Returning to Sri Lanka

For the last year bags of colour has been running on a very small scale and has managed to provide work for a local family, who have been helping me to run the project and for 3 other women.

It is now time to return to Sri Lanka to bring this idea into full blossom, and offer the opportunity to more women in poorer communities, and to hopefully create a solid foundation from which the project can then be extended to other developing countries.

Currently funds to develop the project are limited, but faith and determination is plentiful, so I will keep marching forward and trust that it will come together beautifully. However if you would like to donate to help this small project grow then we would be very grateful you can do so by following the link below. http://www.mrsite.co.uk/usersitesv12/bethshepherd.com/wwwroot/page16.htm

Life is beautiful!

Seizing opportunities!

Lalitha’s Story continued!

 Lalitha’s is one of the first ladies I brought into the project; you may have read her story in my blog. She lives with her mother in a tsunami affected fishing village just on the edge of Colombo. Her house, to our eyes looks like a shack, but to her and her mother it is home and it is all they have. Surrounded by many other families in similar conditions, many much worst. Believe it or not, this small cluster of homes, nestled between the shores of the beach and the train tracks (actually so close to the train track that I would say most people there could touch the passing train from inside their house) is situated right next to one of the best hotels in Sri Lanka, Mount Lavina, a 5 start colonial style grand place, with rooms for $120 a night, seems so unbalanced.

 

Lalitha is 43, and never married, and in Sri Lankan culture there is little chance of her marrying at her age, and with hardly any work for women life was a real struggle for her. So when Lalitha joined my project it was a big turning point for her, and she quickly seized the opportunity and began making more bags than anyone else. It was a turning point for me too, as the project had just begun and she got it going for me, working along side the family and sending regular boxes of bags to sell, not to mention that her ability to seize the opportunity given to her, (when 5 other women form her village who were also given the opportunity turned it down complaining it was too far to come on the bus) has been a huge inspiration to me in my own journey to get this project up and running.

 

When I saw her I knew she had strength and determination, and I only wanted motivated women, women who could use bags of colour as a stepping stone to move out of poverty. I prayed that I would find the right women and I did. However last week I found out she has got a job in Dubai as a house maid and has now left Sri Lanka and our project. My immediate reaction was oh no I have let her down I didnt provided enough work for her and she has had to go else where. What a crazy way to look at this and when my panic subsided, I looked at it for what it truly is, I had given her the means to move forward and out of poverty, I had done exactly what I had intended, I had become so caught up in the fact that I hadn’t yet got the ‘big order’ I thought the project needed to help these women that I over looked that I was helping them.

 

Nearly every Sri Lankan I met, who was living in poverty knew that a job in the middle east for a couple of years would give them enough money to return to Sri Lanka and help their family to make that shift out of poverty and even use that money to set up a small business in their paradise island which they love so much. Lalitha was clever she knew what she was doing, using the money from bags of colour to get her visa and her flight out and up. She is an inspiration to me and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to help her on her way.

Now our project is one woman short, one very brilliant woman, but I am sure that there are a 1000 more to fill her place. I just need to get out there and find her.

Life is beautiful when you see it for what it really is!

Have you had the ‘One bag wont make a difference’ syndrome?

I think we have all had it at some time, many times I am sure in fact. Your in the supermarket, its late, your hungry, your grabbing your shopping, you have good intentions of helping the environment but you forgot your eco bag, I guess it wont hurt its only one bag. It occurred to me just how many people, somewhere in the world, are think that same thought at the same time, this then makes your one innocent plastic bag not just one, but one of many.

I believe we can all ‘be the change we wish to see in the world’, just by making small changes in our daily lives. A lot of us are blind to the impact we create in this world, the foot prints we leave behind when we walk our path through life. From my own experience in life, I have grown to believe this is often because we think that even if we tried to make a small difference it would be so insignificant that it would hardly scratch the surface.

However after watching Obama inauguration speech I am reminded of my vision that we can create better in our world, and not by each of us waiting for someone else to fix it for us, but by believing in our own greatness and our own abilities to make that difference.

Therefore I have created ‘Bags of Change’, the same bags of colour bags, just with a positive statement added to the pocket from someone who has proven we can achieve great things and we can impact positive change. Dare to be seen with a ’Bags of Change’ bag by and spread a positive message. http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

Spreading Obama’s messages of positive change

Click on the link below to read my press release;

Using Colour To Make A Difference And To Spread Obama’s Message Of Change

Beth Shepherd from London UK, travelled to Sri Lanka to follow her passion to make colourful eco shopping bags with women living in poverty, to inspire people to stand up and actively make a difference. Now after being inspired by Obama’s achievements she has decided to use her bags to spread her message by adding his powerful ‘Change we can’ statement to all her bags.

or click here if there is a problem with the above link; http://www.prlog.org/10184255-using-colour-to-make-difference-and-to-spread-obamas-message-of-change.html

