Kindness to ourselves and others - our worlds -
is central to all good lives and all good religion.
'earthkind' summarises our aim - to encourage all
of earthkind to be kind to the earth.

A Year of Service and
the Diamond Jubilee

Would you or your organisation be willing to run an event during the Diamond Jubilee year in July 2012?  Each major faith community has been offered a month in 2012 in which to organise inclusive events based on various themes. The Buddhist community has been offered a month – July – in which to run events that have an environmental theme. We have chosen July 3rd as our official ‘Earthkind – Buddhist Action Day’ but your events may be planned for any time during July.

You may already be involved in social action or in running events around this time  in which case these could be registered as part of  Buddhist Action Day.

If you have an idea for July 2012, and want to take part in Buddhist Action Day, then please let us know. You can propose something you are already planning or something new.

Please register your interest (and a description of your event if you have one) by email to:

modgala2004 [@] lycos.com
secretary [@] nbo.org.uk          (remove spaces and [ ])

Get Involved

Each local group or community simply needs to:

1. Identify one or two individuals to organise an event on or around Buddhist Action Day on July 3rd – it can be any size
2. Base the event around an environmental theme
3. Invite volunteers from  local Buddhist groups and broader community to undertake an ‘environmental’ activity of some sort
4. Include food as part of the event
5. Let the NBO know the plan so it can be publicised on the website
6. Publicise your event locally.
7. Invite other faith and interfaith organisations
8. Have fun
9. Take photos of the day

As all of the other UK faiths have their own months and themes and the same intention to involve those from all faiths and none in their local events, it is likely that you may be asked to get involved in Year of Service events starting from March onwards.

Ideas for Projects

The theme of the ‘environment’ lends itself to many interpretations. Since the Buddhist community are organising events in July, the weather should be good (!) and so outdoor volunteering activities should be possible.

You may have your own grounds in which work could be undertaken:

• Clearing overgrown areas
• Planting  vegetables, shrubs or plants
• Helping maintain woodland
• Recycling
• Establishing vegetables, fruit,  or garden areas
• Working on community farms

Or find an existing project and provide volunteers. You need to tell them that you are volunteers linked with the Year of Service initiative. Information on volunteering initiatives can be found at:

• Your Buddhist centre
• Your local Council’s website
• British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (www.btcv.org) – you can search by area
• London Wildlife Trust (London only – www.wildlondon.org.uk)
• The National Trust (require volunteers at various times of the year)
• Woodland Trust – note they have projects tying in with their Jubilee aims all-round the country  Start here http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/take-part/Pages/get-involved.aspx

Note that existing projects such as those above will have insurance for their volunteers which makes things simpler.

Buddhist Action Day Poster  Please print this poster, fill in the blank part (lower left) with details of your own project, and display prominently.

Our partner in supporting Buddhist Action Day is the Network of Engaged Buddhists – the NEB. You can find a growing library of useful resources and reference material here.

For inspiration from the Jewish faith have a look at the Mitzvah Day site. Mitzvah Day started some 5 years ago and has grown significantly over this time. It has very similar aims to our Buddhist Action Day.

And don’t forget to join the new BAD facebook group here. Spread the word!