The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting |
- By George!: Fresh Prince takes Down Under by storm
- Malta legalises gay partnerships and adoption, but not everyone is happy
- World Vision's Marilee Pierce has the heart of an angel
| By George!: Fresh Prince takes Down Under by storm Posted: 16 Apr 2014 12:45 AM PDT Britain's littlest royal bids farewell to New Zealand for an Aussie adventure with his parents. Move over koalas, there is a brand new cutie pie in Australia right now and it is none other than the oh-so-adorable Prince George. The chubby little prince joined his parents Duke of Cambridge, Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine for the next leg of the three-week royal tour of Australia and New Zealand. Nine-month-old George, who already has his own legion of fans, proved that he is every inch a fashionista like his mother as he made a mid-flight outfit change before touching down at the Sydney airport on an Royal Australian Air Force VIP aircraft. Earlier, George was pictured wearing a white cardigan and navy blue shorts during the huge send-off by the Kiwis at an airport in Wellington, New Zealand, but upon his arrival in Sydney, he was decked in an all-white smock.  'Goodbye New Zealand folks! Thanks for the, um, adoration.' Britain's gorgeously colour-coordinated royal family before boarding their flight at the airport in Wellington, New Zealand.  'Watch your step, mummy!' Prince George and his 'rents arriving at the airport in Sydney, Australia.  'Calm down, people. It's just me looking awesome in a smock. And no, it is NOT a dress! Pfft.' His mummy also made a quick change from a blue Rebecca Taylor jacket and skirt (from the "Sparkle Tweed" collection) into a bright yellow fitted dress by Serbia-born, London-based designer Roksanda Ilinic, while daddy William appeared stuck to his white shirt and navy suit. Australia's ABC News reported that while in Sydney, baby George will have a bilby enclosure at the Taronga Park Zoo named after him; his parents will be visiting several other iconic landmarks in the country. The news agency also said that the family will attend The Royal Easter Show and watch surf lifesavers in action at Manly Beach, visit the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Amberley and return to Sydney for an Easter Sunday church service at St Andrew's Cathedral. Prince William and Kate are also set to visit Uluru and meet indigenous artists and students at Yulara. The young family will then travel to Adelaide where they will be guests of the community of Elizabeth, a suburb created and named after George's great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal family will end their 10-day Australia tour in Canberra, where the are expected to attend the Anzac Day march and commemorative service at the Australian War Memorial.  'Daddy, I'm tired and hungry. When's dinner?' |
| Malta legalises gay partnerships and adoption, but not everyone is happy Posted: 15 Apr 2014 11:50 PM PDT  People celebrate after parliamentarians voted to recognise same-sex partnerships and adoption in the square outside parliament in Valletta, Malta. – Reuters Malta is now the 17th country in the world to allow for same-sex unions. The Maltese parliament approved a law late on Monday to recognise same-sex partnerships on a legal par with marriage, including allowing gay couples to adopt. This makes Malta the 17th country in the world to allow for same-sex unions. The law was greeted by wild celebrations by some 1,000 people in a square just outside parliament in Valletta, the capital of the predominantly Roman Catholic Mediterranean island where divorce was only legalised two years ago.  People wait for parliamentarians to vote on recognising same-sex partnerships in the square outside parliament in Valletta. – Reuters  A couple embrace after parliamentarians voted to recognise same-sex partnerships in the square outside parliament in Valletta. – Reuters  People cut a symbolic wedding cake after parliamentarians voted to recognise same-sex partnerships in the square outside parliament in Valletta. – Reuters Labour Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, elected one year ago, said: "Malta is now more liberal and more European and it has given equality to all its people." But not everyone in Malta welcomed the news, especially adoption by gay couples. The opposition Nationalist Party abstained from the vote, saying it was in favour of civil unions but had reservations about gay adoptions. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, meanwhile, quoted a survey which found that 80% of the people were against adoptions by gay couples. "Malta has not been prepared for such a step" he said. Among those who have spoken out strongly against the passing of the bill was Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna, who said in an interview on TV Malta: "While the sexual activity of heterosexual couples has a fundamental role in producing future members of the society, that of same-sex couples does not have a role in society as it does not produce offspring." According to Scicluna, he has apparently spoken to Pope Francis about the matter, who in turn expressed his shock and disappointment over the legislation's approval, despite the fact that he said "Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" to the Italian press in an impromptu statement last year. – Reuters |
