Help Save Sexual Health Services in Brisbane!

It has come to my attention that the Brisbane Sexual Health Clinic is being closed down.  I am horrified that sexual health services are being treated as something disposable.  Sexual health is important to many people (especially as many of us have sexual contact with others and know people who do).  Being healthy is important and, I believe, a human right.

What is the Brisbane Sexual Health Clinic?
The Sexual Health Clinic is located at  Roma St and provides free confidential services to anyone who needs them.  It is especially useful for sex workers, the LGBTIQ community, homeless people, poor people, and people with HIV (who may have more cause/reason to go somewhere confidential and free).  They provide services ranging from education, testing, prevention, counselling, condoms, and more. 

Why should you care?

They help over 13,000 people each year, 600 of which are people affected by HIV/AIDS.  Some people are warning that the closure of the clinic will cause a rise in STIs, something that affects everyone as healthcare costs and hospital bed space become a part of the equation.  I'm sure you all know people who have sex, which means that one day it's possible that they may need (or have already used) these services.  The issue of being able to transfer patients to people who are as able to help for the same price (free) has been raised.  Not many patients will enjoy giving up their anonymity either.

What can you do to help?

1. Sign the petition
2. Attend the rally
3. Tell people!

Image from Act Up Queensland

Vegan, gluten free, soy free lasagne.

Filling mix:  Two tins of brown lentils, two small tins of diced tomatoes, 2 shredded carrots, some mushrooms, 4 cloves garlic, one onion diced, two tbsp curry powder, salt, pepper, dill, chili powder.

Pasta: Cooked strips of zucchini.

Sauce:  Just under 1L of rice milk, 4-6 tbsp nooch, 4-6tbsp cornflour, 2-4 tbsp Nuttelex.

1. Put filling mix in pot and cook til mushrooms are tender.
2. Make sauce by melting Nuttelex, adding milk, then flour and nooch, stir on high heat til thick.
3. Cook zucchini strips til about to go tender.
4. Layer: filling, strips, sauce, filling, strips, sauce.
5. Bake in oven at 180C for 30-40 minutes, til you can poke through the zucchini with ease and the sauce is cooked on top.

Why opt to adopt?

In Australia, we love our pets.  Over 1 in 5 households have a pet cat and just over 1 in 3 have a dog.  Including fish, guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, birds, rats and mice, the Australian Companion Animal Council estimates that in 2009 there were 33 million pets in Australia.

With so many people wanting animal companions, there is a great demand for puppies, kittens and other baby animals being sold at markets, in pet stores and through online advertisements.  There is a dark side to the cute little packages of fur and teeth however.  That is the overpopulation of pets.

For every animal sold in a pet store, there is another animal in a pound or shelter waiting for a new home.  And if they don't get that new home, they will be killed.  In Australia, 250,000 healthy cats and dogs are killed each year because people are buying from pet stores and breeders instead.

Australians buy more than 600,000 cats and dogs each year, so there is room for these animals that are being killed.  It is completely possbile for Australia to become a No Kill Nation; killing no cats, dogs or other companion animals each year.  It simply requires education, regulation and community support.

What can you do about it?

• Adopt!  Instead of supporting the overpopulation and irresponsible breeding of pets, adopt a cat or dog or guinea pig (etc) and help them find a forever home.
• Talk!  Speak out about this issue.  Encourage other people to adopt, or to desex their animals.  Share pictures of animals needing homes.
• Donate!  Donate to the National Desexing Network or a local shelter.
• Foster!  Many no-kill shelters can only run thanks to people being able to temporarily care for a cat or dog that would otherwise have been put down.
• Volunteer!  Some shelters require volunteers to clean, others require volunteers to talk to the animals and help them stay friendly.

Calamari & Risotto

My friend bought me some vegan calamari from Blackvalentine and I decided to make it last night.  I Googled recipes involving rice and mixed them together, thought about what I had available and came up with this.  To be honest, it's delicious but I'm not sure risotto and calamari really go together.

