Going Green Ewa Kwolek's Brazilian Adventure

I started a new job in December. I am now working at Proximity London on the Kraft Foods team and I am loving it. It's a great agency, I've got great clients and projects and my new colleagues are wonderful. 

I wanted to share this post from Ewa Kwolek's (a new colleague on the Kraft team) blog. Ewa is going to Brazil for the month of March and doing charity work through the TIE organisation for the Edificio Ecologico.

Ewa has been working incredibly hard to raise money and has been coming up some very creative fundraising ideas. Please visit her blog to follow her story and make sure to donate!

Who am I and what is this all about?

Jan11 by ewakwolek

 

Who am I?

My name is Ewa and I am an Account Director at a marketing agency in London – Proximity London. My agency working with TIE (The International Exchange) chose me to help developing world by using my communications skills.

What does it mean?

From 5^th of March 2012 for 30 days I will be working for a sustainable organisation Edificio Ecologico based in Brazil creating a communications campaign for them.

Who are Edificio Ecologico?

Edificio Ecologico could be translated as ‘Ecological Buildings’ simply explaining their main goal of implementation of recycling systems (separation) in high-rise residential and business buildings in Recife (north of Brazil) to help improve environment and lives of garbage pickers.

This project started 8 years ago and thanks to efforts of its coordinators, 200 residential buildings are now registered to the scheme.

How will I be able to help?

In order to support these guys, I am not only offering them my communications skills. I am also raising money here in the UK that will form my marketing budget in Brazil.

How do I raise the money?

My main idea is around saving money at my work place by simple ‘green steps’. I am encouraging my colleagues to print double sided, switch off PCs and lights, walk up the stairs as opposed to talking lifts and also stop using plastic bags. And all of this to create savings for my charity work. It is simple:

1. My colleagues do something simple
2. Proximity passes on the savings
3. I help a charity in Brazil

My re-usable bags

I produced 250 cotton bags and I am selling them to raise the funds. They were designed by two students who offered their time for free. The idea is simple: stop using plastic – buy one of my re-usable bags helping not only the environment here in the UK but also supporting my fundraising as 100% of takings will be passed to my charity.

What next?

I have 7 weeks left and still plenty to do. I need to raise minimum £1000 and I have a few more fundraising activities to organise and I need to sell all my bags. I also need to get ready and learn as much about Brazil as I can. On top of this I am learning Portuguese to help me communicate with the Brazilian family I will be staying with.

How can you help?

You can simply donate using the donate button on the top right hand side of my blog. Don’t worry, you don’t need a PayPal account and you can simply use your card. Read more here: http://ewakwolek.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/the-importance-of-a-strong-cta/ You can also buy a bag from me (£4 only). Or simply read my blog and pass the message! Thanks in advance for all your support!

Land of 10,000 Stories

I've been getting into the routine of waking up on Saturday morning and watching the latest episode of Land of 10,000 Stories.

Land of 10,000 Stories are news segments on Kare 11 in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota. They are presented by Byod Hupert and they are sooo Minnesotan. They are local human interest stories and I usually can't help but tear up during them. The stories are usually about remarkable people in the community. They are great and I love watching them. Matthew is now a stories fan and has gotten used to me crying and despite his stiff up lip I've seen him well up a bit too.

Land of 10,000 Stories: 'High-five Tuesday' pumps up the office

Form AN has been submitted

I am happy to say that my application for citizenship got sent off on Friday and it's on the way to the Home Office. 


The application itself was pretty straightforward. The only part that was a bit of a pain was having to account for all my time spent outside the UK. That's my fault because I should have been keeping track of that in a spreadsheet as I went. Instead I ended up having to go through my passports and track it that way, which was very time consuming, but I got there in the end. 


I decided to use the National Checking Service so that I wouldn't have to send off my passport and they also go through the application to make sure its filled out properly. 


I had my appointment last Tuesday (it took about 3 weeks to get it and it costs £45) and it didn't last long because they wouldn't accept one of my referees. For the application you need to have two have people to say that they have known you for the past 3 years and they have to fit this criteria.

5.1 One referee should be a person of any nationality who has professional standing, eg

minister of religion, civil servant, or a member of a professional body e.g. accountant or

solicitor (who is not representing you with this application). The other referee must normally be the holder of a British citizen passport and either a professional person or over the age of 25.

Both should declare that:-

• they are not a relative, solicitor or agent of the applicant, or related to the other referee;

• they are not employed by the Home Office;

• they have not been convicted of an imprisonable offence during the last 10 years (unless the conviction has become spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974);

• they have known the applicant personally for more than 3 years;

• they are willing to give full details of their knowledge of the applicant;

• they will advise the Home Office of any reason why the applicant should not be naturalised.

I decided to have my wonderful friend Mary Ivers, who has known me since I first arrived here in London, as one of my referee and then I needed someone else who was a "professional". Matthew's uncle is a police offer so we thought to use him. I was a bit unsure that he would be suitable because I know him through marriage. Matthew's uncle thought that since it was through marriage that it would be ok. However it wasn't and they wouldn't accept him.

Of course I was gutted when they told me at the appointment. Too gutted to feel smug that I was right and that he was going to be considered a relative.

The woman processing my application was really nice about it and said that if I could find someone else to sign the form by Friday they wouldn't charge me again. Which was great, because  if I wasn't able to find someone else by Friday I would have to wait another month for the next appointment. 

Luckily enough I did have another person to sign the form and I was able to return on Friday to submit it.

I returned on Friday and the woman who was helping me again was very nice. The only thing that went wrong was that I forgot one page of the application! Thankfully I live just two minutes away from the office and she let me run home and get it! I guess they won't print anything off for you. 

So, the application was checked and sent off and now the waiting game begins. It could take 2 months it could take 6 months. The next steps after the application is processed and approved is having a citizenship ceremony. There's the possibility that the application isn't accepted, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't be. 

Fingers crossed that I won't be waiting too long. 

I love this vintage Etsy shop

I love this cute cute Etsy shop, Vintage Jane.

Happy Halloween

Belle and Boo

I've seen so many super cute photos of my friend's kids all dressed for Halloween today.

I miss an American Halloween. There are definitely not any trick or treaters on my street in Brixton. I miss seeing all the kids dressed up, all the jack o'lanterns and the candy.

I've made a little jack o'lantern for our flat, so hopefully it will be a little cheerful surprise to people passing by.

Halloween is catching on over here in Britain, but it's just not the same. I also love how American's will dress up at work!  I've seen some pretty funny costumes popping on Facebook today.

To everyone across the pond, hope you're having a very spooky Halloween :)