We Day UK 2014

On Friday 7th March I attended the very first We Day UK. We Day is a celebratory concert put on by the charity Free the Children, which I have the great pleasure of working in collaboration with as part of my role in school. Free the Children is a charity that works to empower young people to make a change in their local and global community and encourages everyone to be a 'student of the world'. The charity began it's life in Canada and is in it's fourth year here in the UK. The concert itself was wonderful and videos can be found on the Free the Children YouTube channel. This is their general We Day video:

I know that it is very North American and idealistic and full of rhetoric, but it is quite powerful as was the show, but what does all this have to do with my library? Well everyone who attended the event received a free gift bag and inside that gift bag was a free book! Free the Children is an international bestseller and is the story that launched the Free the Children movement. It tells the story of the 12 year old co-founder Craig Kielburger discovering the realities of child labour and his journey to experiencing these conditions first-hand. There were several things that were particularly fabulous about this book besides the fact that it is part of such an incredible cause and was free. 

Firstly, is that it is part of the 'Buy a book, Give a book' initiative which means that for every book purchased a notebook will be given to a child in order to help them with their education. Now as I have already said I didn't pay for the book, but the sponsors did and so hundreds of notebooks should soon be finding their way to children all over the world. 

The second thing that is wonderful about this book is that it is made from post-consumer recycled paper. This means that the paper used to make this book would otherwise have just been waste and so the book gets a big tick on it's green credentials too.

I am incredibly excited to read this book and learn more about the true reality of 'fast fashion'. The book can be purchased on the Free the Children Me to We shop along with other ethical products.