This is the recipe from memory.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups aborio rice
• 3 cubes vegetable stock
• 1-2 spring onion, chopped up
• 1 cup peas and corn
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 packet of Lamyong calamari (600g)
• lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. I cooked up the rice with the stock cubes and added water when I needed to, kept stirring it so that it didn't stick to the bottom.
2. After the rice was cooked, I added the spring onion (aka scallion), peas and corn and the nooch (aka nutritional yeast, savoury yeast flakes).
3. Then I fried up the calamari in a pan with a bit of salt and pepper and about 2 tbsp of lemon juice.  The calamari comes as frozen rolled up tubes sort of thing so you have to slice it up and let it defrost.
4. Once I served the calamari on the rice, I drizzled a little bit more lemon juice on it.

If you're looking for the calamari, try Blackvalentine, Vegan Online, or a local Chinese supermarket.  I was lucky enough to get them on special, but they seem to normally average about $13, so you might want to cook up even more rice to make it last longer, or only use 1/2 the packet.

Current Obsession: Plants

I have a tendency to get really into one thing at a time, or a few things at a time.  At the moment the major one seems to be plants.

I've wanted plants to be a major part of my life for a while now.  They are amazing.  They clean the air that we dirty, they get rid of the hazardous chemicals that we disperse into the air and they are constantly growing and looking great.

There are plants that just clean the air, there are others that feed the soil, birds, bees, butterflies and other insects, while yet others create food that I can eat.  Isn't that just amazing?

Moving into this house has been great because I can finally bring nature into my room and help nature and the earth out a little bit by revamping the empty (full of weeds and useless gorram plants) backyard.

My room currently has one peace lily, one fern salvaged from outside, one spider plant salvaged from outside and one snake plant (well this is on its way).  Three of these are known to be good for purifying air.

The backyard is filled with weeds and useless introduced plants.  I've pulled out a lot of them, pruned, removed what I've been told I can...  So now I have a whole bunch of native seeds in pots, slowly growing as I water them lightly every morning.  These will be caterpillar and butterfly food.

I also have a native vine coming in the mail to cover this huge dead tree trunk with (to the left in the photo).

The back patio is pretty empty, but I'm going to fill it with some native Pig Face vines spilling down one side (various coloured flowers; red, orange, pink and purple). There are pots coming in the mail, which I'm going to put on the highest ledge and tie on with wire for added security.

I've planted mondo grass around one rock and transplanted a random plant from the garden into a pot on top of it.

I also found a Crown of Thorns in a pot in the garden.  It's a little worse for wear but I'm sure it'll be fine, eventually.

Oh and there's catnip, given to me by a friend who is going overseas.  So far the cat hasn't cared about it at all though haha.

I'm also trying to grow some herbs and veggies, and I've yet to get started on the front garden and make it butterfly and bird friendly, but I'll post more about it all later, when things are more established, not just seedlings haha.

Are you passionate about plants?  Tell me about it! :)

I made a mini zine!

 As some of you may remember, I am a part of the Griffith University Vegetarian Society.  As such, I thought it would be awesome if we could have a little information booklet to hand out to people who wanted to know what veganism or vegetarianism were about, and where they could get more information.

I got all of the pictures from OpenClipArt.org.  There are some really rad ones, which I am also using for a little booklet on environmentalism for my speech at the Social Enterprise Showcase.


Below is the finished picture for the veg*n zine, which can be uploaded into a word document, made large and printed out. Then you can fold it and cut it as per this tutorial and hand it out. Free to use, for anyone who wants to. I've yet to try it out myself though, so you can wait til then (I will update with photos once I have a camera and time). You may just need to move things around a tiny bit to make sure they line up properly. You can also add things to the other side of the paper such as recipes, local restaurants and your organisation's contact details. Let me know if you try it out, I'd love to see it!

The Orangutan Project

On Sunday 2nd I walked with some of my friends and some representatives from The Orangutan Project to help them raise money.  We all wore orange to show our support, and managed to raise $1,030 all up to help the orangutans.  If you would like to donate some more, the donations stay open for a little while longer, here (until October 14th 2012).

The Orangutan Project is a not-for-profit organisation that supports "orangutan conservation, rainforest protection, local community partnerships and the rehabilitation and reintroduction of displaced orangutans back to the wild, in order to save the two orangutan species from extinction".

One of the biggest reasons that orangutans are under threat is due to the use of palm oil in the food industries.  The clearance of rainforest causes the displacement (and sometimes intentional slaughter) of orangutans.  You can help by avoiding products that contain palm oil, emailing companies that use palm oil, and asking for stricter labelling laws so that you know which products that contain palm oil (it can be labelled as vegetable oil).

I had a great day just cruising along and talking with my friends.  We even found a pro-vegan sign to take a photo of!  It was so cool to come across a sign like that in amongst all the car, music, bank and other advertising.

Keep an eye out next year as we'll be raising money for Farm Animal Rescue!  Hopefully soon I'll also put up a post about palm oil.

Chickpea Omelettes

It actually looked better than this once we watered it down more - I've put the better recipe below.  Inspiration from Holy Cow! and Julia's Kitchen.

Ingredients:
*1 cup besan/chickpea flour
*1/4 tomato diced
*1/4 cup nutritional yeast
*1/2 onion finely chopped (might be better with red onion)
*1/4 green capsicum, finely chopped
*4 button mushrooms, finely chopped
*2 cloves garlic
*3 tsp dill
*2 tsp chili powder
*2 tsp paprika
*~ 2 cups water (you want it a bit runnier than a pancake)

Method:
1.  Mix dry ingredients, then add water as you stir :).
2.  Cook on medium heat in a fry pan.

Makes about 4.

Griffith University Vegetarian Society

As some of you know, I am a student at Griffith University.  Recently, I helped my friend start up the Griffith University Vegetarian Society (GUVS) in the hopes of encouraging more people to try and/or talk about vegetarian lifestyles.

GUVS is hoping to advocate for more veg*n options on Nathan campus, get more places using 'ethical' food such as cage free eggs, sell vegan baked goodies, maybe have movie screenings and possibly have fundraisers for other groups.  If you're interested in joining, head to the facebook group to find out more!

So far we've only had the one market day stall with banana bread, choc chip cookies and chocolate cupcakes but we're hoping to have more of these, and many other events :).

Fact Sheet: Rodeos

Rodeos are a pretty common 'entertainment' option in many areas around Australia.  There are a number of different events that happen at rodeos.  These include calf roping, horse and bull bucking, steer wrestling and more.  This 'entertainment' comes at a price.  In order for this 'entertainment' to occur, horses and cows have to be placed in stressful and uncomfortable situations.  Horses and bulls being ridden in the bucking events will have spurs, electric prods and flank straps used on them in order to make them buck.   Many try to escape the holding stalls by climbing out as they are so distressed.

Source

The flank strap is a piece of rope, often covered in the skin of a sheep, that is tied tightly around the flank of the animal in order to irritate him/her more and get him/her to buck more.  As the animal is already irritated by the presence of the rider, one can imagine that they must be rather uncomfortable, if not distressed.

Source

Spurs "have blunt, free running rowels - the star shaped wheel on a spur" (APRA).  They are used to get the animals to do what the rider wants; buck.  There are rules by the APRA dictating how thick they must be.

Source

Calves will be caught with rope lassos while they are running (bringing them to a sudden halt and risking injuring their necks).  They are then forced to the ground and have 3-4 of their legs tied up.

Source

Steer wrestling requires a person to ride a horse while chasing a steer, then jump off the horse, grabbing the steer's head and forcing it into the ground.  There is absolutely no reason for the animals to have to suffer like this, but because of humans who want to be 'entertained', they continue to go through this.

"There is considerable inherent welfare risk to animals participating in rodeos. These risks are exacerbated by poor or non-existent levels of regulation and enforcement at a state level, and the involvement of multiple rodeo organisations with varying welfare standards. Many rodeos take place in remote areas where there is little monitoring or enforcement of animal welfare codes of practice. Consequently the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) is concerned the welfare of the animals used is compromised by rodeos which can be conducted in a manner that is cruel and unnecessarily dangerous." - Australian Veterinary Association

Source

Please do not support the rodeo.  Let these animals live in peace, instead of being poked, prodded and pushed into the ground for human entertainment.  Animals should not have to suffer so that humans can be entertained.  There are many other forms of entertainment that can be had; seeing a movie, going out for a bike ride, etc.  Animals should not have to bear this pain for our pleasure.

Animals Australia has a great fact sheet put together that covers the issue in even more detail, as well as a petition. 

If I have missed anything, let me know in the comments or send me an email! :)

Fundraising Picnic for Healthy Communities and Equal Love

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a nice relaxed picnic at Queens Park in Brisbane.  The Picnic was organised to help raise funds for Equal Love and Healthy Communities.  We got there a couple of hours after it started but there was still some chilled music, a good atmosphere and some delicious vegan food (by Black Valentine) to be had.

