The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent tens of billions of dollars to fund improvements in global public health. Melinda Gates sits down with Jane Pauley to discuss her long-held commitment to science and data, and how it is vital to combating hunger, maternal and infant mortality and malnutrition, and to improving access to education and family planning.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Microsoft has made $40 billion this year.
2 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters are worth $500 million.
3 According to the United Nations, since 1990 global poverty has doubled.
4 One million children are the number of babies that die on the first day of life.
5 Polio has been eradicated worldwide.
6 The Gates Foundation has been successful in raising the education standards in US.
7 Microsoft wasn’t the first company Melinda got a job offer from.
8 Bill Gates asked Melinda out on a date for the following weekend.
9 Mary Lehman, Melinda’s friend, found Bill a bill dull.
10 Melinda made a point of being a working mum.
11 Melinda doesn’t like being the focus of attention.
12 Melinda got in trouble with the Vatican because of her position on contraceptives.
13 Bill Gates doesn’t devote much time to philanthropic work.
Melinda Gates is a name to reckon with in the world of philanthropy, just as the company started by her husband is a force to reckon with in the tech world, reason enough to sit down with her and him for a Sunday morning conversation.
They are the richest, and among the world’s most influential power couples. The foundation that bears their names has given away nearly $40 billion, so far.
Your name is carved in equal-sized letters in the front. Is it a partnership of equals?
It’s absolutely a partnership of equals, and it’s important to both of us that the world understands that we are running this place together. This is our joint values being played out in the world.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private charity in the world. Its $500 million headquarters was intended to make a statement as bold as its mission. Inside they are literally trying to save the world.
I’ve asked an employee or two if to work here you have to pass an optimism test. Do you?
Well, yes, our work, the number of lives saved, I think just the exposure here would remind you that the plight of the poorest, as tough as it is, is improving. And we get to be a big part of that.
We are seeing progress. And I think that those points of progress are points of light that employees can point to and say, ‘I was part of that. We did change the world. We are changing the world.’
According to the United Nations, since 1990 global poverty has been cut in half. 122 million children’s lives have been saved through immunization, better nutrition and disease prevention, areas in which the Gates Foundation has been a leading funder.
What we’ve done as a world is we’ve done an incredible job of bringing down the number of deaths of children under the age of five, and that’s because of, basically, vaccines getting out there finally, and these malarial bed nets. This is the great thing about math and why data is so important. Not only does Bill like data; I’m a computer scientist. I like data because data tells us where to go and how to act.
For example, 1,000,000.
One million children are the number of babies that die on the first day of life. Can you believe that? Still a million children die on the first day. So now we know we need to work on that piece of the problem.
This number may astonish you: last year there were 37 cases of polio worldwide.
It’s the lowest number of cases we’ve ever had on the planet. And we think by next year we can drive that number to absolutely zero.
The Gates Foundation has a more modest domestic agenda, focused on improving public schools. They’ve invested in charters and promoted education standards. But success has been more elusive.
This is a tough problem. I don’t care how big your philanthropy is. We can set up experiences and points of light in places where we can show what can be done. Ultimately, everything that we’re doing takes government funding to lift it up and to fund it.
Raised in Dallas, Melinda French was valedictorian at a Catholic academy for girls in 1982. Five years later, she graduated from Duke University with degrees in computer science, economics and a masters in business… and a job offer from IBM, when a little known start-up caught her eye.
I came out and interviewed with Microsoft. And I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I have to work at this company. They are changing the world. And if I get an offer, there’s no way I’m not going to take it.’
Speaking of offers, you married the CEO!
Wasn’t… that wasn’t part of my life plan!
I met her at a New York City sales meeting. And then it was only a week or so after that, that I went up to her in the parking lot and asked if she wanted to go out.
A week? Were you ready for that?
No. I wasn’t! When we met, and Bill is CEO of Microsoft and I was, you know, all of 23, he actually, at that first date, asked me out for two weeks from Saturday night. And I said, ‘Two weeks from Saturday night? How could you possibly know what you’re doing? My schedule doesn’t go out that far.’
I thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t she know, she’s hardly met the CEO and he likes her!’
Mary Lehman and Melinda have been best friends since high school.
Did you imagine that she was going to marry him?
No. Probably not then. But I thought, you know, great for her.
She got to see what it was really like. I mean, games and puzzles. We played water volleyball one night in his pool, just the three of us!
What impressed me the most when I met him was just how down-to-earth he was and how fun.
After a seven-year courtship, they married in 1994.
The next year Microsoft released Windows 95, revolutionizing the personal computer, and at 39 years old, Bill Gates was named the Richest Person in the World. The following year, pregnant with their first child, Melinda surprised Bill with news that she meant to be a stay-at-home mom.
Am I right that Bill was supportive but maybe a little surprise himself?
He was surprised, he was definitely surprised. But I said to him, ‘You know, it just doesn’t make sense. You can’t be the CEO and go as hard as you’re going and… somebody has to be at home, right? We didn’t want our children raised by somebody else. I said, ‘You know, if we want them to have the values we have, somebody has to be home.’
Their three children grew up in a 66,000-square-foot mansion overlooking Lake Washington in suburban Seattle. Since creating the foundation in 2000, Bill and Melinda have travelled the world seeking out the places their money can do the most good.
But Melinda shunned the spotlight, until five years ago, when she took on a cause of her own, and discovered how harsh the spotlight can be.
When you think about family planning from the perspective of a woman, it will change the way you think about family planning.
Once you became a public figure, in fact the first time you set foot on the public stage, I believe you discovered how controversial contraceptives can be, as only a Catholic girl who got in trouble with the Vatican over it would know. You got slapped down by the Vatican.
It’s okay. I’m doing the right thing. There are 225 million women asking us for contraceptives. They’re asking us. And I meet women who’d die because they don’t have access to contraceptives. I meet women who beg me to take their children back to the United States. I had a woman say to me, ‘Take two of my children.’ I said, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t.’ She said ‘Well then, take one.’ I mean, these are people living in extreme circumstances. You can’t turn your back on people like that. And so I grew up in the Catholic church that has a social justice mission. In fact, they used to talk about the cries of the poor. I’ve heard the cries of the poor. And we need to give access to women to contraceptives.
What did Bill say? He admits that he thought women’s issues, including contraceptives, were ‘soft’ issues. Now, it’s, like, a priority for him.
It’s a huge priority, because he sees the data.
What do the two of you separately bring to your individual partnership that strengthens your capacities?
We both go out and try and see the people we serve. But she does that even better than I do, does even more of that than I do.
When I come back from a field visit, the first person I want to talk to about on the phone or at home is Bill about it, both to tell him the stories of their lives, but then also for us to put our brains together and say, ‘Well, what else could we do? How could we make it better? Do we really know that what they’re saying to us in the field, does that add up to the data that we’re seeing or not?’
Ultimately the key to the Gates’ legacy may be their philanthropy. Which makes you wonder: Would Bill Gates be having the most impactful second act since Andrew Carnegie without Melinda?
I read this poem that I loved at my high school graduation speech about what a successful life was to me. And it’s to know that one life has breathed easier because you’ve lived. To me, that’s success.
KEY:
1F 2T 3F 4T 5F 6F 7T 8F 9F 10F 11T 12T 13F
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Charity. Mostrar todas las entradas
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martes, 21 de marzo de 2017
martes, 14 de marzo de 2017
Angelina Jolie on divorce, film and Cambodia
Angelina Jolie on her new film First They Killed My Father, based on the genocide in Cambodia, politics and her family.
Self-study activity:
Watch the interview and answer the questions below.
1. What changed Angelina’s life?
2. What happened 40 years ago?
3. In what ways is Angelina related to Cambodia, according to the reporter?
4. What was Angelina’s New Times op-ed piece about?
5. How is Angelina fighting against the intolerance rising in society these days?
6. What does the reporter say Angelina’s film is about?
7. How is Angelina coping after her separation?
8. Where does Angelina see herself in five years’ time?
9. Who’s Angelina sharing her room with?
I'm not here because I'm a director who wanted to make a movie. I'm here because 17 years ago I came to this country and found love with people and learned about its history and in doing so realized how little I actually knew in my early twenties about the world, and so this country for me was my awakening. And my son changed my life. Becoming a Cambodian family changed my life.
So there was never a plan to… we should make this movie. It's just I became a filmmaker and one day I thought what story, what story do I feel is really important to tell? And I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago and… and what happened to these people was not properly understood, and… and not just for the world but for the people of the country. I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it in a way that they could absorb, so it's through the eyes of a child and it's a lot about love.
Do you think, though, this nation is ready for that?
