Ebola, FGM, fatalities, FOBT’s, generosity, ortolan, webinars. – Charity Matters Oct/Nov 2014 Issue 57

EBOLA The outbreak of ebola in west Africa, which has already killed more than 4,000 men, women and children, is “the most severe acute health emergency in modern …

PRESSURE ON BARBARISM MOUNTS Campaigners against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are concerned that female babies are being subjected to this …

CHARITY FATALITIES Two people died in August and September while taking part in charity cycle rides.

CRACK COCAINE Calls have been made for more responsible government regulation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOTBs) in bookmakers shops, machines offering …

MOST GENEROUS Citizens of Bedford have been the most generous to the donation website Justgiving.com, with a total of £1,145,967 from a population of 79,150, an …

MONSTROUS MOUTHFUL Some French chefs are campaigning to legalise the hunting and eating of the endangered ortolan songbird, a tiny bunting weighing less …

WEBINARS Charities wanting to share knowledge, ideas, news or advice with their supporters are offered a new hosting and consultancy service for online seminars…

EBOLA

The outbreak of ebola in west Africa, which has already killed more than 4,000 men, women and children, is “the most severe acute health emergency in modern times” with new cases of the deadly virus increasing “exponentially” the World Health Organisation has warned. The virus, transmitted in blood and bodily fluids, attacks every organ in the body and death from multiple organ failure usually occurs within eight or nine days from emergence of the symptoms, which include respiratory problems, high temperatures, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Charity Save the Children has launched an ebola crisis appeal, asking for donations of at least £37, which they say can buy an ebola prevention kit that could save children’s lives.

The UK government has introduced medical screening for airline and Eurostar passengers, calls to the NHS non-emergency 111 number will be screened for possible ebola sufferers and 750 British troops have been sent to Sierra Leone.

PRESSURE ON BARBARISM MOUNTS

Campaigners against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are concerned that female babies are being subjected to this barbaric, dangerous practice, illegal in the UK, before they can speak, so that they cannot tell anyone what has happened to them.

Accordingly staff at two children’s centres in London, who work with pregnant women and new children, are being trained to spot the signs that FGM has been carried out. In its worst form it involves cutting off the clitoris and sewing up the vagina to give the child a guaranteed virginity to men when she is old enough to be forcibly sold into a marriage, sometimes a violent one and sometimes as young as five years old.

Campaigners Plan are running a programme straplined Face up to Violence Against Girls and want to end FGM in a generation. It has been estimated that 140 million girls worldwide have already suffered FGM, with another 3.5 million at risk this year, 65,000 of them in the UK.

CHARITY FATALITIES

Two people died in August and September while taking part in charity cycle rides.

o Kris Cook, 36, suffered a heart attack and died cycling up a steep hill in Guildford, Surrey, during the Prudential RideLondon 100 race in August, to raise money for hospices.

o Anna Roots, 34, a top rower, was hit and killed by a lorry in Sutherland, Scotland, during a Lands End to John O’Groats charity cycle ride in September, to raise money for leukaemia and lymphoma research.

CRACK COCAINE

Calls have been made for more responsible government regulation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOTBs) in bookmakers shops, machines offering touch-screen casino games with the opportunity for gamblers to pump in up to £18,000 per hour.

The FOTBs, the “crack cocaine of gambling”, are thought by charities to be eight times as addictive as any other form of gambling, with two thirds of gamblers only stopping when all their money is gone, an aspect that generates more than £50 billion staked per annum. Like games in casinos the profit, the loss to the gambler, is just a few per cent per game, with total profits per gambler being reliant on them being hooked for long periods of play – the longer they stay the more they lose.

It has been noted that high concentrations of betting shops, and the FOTBs, are in the poorer areas of the country, and the not-for-profit Campaign for Fairer Gambling has estimated that more than £700 million was staked on FOTBs in just 178 betting shops in Birmingham in 2013.

 

MOST GENEROUS

Citizens of Bedford have been the most generous to the donation website Justgiving.com, with a total of £1,145,967 from a population of 79,150, an average of £14.48 per person. Figures per head of population for the rest of the top ten UK towns were:

Cambridge £11.39
Reading £10.74
High Wycombe £10.71
Brentwood £10.07
Woking £9.25
Aberdeen £8.49
Cheltenham £8.42
Watford £7.86
Bristol £6.97

MONSTROUS MOUTHFUL

Some French chefs are campaigning to legalise the hunting and eating of the endangered ortolan songbird, a tiny bunting weighing less than an ounce that is force-fed, killed by drowning in armagnac, and then cooked and eaten nearly whole, with the legs and feet, other hard bits, and the feathers removed so that rich gourmet diners don’t choke on their delicacy.

The French government banned the practise in 1999, imposing a fine of up to £4,000 for anyone caught trapping the birds, or restaurants serving them, and imprisonment for re-offenders. According to Birdlife International this hasn’t stopped a lucrative black market, with up to 30,000 birds a year being illegally taken and sold for more than £100 each, resulting in a reduction in numbers of 90% since 1980.

The chefs say that lifting the ban would stop the black market and bring prices down, but the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) argues that the move would simply increase the slaughter.

Event Organisers Update ISSUE 121 Oct 2014

BONUS FOR DELAYS Train operating companies in the UK are trousering more than £100 million of the £167 million given to them by Network Rail (NR) as compensation…

MORE MEAT AVOIDANCE Organisers may wish to review how they cater for vegetarians and vegans at their events. A recent survey by research firm Mintel …

ROBOTIC FUTURE FOR TUBE? Driverless tube trains are unlikely to be a feature of London Transport until 2030, if at all. The system is currently operated on London’s …

WEDDING NEWS A man and a woman died preparing fireworks for a display at a wedding celebration in Ecclerigg, Cunbria, after an explosion and fire in a shed …

MARRIOTT WORSLEY PARK The four-star Marriott Worsley Park Hotel and Country Club is located close to J13 of the M60 at Worsley, seven miles north-west of …

ART IN MANCHESTER For organisers with cultured delegates the world-class Manchester Art Gallery in Mosley Street offers more than 25,000 works of art, …

BROOKSIE Those who are interested in the era of silent film, and perhaps a very few who are old enough to remember it, will have heard of such femme fatale icons as …

BONUS FOR DELAYS

Train operating companies in the UK are trousering more than £100 million of the £167 million given to them by Network Rail (NR) as compensation for delays and cancellations caused by failures of the track, signals and other parts of the NR infrastructure.

Only an estimated £50 million of the £167 million is actually paid out to train passengers as compensation for delays and cancellations. Continue reading