Archive for March 26th, 2010

Oxfam Trailwalker 2010

Friday, March 26th, 2010

As you all know, Fitta Bodies has had a team in the Oxfam Trailwalker for the last 2 years and we have another team ready to go this year.

Kirsty, Kelly and Christie will be forming a team and being joined by one of Kirsty’s friends to make up the 4.
They will be doing training walks on weekends leading up to the event in August, so if anyone is keen to join them, it would be a great way to get some more exercise into your week, you can enjoy the beautiful bushland around Sydney and help keep the girls motivated. Let me know if you would like to join them and I will hook you up.

But, let’s not forget this is a charity event and trust me, it is worth every penny you donate. Walking 100km’s through the bush is no mean feat, I did it in 2008 and I can vouch for how hard it is!

So, below is the blurb from Kirsty and Oxfam:

Hey all,

I am taking part in Oxfam TRAILWALKER Sydney 2010.

Oxfam Trailwalker is the world’s greatest team challenge. And it’s also one of the toughest. The challenge is to get a team of four across 100km of Australian bush in less than 48 hours – and to raise at least $5,000 to help to overcome poverty and suffering around the world.
Oxfam Trailwalker is a real challenge – I’ve joined with three other awesome determined chicks and in between work, holidays, wedding plans (not me) and other commitments we’ve started training hard and hope to finish as a team (and alive!) in 40 hours.
The walk takes place from 27th – 29th August. Teams need to start together, go through each checkpoint together, and finish together.

That’s right – I’m hitting you up for donations … so if you’re feeling ungenerous please tune out now and I’ll come and bug you at another time (don’t worry – I won’t forget) …
Read on below to see where your money will go and find out more about the programs that your donation will support.

Or, if you want to avoid the blurb and go straight to the money bit – head here: http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/121

The event began in 1981 as a military exercise for the elite Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment in Hong Kong, and has since grown into one of the world’s leading sporting challenges. Oxfam Trailwalker is a global event, taking place annually in New Zealand, UK, Hong Kong and Japan.

Oxfam works in more than 26 countries around the world including Indigenous Australia. By raising money for Oxfam Australia participants will be making a tremendous difference to the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged people.

By supporting Oxfam TRAILWALKER you are putting your foot down against poverty and injustice. The people you are helping don’t want to live on handouts. They want to lead dignified, independent lives. Your support gives them the chance to help themselves.

So … how much to give?

Let’s start with the big ones:
$25,000 can provide 850 families in Cambodia with access to clean drinking water and sanitary living conditions via the provision of wells, latrines, house materials and health care services.
$15,000 can provide food and equipment for preparing nourishing meals for 600 orphaned and HIV/AIDS affected children and their families for one year at a South African care centre.
$10,000 can cover the cost of drilling a borehole and establishing a hand pump for a well that will provide a Malawian village of over 3,000 people with a reliable and safe water source.
$5,000 can provide 25 impoverished Sri Lankan women with access to affordable credit to invest in small enterprises such as brick making, cultivation, spice production, shops and livestock rearing.
$1,000 can provide an emergency kit, including water container, tools, kitchen set and household items, to four families in the Pacific whose home has been destroyed as a result of a natural disaster.

But I know that’s a big ask so:
$500 can provide a water harvesting system to supply clean water for 200 families in drought-stricken southern Africa.
$370 will provide 30 schools in South Africa with seeds, watering cans and tools to set up their own food gardens.
$100 is enough to provide medicines to one village in Laos to treat common illnesses and prevent disease.
$70 can provide a traditional birthing attendant in Cambodia with a kit to ensure the safe delivery of village children.

And every dollar counts:
$50 is enough to buy 10 sacks of seed to enable Malawian farming families to grow more drought-tolerant crops.
$20 can provide families in Timor-Leste with vegetable seeds, increasing nutrition and market opportunities.

Please sponsor me & my team: http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/121

Or to find out more about Oxfam and Trailwalker – head here: http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/sydney/

Thanks J

Check out this video

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Totally unrelated to fitness or health, I am just totally blown away by the talent this girl has. The video goes for about 8 minutes, but I highly recommend taking the time to watch it, absolutely awesome.

Click here to watch the video

This video shows the winner of 2009s ” Ukraine s Got Talent”, Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $75,000.

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a womans face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young womans face appears..

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

An art critic said:

“I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And theres surely no bigger compliment.”

Click here to watch the video