I hope so. Yes, I do… I, I wouldn't have… when I… when I first started coming here… there's so much that’s changed. When many people spoke about this, 15-20 years ago, you know, since that happened there are many people denying the history or saying it wasn't as bad or trying to…, of course, many people want to forget or it's just the horrors, the horrors of war and you just simply…
I mean, it's interesting you say that, you know, this is a country which would have… is very much part of your own personal journey. Do you think that in many ways you've come full circle? You know, your humanitarian work started here, you became a mother here, that perhaps this is some sort of crossroads for you, it's come back here.
Yeah, yeah. I’ll always… I’ll always be very grateful to this country, and I hope, I hope I've given back as much as it's given me. I don't think I ever could give back as much as this country’s given me.
You wrote a New Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago and you spoke about having a truly international family. You said that the refugee policy should be about fact not fear. You also said that we shouldn't be departing from our values. Can you tell me what you meant by that?
It's funny, isn't it, some questions seem so obvious, don't they, you know, it's just… it’s these things we talk about and we… and we hear them spoken about often now, you know, what… what… what are our values? I value life equally, every single individual life. I don't separate people by race, colour, religion, and I… and and if I do, it’s because I celebrate the diversity in the world.
But we are seeing this rise of populist leaders, right, around the world. Do you think it's creating a more intolerant society?
This is… this is an old, an old trick and… and we should know better than to fall for it. And I see it, and I see it rising, and the only thing I can do is to use my voice and encourage others and raise my children to know right and wrong and to have a broad view of the world and… and to embrace their diversity and other people’s and and respect others. And I think that all we can do now is, each and every person, each… each one of your listeners, each one, we all just have to be the best of ourselves. If not… if not now more than ever we really have to rise up and find our rational center, our who are we and what do we stand for. And we know it, we know what's right and wrong.
If I take it back to your… your film, your film is about family and loss. I understand this is a very sensitive issue. We know that an incident occurred which led to your separation. We also know you haven't said anything about this. Would you like to say something?
Only that… I don't want to say very much about that, except to say that it was a very difficult time and… and we are a family, and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and… and hopefully be a stronger family for it.
Can I ask how you’re coping?
I'm… I'm… many… many people find themselves in a situation and this kind of… you know, my whole… my family we're all… we've all been through a difficult time, you know it's not… my focus is my children, our children and… and it is them and my focus is finding this… this… this way through, and as I said, we are… we are and forever will be a family, and so that is my… that is how I'm coping. I'm coping with… with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.
This film is a combination of… of passions: Filmmaking as an art, your humanitarian work. In say, five years’ time, where would you like to see yourself? Where do you think you’ll be?
Five years time. Do I have all teenagers?
You have all teenagers at this stage.
At that stage, I hope just standing. Yeah, in five years’ time I would like to be travelling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they're just happy and doing really interesting things. And I imagine in many different parts of the world and I’ll be supporting them and everything I do I hope is that I represent something and I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they're capable of and… and… and the world as it should be seen, not… not through the prism of… of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life, but really take them into the world where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.
What do you really want to do when you wake up first thing in the morning?
Get through the day. It's been a difficult few months. Right now, I'm going through a moment where there's just everybody's in my room, two hamsters, two dogs and two children at the moment, so it's wonderful but it's a… yes so usually I just wake up trying to figure out who's going to get the dog out, who’s going to start the pancakes and did anybody brush their teeth?
KEY:
1 Becoming a Cambodian family
2 The war in Cambodia
3 Her humanitarian work started there, she became a mother in Cambodia
4 About her having an international family, about how American values should be about celebrating diversity and not being afraid of diversity
5 By using her voice to denounce the situation and raising her children to be tolerant
6 Family and loss
7 By making sure that her family is stronger and closer together
8 Travelling around the world visiting her children and supporting them and continuing doing things her children feel proud of
9 two hamsters, two dogs and two children
Self-study activity:
Watch the interview and answer the questions below.
1. What changed Angelina’s life?
2. What happened 40 years ago?
3. In what ways is Angelina related to Cambodia, according to the reporter?
4. What was Angelina’s New Times op-ed piece about?
5. How is Angelina fighting against the intolerance rising in society these days?
6. What does the reporter say Angelina’s film is about?
7. How is Angelina coping after her separation?
8. Where does Angelina see herself in five years’ time?
9. Who’s Angelina sharing her room with?
I'm not here because I'm a director who wanted to make a movie. I'm here because 17 years ago I came to this country and found love with people and learned about its history and in doing so realized how little I actually knew in my early twenties about the world, and so this country for me was my awakening. And my son changed my life. Becoming a Cambodian family changed my life.
So there was never a plan to… we should make this movie. It's just I became a filmmaker and one day I thought what story, what story do I feel is really important to tell? And I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago and… and what happened to these people was not properly understood, and… and not just for the world but for the people of the country. I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it in a way that they could absorb, so it's through the eyes of a child and it's a lot about love.
Do you think, though, this nation is ready for that?
I hope so. Yes, I do… I, I wouldn't have… when I… when I first started coming here… there's so much that’s changed. When many people spoke about this, 15-20 years ago, you know, since that happened there are many people denying the history or saying it wasn't as bad or trying to…, of course, many people want to forget or it's just the horrors, the horrors of war and you just simply…
I mean, it's interesting you say that, you know, this is a country which would have… is very much part of your own personal journey. Do you think that in many ways you've come full circle? You know, your humanitarian work started here, you became a mother here, that perhaps this is some sort of crossroads for you, it's come back here.
Yeah, yeah. I’ll always… I’ll always be very grateful to this country, and I hope, I hope I've given back as much as it's given me. I don't think I ever could give back as much as this country’s given me.
You wrote a New Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago and you spoke about having a truly international family. You said that the refugee policy should be about fact not fear. You also said that we shouldn't be departing from our values. Can you tell me what you meant by that?
It's funny, isn't it, some questions seem so obvious, don't they, you know, it's just… it’s these things we talk about and we… and we hear them spoken about often now, you know, what… what… what are our values? I value life equally, every single individual life. I don't separate people by race, colour, religion, and I… and and if I do, it’s because I celebrate the diversity in the world.
But we are seeing this rise of populist leaders, right, around the world. Do you think it's creating a more intolerant society?
This is… this is an old, an old trick and… and we should know better than to fall for it. And I see it, and I see it rising, and the only thing I can do is to use my voice and encourage others and raise my children to know right and wrong and to have a broad view of the world and… and to embrace their diversity and other people’s and and respect others. And I think that all we can do now is, each and every person, each… each one of your listeners, each one, we all just have to be the best of ourselves. If not… if not now more than ever we really have to rise up and find our rational center, our who are we and what do we stand for. And we know it, we know what's right and wrong.
If I take it back to your… your film, your film is about family and loss. I understand this is a very sensitive issue. We know that an incident occurred which led to your separation. We also know you haven't said anything about this. Would you like to say something?
Only that… I don't want to say very much about that, except to say that it was a very difficult time and… and we are a family, and we will always be a family, and we will get through this time and… and hopefully be a stronger family for it.
Can I ask how you’re coping?
I'm… I'm… many… many people find themselves in a situation and this kind of… you know, my whole… my family we're all… we've all been through a difficult time, you know it's not… my focus is my children, our children and… and it is them and my focus is finding this… this… this way through, and as I said, we are… we are and forever will be a family, and so that is my… that is how I'm coping. I'm coping with… with finding a way through to make sure that this somehow makes us stronger and closer.
This film is a combination of… of passions: Filmmaking as an art, your humanitarian work. In say, five years’ time, where would you like to see yourself? Where do you think you’ll be?
Five years time. Do I have all teenagers?
You have all teenagers at this stage.
At that stage, I hope just standing. Yeah, in five years’ time I would like to be travelling around the world visiting my children, hoping that they're just happy and doing really interesting things. And I imagine in many different parts of the world and I’ll be supporting them and everything I do I hope is that I represent something and I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they're capable of and… and… and the world as it should be seen, not… not through the prism of… of Hollywood or through a certain kind of life, but really take them into the world where they have a really good sense and become rounded people.
What do you really want to do when you wake up first thing in the morning?
Get through the day. It's been a difficult few months. Right now, I'm going through a moment where there's just everybody's in my room, two hamsters, two dogs and two children at the moment, so it's wonderful but it's a… yes so usually I just wake up trying to figure out who's going to get the dog out, who’s going to start the pancakes and did anybody brush their teeth?
KEY:
1 Becoming a Cambodian family
2 The war in Cambodia
3 Her humanitarian work started there, she became a mother in Cambodia
4 About her having an international family, about how American values should be about celebrating diversity and not being afraid of diversity
5 By using her voice to denounce the situation and raising her children to be tolerant
6 Family and loss
7 By making sure that her family is stronger and closer together
8 Travelling around the world visiting her children and supporting them and continuing doing things her children feel proud of
9 two hamsters, two dogs and two children
martes, 7 de marzo de 2017
The power of volunteering
Learn how volunteering can benefit your community and change lives - including your own! Real volunteers from the San Francisco Bay Area give advice on how to overcome barriers to volunteering and finding the right volunteer experience for you.
