following the presentation. There are 75 Ambassadors in the first group for the year!

As for tomorrow, because I decided to write this and prolong going to bed (it’s now 2:00am), I will get close to 8 hours of sleep and wake up at 10. Being the lucky duck that I am, I don’t have class or lecture on Tuesday so I don’t have to worry about anything! But because I am in training I am going to go for a run in the morning and then head to Uni to go to Rowing circuits and then get some work done. I’m also going to start a new page on my blog titled, Things I Love About London. Does that sound cheesy? Maybe so, but it’s not going to be your average work of fancy for architecture and such. Stay tuned.

I have included several links throughout this post that can give you more information to the organisations that I am a part of or events that I am taking place in.

That’s all for now!
Update on Wednesday, FOR SURE.

I’m a happy camper.–Kerry