The best of the ripples – the little things that you’re doing that are making a big difference

We’re really proud of our books, products and campaigns but they aren’t actually changing the world; what is changing the world is you…in businesses, schools, hospitals and communities in the UK and around the world, who are finding inspiration in what we create and using it to engage your friends, neighbours, families and colleagues in the idea that it is through the small things that we do everyday that we can all play a part in bringing about positive change.

I describe it as dropping a pebble in a pond; we drop the pebbles – books, products, campaigns – and they make a big splash. But it is the ripples that make the real difference. So here’s a handful of my favourite “ripples”. It’s just the tip of the iceberg but it will give you an idea of the range of stuff that is going on, inspired by We Are What We Do.

• In Uganda, our friend Dismas Ootari, a school teacher in a village outside Kampala uses what he describes as “the spirit of the idea” to communicate with the children in his school and the people in his village about how some of the actions that they take every day, can and do contribute to the terrible spread of HIV/ Aids. Dismas is one of our oldest supporters. He wrote to us shortly after the launch of Change the World for a Fiver and offered to help us promote We Are What We Do in Africa. Most recently, he addressed 400 students at Brilliant High School in Kampala where they spent 6 hours sharing ideas that can make a change in their lives and around the world. Here’s a photo from the launch event he ran in his village.

• Closer to home, there’s more than tax being collected at the HMRC. Diana Green has been running a spectacle recycling initiative inspired by the action “recycle your specs”. Since she launched her campaign with an old photocopier paper box next to her desk back in 2003, Diana has collected more than 4,500 pairs from colleagues out of 100 different offices of the HMRC and sent them to the charity Vision Aid overseas. I talked about Diana at Unilever’s R&D Port Sunlight site before Christmas and Rob Chatfield was so inspired by her that last week he launched a similar initiative at Unilever. So far he’s collected more than 60 pairs from colleagues and is planning a future initiative based on actions in the book (suggest he builds up slowly to sharing a bath with someone you love though they could combine it with some useful product testing).

• And while we’re on the subject of sharing baths, we really love the twist Jake (8) and Max (11) Vine came up with on this action… they suggest hopping in the bath with your dog to save water! Their T-shirt design for this challenging new action will be worn by their Dad, Charles in a charity fun run.

• As an Australian, I was excited to receive an email from Ang Mcinerney a teacher in Arnhem Land in the Northern Teritory of Oz asking if it would be possible to get some copies of Change the World for Ten Bucks (the Australian edition) to help her to teach her students about environmental change. She explained that English is her students’ second language so the visual nature and practical applications in the book would work really well. Needless to say, we’re working to get books to Ang and really look forward to hearing how they go down.
  
  
• And finally, thanks to Alex Kay and her students Blackburn College in the North West who “did something they thought they couldn’t do” and knitted us mobile phone holders for Christmas.