Self-study activity:
No task today set for this video on volunteering. Watch the video through and try to understand as much as possible about the backgrounds, the volunteer projects and the motivation behind all the volunteers in the video.
There’s such power in any individual giving up their time in service to others, it’s so inspiring, it’s really what is the underpinning of our community.
Being able to have a strong community, making sure that people are proud of that place in which they live, that take care of one another. It all has to do with building those connections and what better way to do that than just start volunteering?
Once we step outside, things we are doing to help ourselves and think about what do you think we can do to help others? That's volunteering.
Volunteers look like me, they look like you. They look like the people that you past on the street.
I am a marketing professional.
I am a paediatrician.
I am a non-profit professional.
I am the founder of a technology consulting company.
I volunteer with girls on the run as a running buddy.
I volunteer with the San Francisco bicycle coalition.
I am scientist and an environmentalist.
I am an openly gay elected official.
I volunteer at my citadel.
I am a daughter of immigrant parents.
I volunteer for Sunday streets.
I am a member of the board of director of Shanti.
I am a partner with Deloitte.
I volunteer for the American Red Cross here in San Francisco.
There is no one right way to volunteer. There are as many different ways to volunteer as there are people willing to volunteer.
But I think what unites the description I would say of a volunteer is someone who cares, someone who wants to be involved, someone who wants to give something back.
I care about people and I care about the environment.
I care about eradicating poverty.
I care about the quality.
I care deeply about the people who are on the fringe of our society.
I care about education.
I care about animals, especially puppies.
I passionate about kids.
I care that people have a home and have food.
Sometimes it is easy to get just into the daily grind and by volunteering, it helps me break out of that and, you know, it makes me frustrated because of all the world’s problems, I can go and do something about it. I can go volunteer.
I think the best thing about volunteering is making a difference in me.
Brings the best thing out of people and you make some really lifetime friendships doing this.
Really learning more about what I can push myself to do.
It is an excellent way to spend your time and retirement.
The sheer joy of building something with someone and seeing the results of that.
You will meet people you would never have met otherwise, you will see a different side of life.
There’s things I’ve learned that I have applied to my home life, my business life.
We have an obligation to build trust in the community that affords us so much.
The advantage of having a workplace volunteer programme is that employees are energized when they come back to the office.
It is great way to connect with my employees outside of the office.
It is very important that businesses support the communities that they do business in and that those communities are healthy and they thrive. And volunteering is the one of the best way to do that.
And you can know at the end of the day, you did something. And you did something to change a life, you did something to change your community.
Volunteering isn't always easy, but it’s always worth it.
The most challenging thing about volunteering is there are so many in need but only one of you.
You see non-profit and you see community organizers with really limited resources and that's, that’s hard to see.
Sometimes you feel like you can’t go far enough. You know, the need is always stretching way out in front of you.
I think folks don’t realize how impactful a little bit of their time can be.
I think the biggest thing that stops people from volunteering is fear that they just don’t have enough time. My feeling is if you look at the rest of your life and how busy you are, you could say that about lots of thing you do.
But if you make this a priority in your life, you’ll find time for it and actually the other things in your life will become much better too.
I’ve tried to find a way to connect my different worlds, my personal life, my business life, my volunteer activities all together.
I think once you are there, you don’t think about it in terms of time "Oh, I am gonna to be here for two more hours". You think of it in terms of what you’re doing.
Forget your calendar and be honest with yourself, be honest with the organization. Tell them what you can do and tell them what you can’t do.
There are organizations that can work with any number of scheduling challenges. We just have to be open to being flexible, to working our schedule around the need.
The hardest thing about volunteering can be finding the right fit.
People should understand or get a better feel for what they like doing in life and then finding a volunteer opportunity that will satisfy that.
Take something that you are interested in or think you may be interested in and try it. And try it not just once, but try it couple times.
What problem do you see in your community? What do you see that you wanna solve? Because I can guarantee you there is someone working on that and they can use your help.
There are a million different ways you can make a difference. Pick any one of those, and go for it.
The first step is always just asking what it is that you can do to help.
Even a couple of hours on the weekend or during the weekday, maybe your lunchtime. All of that matters.
The opportunities are there. All we need to do is look for them. It’s a click away.
For those of you who are wondering how to volunteer, what to get involved with, you only need one website.
www.thevolunteercenter.net
They can get you involved in all kinds of things across the Bay Area, where you can make a difference.
For people who haven’t volunteered yet, they just haven’t met the right connection. The Volunteer Center is here to help you make that connection.
Let the Volunteer Center connect you to a cause you love.
I am a volunteer.
Self-study activity:
No task today set for this video on volunteering. Watch the video through and try to understand as much as possible about the backgrounds, the volunteer projects and the motivation behind all the volunteers in the video.
There’s such power in any individual giving up their time in service to others, it’s so inspiring, it’s really what is the underpinning of our community.
Being able to have a strong community, making sure that people are proud of that place in which they live, that take care of one another. It all has to do with building those connections and what better way to do that than just start volunteering?
Once we step outside, things we are doing to help ourselves and think about what do you think we can do to help others? That's volunteering.
Volunteers look like me, they look like you. They look like the people that you past on the street.
I am a marketing professional.
I am a paediatrician.
I am a non-profit professional.
I am the founder of a technology consulting company.
I volunteer with girls on the run as a running buddy.
I volunteer with the San Francisco bicycle coalition.
I am scientist and an environmentalist.
I am an openly gay elected official.
I volunteer at my citadel.
I am a daughter of immigrant parents.
I volunteer for Sunday streets.
I am a member of the board of director of Shanti.
I am a partner with Deloitte.
I volunteer for the American Red Cross here in San Francisco.
There is no one right way to volunteer. There are as many different ways to volunteer as there are people willing to volunteer.
But I think what unites the description I would say of a volunteer is someone who cares, someone who wants to be involved, someone who wants to give something back.
I care about people and I care about the environment.
I care about eradicating poverty.
I care about the quality.
I care deeply about the people who are on the fringe of our society.
I care about education.
I care about animals, especially puppies.
I passionate about kids.
I care that people have a home and have food.
Sometimes it is easy to get just into the daily grind and by volunteering, it helps me break out of that and, you know, it makes me frustrated because of all the world’s problems, I can go and do something about it. I can go volunteer.
I think the best thing about volunteering is making a difference in me.
Brings the best thing out of people and you make some really lifetime friendships doing this.
Really learning more about what I can push myself to do.
It is an excellent way to spend your time and retirement.
The sheer joy of building something with someone and seeing the results of that.
You will meet people you would never have met otherwise, you will see a different side of life.
There’s things I’ve learned that I have applied to my home life, my business life.
We have an obligation to build trust in the community that affords us so much.
The advantage of having a workplace volunteer programme is that employees are energized when they come back to the office.
It is great way to connect with my employees outside of the office.
It is very important that businesses support the communities that they do business in and that those communities are healthy and they thrive. And volunteering is the one of the best way to do that.
And you can know at the end of the day, you did something. And you did something to change a life, you did something to change your community.
Volunteering isn't always easy, but it’s always worth it.
The most challenging thing about volunteering is there are so many in need but only one of you.
You see non-profit and you see community organizers with really limited resources and that's, that’s hard to see.
Sometimes you feel like you can’t go far enough. You know, the need is always stretching way out in front of you.
I think folks don’t realize how impactful a little bit of their time can be.
I think the biggest thing that stops people from volunteering is fear that they just don’t have enough time. My feeling is if you look at the rest of your life and how busy you are, you could say that about lots of thing you do.
But if you make this a priority in your life, you’ll find time for it and actually the other things in your life will become much better too.
I’ve tried to find a way to connect my different worlds, my personal life, my business life, my volunteer activities all together.
I think once you are there, you don’t think about it in terms of time "Oh, I am gonna to be here for two more hours". You think of it in terms of what you’re doing.
Forget your calendar and be honest with yourself, be honest with the organization. Tell them what you can do and tell them what you can’t do.
There are organizations that can work with any number of scheduling challenges. We just have to be open to being flexible, to working our schedule around the need.
The hardest thing about volunteering can be finding the right fit.
People should understand or get a better feel for what they like doing in life and then finding a volunteer opportunity that will satisfy that.
Take something that you are interested in or think you may be interested in and try it. And try it not just once, but try it couple times.
What problem do you see in your community? What do you see that you wanna solve? Because I can guarantee you there is someone working on that and they can use your help.
There are a million different ways you can make a difference. Pick any one of those, and go for it.
The first step is always just asking what it is that you can do to help.