| World Vision's Marilee Pierce has the heart of an angel Posted: 13 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT Charity organisation World Vision was born out of one man's desire to end poverty. Today, the charity helps millions of children in over 100 countries. Marilee Pierce walks into the room with a quiet grace that says a lot about the things she has seen and the lives she's been touched by. The ambassador for World Vision as well as daughter of its founder, Bob Pierce, has accrued much life experience, travelling around the world to its furthest, most impoverished and war-torn places where children are at the forefront of suffering. Marilee's father spent a large part of his life making sure that he played his part in reducing widespread hunger, particularly among children. And now, she is carrying on the torch. World Vision, an international charity organisation, was founded in 1950. In his book A Historical Study Of Bob Pierce And World Vision's Development Of The Evangelical Social Action Film, historian J.R. Hamilton noted that Pierce dragged his movie camera across Asia – China was soon closed – and later showed the resulting footage to church audiences in the United States, asking them for donations to help the starving children. "He showed their faces and begged Christians to "adopt" one. In 1950 he incorporated this personal crusade as World Vision, which was then a service organisation for missionaries," wrote Hamilton. "Poverty is pervasive throughout almost half of our planet. Nearly three billion people live on less than two-and-a-half cents a day and nearly a billion more live on just half-a-dollar a day. "That's what makes it so hard for people living in countries like Malaysia and America to even begin to imagine what it's like to have so little resource. And so little hope," explains Marilee. Her eyes are nearly as expressive as her hands, which flit in illustrative gestures. When she speaks, you know that the subject of poverty isn't just about facts and figures to her. When Marilee was still starting out in World Vision, fresh with inexperience and idealism, she was sent to one of World Vision's camps in Ethiopia, Africa. She found herself in a country where the average life expectancy was 59. Marilee was determined to really know the living conditions of people, particularly children in areas that had yet to be touched by World Vision. So, she ventured out to a village where the residents were, quite literally, starving to death. She met a grandmother who had a child in her arms who looked "all skin and bones". "This grandmother looked at me – I'm a grandmother myself – with pleading eyes that told me she was just watching her granddaughter die. I could just relate to her pain, her suffering." The grandmother reached out to her and asked for help as neither she nor her granddaughter had eaten in three days. "And you know what? Right there and then, she was 'hunger'. Her little girl was 'hunger'. "My husband was with me and I said told him to give them all his money, and he emptied his wallet. "As we left I was just weeping. But when we got to the car, my staff looked at me and said, 'We know how you feel, but your money will do her no good. Even if she goes to the market, there is no food for her to buy'. And though I knew that World Vision was going to reach this remote village in just a few months, the fact was that we weren't there yet and I knew that girl was going to die," Marilee relates. At this point there are tears in her eyes and a tightness in her throat. "That was the moment my heart broke. That was the moment when fighting poverty and helping children became very personal to me. Now whenever I get tired or feel that fighting this (poverty) is too much, I think of that grandmother and that little child. I would do anything to keep another child from dying like that." Marilee's experience is only one of the many that World Vision volunteers experience over and over again, all across the world. As a community of helpers, they visit places of extreme poverty, stay for at least two years and help tackle the four issues of poverty such as ensuring clean water, food security, education, and healthcare. They do this by bringing in drought-resistant crops and medicine, digging wells and irrigation channels as well as educating the children. Children remain the main focus of World Vision's mission, says Marilee, adding that the best way to help is through child sponsorship. The child sponsorship process is very personal – people can either go online or place a call to World Vision to select a child they want to support. All it takes is just RM65 to sponsor a child for a month. The money is used primarily on the education of the children. "If a family can only afford to send one child to school, usually they'd send a boy instead of a girl," she explains. Hope in perseverance "Sometimes, people can feel like the issue of poverty is so big, that there's nothing, really, that they can do. But I want to tell you how World Vision began. My father was just 33 when we went to China. When he was there, he met a missionary who was taking care of many children. She had a little girl in her arms who had been beaten and disowned by her family. "My dad asked the missionary if she'd care for the girl. She looked at him and said, 'I am helping as many children as I can, but I can barely take one more. The question isn't what I'm going to do; the question is what are you going to do'." Pierce stood frozen there for a moment. In that moment he realised he could actually do something to ease someone else's suffering. He dug into his wallet and gave the missionary all the money he had and vowed to send her more once he got home. That moment, shared Marilee, was the impetus for World Vision. When asked what the world needed to make a change, she says, "It's people. It's individuals. It's those who can step out and say, 'I don't know if anyone else is going to help me, but I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to do something about it'. Before you know it, a lot of people will join in and so a small group becomes a big group. When you do not quit, you cannot fail. World Vision will not quit." |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Family To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan