Labour to make teenage community service compulsory

Young people will have to complete 50 hours of community service before they are 19 if Labour win…
… more

Teaching Kids About Water Issues

This Sunday, March 22, is World Water Day, an international observance that grew out of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The occasion has since spawned World Water Week, which this year is from March 22 to 28.

Tomorrow (Mar. 20), Dream Village, a website that educates kids about social, economic, and environmental issues, is releasing Saved by the Well. Dream Village was formed last fall after its founders won a $10,000 grant to launch a series of socially responsible children’s books.

Saved by the Well, their debut release, told from a child’s perspective with color illustrations, is the story of a town in Mozambique that benefits from the Play Pump water system, a merry-go-round water pump powered by children’s play. The Play Pump was developed by GlobalGiving, an organization that connects donors with community-based projects worldwide.

more

Scholastic to host the Kids Gorilla Summit

[Via Children's Bookshelf]

Gathering for Gorillas
Photo: Getty Images.
On Friday, September 26, Scholastic will host the Kids Gorilla Summit— a gathering of some 180 elementary and middle-school students focusing on the plight of Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas—in its New York City headquarters. The summit, part of a broader campaign for which Scholastic has partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation and Wildlife Direct, will be broadcast live on Scholastic’s Web site. Among the speakers at the summit will be Dr. Paula Kahumbu and Craig Hatkoff, part of the team behind Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own (Scholastic Press) as well as the bestseller Owen and Mzee. Here, President Bill Clinton looks on as children from the Scholastic Kids Press Corps from Rwanda and the U.S. sign the Clinton Global Initiative Commitment.