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Tuesday 27 October 2015

Walk for Freedom with A21


Imagine a normal October Saturday in St Andrews: students, locals and tourists going about their business and enjoying the chilly but sunny weather. Saturday the 17th of October was different.
Imagine a group of more than one hundred people, all dressed in black with tape over their mouths, walking in single file throughout the town. Traffic was stopped, heads were turned and awareness was raised. 





We walk because 27 million people in slavery cannot. 
We walk because 98-99% of people are never rescued. 
We walk because the average age of a trafficking victim is 12 years old.
We walk because every 30 seconds someone is trafficked. 
We walk because 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. 
We walk because 50% of trafficking victims are minors. 

We walk because we can. 







"The Walk For Freedom is our collective effort to heighten awareness of modern-day slavery and raise funds to take us one step closer to ending human trafficking in our lifetime." - The A21 Campaign

It is difficult to think that slavery still happens nowadays, and in our own countries - but it does and you have probably benefited from it. Victims of trafficking are exploited every second of every day. We have the ability and power to change this. 

The A21 campaign aims to abolish injustice in the 21st century.  They have a four pronged strategy against human trafficking: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. I would really recommend taking some time to read their aims and plans for achieving their goal. On the website there are some really good ways for you to help and contribute to the cause. In the next few weeks I want to gather some friends and write letters to victims who have been rescued and are now living in one of the A21 safe houses. Next year the Walk for Freedom will happen on Saturday the 15th of October, join a walk and help raise awareness! 

I have participated in demonstrations before but never anything like this walk. It was an amazing and enlightening experience. Seeing my friends and fellow students being passionate and caring for a very important cause was something I could only pray for. As mentioned in a previous post I have joined a Just Love group at my university and we plan to continue to support The A21 Campaign. 


Your light will rise in the darkness.

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Everyday Emily

You might be familiar with Bees H is for Happy lists on her great blog, Everyday Emily is similar to this, but also pretty different. I want this to be a place I can write about all the great, mediocre and shit things that happen to me. 


Bears Den @ Queens Hall, Edinburgh
If you've not heard of Bears Den I would recommend you immediately start listening to them, they're going to be big. This was my second time seeing them and once again they were amazing. The lead vocals, harmonies and instruments, especially the banjos, combine to create an incredible live performance. Enhanced by acoustic sets, including one where they perform in the audience! A few of my favourite songs are Don't Let The Sun Steal You Away and Stubborn Beast


VSCOcam 
Any budding iPhone photographer or anyone who is on instagram will recognise VSCOcam. I have too many photos on my phone and a good number of them have been edited using the VSCOcam app.The base app is free and the additions are cheap. Follow me here!


Second Year
I have been back at university for a month now, and I am officially an ancient history and archaeology student. Changing my degree was a huge step that my mum wasn't too happy about as I am no longer getting a language degree. However I could not be happier and cannot wait to spend countless weekends in trenches looking for old things. 
This year I've been way more involved in student life and societies, as I have the time to do them now. Excitingly I am part of a new student society called Just Love, which involves looking at human rights injustices from a Christian perspective. Our first event is the Walk for Freedom, which is for a really good cause and hopefully we raise more awareness for it. My workload and general busy-ness this year has increased but it's all good because it's all for a good reason.

Music
I know that I already mentioned music when I wrote about seeing Bears Den but they merited their own section. As part of Coffee House Sessions Luke Sital-Singh came to perform a short set at my universities student union. He was really good and the cafe was packed, although he didn't sing Benediction which is my favourite. I've also loved The Weeknds album Beauty Behind the Madness and Darwin Deez' album Double Down.