A Week in the Woods - Ellen Roberts
‘It’s a funny business raising money through sponsorship, asking people to give you money in exchange for your doing something slightly crazy. Running a marathon is a good one, or maybe a parachute jump (very crazy). I’ve sponsored people not to speak for 24 hours, or how about laying in a bath full of cold baked beans in the middle of Aylesbury?! I was proposing to do something a bit more serious and I wasn’t sure how the idea would be received. I decided to leave home and go and live in the woods for a week, leaving behind as much as I dared of all the things that make our lives easy and comfortable. I wanted to live very simply. This was late June, just before the culmination of the Make Poverty History campaign in Edinburgh and the G8 summit in Gleneagles. We were all hearing the discussions about Africa and to what extent the eight richest nations could afford to help the world’s poorest. It seemed an appropriate moment to focus on just how fortunate we are to be living here in Britain, how comfortable our lives are, and how much we take for granted….’
My dad, Steve Roberts, spent 7 days and 7 nights living in the woods with only a few bare essentials: some string, matches, an old bit of polythene and a saw, a bucket and a cooking pot…….. no tent, no sleeping bag, no cooker. He fetched water from a tap, and ate only what he could gather together and cook on an open fire. A lot of people sponsored him for what was seen as an unusual and challenging activity, and he has raised an impressive total of over £1000 for DiA. But equally, if not more, importantly have been the opportunities that have arisen to engage people in global issues. Steve’s ‘week in the woods’ has sparked off endless discussions amongst friends, family and colleagues, and has created, amongst many of them, a greater consciousness of how much we take for granted in this country.
The next edition of DiA’s magazine will include a more detailed account of Steve’s week, with extracts from his journal.
Ellen Roberts
DiA Development Education Officer
My dad, Steve Roberts, spent 7 days and 7 nights living in the woods with only a few bare essentials: some string, matches, an old bit of polythene and a saw, a bucket and a cooking pot…….. no tent, no sleeping bag, no cooker. He fetched water from a tap, and ate only what he could gather together and cook on an open fire. A lot of people sponsored him for what was seen as an unusual and challenging activity, and he has raised an impressive total of over £1000 for DiA. But equally, if not more, importantly have been the opportunities that have arisen to engage people in global issues. Steve’s ‘week in the woods’ has sparked off endless discussions amongst friends, family and colleagues, and has created, amongst many of them, a greater consciousness of how much we take for granted in this country.
The next edition of DiA’s magazine will include a more detailed account of Steve’s week, with extracts from his journal.
Ellen Roberts
DiA Development Education Officer
posted by Development in Action at 20:25
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