KeiJoe

You know, I'm rubbish sometimes. Writing a blog should be the one of the easiest tasks to complete but for me it's one of the most difficult because I sometimes find it quite difficult to write out what's happening. Give me a presentation to do or a speech to do and I fly through them but give me a task to write a blog and my fingers and my brain seemingly stop working together. As one of the tasks, you're meant to write three blogs during each of the three campaigns; so far I've managed just this one. Just one. So I best make it a brilliant blog!

Where to begin? I think I'll start end and work backwards (because I'm cool like that.)

The final campaign; improving children's literacy is nearing its end for all those involved. It wraps up the end of three brilliant campaigns that myself and 47 (right?) other brilliant individuals have been a part of. The first, raising awareness of food poverty in the UK was one of those kind of issues that seemingly gets brushed under the carpet; 1 in 4 people suffered from food poverty over the winter months which was just so surprising to myself and indeed everyone else.

The second campaign focused on isolation and loneliness amongst older people. For me, this was the most difficult campaign because it quickly became personal and emotional to learn about this major issue that our older generation face and to raise awareness of this was a great experience to be a part of despite the personal aspects of it.

And this, the final campaign! Children's literacy levels in this day and age are so low; media has taken over their lives, from video games, to television to of course the internet. Reading is no longer seen as something "cool" or "in" anymore; rather something left behind and it should never be like that. Reading a book, absorbing the words on the page, going along with the characters as they fight monsters, defeat evils and challenge authorities is a great and inexpensive way or escapism especially from any problems faced in our everyday lives.

Have these campaigns been easy for me? Oh gosh no; they've been difficult from the very beginning (which I'll explain in Pt 2!) but they've each ended with a positive impact in my local area and myself and my volunteers are not only proud of what we've achieved and done but know that however small, we have made a difference.