Get Active!
Concern has many events you can take part in: debates; campaigns; the Know Your World quiz and much more. Get active!
London Triathlon - photo gallery
Over the last two years, Concern’s teams in the London Triathlon raised over £135,000. This has helped to build a health centre and schools in Sierra Leone. Here's some photos from these two events.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
The 2010 London Triathlon will take place over the weekend of 7 and 8 August. All money raised by Concern's team from this year's triathlon will go directly to Liberia, helping families in 10 rural communities to grow and harvest more food.
Training for the triathlon
Well, another year older, deeper in debt, and another triathlon season ahead! This year’s London Triathlon takes place on 7 and 8 August; I’ll be taking part in order to raise funds for Concern’s work in Liberia.
Personal goals
We can all have our personal goals, of course, whether it’s just to finish one leg of a relay, or the individual event, or a particular personal best. I have mine, but it’s a well-guarded secret.
Competing in a triathlon is much easier on the body than, say, marathon running, and the all-round fitness required has to be good for us, doesn’t it? Just getting fit will be good enough of a goal for many. Raising money for Concern makes it all the more satisfying.
Training all winter
I am, however, brave (or foolish) enough to do the whole Olympic triathlon on my own, so I’ve been active all through the winter. Getting up early to train when it’s so dark and cold outside is not always easy: and that’s just on the way to the Tube! Everyone knows me at my gym, even the cleaners, since I’m there five or six days a week. Fortunately we have a pool, so I can train in swimming as well as running and cycling.
Weight exercises
My gym training was more focused on weight exercises earlier in the winter. The idea of the weight training is to make sure your body parts hold up to the strain when you increase your swimming, running and cycling, as well as giving you the power to do these things harder and faster. From high weights/few repetitions, I’ve now progressed to low weights/high repetitions. This is supposed to build endurance.
I’m lucky enough to have a good personal trainer. If you haven’t got one, but you are a gym member, it’s worth having even a couple of supervised sessions, just to make sure you’re on the right track with your exercises.
In my next post, I’ll show you my training diary and you can tell me if you’re ahead of me or behind!
London Triathlon
Will Byrne took part in the London Triathlon last year, as part of a team raising money for Concern.
Here is his encouraging account.
My first ever triathlon! All that hard work, stress, training - oh and fun too - culminated in a fantastic day at the world’s largest triathlon; the London Tri Aug 2009. I proudly wore my Concern t-shirt as I sweated through the last few kilometres, with the outstanding encouragement from the Concern team.
Who else
My first thoughts on crossing the finishing line were "I'm definitely doing this again next year!" My next thoughts were, “who else I know that I can convince to take part.”
Second time
So, I find myself looking forward to my second triathlon with far less stress and trepidation. and also in the knowledge that the money raised will be helping those who are in far greater need that I am.
Highly recommended
I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable days of my life. The atmosphere was amazing. The support from the Concern team throughout the event was second to none. Meeting other competitors and sharing stories was great. It's something I'd thoroughly recommend. You not only get a bit fitter and meet some great people but you also help change the lives of those less fortunate.
Buy Baxterbear
Baxterbear has been very busy of late.
Great gift
This Christmas, you can buy Baxterbear online for £10 at www.baxterbear.com and £4 will go to Concern Worldwide. Use referral code CONCERN.
Making a difference
In Baxterbear’s own words:
My greatest mission is to help people whenever and wherever by trying to stay positive.
Most importantly, I want to make a difference.
Read Baxterbear’s story in full. Watch his most recent video below.
Crisis correspondent in Uganda
The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) is running a competition to find a “crisis correspondent.”
The lucky winner
The competition is open to third-level students in Ireland. The lucky winner will win a trip to Uganda, a professional camera and editing facilities. They will also be given the opportunity to meet media experts and will take part in Carr Communications’ mentoring programme.
Public can vote
Students have been asked to submit a video, explaining why they should win. The public can vote for the winner. To view the entrants and vote for your favourite, visit the Crisis Correspondent site. You can even keep track of who is winning.
Get voting!
Spread the love!
Many moons ago, we asked you to vote for us. The result was victory for Concern: we were elected as Lovebox.org.uk’s featured charity.
What does that mean?
Lovebox have developed “a digital wristband” to help raise money and awareness for different charities around the world via the web. One of these Loveboxes has been developed specifically for us because we won the vote. So download it!
It is a simple way for you to show your support of us, and other charities, especially on social networking sites. All donations go directly to Concern.
Charity Tuesday
Besides this great idea, Lovebox are the people behind the popular Twitter event Charity Tuesday (#charitytuesday). Every week, people on Twitter write about the causes that they are passionate about and use the tag #charitytuesday to spread the word.
The Climate Chaos Wave
My boyfriend has a tattoo of a wave on his arm. He acquired it for free from a guy called Tattoo Lou. Now, I’m far too unromantic to dream about a matching tattoo, but an upcoming event in Dublin has me thinking of waves and tattoos.
A low carbon future?
The Wave will show mass support for a better, low carbon future for Ireland and the world. We want the Irish government to show leadership at Copenhagen.
Developing countries particularly need support to cope with the impacts of climate change. The world urgently needs to stop global warming from exceeding the dangerous threshold of 2°C.
Devastating effects
This is one of our last chances to show that we want to reverse the devastating effects of climate change.
No ordinary protest
On a not-so-serious note, The Wave is also going to be a lot of fun! It’s not just an ordinary protest march through Dublin City. Make it as fun as possible by not only wearing blue but dying your hair blue or wearing fancy dress. There’s lots of ways to surf this Wave!
So please come along and catch the Wave to Stop Climate Chaos. We’re assembling at 12 noon at the Custom House Quay on 5 December.
Are you on my wavelength? If so, email me at lizzy.noone@concern.net for more details.
Women of Concern launched in Cork
First Dublin, and now Cork! We recently launched our Women of Concern group in Cork City in the hospitality suite of the Heineken Brewery.
Several of our group ambassadors were there including Cathy Davey, Rachel Allen and Nora Owen.
Struggles
This was followed by a talk from Mary Rwegasira, an equality and HIV and AIDS officer from Concern’s operation in Tanzania. Mary outlined some of the successes that Concern has had there.
In the crowd
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
Related links
Our bloggers
Blog archive
- February 2010 (3)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (3)
- October 2009 (3)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (3)
- July 2009 (3)
- June 2009 (3)
- May 2009 (11)
- April 2009 (7)