Even a couple of hours on the weekend or during the weekday, maybe your lunchtime. All of that matters.
The opportunities are there. All we need to do is look for them. It’s a click away.
For those of you who are wondering how to volunteer, what to get involved with, you only need one website.
www.thevolunteercenter.net
They can get you involved in all kinds of things across the Bay Area, where you can make a difference.
For people who haven’t volunteered yet, they just haven’t met the right connection. The Volunteer Center is here to help you make that connection.
Let the Volunteer Center connect you to a cause you love.
I am a volunteer.
lunes, 27 de febrero de 2017
Listening test: A former refugee
Listen to a CBC interview with Muuxi Adam, a former Somali refugee in
Canada, and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each
sentence.
1 Muuxi Adam moved to Canada
A 16 years ago.
B at 16.
C in 2008.
2 Humankind International
A collects money to help school refugee children.
B has 150 children enrolled.
C was founded in Kenya.
3 Muuxi opened the school because
A that had always been his plan.
B he was asked to do so.
C working with the youth is very important.
4 Muuxi thinks education
A doesn’t really provide opportunities to children in poor countries.
B is important everywhere.
C is less important in poor countries than in rich countries.
5 Children in refugee camps will have a better future if
A their brain develops normally.
B their life is well structured.
C they are active.
6 To raise money Muuxi
A cooks the Refugee Day Dinner.
B makes schoolchildren aware of the problem.
C organises a race on 20th June.
7 Muuxi Adam wants to attract the attention of
A children.
B governmental associations.
C ordinary people.
Hi I'm Marcy Markusa and you're listening to CBC. Muuxi Adam is a former Somali refugee who came to Canada at the age of sixteen to start a new new life. He now considers it his job to help other refugees in Africa. In 2008, Muuxi and two other former African refugees started an organization called Humankind International. The organization raised money to start the first ever preschool in the largest refugee camp in Kenya. By June of this year he hopes to have 150 children enrolled but the need is much higher. There are over 100,000 kids in the camp who are the right age for preschool. So Muuxi is working to raise more money so more children can attend. Muuxi was recently in Kenya to open the preschool and he’s my guest today.
What motivated you to open this school Muuxi?
Well I think I was just responding to what the community wanted, and I think, you know, listening to the people, what they want and just being able to provide that I think is is just tremendously a good feeling. Ah when when we did the assessment in back 2008, I had a different plan, I was trying to help the youth because that’s the only way, or the only thing that I know very well is to work with youth, and so I was trying to do something for youth, then I listened to the community needs and what they wanted and it was completely the opposite. Ah they wanted something for preschoolers because there was none at all and I was quite shocked.
What kind of a difference do you hope that at least giving, giving some of these kids a school experience will make in their life?
Well, like, you know, I think it’s it’s gonna make a big difference that you know, simple reason is that education is you know for all and education provides kids with you know opportunities that otherwise that wouldn’t exist and I think that is the same reason why we send all our children here to go to school and and to learn is because they are the future of tomorrow and they are an investment and I think when we provide some sort of education for these kids in refugee camp, you know, especially in this critical age, where they’re so active, when they want to learn and their, you know, brain is developing and they are young and I think just to expose that, some structure and stability with the good nutrition, some sense of love and a caring environment and and when you provide that it will just help for them, you know, have a better future.
How have you been raising the money Muuxi here?
I’ve been going to different schools, I’ve been going to, you know, events. We just raising, you know, we have a a June 20th dinner or a Refugee Day dinner and this is the kind of thing that we’ve been doing as a fundraiser.
Really grassroots.
Just the grassroots, we haven’t got any grants or anything like that but our goal is just to, you know, people touch, you know, connect people because there are a lot of good people in Winnipeg that really want to make a difference and when they see, you know, that they can help and they can contribute, I think that’s what’s what, you know, makes us unique in our province. We’re generous people, we like to help, because we know that when we help one kid, we’re helping the whole community in general.
KEY:
1B 2A 3B 4B 5B 6B 7C
Source: CBC Learning English
1 Muuxi Adam moved to Canada
A 16 years ago.
B at 16.
C in 2008.
2 Humankind International
A collects money to help school refugee children.
B has 150 children enrolled.
C was founded in Kenya.
3 Muuxi opened the school because
A that had always been his plan.
B he was asked to do so.
C working with the youth is very important.
4 Muuxi thinks education
A doesn’t really provide opportunities to children in poor countries.
B is important everywhere.
C is less important in poor countries than in rich countries.
5 Children in refugee camps will have a better future if
A their brain develops normally.
B their life is well structured.
C they are active.
6 To raise money Muuxi
A cooks the Refugee Day Dinner.
B makes schoolchildren aware of the problem.
C organises a race on 20th June.
7 Muuxi Adam wants to attract the attention of
A children.
B governmental associations.
C ordinary people.
Photo: Muuxi Adam on Humankind International
Hi I'm Marcy Markusa and you're listening to CBC. Muuxi Adam is a former Somali refugee who came to Canada at the age of sixteen to start a new new life. He now considers it his job to help other refugees in Africa. In 2008, Muuxi and two other former African refugees started an organization called Humankind International. The organization raised money to start the first ever preschool in the largest refugee camp in Kenya. By June of this year he hopes to have 150 children enrolled but the need is much higher. There are over 100,000 kids in the camp who are the right age for preschool. So Muuxi is working to raise more money so more children can attend. Muuxi was recently in Kenya to open the preschool and he’s my guest today.
What motivated you to open this school Muuxi?
Well I think I was just responding to what the community wanted, and I think, you know, listening to the people, what they want and just being able to provide that I think is is just tremendously a good feeling. Ah when when we did the assessment in back 2008, I had a different plan, I was trying to help the youth because that’s the only way, or the only thing that I know very well is to work with youth, and so I was trying to do something for youth, then I listened to the community needs and what they wanted and it was completely the opposite. Ah they wanted something for preschoolers because there was none at all and I was quite shocked.
What kind of a difference do you hope that at least giving, giving some of these kids a school experience will make in their life?
Well, like, you know, I think it’s it’s gonna make a big difference that you know, simple reason is that education is you know for all and education provides kids with you know opportunities that otherwise that wouldn’t exist and I think that is the same reason why we send all our children here to go to school and and to learn is because they are the future of tomorrow and they are an investment and I think when we provide some sort of education for these kids in refugee camp, you know, especially in this critical age, where they’re so active, when they want to learn and their, you know, brain is developing and they are young and I think just to expose that, some structure and stability with the good nutrition, some sense of love and a caring environment and and when you provide that it will just help for them, you know, have a better future.
How have you been raising the money Muuxi here?
I’ve been going to different schools, I’ve been going to, you know, events. We just raising, you know, we have a a June 20th dinner or a Refugee Day dinner and this is the kind of thing that we’ve been doing as a fundraiser.
Really grassroots.
Just the grassroots, we haven’t got any grants or anything like that but our goal is just to, you know, people touch, you know, connect people because there are a lot of good people in Winnipeg that really want to make a difference and when they see, you know, that they can help and they can contribute, I think that’s what’s what, you know, makes us unique in our province. We’re generous people, we like to help, because we know that when we help one kid, we’re helping the whole community in general.
KEY:
1B 2A 3B 4B 5B 6B 7C
martes, 24 de enero de 2017
Meet the women who teach financial skills to the homeless
Anita Saville and Kathy Brough formed Budget Buddies in 2010 to help homeless women lift themselves out of poverty. Learn how they created a network of everyday financial coaches who support low-income women in learning money management and achieving self-sufficiency.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 Name two reasons why women end up in poverty
2 Who are the buddies?
3 Where did Kathy start volunteering 23 years ago?
4 What work does Anita do? What work does Kathy do?
5 Apart from financial workshops, what other workshops are organised?
6 Why did they manage to get so many professional to volunteer for their project in the first couple of years?
7 What do ‘275’ and ‘400’ refer to?
So, Nancy is coming back to us to coach. I believe this is her seventh time coaching.
Wow.
Well I have somebody here who says that they don’t know how to make a budget, they don’t have a bank account.
I wonder if we should put her with a tough buddy.
Okay.
A lot of women end up in poverty for various reasons. Their families have been living in poverty for years, and years, and years. They have little financial education. Then you couple that with poor role models, lots of personal financial challenges, and women are just overwhelmed by, by money issues.
Jasmine Torros, she wants to get her life back on track.
Budget Buddies provides financial education for low-income women through an innovative program that combines 12 instructional workshops with one-to-one coaching. The women who are the clients, who come to us through social service agencies, we call them the buddies.
You don’t have to have a financial background to be a coach in Budget Buddies. You just have to care about women helping women.I’ve always done finance and operations for small businesses. 23 years ago I started volunteering at a homeless shelter and became a client advocate ’cause I felt I could offer them help applying for benefits.
