LAUNCH PROMISES MORE STALLS, MORE MUSIC, MORE FOOD and.. SUNSHINE!
Next month’s North Edinburgh’s Community Festival will be even bigger than last years event, organisers announced at Tuesdays launch at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre.
Around 6000 people attended last year’s gala event, and with at least SEVENTY marquees (up from 50 last year) and and not one but TWO music stages there promises to be even more for the local community to do, see and enjoy on 13 May.
Highlights include:
Disney-themed LIFT Parade from Muirhouse Millennium Centre to West Pilton Park to launch the Festival.
More than 70 local organisations and charities with Community Stalls
Two music stages: the open air Park Stage and the Green Room stage in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre
The music line-up features a wealth of local talent. Performers include local youth orchestra Tinderbox, Granton Youth’s Mixtape Music Club and a session from ever-popular Fischy Music.
There’s a musical medley from the Edinburgh College Musical Theatre Group, performances from local choirs including Ama-zing Harmonies, AUGB Ukranian choir, Craigroyston High School Choir and a high-energy performance is guaranteed from local punk rockers Yer Local Bams. Low Tide, Rai Williams, Laurent and Abigail Kerner will also be performing live on the day in a musical feast.
Family events and activities will include Bookbug with Muirhouse Library and a Storytelling session with Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Citizen writers.
Fancy some sport? You’ll be spoilt for choice as Access Parkour, Spartans Community Football Academy and Inverleith Rugby Club will all be there. And there will be children’s Zumba classes.
North Edinburgh Arts will be organising arts and craft activities and Screen Education Edinburgh will offer film workshops. There’s an Army obstacle course, too.
There will also be learning and upskilling opportunities provided by local organisations including Edinburgh College will be offering course taster sessions.
All in all, there really should be something for everyone. And with sunshine (almost) guaranteed, it promises to be a great day.
Local activist Willie Black, a member of the Festival planning committee, introduced Tuesday’s launch. “We are very excited about this year’s Festival and it promises to be a really great event, a community celebration for everyone to enjoy.
“We have a wealth of diverse talent in this community and we want to share that talent far and wide. We’re looking forward to offering a warm North Edinburgh welcome to thousands of visitors next month, and the hope is that the Festival will be a great success and that it can become an annual event.”
North Edinburgh Community Festival is on Saturday 13 May from 12 – 5.30pm. Free event. All welcome.
PDSA and Royal Canin invite pet owners in Scotland to join in and ‘Weigh Up’ their pets
PDSA and Royal Canin are calling on pet owners in Scotland to take advantage of a free weight check for their four-legged friend by signing up to the new ‘Big Weigh In’ initiative.
The partnership launched their Weigh Up campaign in 2021, offering pet owners free online resources to assess and understand their pets’ weight throughout the pandemic. The new PDSA Big Weigh In initiative will take place during February and March 2023 in conjunction with veterinary practices across the UK to help tackle the pet obesity crisis the UK pet population faces.
In 2022, the charity’s annual PAW (PDSA Animal Wellbeing) Report revealed 60% of owners regularly give their pet human food in some form, such as leftovers (26%), cheese (22%) and bread or toast (10%).
Human food is often high in fats and sugar, and can contribute to obesity and weight problems as well as potentially leading to an unbalanced diet for our pets. As per PDSA calculations, feeding a dog a slice of toast with butter, is the equivalent of a human eating two portions of fries. Similarly, feeding a cat three small cubes of cheese, is the equivalent of a human eating two quarter pounders!
One weight loss success story is Roscoe, who initially came into PDSA’s care weighing 75kg and after a tremendous effort from his owner, Roscoe managed to shed 23kg and he is very nearly at his ideal weight!
The excess weight was affecting Roscoe’s daily life through his breathing and energy levels, so losing the weight was vital for his health and happiness.
The main aim for PDSA Big Weigh In is to help other pets like Roscoe live a better and hopefully longer life, by maintaining a healthy weight.
For dog and cat owners in Scotland; you are able to find which vet practices are taking part and inviting pets to come in and get weighed on the veterinary practice map.
PDSA Veterinary Surgeon, Lynne James said:“Our Weigh Up campaign was popular amongst pet owners who were keen to understand more about their pet’s weight, in order to keep them fit and healthy.
“Now we are taking the next step and launching PDSA Big Weigh In – where we are inviting owners to join in and visit a participating practice for a free weight check.
“We have also launched the PDSA #WeighUp Pet Weight Loss Support Group, for fellow pet owners to join, share their progress and access exclusive tips and content, including weekly Q&A’s with PDSA vets and vet nurses, all to help each pet owner with their pet’s weight loss journey.”
If you would like to find out more before visiting your local participating practice, please visit PDSA’s website.
A new report from Open Cages has found that in order to meet demand for the UK’s favourite meat, 61 million chickens died before slaughter last year as a result of major welfare issues.
The authors blame supermarkets like Morrisons for continuing to source meat from genetically engineered “Frankenchickens” whilst M&S, Waitrose, KFC and retailers all over Europe move rapidly towards the Better Chicken Commitment.
