Young charity volunteers cut across the doom and gloom
A free newspaper, created by young people in Glasgow who have volunteered around the world to help people in crisis, was distributed to commuters at the city’s Central Station.
The paper, called World’s Best News, has been created by 18-25 years-olds in response to the refugee crisis to tell people that the UK has got a successful and long history of helping people around the world, no matter where they are from or where they live.
It was coordinated by Bond, the membership body for international development organisations, to highlight the remarkable progress made in the fight against extreme poverty and injustice.
One of the volunteers was Louise McFarlane, 25, from Glasgow, who volunteered with Bond members, International Citizen Service (ICS).
I want to show people in Glasgow that we shouldn’t despair or forget what is going on
She went to Senegal to work in a small town called Kaolack, on a reforestation project, taught English to people of all ages, helped to clean up the local area and distributed mosquito nets and mosquito repellent in local areas.
Louise said: “The levels of passion and energy exerted in Senegal were inspiring and I wanted to carry that over and shout about it from the rooftops in the UK.
“Anyone who has seen the news of the current crisis in Europe and Syria will be wondering where is the good news, but I want to show people in Glasgow that we shouldn’t despair or forget what is going on. Instead we should recognise the success and lessons learned to tackle the current situation.”
The World’s Best News was distributed by over 200 young people across the UK recently at mainline stations in Birmingham, London, Newcastle, Colchester, Bristol and Belfast, as well as Glasgow.
It is a newspaper that features positive stories about international development, progress made since the Millennium Development Goals were created 15 years ago and the new Sustainable Development Goals.
The paper has been produced by Bond with backing from the EU as part of the European Year of Development 2015.