I worked for Fidelity Investments as an editor, but, while I was writing for upper income and middle-income folks, what was happening for the folks who didn’t have advice on how to manage their money?
We realized that we worked pretty well together and we complemented each other in terms of the things that we liked to do.
Yes. It’s lucky that, you know, I don’t like the podium and Anita does. So I do the finances and she does the writing so, perfect.All workshops are about an hour and they’re scheduled every two weeks. On the in between week the coach and her buddy can meet and apply what they learned in the workshop to the buddy’s individual financial situation. We also have workshops that deal with self-esteem, changing behavior, and really giving the women the confidence that they need in order to be able to go on and manage their money after Budget Buddies stops.
The first couple of years it’s hard to convince funders that you’re going to be around, because you’re the new kid on the block and we started our organization just at the top of the recession so people were laid off, people were, you know, they were closing nonprofits. That actually worked to our benefit because a lot of professionals who were out of work said, “Well, what am I going to do with myself? Well, I’ll go volunteer,” so they brought their professional talent in.
And they’ve been meeting with them about Budget Buddies, they’ve been trying to talk to them about their goals.
Great.
Yes.
It was like a learning base between the both of us, you know. Step by step. Like I’ve shown her stuff, she’s shown me stuff, you know, we kind of give and take.
There’s a tradition we have at graduation. Because it’s the last night that the group is going to be together, we have the buddy say something to the coach and the coach say something to the buddy.
Our graduations are very special. We get to every graduation.
You have done something that a lot of people never do. Never make a budget, never really put money away for savings, never track their expenses to see how much they’re spending. So you are so far ahead of most of the people in this country. And for that, we give you applause.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 Name two reasons why women end up in poverty
2 Who are the buddies?
3 Where did Kathy start volunteering 23 years ago?
4 What work does Anita do? What work does Kathy do?
5 Apart from financial workshops, what other workshops are organised?
6 Why did they manage to get so many professional to volunteer for their project in the first couple of years?
7 What do ‘275’ and ‘400’ refer to?
So, Nancy is coming back to us to coach. I believe this is her seventh time coaching.
Wow.
Well I have somebody here who says that they don’t know how to make a budget, they don’t have a bank account.
I wonder if we should put her with a tough buddy.
Okay.
A lot of women end up in poverty for various reasons. Their families have been living in poverty for years, and years, and years. They have little financial education. Then you couple that with poor role models, lots of personal financial challenges, and women are just overwhelmed by, by money issues.
Jasmine Torros, she wants to get her life back on track.
Budget Buddies provides financial education for low-income women through an innovative program that combines 12 instructional workshops with one-to-one coaching. The women who are the clients, who come to us through social service agencies, we call them the buddies.
You don’t have to have a financial background to be a coach in Budget Buddies. You just have to care about women helping women.I’ve always done finance and operations for small businesses. 23 years ago I started volunteering at a homeless shelter and became a client advocate ’cause I felt I could offer them help applying for benefits.
I worked for Fidelity Investments as an editor, but, while I was writing for upper income and middle-income folks, what was happening for the folks who didn’t have advice on how to manage their money?
We realized that we worked pretty well together and we complemented each other in terms of the things that we liked to do.
Yes. It’s lucky that, you know, I don’t like the podium and Anita does. So I do the finances and she does the writing so, perfect.All workshops are about an hour and they’re scheduled every two weeks. On the in between week the coach and her buddy can meet and apply what they learned in the workshop to the buddy’s individual financial situation. We also have workshops that deal with self-esteem, changing behavior, and really giving the women the confidence that they need in order to be able to go on and manage their money after Budget Buddies stops.
The first couple of years it’s hard to convince funders that you’re going to be around, because you’re the new kid on the block and we started our organization just at the top of the recession so people were laid off, people were, you know, they were closing nonprofits. That actually worked to our benefit because a lot of professionals who were out of work said, “Well, what am I going to do with myself? Well, I’ll go volunteer,” so they brought their professional talent in.
And they’ve been meeting with them about Budget Buddies, they’ve been trying to talk to them about their goals.
Great.
Yes.
It was like a learning base between the both of us, you know. Step by step. Like I’ve shown her stuff, she’s shown me stuff, you know, we kind of give and take.
There’s a tradition we have at graduation. Because it’s the last night that the group is going to be together, we have the buddy say something to the coach and the coach say something to the buddy.
Our graduations are very special. We get to every graduation.
You have done something that a lot of people never do. Never make a budget, never really put money away for savings, never track their expenses to see how much they’re spending. So you are so far ahead of most of the people in this country. And for that, we give you applause.
Key:
1 little financial
education, poor role models, lots of personal financial challenges
2 The women who are
the clients, who come to us through social service agencies
3 at a homeless shelter
4 Kathy does the
finances and Anita does the writing
5 workshops to give
women self-esteem, confidence and change their behaviour
6 Because of the
recession there were a lot of professionals out of work
7 The programme has
trained 275 coaches to help more than 400 buddies.
viernes, 30 de diciembre de 2016
London coffee shop gives the homeless a second shot at life
From pastry chef to heroin addict and now trainee barista, Ecevit Tihsinhatga is rebuilding his life, through his job at Second Shot Coffee shop.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 When did Julius Ibrahim move to London?
2 What passions does he mention?
3 How did Ecevit Tahsin end up living in the street?
4 What did he start using while he was on the streets?
5 How long has he been working at Second Shot?
6 What’s Emilio’s responsibility at Second Shot?
7 What does Second Shot also give to the homeless, apart from training people?
8 What was the increase in the number of people living on the streets in England last year?
We take people here at face value, we don’t judge, whoever you are, whatever you need, if we can help, we will.
In East London, a coffee shop has opened, employing people who have experienced homelessness in the past. Second Shot was founded by Julius Ibrahim. He dropped out of university and started a crowd fund campaign to get the social enterprise off the ground.
I moved to London in 2013 and I was just kind of surprised that there wasn’t anything more being done to alleviate the problem. So, I just wanted to kind of do something and the raise the profile of the issue, really and yeah, I just had a passion for coffee and passion for the industry.
Ecevit Tahsin, also known as Edge, works at Second Shot.
My own experience of homelessness is a very dark, very cold place. I used to be a pastry chef. I was with a partner at the time. I came home one night from work to find that she was messing about with someone in the house. We split up and because everything was in her name, I ended up on the streets. If you can imagine winter, freezing cold in a sleeping bag, trying to keep warm, trying to sleep.
During his time on the streets, Edge started using heroin.
Being on the drugs, I’m not gonna say it helped me, but it makes you numb, so you don’t feel what’s going on around you. But once my family found out I was on drugs, they kind of pushed me away. Nobody really understood me, what I was going through, what I was feeling and I was very isolated.
Edge managed to get himself off heroin and after living in hostels and temporary accommodation, he’s now being given his own flat. He’s been working at Second Shot since it opened in May 2016.
Being here has really given me a sense of purpose and helping me to re-establish my life.
Emilio is the head of coffee at Second Shot. He’s been training the homeless employees working at the café.
We started the training two weeks before we open. The idea of working with people who have been under a lot of like disadvantages, and they don’t trust people, you see, they don’t, they have a lot of issues in terms of like they don’t think that they are good enough for anything. We are trying to get the best coffee we can and at the same time helping the community around here.
As well as training people who’ve lived on the streets, Second Shot also gives free food and drink to the homeless.
With our loyalty card, after six times, each customer can get a free coffee but if they want to after three, what you can do is rip it half and hand it to someone on the street, that they can use to come in and get a free coffee. Our ‘pay it forward’ system is where our customers pre-pay for something, so that later someone off the streets can get it for free. Our customers have really embraced the idea and got behind it. We’ve given away almost 300 meals.
I’m a homeless person at the moment. I come in here every day and to get a free coffee and every time I come in here I always get a big ‘hello’. In fact, these people, sometimes wouldn’t have anywhere to get anything to eat.
The average person in the UK is only two paycheques away from becoming homeless. So, literally it can happen to anyone, and breaking down that social stigma, and getting people to understand, and getting people to give you a second shot is really challenging.
Last year there was a 30% increase in the number of people living on the streets in England. Lack of work is a major cause and consequence of homelessness.
The most rewarding part for me is doing what I love the most and also having it, making it for a good reason. Every day our customers come here and they are really happy with us, they love what we do.
I’ve been given a lot of responsibility. There is not many places like this where someone from the street can come in and feel like a part of the community. That for me really hits it home.
Key:
1 In 2013
2 Passion for coffee and for the industry
3 He split up with her partner.
4 He was on drugs, on heroin.
5 Since May 2016.
6 Training new staff.
7 Free food and coffee.
8 30%.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 When did Julius Ibrahim move to London?