Today – animal welfare charity Open Cages has published a scathing report:
Chicken is Britain’s most popular meat, with consumption far outstripping beef, lamb or pork. Nearly 1.2 billion chickens were killed last year to meet demand, with most meat coming from ultra fast-growing Frankenchickens raised in conditions so crowded that in their last weeks an individual bird would have more room in the oven.
Citing figures from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the authors claim 61 million chickens died before reaching the slaughterhouse last year as a result of these practices. Around 1.2 million chickens are dying every week.
The intensive conditions routinely cause debilitating welfare issues. The authors estimate that last year nearly 5 million chickens may have suffered heart attacks, 15 million may have had their necks broken by farmers due to severe lameness and over 24 million may have died from infection.
The authors argue that shoppers are manipulated by supermarkets dishing out “deceptive” labels and marketing campaigns which give the false impression that chickens are well cared for. Another recent report accused supermarkets of bombarding consumers with deals and offers on “unsustainable” meat from intensive farms.
Supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons and Co-op are blamed for “refusing” to sign the RSPCA & Defra-backedBetter Chicken Commitment (BCC) – a policy of improved welfare standards that prohibits the use of ultra fast-growing Frankenchickens and overcrowded conditions. Currently, the vast majority of supermarket chicken comes from the fastest growing breeds available which suffer the highest rates of premature death.
300 companies across the UK and Europe have signed the BCC, including KFC, Nestle and Subway. It is estimated that 27% of the UK’s chickens are covered by the commitment, along with large supermarkets in France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Poland.M&S and Waitrose are so far the only UK supermarkets to pledge.
Open Cages CEO & Co-Founder Connor Jackson comments:“The scale of suffering behind cheap chicken may be shocking to consumers, but to our major supermarkets it’s business as usual.
“They know full well that 1 in 3 Frankenchickens can barely walk, that millions die of heart attack, and that millions more die of horrendous diseases. And still, not only do even the self proclaimed “high welfare” and “ethical” retailers like Morrisons and Co-op continue to sell Frankenchickens, to package their meat as “welfare assured”, and to tell us Brits that they care deeply about animal welfare … they do all this knowing that alternatives are available.
“Hundreds of companies like M&S, Waitrose and even KFC have signed the Better Chicken Commitment, taking the lead in improving animal welfare. Instead of following, supermarkets like Morrisons ignore and bury the issue behind feel good marketing campaigns and PR spin. But these findings prove once and for all that it is all just a story to keep us coming back to the checkout: animals pay the ultimate price for cheap chicken.”
Chris Packham’s petition calling on UK supermarkets to sign the BCC has gained nearly a quarter of a million signatures. A recent YouGov poll found that a majority of Brits strongly oppose these types of farming practices even when taking cost savings to themselves into account.
The BBC’s Chris Packham comments: “I think consumers would be utterly disgusted to know that a million of these intelligent, sensitive birds are dying every week to get cheap chicken onto their plates.
“The misery these animals face on a daily basis is unnecessary and would outrage even the most ardent meat eaters, because it serves no purpose but to satisfy the profits of our major supermarkets who refuse to help them.
“Fortunately there are many things shoppers can do to help.
“As well as eating less meat to reduce demand, we can dramatically improve their lives in a matter of years simply by showing these large supermarkets that we want them to sign the Better Chicken Commitment.
“There must be a shift towards a middle ground of better, but affordable choices that will help us all take part in improving animal welfare without breaking the bank. It’s not fair for that opportunity to be reserved for only the well off.”
Maggie Tookey, a 71 year old volunteer with Edinburgh Direct Aid (EDA), is currently in Ukraine.
She has just returned to Lviv, having teamed up with Norwegian and Ukrainian volunteers to make a long and difficult trip to Kremenchuk and Kharkiv in north east Ukraine.
In Kharkiv, they delivered thyroxin & wound dressings to a hospital in the west of the city; they were lucky as the heavy shelling at that time was in the north of the city. In Kremenchuk, they brought food to traumatised displaced people from Kharkiv.
Maggie says it is the stories of the elderly that she finds particularly distressing – just as she did when helping elderly victims of the Syrian conflict in recent years: “forced not only to witness death taking place in front of them but also knowing that the final years of their lives may never be spent in their own homes again”.
This is her story …
THE FIRST WEEK IN UKRAINE BEGINNING 24th APRIL 2022
So it’s one week since arriving in Ukraine to begin EDA’s third session in this embattled but extremely resiliant country.
The resistance goes on and just about the whole world is here trying to support that resistance. Still there is the belief from all the displaced Ukranians I meet through our EDA distribution programme, that Ukraine simply can’t lose this war. We can only hope that they’re right.
I’m now in Kremenchuk in Poltava region – central/eastern Ukraine and probably considered the first reasonably safe place reachable from the hell of Kharkiv, around 200km away. We arrived here – ‘we’ being Ira, our constant translator and ‘fixer’ and Knut, our big gentle Norwegian driver with his rusty but trusty Sprinter van, late on Friday night. The journey was long and took us 2 days of fairly non stop driving.
