Have a more enlightened Christmas

December 5, 2014

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Practical action
Who has their decorations up already? Despite Eliza telling everyone at nursery to the contrary (!) we are holding out till the weekend. She does have advent calendars though: my mum bought us the one with a tiny illuminated snowy village in the picture. She’s also fascinated by the Christmas lights we see outside and in the windows of other houses on our walk back from nursery.

Electricity and power is something we take for granted, isn’t it? For Christmas lights, for winter warmth, running your house and everything else. It would pretty difficult to manage Christmas, let alone the day-to-day of parenting without it. Things spiral into chaos here if we don’t put the washing machine on at least once each day.

But for many people this isn’t an option. To highlight the 1.3 billion people living without any form of modern energy services, Practical Action – a charity that uses technology to help solve global issues of poverty – has devised an energy calculator with a difference. Instead of telling you to how to cut your bills, it’ll work out how many baby incubators your Christmas light consumption would power.

Why? Because for the 1.3 million without energy, this also means they won’t have access to essential medical care powered by electricity. So no medical equipment throughout pregnancy and for their children – no ultrasounds, monitors, incubators or even fridges to store vaccinations. Things we take for granted as parents in the UK. Things that could help or save lives.

Practical Action is calling on people to sign a petition that will be sent to the UN, demanding millions more babies get access to essential medical care powered by energy and a fair chance at life. So try the calculator, read more about it, and sign the petition this Christmas – it’ll only take a few minutes.

11 Comments

  • Carie

    December 5, 2014 at 10:23 am

    That’s a great petition – I’m off to sign it now 🙂

  • Digitalmumsara

    December 5, 2014 at 1:11 pm

    Late on in my pregnancy I had a small scare. I didn’t feel my baby moving. Just a simple bit of equipment was able to show that my baby was ok. But if it hadn’t been doctors could have done something about it. Many women living in poor countries don’t have those opportunities. It’s so unfair!

  • Slummy single mummy

    December 5, 2014 at 2:28 pm

    All signed!

  • Jess @ Along Came Cherry

    December 5, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    Signed. I wish I had waited a little bit longer before my tree up!! x

  • Polly

    December 5, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    off to sign it now xx

  • lori

    December 5, 2014 at 11:37 pm

    off to sign it! Great to see you spreading the word on this x

  • Adele @ Circus Queen

    December 6, 2014 at 1:56 am

    Thanks for highlighting this. It’s a really important issue and, a you say, it only takes a few minutes to sign a petition. Have done. x

  • laura redburn

    December 8, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    shall sign now!

  • Kathryn (@KatGotTheCream)

    December 8, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    Just signed it – thank you! x

  • Vicky

    December 15, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    What a brilliant campaign – I think this time of year really highlights how lucky we all really are, and how there are so many people that don’t have access to even the most basic facilities. Signed and shared.

  • Laura

    December 16, 2014 at 12:56 am

    We also always hold out – normally our lights go on around 11th December because like you said we take things for granted. Great post

    Laura x

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