Saving The Rainforest
The rainforest is home to millions of people who live in or depend on the rainforest for their livelihoods. If the rainforests are destroyed, they are left homeless, and without a way to work and support their families.
So what can you do to help the rainforest?
1) Choose wood carefully
Make sure that your home and school do not buy wood that comes from rainforests, such as mahogany, ivoko, sapele, vamin and rosewood. Ask the salesperson where the wood came from. You can check in the 'Good Wood Guide' published by Friends of the Earth.
2) Spread the word!
You can show the rest of your school what you have learned about the rainforests by making a display! Colour in the rainforest sheets that you can download here, or you can draw pictures and write your own stories about the people and animals who live in the rainforest.
3) Protect an Acre
By raising money you can help protect an acre of rainforest. For a £25 donation you will receive a certificate to display in your classroom and an information pack on the area of land that you have helped to protect. To read more about the Protect an Acre scheme, click here.
Here are some activities that other school children have done to raise money. Ask your teacher to help you organise an event, and send the money you raise to the Rainforest Foundation.
* Hold your own Picnic in the Park *
Get picknicking for the planet and raise vital funds for the rainforest foundation UK. Invite family, friends and neighbours to come along and help you fundraise - bake cakes to sell, or get sponsored to dress in green. Visit the Picnic in the Park page to find out more and request your own fundraising pack full of hints and tips to help you organise the perfect picnic.
* Hold a Sponsored event *
You can do a sponsored run, walk, swim, bike ride, jog, hop, three-legged race, book read, skip, ramble, football match, dance, silence - in fact, you can do a sponsored anything as long as it is safe and you have permission! It can be more fun and easier if you do your event in a group. Once you have thought of a good idea, the next thing to do is to ask your teacher to help you organise it.
* Hold an Own Clothes Day *
Ask your teachers to help you organise a day when everyone is allowed to wear their own clothes to school and to bring a donation. Why not have a rainforest theme where everyone wears something green?
Ask your family and friends to sponsor you, but remember, never ask for money from strangers.
* Hold a Rainforest Event *
Organise a play, dance routine, talent or fashion show or an art exhibition of your class paintings and ask people to make a donation to come and see your art and performances!
* Do an odd job for the Rainforest Foundation *
Ask your parents if you can do a chore such as a carwash, litter collection, or odd jobs in the garden. The money that you earn will help other people to protect their homes in the rainforest.
