Global Ethics is currently celebrating the milestone of donating £3 million to fund water projects in Africa, giving over 840,000 people access to a clean, sustainable and safe drinking water source. They have funded over 420 Play Pump water systems; these are children’s roundabouts, which pump clear water from deep underground into storage tanks while kids have fun spinning on the Playpump merry-go-round, and over 84 HIV projects and 12 vegetable gardens.

“One” have just launched a fantastic competition to find talented young social entrepreneurs in the UK called “One Big Idea”. The competition aims to find the next social entrepreneur and engage people of all ages to create the next “One” branded ethical product to directly improve the lives of thousands of people in Malawi. The winning product will be launched in selected Co-operative food stores across the UK.

The competition is open to young people nationwide and will be judged by Duncan Bannatyne and Doug Richard amongst others. Commenting on the competition, Duncan Bannatyne said:“The One Big Idea will not only inspire a new generation of social entrepreneurs, but will also show them how they can directly make a difference to communities in Malawi.”

This is an amazing and unique opportunity for an individual to really change lives around the world, the winner will work closely with the Global Ethics team to source their product, put their winning idea into production and produce the media campaign to support it.

To find out more about how to enter the competition, visit www.onebigidea.org.uk

You can enter at home, at school, at work, on your own or as part of a team. So please let everyone know.

I went to an event the other night with a friend of mine. This company, Global Ethics are making a huge impact in Africa. Their play pumps are proving to be a huge success. I met the guy who set it all up. I told him that bloggers could help spread the word.

More than a billion people have no access to clean water and right now there is the worst drought in east Africa in at least a decade. This drought that has affected Kenya and three other countries threatens more than 23m people with starvation. Aid agencies are saying this is the worst disaster in the region for 10 years. It has dried up rivers, shrivelled crops, killed thousands of animals and brought hydro power generation to a halt.

The crisis is most severe in Ethiopia, where nearly 14 million people need food. In Kenya, the figure is just under 5m and in Somalia, where war is compounding food shortages, it is 3.6m.

Here’s the link to their website. Read all about it:- www.onedifference.org

Also if any of you know of any functions/events/festivals/countries/shops that would be interested in stocking the One Water then you should do something about it.

Thanks x

It feels strange to be back. With the memories of that vast, dry, cracked, almost prehistoric African bush enticing you back into a world that existed centuries ago – challenging you to go on a journey back in to your past. Where you feel immensely alive and completely awestruck by the raw, huge, immense, out of control world where you experience nature in it’s most basic form. Where you can sit on the edge of your bed feeling very small and defenceless whilst an enormous Bull elephant rips branches off a tree just oustide your window, having lumbered up from the river to remind you that you are a part of a life force that is so so much bigger than you.

I am not sure how long my vast picture of life is going to last. It appears to be diminishing by the minute. As I write, teenage son is throwing a tennis ball against the wall right in front of my face, relentlessly and my teenage daughter and her friend are on “Singstar” next door and singing horrible songs very loudly and very badly and my youngest son is boredboredbored andthereiscompletelynothingtodoaroundhere and I would quite like to killthemall.