Photo by Jay Haurat, picnic organiser

Equal Love is an Australian wide group that works towards marriage equality in Australia.  They are behind many rallies and put in a lot of time and effort in getting this issue in the public eye.  While the civil unions in QLD were seen as a great step forward for equal rights, unfortunately they have been watered down under the new LNP government.  If you are a QLD resident you can sign this petition to bring back civil unions.

The LNP has not stopped there, also cutting much needed funding to the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC).  QAHC "promotes the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Queenslanders" and provides a range of services to do so.  The LNP decided to cut funding to the HIV prevention as part of its current scheme to save money.  If you want to learn more about the issue, click here.

There were a few stalls there including ones by Equal Love, Healthy Communities, Queensland Pride, Woof Wear and Rainbow Families.  We pretty much sat near the one set up by Black Valentine and ate our way through vegan chicken, fish, sausages, chocolate and mushroom kebabs.  It was a rad day and I hope that we were able to help support the community :).

Thai Dinner Party

M arrived back from the States recently so B threw a party to celebrate their homecoming.  It was a Thai themed dinner party and I was really anxious about making something.  I quickly perused the internet, searching through pages and pages of dinner ideas and settled on making corn fritters and fish cakes (both gluten free as one of my friends who was going is gluten intolerant).

Fish cakes

Corn fritters

I made the fish cakes by altering this recipe (400g beans, less paste, no mint, chickpea flour instead of spelt, lime juice instead of rind) a bit and simply baking them in the oven at about 180C for 20 minutes instead of frying them.

I altered the corn fritter recipe by VeganDad by adding a lot more chickpea flour (perhaps another cup) and baking instead of frying and didn't use any corn starch.

When I got there, I was blown away (and made very hungry) by the sight of all the delicious vegan food that has been prepared.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the berry ice cupsor seitan, but they were delicious too!  See the peanut dip up there?  IT WAS AMAZING.  We just used brocolli to scoop it up and eat it (there was cucumber too but I'm not a fan).

Stir fry

Laksa

Check out the cute necklace M brought along for each of us!  It was lovely to catch up with everyone and hear M's stories :). 

My Vegan and Environmental(ish) House

As a renter, there's not much I can do about my actual house, but I can change my consumption habits to help the environment.  I'm going to go room by room and list what I use to help anyone out there who is interested in living a 'greener' life (and include some things that I don't use because, well, I'm not made of money unfortunately).  There are, of course, other products, but I'm just giving you a small glimpse into what I use, with some ideas. 

Bathroom

• The Environmental Toothbrush*
• Lush vegan soap for in the shower
• Nature's Organics Shampoo*
• EcoStore liquid handwash*
• Choosing not to shave your legs is probably the most environmentally-friendly option.  Otherwise, there are electric razors, which would cut down on waste if you have been using disposable ones.  (This is a pretty good write up all about razors).
• Body Crystal deoderant*
• Diva-Cup for periods
• Reusable fabric pads for periods
• Eco-Dent tooth floss*
• Reusable razor for face shaving

Kitchen

• Earth Choice Dish Liquid*
• Twist and Full Circle have great environmentally friendly sponges but I can't find any in Australia
• Green shopping bags - one mades out of cotton will break down, the ones from shopping centres will not (in a safe way).  You can also get fair trade and organic ones!
• Fregie sacks 
• Plates, bowls, knives and forks from op shops where possible.
• When looking at appliances (if you have to buy some), look for ones that are energy efficient

Bedroom/Study

• Glyde condoms*
• Sylk lube*
• Sheets and pillowcases from op shops
• Clothes from op shops (for the most part) 
• I try and grab recycled books and notepads for my study and notetaking

Laundry

• Earth Choice washing liquid*
• Soap nuts

*Container can be recycled

I hope that these lists have been useful.  Let me know what you think! :)  If you'd like me to do more posts like this, I'd love to know too.  I'm thinking of writing about the difference between sex and gender next!

Movie: A Delicate Balance

The movie A Delicate Balance explores the effects of diet on personal health.  It has been scientifically proven that decreasing your consumption of animal protein reduces your risk of cancer, diabetes and high cholesterol.  You can watch the trailer below.  The full film is available to watch, free, on their website.

