YPD Japan on the move!

Although there are a few members of YPD Japan, we are motivated enough to work together! we bought handicrafts directly from villages of Thailand, some are made by YPD Chiangmai Team. We sold them in Japan to support YPD Chiangmai and YPD Karen. Jean-Joseph(YPD France) living in Japan came help YPD Japan. Everytime we do something, we meet young people to help us. This is the YPD work!
-Mako Higasayama, YPD International Team

YPD parties for the earth

The Young People for Development believes in sustainable growth wherein the environment is taken into consideration. Days before the Earthday in April, YPD hosted a party in honor of MOTHER EARTH. Volunteers and friends for the YPD came. The event was carbon neutral thanks to the support of some friends.

Food was simple and candles were used in some areas to minimize the carbon impact.

More importantly, there was fun and bonding for all those who were there.

YPD's Earthday Party

The Young People for Development in Australia will organise an Earthday party on April 18, 2008 at the YPD house in Cairnlea, located in the Western suburb of Melbourne. It hopes to bring young people interested in the environment and development.

The YPD Earthday Party is a carbon neutral event courtesy of the Eco-Asia initiative of the Young People for Development.

To register into the Earthday event, click here.

Green WYD backs earth hour

The Holy Eucharist, the host for the Green World Youth Day Program joins Earth Hour tomorrow at 8-9PM. YPD Australia also enlisted as part of the campaign.

We enjoin everybody to switch off their lights for an hour tomorrow.

Buying carbon offsets

An article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph offers advice on choosing which carbon offsets to buy - or to avoid.

Interestingly, the article advises individuals to buy their carbon offsets from registered environmental charity so that they can claim a tax deduction.

This is exactly the path we hope to go down with our YPD partnership with Geres Cambodia to sell carbon credits.

The striking difference…

(Scrutinizing the WYD 2008 registration fee)

These days, looking at the workings of affluent Australia, I embarked on a different journey and came up with a striking comparison that led me to much reflection and sometimes despair. The weeks of fundraising allowed me to take a step backward and look at the entire dynamics of funding.

However, when I looked into the following figures, something just isn’t right:

WYD REGISTRATION COST (for five days):

• Middle Income Countries (like Philippines) : 250 AUD
• High Income Countries (like Australia) : 400 AUD

TRAVEL COST:

• Manila-Melbourne-Sydney-Manila (Middle Income Country): 1,000 AUD
• Melbourne-Sydney-Melbourne : 220 AUD

The estimated daily wage for Philippines: 8 AUD. For an Australian: 20 AUD/hour Therefore, it takes 35 hours (or 4.3 days) an ordinary Australian to work his or her way to Sydney. A Filipino has to work for 156 days (5 months) to come to Sydney next year.

How GREEN can we get?

Planting trees - and grass - for a Green Advent

Very happy to join this blog to update you all on our Green WYD project.So many things been happening that it's hard to know where to start.Let's begin with tonight - at the 6pm Mass at Holy Eucharist parish St Albans for the Third Sunday of Advent.Kins has already mentioned the launch of our Green Advent projectFor the first week we showed Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth movie.For the second week we organised a Walk to Church Sunday - a great event - not everyone walked but many did - and many of those who didn't paid a $1 donation to "offset" their use of the car!So tonight we organised the sale of tree and plant seedlings for the Third Sunday of Advent.We sold about 50 plants after this evening's mass - a very encouraging response.The plants all came from Iramoo Sustainable Community Centre at the St Albans of Victoria University.Tonight we sold mainly trees (wattles) and kangaroo apples (all gone) although we'd also like to sell a few native grasses since this area is in fact natural grassland.Let's see how we go tomorrow!

YPD 2008 Annual Session on July 5-10, 2008

Next year's annual YPD (Young People for Development (YPD) training session will be in Melbourne, Australia on July 5-10, 2008. It is the first time that a YPD Formation session will be held in a 'developed' country and is co-organised by a Catholic Parish.YPD members and interested individuals/groups are encouraged to register early to prevent complications in terms of travel and visa arrangements. The 2008 program will be held ten days before the World Youth Day Program in Sydney. An eco-solidarity tour will be held on July 12-14 from Melbourne to Sydney for the YPD Session participants to take a closer look at Australia and to have a deeper understanding on the issues involved.

YPD Volunteers arrive in Melbourne

Kins from the Philippines and Amrit from England arrived in Melbourne last October and November 2007 respectively to volunteer for the YPD (Young People for Development) Training Session in July 2008. The two YPD members will be in Australia for a year to help prepare for the said program dubbed as Green World Youth Day. They were warmly welcomed by Stefan Gigacz-YPD Australia and Fr. Peter Carrucan of the Holy Eucharist Parish.The Green World Youth Day Program will be held in St. Albans, a Western part of Melbourne. It will be officially co-sponsored by the Holy Eucharist Parish of St. Albans, a Catholic Church. Holy Eucharist commits the year 2008 for the youth and the greening of its church.

Holy Eucharist Launches Green Advent

"To renew the face of the earth..." is a reason Fr. Peter Carrucan, Parish Priest of the Holy Eucharist Parish in St. Albans envisioned to launch the Green Advent Program. He further explained that Advent is a time to 'vigilantly wait' and hope for new things to come. It is why, he exhorted his parishioners to make use of Advent as a time to know more and do something for the earth.The Green Advent is an introduction of the Greening of the Holy Eucharist Parish. The greening program enables a group of earth keepers to take up the project and to neutralize the carbon emission physically emitted by the Holy Eucharist Parish. It will eventually encourage parishioners to embrace eco-ethical living.On the first week of Advent, the film An Inconvenient Truth was shown. On the second Sunday, people were encouraged to Walk to Church. Those that took their cars along were asked to donate a dollar for the Green World Youth Day Program. The third week of Advent will focus on Planting. Native Grasses, flowers and trees. Families are encouraged to plant in their homes as a sign of thanksgiving for 2007. The last Sunday of Advent is a Greening Solidarity Day. People can share household greening practices through exhibits and/or handing out of leaflets.The Green Advent project is organized by the earthkeepers of the Holy Eucharist Parish.