2 What passions does he mention?
3 How did Ecevit Tahsin end up living in the street?
4 What did he start using while he was on the streets?
5 How long has he been working at Second Shot?
6 What’s Emilio’s responsibility at Second Shot?
7 What does Second Shot also give to the homeless, apart from training people?
8 What was the increase in the number of people living on the streets in England last year?
We take people here at face value, we don’t judge, whoever you are, whatever you need, if we can help, we will.
In East London, a coffee shop has opened, employing people who have experienced homelessness in the past. Second Shot was founded by Julius Ibrahim. He dropped out of university and started a crowd fund campaign to get the social enterprise off the ground.
I moved to London in 2013 and I was just kind of surprised that there wasn’t anything more being done to alleviate the problem. So, I just wanted to kind of do something and the raise the profile of the issue, really and yeah, I just had a passion for coffee and passion for the industry.
Ecevit Tahsin, also known as Edge, works at Second Shot.
My own experience of homelessness is a very dark, very cold place. I used to be a pastry chef. I was with a partner at the time. I came home one night from work to find that she was messing about with someone in the house. We split up and because everything was in her name, I ended up on the streets. If you can imagine winter, freezing cold in a sleeping bag, trying to keep warm, trying to sleep.
During his time on the streets, Edge started using heroin.
Being on the drugs, I’m not gonna say it helped me, but it makes you numb, so you don’t feel what’s going on around you. But once my family found out I was on drugs, they kind of pushed me away. Nobody really understood me, what I was going through, what I was feeling and I was very isolated.
Edge managed to get himself off heroin and after living in hostels and temporary accommodation, he’s now being given his own flat. He’s been working at Second Shot since it opened in May 2016.
Being here has really given me a sense of purpose and helping me to re-establish my life.
Emilio is the head of coffee at Second Shot. He’s been training the homeless employees working at the café.
We started the training two weeks before we open. The idea of working with people who have been under a lot of like disadvantages, and they don’t trust people, you see, they don’t, they have a lot of issues in terms of like they don’t think that they are good enough for anything. We are trying to get the best coffee we can and at the same time helping the community around here.
As well as training people who’ve lived on the streets, Second Shot also gives free food and drink to the homeless.
With our loyalty card, after six times, each customer can get a free coffee but if they want to after three, what you can do is rip it half and hand it to someone on the street, that they can use to come in and get a free coffee. Our ‘pay it forward’ system is where our customers pre-pay for something, so that later someone off the streets can get it for free. Our customers have really embraced the idea and got behind it. We’ve given away almost 300 meals.
I’m a homeless person at the moment. I come in here every day and to get a free coffee and every time I come in here I always get a big ‘hello’. In fact, these people, sometimes wouldn’t have anywhere to get anything to eat.
The average person in the UK is only two paycheques away from becoming homeless. So, literally it can happen to anyone, and breaking down that social stigma, and getting people to understand, and getting people to give you a second shot is really challenging.
Last year there was a 30% increase in the number of people living on the streets in England. Lack of work is a major cause and consequence of homelessness.
The most rewarding part for me is doing what I love the most and also having it, making it for a good reason. Every day our customers come here and they are really happy with us, they love what we do.
I’ve been given a lot of responsibility. There is not many places like this where someone from the street can come in and feel like a part of the community. That for me really hits it home.
Key:
1 In 2013
2 Passion for coffee and for the industry
3 He split up with her partner.
4 He was on drugs, on heroin.
5 Since May 2016.
6 Training new staff.
7 Free food and coffee.
8 30%.
viernes, 14 de octubre de 2016
Japan's retirees: industrial waste or a silver lining?
Working after retirement is not something many plan for, especially in Japan, where most white collar workers - known as salarymen - still devote their lives to one employer for an average of four decades.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions.
1 What is the retirement age in Japan?
2 What does Koreisha mean in Japanese?
3 What are some of the occupations retirees can choose from in Koreisha?
4 What is the reason why Japanese retired workers want to work?
5 What does 'one third' refer to?
6 What is one of the problems retirees have to face when working after retirement?
Tending to a client's rooftop garden in central Tokyo. Three years after retiring from his lifelong employment with Tokyo Gas, 68-year-old Rikizo Takano signed up for part-time work. This is the company which got him the gig. Koreisha means "the elderly" in Japanese. Its mission is to help retirees who are still keen to be part of the country's workforce. Today it has over 750 registered members. The average age is 69, with the oldest at 81 years old. They can choose from various assignments, such as cooking at restaurants or being personal drivers.
At our age, most of us don't want to work full-time, but putting in two to three days a week doesn't affect pensions, and being able to earn an extra 1000 US dollars a month is nice. But more than that, our members say it's great to be able to work again, because myself included, we feel like our energy and talent is wasted.
Japan has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world, and it is a burden on the economy, with a falling birth rate, it means there are fewer people paying social security. Spending on health care and pensions already accounts for a third of the national budget, and it's ballooning fast. But instead of doing away with the old, the Government wants companies and communities to see them as a silver lining.
Here in Kashiwa, these retired businessmen greet the children every morning and make sure they get to school safely. 75-year-old Masatoshi Tsuneno is the leader of the group, and he's been volunteering for ten years.
He says the key to a successful transition after retirement is to shake up the hierarchy entrenched in the working world.
I was an engineer for a company, he told me. But he won't discuss his professional past. He says it's important for people in his group to be able to treat each other equally, even if someone was a chief executive or diplomat.
It’s the end of the academic year and the school children have put together this surprise ceremony to thank the volunteers. The mix of young and old has been a hit for this community, but it's still a rare success story.
Mariko Oi, BBC News, in Kashiwa.
Key:
1 65
2 the elderly
3 cooking at restaurants or being personal drivers
4 they feel their energy and talent is wasted
5 public spending out of the national budget on health care and pensions
6 the traditional hierarchy of Japanese companies is difficult to get rid of
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions.
1 What is the retirement age in Japan?
2 What does Koreisha mean in Japanese?
3 What are some of the occupations retirees can choose from in Koreisha?
4 What is the reason why Japanese retired workers want to work?
5 What does 'one third' refer to?
6 What is one of the problems retirees have to face when working after retirement?
Tending to a client's rooftop garden in central Tokyo. Three years after retiring from his lifelong employment with Tokyo Gas, 68-year-old Rikizo Takano signed up for part-time work. This is the company which got him the gig. Koreisha means "the elderly" in Japanese. Its mission is to help retirees who are still keen to be part of the country's workforce. Today it has over 750 registered members. The average age is 69, with the oldest at 81 years old. They can choose from various assignments, such as cooking at restaurants or being personal drivers.
At our age, most of us don't want to work full-time, but putting in two to three days a week doesn't affect pensions, and being able to earn an extra 1000 US dollars a month is nice. But more than that, our members say it's great to be able to work again, because myself included, we feel like our energy and talent is wasted.
Japan has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world, and it is a burden on the economy, with a falling birth rate, it means there are fewer people paying social security. Spending on health care and pensions already accounts for a third of the national budget, and it's ballooning fast. But instead of doing away with the old, the Government wants companies and communities to see them as a silver lining.
Here in Kashiwa, these retired businessmen greet the children every morning and make sure they get to school safely. 75-year-old Masatoshi Tsuneno is the leader of the group, and he's been volunteering for ten years.
He says the key to a successful transition after retirement is to shake up the hierarchy entrenched in the working world.
I was an engineer for a company, he told me. But he won't discuss his professional past. He says it's important for people in his group to be able to treat each other equally, even if someone was a chief executive or diplomat.
It’s the end of the academic year and the school children have put together this surprise ceremony to thank the volunteers. The mix of young and old has been a hit for this community, but it's still a rare success story.
Mariko Oi, BBC News, in Kashiwa.
Key:
1 65
2 the elderly
3 cooking at restaurants or being personal drivers
4 they feel their energy and talent is wasted
5 public spending out of the national budget on health care and pensions
6 the traditional hierarchy of Japanese companies is difficult to get rid of
jueves, 29 de septiembre de 2016
The doctor who saved 100,000 eyes
Nicholas Kristof travels to Nepal to meet an ophthalmologist who may have cured more people of blindness than anyone in history.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 How many peoplas has Sanduk Ruit personally cured?
2 How long does the eye surgery festival last?
3 How many peoples does the Himalayan Cataract Project operate on in that time?
4 When will the patient see well again after the operation?
5 How much does each eye surgery cost in Nepal?
6 What is Dr Ruit helping do?
Tully Maia is blind. Without her vision, she can no longer farm, and her family risks going hungry. For centuries the only option for people like Tully Maia was to accept a life of blindness. But now, somebody is changing that.
I’m Nicholas Kristoff. I’ve come here to Nepal, a country still struggling from this year’s earthquake to visit a public health legend.