‘change we can’ Obama, added to my bags

Bamboo bags; bags of change

To make my free press release I used PRlog, brillinat and totaly free; <a href=”http://www.prlog.org/”>PRLog – Free Press Release Service</a>

http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

Bags of Fun!! My video giggles

I recently made some short videos to show how Bags of Colour Bamboo bags work, it was great fun and I have added them now onto You Tube (click here to view the other videos I made) But I just couldnt resist adding this one to my blog as I just got the giggles whilst making it, maybe it was all that limp spinach and carrots. If you would like to find out more about Bags of Colour click here.  Beth http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

The damaging affects of plastic

Be the change you wish to see in the world

I have just started a small business making eco bags with Sri Lanka tsunami from deprived and tsunami affected areas. I was doing some research on the damaging affects of plastic bags on our planet, I have always felt strongly about the over use of plastic in this world, but now I read the facts and its shocking.

 

 

 

I would just like to share with you some of them in the hope of reaching to, if but just a few people in this world, to promote awareness.

 The affect that plastic is having on this beautiful planet we live in unthinkable, and the plastic consumed on a daily basis is too huge to comprehend.

Basically plastic goes no where fast! We have all done it, thought to ourselves one more bag wont make a difference, and its ok I’ll just ‘throw it away!’ but what we forget is there is no ‘Away’ it doesn’t just vanish into thin air, it sits and sits and if its lucky, like a lot of plastic bags it lives out the remainder of it 400 years (studies have shown its more like 100) in the ocean, making its way into the stomachs of hundreds of thousands of marine animals, it even cleverly breaks its self down into minute particles, like a plastic soup.

http://www.plasticbagfree.com/iframe_facts.php

It’s so easy to think it’s not our problem, or why should I do anything it’s up to the government, but asks yourself these 2 easy questions;

1 – Have you ever used a plastic bag, plastic bottle, brought something with plastic packaging?

2 – If you broke something in someone’s house would you try to fix it, if you spilled something would you clean it up, if you caused a problem would you not try to solve it?

 Well if you answered yes to the first question, then answer this, how can you or any of us ever again say to ourselves, the destruction of this planet by the use of this toxic substance called plastic is not my problem?

 

 

I dread to think what impact we have created for future generations, our children’s children, we may never know in our life time the extent of the damage. But what we will know is that every bit of plastic we have ever consumed individually will live on far longer than we will ever live. That is not the legacy I want to leave behind, destruction with my name on it. When we think to ourselves that by reducing the amount of plastic we consume, the impact it would make would be so small how could it make a difference just, just think of the impact we have but not caring, and remember, we may think there is no point because it would just be a drop in the ocean, but remember that without that drop the ocean would be empty. We are never insignifgant our actions do count. http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

Here is a link to make you think… oh that rhymes! http://www.plasticbagfree.com/iframe_facts.php

Making an impact

Make an impact, protect our planet

I have come to believe that most of us are blind to the impact we create in this world, the foot prints we leave behind when we walk our path through life. But often we don’t want to see, and from my own experience in life, I have grown to believe this is because we think that even if we tried to make a small difference it would be so insignificant that it would hardly scratch the surface.

After just finishing watching Obama inauguration speech I am reminded of my vision that we can create better in our world, and not by each of us waiting for someone else to fix it for us, but by believing in our own greatness and our own abilities to make a difference to our world. By strength and commitment towards what we believe in, by making more of an effort to stand up and honour our values. We each have freedom of choice yet most of us choose to not bother, with even such small things, thinking our actions wont make a difference but it is because of our actions that we have created the world as it is. The environment is suffering because of our choices, and by not choosing to do anything is a choice. When we think of the destruction that has been caused on this planet by our greed and thoughtlessness, why do we think that we as individuals cannot do anything to change it and that its up to those in power, but we forget that if we have the power to destroy with our thoughtless actions then of course we have the power to create. Any changes we make with our actions our first made within our minds and it is our minds that create our world and our future.

Making changes within isn’t easy, but the rewards are great. We don’t all have to be hero’s and save the world but we can make small changes within our lives which will have an effect no matter how small they are, if not by what they create but by who they create within us, the better person we become by living with greater actions.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Make and impact in our world, but make it a positive impact.

http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

Returning to Sri Lanka

In December 07 I left for Sri Lanka to travel the country taking photos and helping out in some voluntary projects. During my travels I fell in love with the stunning colours of the country became inspired by creative projects people were involved in, and met a lot of local people living in poverty, and in difficult situations, and in March 08 just as I was leaving Sri Lanka I came up with the idea for Bags of Colour.

So I returned to Sri Lanka in May 08 to follow the idea. You can see my photography by visiting www.bethshepherd.com and to find out more visit www.bagsofcolour.net