Blog Post #1: Why WWWL and what's it about?

Hi there! You may have seen a bit about us on our homepage- here I'm going to explain who I am, and why WWWL was born.

I'm currently a 3rd year University student. I'm terrible with technology (I made this website using Wix templates) but it's currently coronavirus lockdown and I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

That's me on the right, looking completely the wrong way

I've been frustrated with myself for a long time- I do a little bit of volunteering for a sustainability project, and I want to do more for other issues as well. But researching all of these issues and finding the best ways to act on them can be hard: often I don't know where to start, which information to believe, or who to contact to meet fellow campaigners.

And so, I thought, it would be nice to have a convenient place to share these ideas. WWWL is meant to be a place where we can help others act on issues we know more about, whilst they can help us act on the issues they know more about. For example, perhaps you can help others become a better ally to the BLM movement, whilst learning from others about how to live more sustainably? Perhaps you can help others to best combat poverty- and you also want to become a better ally for the LGBTQ+ community? You get my gist- we can all learn from each other and grow as people, this page makes that easier.

I'm not very creative: I came up with the name WWWL for a few reasons, thinking I was being very clever:

1) It was initially going to be just a food-waste-idea-sharing site, so I was going to call it something like "the Food Web". Funny little ecology/internet pun...

2) Then I thought, screw it- there are tons of issues we could be helping each other with. No need to keep it just to food waste.

3) All these seemingly disparate issues are connected in one way or another, like any 2 points on a web. For instance, women are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change worldwide, whilst women's education has been cited by Project Drawdown as one of the single most important ways to reduce emissions. Or, take air pollution and racial inequality: ethnic minority and BAME groups are disproportionately affected by poor air quality and air pollution due to decades of systemic racism and differing access to health care. LGBTQ+ young people facing discrimination comprise up to 24% of youth homelessness in the UK. These are but a handful of examples illustrating the connect between these issues. WWWL aims to reflect this: because as well as the connect between these issues, we are all connected through our actions. WWWL aims to increase this connection between us, allowing us to share ideas and enabling action. We're all part of the World Wide Web of Life!! ;p

And so, equipped with Wix and my breathtaking Microsoft Paint skills (see the logo, dayuum) I decided to set up this site. That's it really. Hope you all go nuts and add a load of really cool ideas to it! The success of this project will be dictated by the number of people willing to help each other and share ideas- PLEASE share your ideas, even before people ask for them! The aim is to build up the bank of resources before people have to ask, so anyone who wants suggestions only has to visit the forum and search for them. :)

Perhaps I'll set up a Paint tutorial in the forum as well. I know, it's beautiful.

Lastly, a few very knowledgeable people who I want to learn from sort of gave me the idea. Whilst I have a couple of handy tips and tricks, these guys are my boffin friends in their particular social issues, the sort of people I thought it would be really cool to share their wisdom and ideas! Will be sharing these in due course in later blog posts :)

But for now:

Corin Holloway: A friend from uni who has time for ABSOLUTELY ANY society and issue you could care to name. Don't know how he does it. A true font of knowledge.

Vegan Nicole! Recently learnt that my lovely friend Nicole is a bit of an influencer when it comes to sharing vegan recipes, she's got an instagram account ( @nicolesveganrecipes) and everything... super healthy, tasty looking, eco-friendly food :)

Jasmine Tribe: Don't know Jasmine that well personally, we've only met once. But got following her- she's campaigns manager for an environmental not for profit, City to Sea. She's opened my eyes to societal and environmental issues of plastic pollution I hadn't even thought about, and a number of other social issues besides.

You don't have to be a seasoned campaigner to contribute to the page- any constructive bits of advice you have are appreciated! They will definitely help someone. Please share the page far and wide, and encourage your friends and family to share their knowledge as well.

That's all from me for now. Thanks for reading this far x

#community #environmental #social