Dr Ruit…
Thanks for coming!
Such a pleasure to see you!
Dr Sanduk Ruit may have restored sight to more people than anyone else in history.
We claim that the vision outcome is as good as anywhere any the world.
Wow!
He’s bringing inexpensive eye surgery to poor people with cataract blindness, and not just a few. He has personally cured more than 100,000 Nepalese and counting.
People have come from around the region, some of them trekking all day to attend the eye surgery festival put on by Dr Ruit and his organisation, the Himalayan Cataract Project. Over just two days, Dr Ruit and his team operate on more than a hundred people. It’s an assembly line of hope.
Dr Ruit we brought you a patient. This is Tully Maia.
Tully Maia.
So what are you doing now?
You know, Nick, I am opening the gateway to the eye. There’s a membrane that I’m opening. There are not many medical interventions where the investment is so strict and the return is so straight. I know the patient is going to see very well tomorrow. I’ll get you to have a look at the nucleus.
Wow! That is the cataract that was making her blind.
Cataracts cause half of all blindness worldwide. In places like American removing them is no big deal. In fact, my mother just had the surgery this summer, but the standard operation is much too expensive for places like Nepal. So Dr Sanduk Ruit created a grassroots network that screens villages for cataracts, then gathers them together for surgery all at once. His biggest innovation was simplifying that surgery so it costs just $25 per eye.
That’s it a few minutes per eye and you’re done.
Assistance like this would have never been developed in the West, where it’s just not necessary. And now that it’s proven in Nepal, Dr Ruit is helping bringing it to Africa, meaning a heroic doctor who’s already cured hundreds of thousands may soon be responsible for curing millions more, allowing them to see again, work again and get their lives back.
Twenty-four hours later, it’s the moment of truth.
How many fingers am I holding up?
Three.
You can go.
Very good.
Key:
1 more than 100,000
2 two
3 more than 100
4 the following day
5 $25 per eye
6 developing the same scheme in Africa
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 How many peoplas has Sanduk Ruit personally cured?
2 How long does the eye surgery festival last?
3 How many peoples does the Himalayan Cataract Project operate on in that time?
4 When will the patient see well again after the operation?
5 How much does each eye surgery cost in Nepal?
6 What is Dr Ruit helping do?
Tully Maia is blind. Without her vision, she can no longer farm, and her family risks going hungry. For centuries the only option for people like Tully Maia was to accept a life of blindness. But now, somebody is changing that.
I’m Nicholas Kristoff. I’ve come here to Nepal, a country still struggling from this year’s earthquake to visit a public health legend.
Dr Ruit…
Thanks for coming!
Such a pleasure to see you!
Dr Sanduk Ruit may have restored sight to more people than anyone else in history.
We claim that the vision outcome is as good as anywhere any the world.
Wow!
He’s bringing inexpensive eye surgery to poor people with cataract blindness, and not just a few. He has personally cured more than 100,000 Nepalese and counting.
People have come from around the region, some of them trekking all day to attend the eye surgery festival put on by Dr Ruit and his organisation, the Himalayan Cataract Project. Over just two days, Dr Ruit and his team operate on more than a hundred people. It’s an assembly line of hope.
Dr Ruit we brought you a patient. This is Tully Maia.
Tully Maia.
So what are you doing now?
You know, Nick, I am opening the gateway to the eye. There’s a membrane that I’m opening. There are not many medical interventions where the investment is so strict and the return is so straight. I know the patient is going to see very well tomorrow. I’ll get you to have a look at the nucleus.
Wow! That is the cataract that was making her blind.
Cataracts cause half of all blindness worldwide. In places like American removing them is no big deal. In fact, my mother just had the surgery this summer, but the standard operation is much too expensive for places like Nepal. So Dr Sanduk Ruit created a grassroots network that screens villages for cataracts, then gathers them together for surgery all at once. His biggest innovation was simplifying that surgery so it costs just $25 per eye.
That’s it a few minutes per eye and you’re done.
Assistance like this would have never been developed in the West, where it’s just not necessary. And now that it’s proven in Nepal, Dr Ruit is helping bringing it to Africa, meaning a heroic doctor who’s already cured hundreds of thousands may soon be responsible for curing millions more, allowing them to see again, work again and get their lives back.
Twenty-four hours later, it’s the moment of truth.
How many fingers am I holding up?
Three.
You can go.
Very good.
Key:
1 more than 100,000
2 two
3 more than 100
4 the following day
5 $25 per eye
6 developing the same scheme in Africa
lunes, 20 de junio de 2016
Listening test: Social entrepreneurs
Listen to a radio report on social entrepreneurs and match extracts 1-6 with their corresponding heading. There are two headings you do not need to use.
A - In the public eye
B - Main priority
C - Money for the projects
D - Part of the education system
E - Receiving lots of awards
F - Some disadvantages too
G - Some examples
H - Who are social entrepreneurs
1
Social entrepreneurs – people who create startup companies that would help the environment, healthcare or agriculture – are on the rise. These entrepreneurs use innovation to tackle important economic and social problems. They can be for-profit or non-profit entities.
2
Funding for social entrepreneurs is increasing. This is coming from foundations, institutional investors and individuals. Kiplinger is a personal finance publication in Washington, D.C. It reported that the amount of assets in socially responsible investing – focused on companies doing good in the world – almost doubled,
from $3.74 trillion in 2012 to $6.57 trillion in 2014. Globally, interest in socially responsible investing is growing even faster. The 2014 Global Sustainable Investment Review said that between 2012 and 2014, global assets rose to $21.4 trillion from $13.3 trillion – an increase of 61 percent.
3
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in Geneva, Switzerland, is an example of a foundation that advances social entrepreneurs around the world. Each year, working with the World Economic Forum, the foundation searches the globe “for outstanding social innovators, with business models that are proven to drive social and environmental change,” said their website. Getting rich is not the primary aim of social entrepreneurs. Instead, their focus is on fulfilling their mission to improve society. “While profits are ideally generated, the main aim is not to maximize financial returns for shareholders, but to grow the social venture and reach more people in need,” said the Schwab Foundation website. Usually, social entrepreneurs reinvest their profits in the enterprise to expand it.
4
Kristin Groos Richmond is co-founder of Revolution Foods and one of the social entrepreneurs selected by the Schwab Foundation. Her company, in Oakland, California, is dedicated to providing fresh food, prepared daily, for families and schools, and is active in 11 states across the U.S. and Washington, DC. Richmond said social entrepreneurs are driven by their values. She gave the following advice to aspiring social entrepreneurs: “Align yourself with a team, a board and investors who believe in your mission.” Many social entrepreneurs create novel solutions to solve world problems. Bart Weetjens, a Belgian social entrepreneur, is an example. He kept rats as childhood pets, then realized they could be put to work detecting land mines. He founded the non-profit organization APOPO in 1997. APOPO has used specially trained rats on leashes to clear more than 13,200 unexploded bombs from minefields in Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, according to the National Geographic. APOPO uses African giant-pouched rats, which are huge, cat-sized rats native to central Africa. They have “an extraordinary sense of smell,” said the National Geographic. The rats are lightweight enough to walk across the mines without setting them off. And their sensitive noses can sniff out explosives buried in the ground, even decades after a war has ended.
5
In addition, many business schools – both in the U.S. and other countries – now offer courses in social entrepreneurship. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is an example. It is ranked by US News & World Report as one of the nation’s top business schools. Wharton Online offers a five-week class on social entrepreneurship, four to six hours a week, through Coursera, a global e-learning platform. Graduates of the course receive a certificate and “learn how to develop, test and deploy high-impact solutions to society’s toughest problems,” according to Coursera’s website.
6
Social entrepreneurs have also won increased media attention. For example, Forbes showcased “30 Under 30” – the top social entrepreneurs younger than 30 from around the world. One honoree, Sejal Hathi, age 25, was a molecular biology student at Yale, who sought to help girls globally. She founded Girltank, a for-profit start-up, to identify and develop girls with potential to be high-impact leaders. The website refers to it as “the she lab for social entrepreneurship.” “Girltank creates a virtual tank for young women interested in social entrepreneurship to utilize the collective genius of the group to brainstorm ideas and solutions, crowdsourcing funding for their ventures, and receive peer-to-peer mentoring,” according to the website.
Key:
1H 2C 3B 4G 5D 6A
A - In the public eye
B - Main priority
C - Money for the projects
D - Part of the education system
E - Receiving lots of awards
F - Some disadvantages too
G - Some examples
H - Who are social entrepreneurs
1
Social entrepreneurs – people who create startup companies that would help the environment, healthcare or agriculture – are on the rise. These entrepreneurs use innovation to tackle important economic and social problems. They can be for-profit or non-profit entities.
