Ruth Stokes's Blog

Every Christmas, an army of everyday men suit up and become Father Christmas. But who are they, and what’s it like to be the festive season’s most iconic character?

Read more at The Guardian.

When Hyeon arrived in England, aged 15, she felt like a stranger. She was alone and spoke no English. “I couldn’t understand what was going on,” she says. “I didn’t even know the basic stuff such as how to use a computer or phone.”

Hyeon is now 18 and studying at Harris Westminster sixth form. She was one of the thousands of children arriving in Britain to seek asylum each year. In 2015, 3,000 children arrived unaccompanied, while a further 5,000 dependants – who are mostly children – also came to the UK.

Clearly, teachers have an important role to play – many children will have missed out on at least some education, and their experiences in school or college will contribute to how well they settle into the UK. So how are schools supporting these children?

Read more at The Guardian online.

I know, I know… I’ve been out of action for a while. My last post before this one appears to have been October. Shameful.

I’ve been in South America for six months, and while internet access is actually very good in most places, I needed some time out – to reflect, regroup, to travel and generally to just “be”. Some of my time was spent moving around, discovering the landscapes and cultures of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, but I also spent time learning new skills on hands-on projects. They gave me some of my best moments during the whole trip.

I was able to do this thanks to a website called Workaway. If you haven’t heard of it before, I highly recommend checking it out – “hosts” post projects on the website that they need help with, and “workawayers” can help out in return for bed and board. Some projects charge a very small amount, to help cover food, but the general idea is that it’s a direct exchange. Workawayers pay about £22 for a year’s membership, and you can apply to as many projects as you want, all over the world.

Because I’m very interested in living more sustainably on a day-to-day basis, I naturally gravitated towards projects that might help me get some skills in this area. I ended up on a permaculture farm (La Manzana) just outside Buenos Aires in Argentina, a nature reserve that grows its own food (Aldea Luna) in northern Argentina, and a coastal project in Peru (Jihuay), that was using natural materials to build accommodation for workers and guests. It did me good, working outdoors, my hands covered in soil and mud, with people from around the world. There was something very therapeutic about it. No way of living is perfect, and the projects certainly had their challenges to contend with, but it gave me an insight into another way of life. Far removed from the daily rush of the London commute.

I’d had a little bit of experience in the gardening side of things, having taken a City & Guilds Level 1 in Gardening while in London and occasionally helping out in community gardens. But I’d never built with natural materials before, and I found it incredible how much could be made from something so simple. We were building with the nature around us – making cob. Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, straw and cow dung (or the juice from a cactus, in the case of Jihuay, where we were surrounded by desert). To make it, we mixed the ingredients together on a tarpaulin on the ground, then stamped on it, danced in it, and folded it over like a massive mud cake. Then we slapped it on the walls. Depending on who you work with, the proportions and the technique is slightly different, but the benefits are the same: it’s environmentally friendly, long lasting, cheap, and provides excellent insulation. It’s also possible to make some very beautiful houses (see this Pinterest board for some cob inspiration).

I’m not sure where I’ll be taking my learning, because I need to earn a bit of money again before I can decide next steps, but I’d like to use cob at some point in the future. But I’d like to promote learning opportunities in this area, so if you have a sustainable building learning project you’d like me to put on this website, let me know.

*after you’ve read The Armchair Activist’s Handbook, of course.

Books. I love books. There are some really great ones out there on activism, some of which have inspired me in my own attempts to make a little bit of a difference. So I thought I’d share a few ideas. Each have a very unique approach and focus, but are all useful for helping the armchair activist find their way:

The Leaderless Revolution by Carne Ross

A Little Book of Craftivism by Sarah Corbett

How to Change the World by John Paul Flintoff

The Book of Rubbish Ideas by Tracey Smith

Beautiful Trouble, edited by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell

The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance by Brett Scott

Psychology for Activists by Dan Conway

The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp

A Lazy Girl Goes Green has reviewed The Armchair Activist’s Handbook! Check out what she has to say about it here.

(This might be the shortest blog post in the world…)

Individual action may be the birth place of activism – taking steps to make the world a better place can begin with small changes to the way you live – but connecting with others is important if you want to scale up your impact.

I gave a webinar this week for GlobalNet21 about how to go about connecting to make a difference, whether you’re looking to:

- find existing groups that reflect your beliefs, or

- gather people to your cause.

I looked at how to identify your personal mission (because this will steer you in the type of connections you make), thinking about build to make useful, valuable connections, and where to find existing groups. There was an interesting discussion with GlobalNet21 members afterwards, too, which raised some important considerations.

Anyway, here’s the link to the recording (just type a name in the box and you’re in).

You can now buy paperback copies of The Armchair Activist’s Handbook from my publisher’s website. If you’d like a copy but haven’t got a Kindle and don’t want to buy from Amazon, here’s your answer!

With Fashion Revolution Day tomorrow (24 April), The Guardian has written a piece looking at whether the campaign’s tactics (using a Twitter hashtag to get people to ask brands who made their clothes) actually has a shot at changing the fashion industry. They asked me and some other fashion/activism bods for our thoughts.

Here’s the piece.

I was lucky enough to do a talk about The Armchair Activist’s Handbook at the inaugural Looe Literary Festival last weekend. It was a lively and very well attended event, and I sold quite a few books to boot.

Because for the first time, I had some hard copies of the book with me – pre-release copies of the paperback version, which is officially out in the new year (hurrah!). I don’t have date for you yet, but watch this space.

In the meantime, here are some pics from Looe (credit goes to David Foster).

Fast fashion’s problems are extensive and well reported – from issues with pay and working conditions for producers to concerns about the environmental impact of factory processes and the waste caused by our throwaway culture. According to Wrap, an estimated £140m worth of clothes goes to landfill every year.

While finding fashion that doesn’t cost the earth – in terms of either the planet or your purse – has always been a challenge, there are an increasing number of alternatives. But how can they be sourced?

Read more at The Guardian…