Here´s the interview on 324 / TV3 with Montse Jené

Bon Sant Jordi

Greetings from sunny Barcelona where I'm visiting our friends at Leqtor, publishers of our Spanish and Catalan books, to celebrate Sant Jordi day. Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalunya and he is - slightly eccentrically - celebrated with books and flowers; men buy women flowers and women buy men a book. All the book stores set up stalls in the streets and people crowd into the centre of town throughout the day. We´re heading down town to see all the celebrations and I'm going to sign copies of the Spanish and Catalan books at Fnac, El Cortes Ingles, La Casa del Llibre, Catalònia, Proa, La Central this afternoon and would love to see anyone there. Thanks very much to Montse Jené for a lovely interview which will be shown on TV3 throughout the day today. This is me with Montse.

We’re coming to America!

Change the World for Ten Bucks is out now and available in all good book stores.

Yes, that’s right. It’s taken 2 years of hard slog with our friends at Chronicle Books, but we’ve finally launched an American edition of our best seller, Change the World for a Fiver.

Change the World for Ten Bucks – small actions x lots of people = big change is published this month and like the original UK edition, features 50 simple everyday actions to help people connect with and play a part in some of the most complex issues facing America and the world right now – climate change, international security, poverty, social exclusion, public health etc – all brought to life using our trademark creativity and fun, backed up by killer stats and useful links to other US organisations.

We’re hoping that Change the World for Ten Bucks will help us hit the magical -1,000,000 - copies-sold mark by our 5th birthday this September. Global sales of Change the World editions currently sit at around 900,000 - so America, that’s your target – 100,000 copies by this September. You’ll find the book in pretty much every independent book store across the States (and if they don’t have it, encourage them to order it!) as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Target, Urban Outfitters & Terrain (who are donating a percentage of their profits from sales back to We Are What We Do). You can also get it from Chronicle’s dedicated mini site www.changetheworldfortenbucks.com where you can sign up to track your actions (which will be added to our grand total) and share new ideas etc.

If you’re outside of the States, please help us by sending this link to everyone you know in America and encourage them to get themselves a copy of the new book and to check out our website to find out more about us. Thanks!

Fabulous stuff happening in America to promote our launch!

There’s loads of exciting pockets of activity starting to build in America around the launch of Change the World for Ten Bucks.

If you’re travelling Virgin across the Atlantic over the next couple of months look out for short animated films based on actions from the new book. Thanks to our pals at Virgin for giving us this air space free of charge and to our genius animator Nigel Coan for developing the spots. First 5 reported sightings of the films on board (including the name of the action animated) will receive a complimentary copy of the US book. Email Eugenie@wearewhatwedo.org.uk

Look out for our in-store promotion – Change the World from a bookstore which we’ve developed to promote the launch of Change the World for Ten Bucks. We came up with some terrifically simple and fun ways you can change the world in a book shop and we’re really delighted that loads of stores have come on board. We’d love to see pics of any stores you see promoting the book and please say thanks to them from us!

Thanks to Chronicle for giving the whole company a day off on May 1 to take part in voluntary activity as part of your support for Change the World for Ten Bucks. Brilliant! If you work at Chronicle or you’re a volunteer with VolunteerMatch or Americorps then we hope very much that you will take part and send us news of what you did.

And if you were in San Francisco last weekend, we hope you dropped into San Francisco Zoo’s “Party for the Planet” on Saturday sponsored by Chronicle Books and Change the World for Ten Bucks where they ran a scavenger hunt, based around actions from the new book and linked to various animal attractions. Thanks very much to Nick Haisman for introducing us to Harrison and the team at San Francisco zoo who made this happen.

¡Viva! ¡Estamos en España! Visca! Estem a Catalunya! Vamos a Cambiar el Mundo and Podem Canviar El Món available in all good book shops

We’re delighted to tell you that Spanish and Catalan editions of Change the World for a Fiver are also now available. Vamos a Cambiar el Mundo (Spanish) and Podem Canviar El Món (Catalan) are available in all good book shops and from viewing the We Are What We Do Products page.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the response in Spain – already our publisher Leqtor has followed the lead of the British and Australian governments in producing special schools editions of both books which have been made available free of charge to schools in Spain. We’ve also had a wonderful reception from the Spanish press – Spanish speakers might like to read a sample of the coverage we have on the Spanish landing page.

Brilliant first year for We Are What We Do’s Young Speakers

In February we celebrated a brilliant first year for the We Are What We Do Young Speaker’s Programme.

Our first year’s Young Speakers are 16-19 year olds from 6th form schools and colleges in London and the North West who we’ve helped to develop the skills and confidence to give We Are What We Do presentations and run creative campaigns and workshops based on content from our books in primary and secondary schools around the country.

We’re absolutely delighted to announce that in Year 1, 200 Young Speakers gave a total of 593 presentations in schools and community groups inspiring more than 52,000 children to use simple everyday actions to make a difference to social and environmental problems affecting their local and global communities.

This year, we’ll be recruiting another 200 Young Speakers from schools and colleges in the North West, the Midlands, Bristol and London. The project is funded by the youth volunteering charity, v and the Aldridge Foundation. For further information, visit the Young Speakers website youngspeakers.wearewhatwedo.org or email Nicole.vandeneijnde@wearewhatwedo.org

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.
  
  

Who exactly is We Are What We Do and what do we all look like?

If I had a penny for every time I’ve been asked this, I’d have about 4p. So in answer to your questions, here’s a pic of us taken a couple of weeks ago…

From left to right you’ll see me (Eugenie), Katie (runs young speakers), Nick (who’s in charge), Jyoti (publicity and events though we’ve sadly only got her for a couple more weeks), Mike (web genius), Nicole (education and Spain) and Ella (who runs the office and keeps everything bubbling along). Regrettably absent are Frances (who does our fabulous work in Newham), David (who started We Are What We Do) and our newest recruit Tori Flower whose surname is included because how could we not?

Now, here’s a challenge for you - which one of us has a black belt in kung fu? First correct answer to eugenie@wearewhatwedo.org.uk will receive a free copy of Teach Your Granny to Text. Answer announced next edition.