zaterdag 6 juni 2009

It’s time to celebrate our volunteers

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. Gordon Brown, says we should ‘celebrate our volunteers’. The celebration for Volunteers Day is nationwide and takes place from the 1st until the 7th of June. This year is extra special because it will be the 25th Anniversary. In the United Kingdom alone there are millions of volunteers each year helping people. This celebration helps to focus on what a Volunteer means to society and it hopefully shakes up other people to want to become one too.
Gordon Browns states that the British government are spending £11 billion a year in subsidising volunteerwork and that he is proud to support it. Volunteers are necessary and even though in these hard times of the economical crisis people are still volunteering; he is proud of them. In 2006 a national TV-campaign was launched to recruit more volunteers and they are now investing in schools so that providing volunteering opportunities will be part of students' lives.

Reaction

I think many people do not realize that without volunteers a great deal of work can not be done. We have to appreciate it. The British Government is very much involved in getting more people to volunteer. I think it is a good thing that they have launched a national TV-campaign. I believe it is even better that they are now investing in schools to make this part of students' lives. They will understand that helping other people is a good thing to do.
Even though a lot of inhabitants of the United Kingdom are not very fond of Gordon Brown right now, I do believe he has a good heart and he is the right choice for the government of this country.
I also feel that volunteering is an excellent thing to do. I used to volunteer in the local home for the elderly in my town and it gave me an excellent feeling to help others. In my opinion if everyone did this the world would be a much better place.


http://community.livejournal.com/volunteerindy/352.html

Girl, 7, 'was imprisoned and starved to death'

The only seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq was starved to death on purpose by her mother Angela Gordon 34 years old, and her stepfather, Junaid Abuhamza, 30 years old. Yesterday her affair was discussed in Birmingham Crown Court.
Timothy Raggatt, QC for the prosecution, confirmed that Khyra lead a content life at the time when her mother and biological father were still together. All of this changed when her mother met Khyra’s stepfather, Junaid Abuhamza.
Khyra lived with 5 other kids in one house. The only food they received was dry fruit, dry bread and porridge. Ms. Gordon and Mr. Abuhamza treated their children in horrific ways, for instance if they stole food they had to stand out in the cold and they were beaten with a baton.
Ms. Gordon is pleading not guilty, but Mr. Abuhamza does plea guilty but says he did not murder Khyra. The courts decision is expected soon.

Reaction

I do not understand why Ms. Gordon had Khyra in the first place. The same thing goes for Mr. Abuhamza; they are clearly not fit to be parents and why he ever had children is a mystery to me. Starving this poor girl to death means they should be sentenced for live in prison. I am actually in favour of the death penalty (which is carried out in the United States of America), but for the United Kingdom this does not apply.
And I also do not understand why the neighbours did not do anything. Apparently one of the neighbours heard Khyra screaming in the middle of the night ’let me out, let me out’. She also saw this girl outside last year when she wearing almost nothing and looking skinny. This neighbour should have called Child Services and the Police. I am pretty sure that Khyra would have survived then.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/girl-7-was-imprisoned-and-starved-to-death-1698147.html