I have been helping my friend Melissa Day, coordinator of Ipswich Town of Sanctuary, with planning this event and we are very much looking forward to welcoming you to find out more about Town of Sanctuary and enjoying Fairtrade refreshments served during the evening. Melissa has arranged for some very talented performers to entertain us too. It should be an inspirational evening.

Special guests will include:

• The Ice and Fire Theatre Company, performing Asylum Monologues, a first-hand account of the UK’s asylum system in the words of people who have experienced it.
• Nawroz Oramari, a Kurdish singer who incorporates many different languages into his lyrical work
• Inderjit Bhogal, founder and chair of the City of Sanctuary movement and former president of the British Methodist Conference
• Jane Chambers, former Mayor of Ipswich
• Rayon Nelson, an up and coming singer/songwriter
• Ji Park and Nicola Rayworth from Dance East

Entry is free and there will be a free Fairtade buffet too!

For more information, e-mail ipswichtownofsanctuary@googlemail.com.

To find out more about what it means to be a City of Sanctuary, visit www.cityofsanctuary.org.

I hope to see you there.

Fairtrade producer tour blog

Hello to you all. Yesterday was a great day focused around one of my passions –Fairtrade.

We had a special visit from a producer of Fairtrade dried fruits in Uganda. John inspired us with his story of life in Uganda and how Fairtrade is helping his people. You can listen to an interview on BBC Radio Suffolk with John, Celia from The Fairtrade Foundation in London and me. Just follow the link above.

To see more about the visit just click on the Fairtrade Producer tour blog above.

I was delighted to join Lesley Dolphin on her show to take part in some of the celebrations and you can hear this short interview by clicking on the link above.

When we visited the new hospice recently we noticed that every room had a ‘wish list’ of items of furniture and equipment needed to enhance the comfort and effectiveness of the new space so the fund raising carries on …..

It seems the right time to re-visit the poem I wrote last spring as the Appeal was launched:

We Have A Hope…

We have a hope

We have a dream

For you a bigger space

Somewhere hugged by trees

In a restful breeze

A woodland homely place.

 

We have a hope

We have a dream

As this land becomes a site

And hard-hatted men

Will drill again

To get foundations right.

 

We have a hope

We have a dream

The pounds will soon roll in

From climbs and runs

Coffee mornings and buns

’Til £3 million’s in the tin.

 

We have a hope

We have a dream

For you a bigger space

Hugged by the trees

In a restful breeze

Your Treehouse now in place.

God Bless – hope to update soon on further news.   Elaine x

Haven’t done much writing recently and I know I must get back to it. I have been working away on campaign work for Fairtrade and also talking to our local MP with two friends about those suffering because of poverty across our world. We feel the pressure needs to be kept on our government to do all they can to help those struggling every day with such huge basic needs. My MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY band still remains on my wrist; it reminds me there is still much to do if we are to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

I reached a bit of a milestone today, my books have now raised over £4000 in total for the charities I have been supporting since my 1st book was published 10 years ago. This has made me smile!!

Old soldier’s tears silently fall
His suffering we must never ignore
He carries deep scars of atrocities past
Of, sadly, a sometimes forgotten war.

His hands now gnarled, misshapen
Decades past since he held a gun
Or tenderly cradled a dying friend
In foul trenches that saw no sun.

So memories go down amidst poppies
Painfully laid by statue of stone
Where torn apart families remember
Their loved ones who never came home.

Shiny medals glint in the sunshine
Dignified silence of unspoken word
And thoughts of young soldiers still dying
As this world’s battle cries are still heard.

His hope that prayers will be answered
For a day when conflict will cease
Then we will honour the dead by our striving
For a legacy from their loss to be peace.

2007