“This picture makes me feel sad and angry. They are poor and have no food even though many countries send them food.”
Here’s a picture book with a difference. Our Burma Book is written by children separated by thousands of miles and living very different lives. Yet the Edinburgh children in schools with desks and homes with toys and food respond with a natural understanding of the injustice of being forced to live without much of anything at all. Continue reading “Our Burma Book”
Emmanuel Jal, author and hip hop artist, will be talking about his book War Child at Edinburgh Book Festival. It is likely to be an unforgettable experience.
Writing is never easy but it is hard to imagine other authors in this year’s programme have gone through so much to get words on paper. Continue reading “Emmanuel Jal: ambassador of hope”
It’s not just for fun, though it certainly should be a laugh. COMEDIANS vs HIBS Under 17s Girls Charity Football Match is a fundraising event based on a contest between Fringe comedians and Hibs Girls on Sunday 9 August at 2pm. It’s free to get into Meadowbank Stadium but donations go to The Junction, a local charity supporting young people in Leith and North East Edinburgh. Continue reading “Football for a laugh”
Smell the coffee: Jerusalem Barnabas demonstrates how to make a cup of Ethiopian coffee.
A heady smell of roasting coffee greets you. Women in bright colours laugh and chat as they pass plates of African food. We’ve just dropped into a fundraising coffee morning with a difference and it feels a long way from the grey Edinburgh summer on the other side of the door. Welcome to the Africa Centre Scotland… Continue reading “Wanted: project coordinator for Africa Centre”
Damp but undaunted: some of the World Kitchen team. From the left Jo, Pip, Balvinder, Fay, Mridu and Gordon.
We begged and borrowed and though we certainly didn’t steal we owe thanks to many friends and helpers for all your support – in cash, kind, cakes and cooking of all sorts – which made the World Kitchen in Leith such a great success despite the terrible weather on Gala Day. It’s a long list so let’s get going, here are our heartfelt thanks to… Continue reading “Thank you, thank you, thank you”
If you can’t stand the heat: a rare chance to draw breath in the World Kitchen
It didn’t just rain, it absolutely poured. Recipes and posters got washed away as the deluge battered our poor gazebos. But cooks just kept on cooking which was just as well because as soon as the rain stopped people came looking for food. Crowds of them. We might have hoped for better weather but we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning for the World Kitchen than the Gala Day in Leith Links on Saturday (13 June). Continue reading “World Kitchen cooks up a storm”
The first step in the new Opening Doors programme: (from left to right) Ola Kasprzak, Malcolm Chisholm and Fay Young
How can local communities influence political decisions? Ola Kasprzak and Maka Mwamwaja are hoping to find out as they begin this year’s shadowing programme, Opening Doors 2009, by observing the work of Malcolm Chisholm MSP both in the Scottish Parliament and in his constituency of Edinburgh North and Leith. Continue reading “Opening Doors to politics”
Reel Iraq: a unique perspective
Stop press. This is just a glimpse of what is going on in Leith. Don’t miss the Reel Iraq readings in McDonald Road Library, come to the World Kitchen in Leith, keep an ear open for Zawadi, the new women’s choir, and keep watching this space for news of our Opening Doors shadowing programme and a new series about community leadership. And if you want to become a community activist, why not join ACTive Inquiry, the radical new theatre company in Leith.
Calling all cooks. Here’s your invitation to take part in a unique community event during Leith Festival. World Kitchen in Leith is based on the simple idea that food is the best way to bring people together so we can celebrate the many different cultures that make Leith the most vibrant part of Scotland’s capital city. [See also World Kitchen Cooks up a Storm] Continue reading “Come to the World Kitchen in Leith”
The day starts with some tough questions. Who should care? Does caring begin and end in the family? How much support should the state give? And what exactly is a carer anyway? Such questions do the rounds as women join the circle of discussion on a sunny spring morning in Pilmeny Youth Centre. Then someone hits the nail on the head: most women do not see themselves as ‘carers’ at all so they never think of asking for help. Continue reading “Thank you for caring”