The van is like a Tardis. It just seems to keep holding more and more valuable aid so we just kept filling it until finally Knut said enough! It was overloaded but he thought it would be OK and it was. The last item we loaded as a special request was 150 civilian body bags to help with the numbers of dead in the badly hit city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. It was a sobering request but we had the space so we were able to help – why wouldn’t we? The bags would be taken onto Kharkiv from Kremenchuk.
The first portion of the journey was fine – fast on good roads and enough fuel stations to keep the tank topped up even though we were rationed to 20 litres.
The second part of the journey which was around a 1000km in total because of diversions for damaged roads etc, was far more challenging – some of it was ‘off road’ and the rest was over the most pot holed surfaces I’ve ever experienced.
It was so bad that we kept losing various fixtures and fittings off the van – the jarring was endless and exhausting but the main problem was the scarcity of diesel. We begged and pleaded but the little fuel available was reserved for emergency and military vehicles and not even to humble volunteer bringers of aid.
We had bought more fuel containers so could carry around 80 litres of diesel but these were the reserve. We needed to keep the tank reasonably full. On one occasion we were allowed up to the front of the queue but one time we sneaked in through the ‘no entry’ route on the advice of a local and came to a pump facing the queue. Smiling broadly and constantly and looking dim works wonders as does Ira our translator who probably sheltered us from much Ukranian swearing.
Kremenchuk is a small city of around 75,000 but 22,000 Internally Displaced people have arrived in the city since the beginning of this month. It’s a typical Soviet style place – mostly large blocks of flats and 70% of its population speak Russian. Most of the displaced have fled from Kharkiv and as ever, there are some terrible stories.
The distribution has taken two different pathways. We were supplying the increasing number of IDP shelters springing up out of necessity around the city – the pressure on the Municipality is great so every aid shipment is important.
We were able to unload into a big store room here and sort out what is needed for each shelter working with the local volunteer coordinator as our guide.
The second pathway involved working with the local priest who helps many individual families in his ‘parish’, listing their needs and passing these on to anyone who might be able to help. We were royally treated by the priest and his family – they were a delight. We were hugely over fed! Once again the admiration for these volunteers and the support they try to bring to their communities is admirable.
Food shortages cause problems for all in Ukraine and although these local volunteers are not enduring constant rocket attacks like Kharkiv and other places, the deprivations of war are suffered by all.
Once again the terrible stories are told when we visit the IDP’s in the shelters. Most here are from Kharkiv, some from Donetsk and the Donbas.
They are all distressing stories but perhaps none more so than by the elderly who are forced not only to witness death take place in front of them but know that the final years of their lives may never be spent in their own homes again. I find these the hardest to deal with.
One lady of 85, Varanella, from a rural village near Luhanske, came face to face with a Russian soldier when he entered her house as she was trying to escape.
He pointed his gun at her chest ready to shoot – terrified she turned and ran into the toilet but he opened fire on her fleeing back -somehow he missed and she bolted the door but he continued firing – the bullets only partially penetrated the metal door and thick walls – she cowered in terror and finally he seemed to get bored and went off to some other house but not before trashing the inside of hers.
She stayed there until dark and then managed to get help escaping from the village to a safer town and onto Kremenchuk. She cried constantly through the telling of this story, still reliving the horror of what happened. Many of her elderly neighbours were not so lucky. She was severely traumatised.
So now she has safety, warmth, support, companionship, and food – what she doesn’t have is her beloved home and this is the greatest wish for all those I met in Kremenchuk. We spent 4 days around the shelters and individual families distributing a lot of aid but mostly we talked.
I seemed to represent some symbol of hope to them but I felt a fraud. In the end what can I do – listen and hug!
UPDATE: THURSDAY 5th MAY
EDA is just back late last night from Kharkiv very close to the Russian border and a very dangerous place to be. There is constant shelling in some parts of the city and many have died there.
I was part of a larger food and medical aid delivery by the Ukraine Guardian Angels group – all volunteers just like us.
EDA was delivering much needed Thyroxin and eye medication and wound dressings. We were pleased to complete the job safely.
EDA and its team had also just completed a 4 day distribution of urgent food and hygiene goods in the small city of Kremenchuk, in Central/eastern Ukraine.
The city and its fantastic local Ukrainian teams of volunteers are now under huge pressure to offer shelter to over 22,000 displaced and traumatised people who have fled Kharkiv and other Eastern cities being flattened by constant Russian shelling.
Edinburgh Direct Aid does what it can but it can only do what the funding allows. We need delivery transport, food and medical supplies. These are the basics. If we get help with these we can DELIVER. We are now back in Lviv taking a breather!
The Edinburgh Direct Aid Ukraine Relief Fund, which supports Maggie’s work, can be found at:
A selection of traditional Ukrainian art workshops for both children and adults