2
Funding for social entrepreneurs is increasing. This is coming from foundations, institutional investors and individuals. Kiplinger is a personal finance publication in Washington, D.C. It reported that the amount of assets in socially responsible investing – focused on companies doing good in the world – almost doubled,
from $3.74 trillion in 2012 to $6.57 trillion in 2014. Globally, interest in socially responsible investing is growing even faster. The 2014 Global Sustainable Investment Review said that between 2012 and 2014, global assets rose to $21.4 trillion from $13.3 trillion – an increase of 61 percent.
3
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in Geneva, Switzerland, is an example of a foundation that advances social entrepreneurs around the world. Each year, working with the World Economic Forum, the foundation searches the globe “for outstanding social innovators, with business models that are proven to drive social and environmental change,” said their website. Getting rich is not the primary aim of social entrepreneurs. Instead, their focus is on fulfilling their mission to improve society. “While profits are ideally generated, the main aim is not to maximize financial returns for shareholders, but to grow the social venture and reach more people in need,” said the Schwab Foundation website. Usually, social entrepreneurs reinvest their profits in the enterprise to expand it.
4
Kristin Groos Richmond is co-founder of Revolution Foods and one of the social entrepreneurs selected by the Schwab Foundation. Her company, in Oakland, California, is dedicated to providing fresh food, prepared daily, for families and schools, and is active in 11 states across the U.S. and Washington, DC. Richmond said social entrepreneurs are driven by their values. She gave the following advice to aspiring social entrepreneurs: “Align yourself with a team, a board and investors who believe in your mission.” Many social entrepreneurs create novel solutions to solve world problems. Bart Weetjens, a Belgian social entrepreneur, is an example. He kept rats as childhood pets, then realized they could be put to work detecting land mines. He founded the non-profit organization APOPO in 1997. APOPO has used specially trained rats on leashes to clear more than 13,200 unexploded bombs from minefields in Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, according to the National Geographic. APOPO uses African giant-pouched rats, which are huge, cat-sized rats native to central Africa. They have “an extraordinary sense of smell,” said the National Geographic. The rats are lightweight enough to walk across the mines without setting them off. And their sensitive noses can sniff out explosives buried in the ground, even decades after a war has ended.
5
In addition, many business schools – both in the U.S. and other countries – now offer courses in social entrepreneurship. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is an example. It is ranked by US News & World Report as one of the nation’s top business schools. Wharton Online offers a five-week class on social entrepreneurship, four to six hours a week, through Coursera, a global e-learning platform. Graduates of the course receive a certificate and “learn how to develop, test and deploy high-impact solutions to society’s toughest problems,” according to Coursera’s website.
6
Social entrepreneurs have also won increased media attention. For example, Forbes showcased “30 Under 30” – the top social entrepreneurs younger than 30 from around the world. One honoree, Sejal Hathi, age 25, was a molecular biology student at Yale, who sought to help girls globally. She founded Girltank, a for-profit start-up, to identify and develop girls with potential to be high-impact leaders. The website refers to it as “the she lab for social entrepreneurship.” “Girltank creates a virtual tank for young women interested in social entrepreneurship to utilize the collective genius of the group to brainstorm ideas and solutions, crowdsourcing funding for their ventures, and receive peer-to-peer mentoring,” according to the website.
Key:
1H 2C 3B 4G 5D 6A
miércoles, 25 de mayo de 2016
Talking point: Volunteering
In the twenty-first century, characterized by endless problems everywhere (the leading economies, the emerging countries and the third world), caring has become a major public issue.
Brainstorm some of the sectors of the population who are badly in need of help and who could benefit from a helping hand.
Example: prisoners, immigrants, families with no economic means, families who have been evicted from their home, health issues in the third world, famine.
Discuss the organisations that are trying to help those groups.
Example: Stop desahucios is trying to help families who are evicted from their home.
How can individuals contribute in the above-mentioned organisations?
Do you know any volunteers who lend a helping hand in these organisations?
What does their job consist of?
Would you like to volunteer in one of these organisations?
Which one(s) do you find most appealing?
What are the rewards of being a volunteer?
What are the disadvantages?
What are the government's duties and responsibilies?
Interaction: Choosing a charity to volunteer
Choose A or B, tell your partner about your charity and together decide which one you both would like to join.
A) Worldwide restoration
The aim of our organisation is to empower women and provide decent housing for families, not only in the USA, but in many other countries in the world. We work to train volunteers in building skills. Our primary goal is to teach women how to solve problems for themselves through training in practical areas, such as making cement or plumbing and dealing with general house repairs. However, men are also welcome! Our volunteers work together with homeowners to rebuild or restore deteriorated houses and give disadvantaged families a place to live. We welcome volunteers but also need donations to buy materials and support our training programmes.
B) City education project
The mission of our project is to improve conditions for children and teachers in slum areas in Bangladesh. If you volunteer with us, you may be asked to help renovate a classroom in an existing school, carry out repairs to roofs or windows or even help to build extra facilities for the school. Traditional materials and techniques are used, but you don’t need any special skills because you will be supervised by local builders and carpenters. However, you should be fit and healthy and ready to work in all weather! You will stay in the school where the project is taking place, but it won’t be like home. Take a mat to sleep on and remember there are no showers, just a bucket of water.
To illustrate the point you can watch this video of The Duchess of Cambridge on the charity Children's Hospice.
As Patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, I’ve been fortunate to see at first hand through remarkable work that they do for children and young people with life limiting conditions and their families. It is simply transformational. There are forty-nine children’s hospice services across the UK, all providing similar, invaluable and life enhancing care to thousands of families. Children’s Hospice Week is the time to recognize, celebrate and support the inspirational work of those Hospices and those who provide palliative care to these children and families. Children’s hospices provide lifelines to families at a time of unimaginable pain. The support they give is vital. In order to carry out this wonderful work, our help is needed. With our support those providing children’s palliative care can continue to offer these extraordinary services. It does not bare thinking about what these families would do without this. I hope that you’ll join me this Children’s Hospice Week, in supporting your local service.
To find out more about how you can help, please visit TogetherForShortlives.org.uk
With your support we can ensure that these children and their families can make the most of the precious time they have together.
Brainstorm some of the sectors of the population who are badly in need of help and who could benefit from a helping hand.
Example: prisoners, immigrants, families with no economic means, families who have been evicted from their home, health issues in the third world, famine.
Discuss the organisations that are trying to help those groups.
Example: Stop desahucios is trying to help families who are evicted from their home.
How can individuals contribute in the above-mentioned organisations?
Do you know any volunteers who lend a helping hand in these organisations?
What does their job consist of?
Would you like to volunteer in one of these organisations?
Which one(s) do you find most appealing?
What are the rewards of being a volunteer?
What are the disadvantages?
What are the government's duties and responsibilies?
Interaction: Choosing a charity to volunteer
Choose A or B, tell your partner about your charity and together decide which one you both would like to join.
A) Worldwide restoration
The aim of our organisation is to empower women and provide decent housing for families, not only in the USA, but in many other countries in the world. We work to train volunteers in building skills. Our primary goal is to teach women how to solve problems for themselves through training in practical areas, such as making cement or plumbing and dealing with general house repairs. However, men are also welcome! Our volunteers work together with homeowners to rebuild or restore deteriorated houses and give disadvantaged families a place to live. We welcome volunteers but also need donations to buy materials and support our training programmes.
B) City education project
The mission of our project is to improve conditions for children and teachers in slum areas in Bangladesh. If you volunteer with us, you may be asked to help renovate a classroom in an existing school, carry out repairs to roofs or windows or even help to build extra facilities for the school. Traditional materials and techniques are used, but you don’t need any special skills because you will be supervised by local builders and carpenters. However, you should be fit and healthy and ready to work in all weather! You will stay in the school where the project is taking place, but it won’t be like home. Take a mat to sleep on and remember there are no showers, just a bucket of water.
To illustrate the point you can watch this video of The Duchess of Cambridge on the charity Children's Hospice.
As Patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, I’ve been fortunate to see at first hand through remarkable work that they do for children and young people with life limiting conditions and their families. It is simply transformational. There are forty-nine children’s hospice services across the UK, all providing similar, invaluable and life enhancing care to thousands of families. Children’s Hospice Week is the time to recognize, celebrate and support the inspirational work of those Hospices and those who provide palliative care to these children and families. Children’s hospices provide lifelines to families at a time of unimaginable pain. The support they give is vital. In order to carry out this wonderful work, our help is needed. With our support those providing children’s palliative care can continue to offer these extraordinary services. It does not bare thinking about what these families would do without this. I hope that you’ll join me this Children’s Hospice Week, in supporting your local service.
To find out more about how you can help, please visit TogetherForShortlives.org.uk
With your support we can ensure that these children and their families can make the most of the precious time they have together.
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