Light Her Path: Improving the Lives of Women and Children

5th September 2018

Even the smallest actions can have a big impact.

For a while now I’ve been thinking about how, as someone with a platform (albeit a very small one), I would like to do more to give back, to work with charities more or to help promote important causes. But then I start feeling not good enough again and can’t help thinking about how small my blog is and how little old me wouldn’t really make much of a difference, and I wouldn’t want people to think I was suggesting that just me could make a difference.

But the truth is that the small things do make a difference. Being a nice person, doing a good deed when you can, or going out of your way to help someone does make the world a better place, which is what Sunbites, who I’m very happy to be working with on this campaign, also believe.

They have partnered with CARE International to launch the ‘Light Her Path’ Initiative – aimed at improving the lives of women and children around the world by providing the education they deserve.

Girls all around the world still face more barriers to schooling than boys do. Around 130 million girls aren’t in school because of financial difficulties, inaccessible schools, and household or other family-related duties which limit their time and opportunity to participate in formal schooling.

CARE has been fighting this inequality through its girls’ education programme SOAR, which creates targeted learning centres that provide quality primary and secondary education for out-of-school adolescent girls.

Sunbites have now joined CARE for their Light Her Path initiative so that together they can build more learning centres (that are powered by solar panels!) so that more girls can get a good education, live better lives, and fulfill their potential. Sunbites are going to be donating a minimum of £100,000 per year to CARE International to fund this project.

In supporting girls to receive an education, their whole community also benefits. Statistics show that girls who attend school tend to delay getting married and having children, suffer illness less often, and are more likely to earn higher incomes throughout their lives.

As part of this #GoodGrows campaign, Sunbites have asked me to carry out a good deed and share the experience on here. Sunbites have “a little bit of taste good and do good in every bite”, and they want to encourage others to do a good deed too.

I’ve always liked to help people and I do try to go out of my way to help other people wherever I can, but these are usually small things, like chasing after someone to pass them something they’ve dropped, or answering a new bloggers questions. But sometimes it is so easy to get wrapped up in our own stuff isn’t it? To actually make a conscious effort to do a good thing isn’t always something we think about, so it’s nice to be encouraged to do something good for someone else or for our planet.

This whole campaign has got me thinking about the small things I can do to help others, and I have gone out of my way to help people a bit more. I spent quite a bit of time trying to reunite an owner with her cat who had been missing for almost a year, and who I thought might have been taken in by some of my neighbours in the same time period, communicating back and forth, and speaking to my neighbours, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be her cat.

There was also a gorgeous cat who appeared around our street suddenly for a few weeks who we gave food and water to and who I posted about on Facebook and in local groups. I was planning on taking him to the vet when I saw him again, to see if he was chipped so that he could hopefully be reunited with his owner but he has now disappeared so I am hoping he is back at home being given lots of love now.

My main good deed was buying some food and a hot drink for a homeless person. I was walking into a coffee shop in my own little world as always when I’m rushing around getting stuff done, when a homeless man asked me for a hot drink. I’d never been asked that before, and only ever asked for any spare change, so it took me a second to realise that of course I should say yes and that I wanted to help this very polite man in a small way. When I got inside to get my tea and his hot chocolate I decided to buy him a bacon cob too. He was so lovely and grateful and it made me feel so good to have done a good deed and help make this man’s day perhaps slightly more bearable.

I am not suggesting I have done anything amazing, or that these wouldn’t be standard things for any decent person to do. Buying that homeless man a bit of food and a hot drink was really the least I could do. But these small good deeds that we all can make the effort to do really do add up and help to make the world a better place or brighten someone’s day.

It’s also inspired me to try and do more good and I want to look into volunteering at a cat rescue place that I am always seeing on Facebook. I don’t have a lot of time or money to do anything huge right now, but I still would like to do what I can. I’d love to hear about any good deed you do too!

I love the work that Sunbites and CARE are doing to enable girls across the world to have a brighter future and I’m very glad to be able to support that in this small way. I love seeing bigger brands doing something to give back, so I’m happy to support them with their #GoodGrows campaign. Sunbites also use 100% renewable energy, have reduced the water they use, and reduced waste in their production process. Their new advert was also powered by sunshine in their solar-powered studio, and real sunshine was used in their lovely computer animation.

Sunbites sent me a hamper with some of their lovely new look multigrain snacks in, as well as a solar-powered phone charger and I also have a hamper to give away to one of you!