It shows exactly how animal proteins (meat, milk, eggs) affect the human body and shows the relationship between animal protein consumption and increased risk of disease.  It also shows how you can get the same amount of protein from plant sources, which also give you various nutrients and minerals as part of the package.

Not only does it cover the health impact of animal protein, it also covers the environmental degradation that is caused and explains how it is linked to poverty and starvation in non-Western countries.

I found it to be an informative movie with simple information described well.  The graphics used may leave a little to be desired but you can just listen to it as an audio file and get the same amount of information out of it.  It reminded me a bit of Food Matters.

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice
• 2 cubes veggie stock
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 3 cups mushroom (or less, depends on how much you love mushroom really - we used Portabello and Button)
• 1 tbsp Nuttelex
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion finely chopped (we used red as that's all we had)
• pinch salt and pepper

Method:

1. Fry mushrooms, onion and garlic in butter.
2. Cook brown rice in water with veggie stock, until just cooked.  I used about 2 cups of water and it turned out okay.  We put the parsley, salt and pepper in this.  All up, the rice took about half an hour to cook.  It depends on the type of rice you use.
3. Add mushrooms to rice, along with nutritional yeast.

Makes about 2 serves.

Learning to Make Shrinkies

I've decided to blog about my failure with shrinkies (I will attempt some more variations!) just to help anyone out there who might think they just can't do it right or something.  Failures happen, but you just have to learn from them and try again!  For me, crafting is about having fun while experimenting :).

Attempt Number 1 with a large chip packet:

I preheated the oven to 250C and placed the packet on one sheet of baking paper on a tray, with another sheet of baking paper on top and another tray on top of that to hold it flat.   I lef it for 3 minutes, then checked it.  It looked like it was about 20cm long and only 6cm wide.  So the proportions had changed quite a bit, but I wanted it to be smaller than that so I popped it back in.

I left it in there for another 3 minutes, then pulled it out to check on it.  I couldn't see it but it didn't seem to have shrunk any further.  I tried to pull the baking paper off but the chip packet was still all melted, so I decided to leave it to cool while I tried attempt number 2.

Orginal size:  33.5cm tall and 21cm wide.
Final size:  18cm tall and 5.5cm wide.  (I'm thinking that these are maybe bookmark or choker size?)

What I learned: Only leave them in for about 2 minutes at this temperature, it's way too hot.

Attempt Number 2 with mi goreng packets:

The oven was preheated to 250C.  This time I just placed the mi goreng packets in a piece of baking paper, which I folded around them individually.  I left them in for only 2 minutes, then checked on them.  They were little blobs of melted plastic.

What I learned:  The fact that these are made just out of plastic, with no foil on the inside, means that they 'cook' faster than the chip packets.

Attempt number 3 with a mi goreng packet:

The oven was left to cool to 180C for 10 minutes.   I folded up a mi goreng packet in baking paper again.  I left it in there for 2 minutes. It had only shrunk a little bit so I left it in for another minute.  The end result looks like the edges shrank at a different rate to the middle, so perhaps 180C is too cool.

Conclusion:  Higher temperature for a shorter period of time, mashed between the two trays to keep it flat.

I think that this is all I shall attempt for today.  I only have two more chip packets left from my partner, so will wait until they've pigged out a bit more ;).

If anyone knows of some ways to improve my technique, I'd be much obliged as the online tutorials don't seem to be working for me (but I am narrowing down how to do it I think - a few more trials and I shall have it, I'm sure!).

My SlutWalk 2012 Experience in Brisbane

Warning: This post mentions rape and sexual assault, so if these are sensitive topics for you, please feel free to not read this post.

What is SlutWalk?
SlutWalk originated in 2011 in Toronto after a police officer told women to stop dressing like sluts if they didn't want to get raped.  This then became a global movement against blaming victims, shaming people for their sexuality and rape culture.  SlutWalk started in Australia last year with rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Why did I go to SlutWalk?
I have been on the receiving end of gropes, leers and comments about my body since I hit puberty at age 12.  That's just my personal experience.  I didn't just attend SlutWalk for myself.  I also attended SlutWalk because of the number of my friends who have been sexually assaulted, raped, feared for their bodies, groped, all simply because their bodies were deemed to be public property by others.  Not just for them, but for all people who have been raped, or experienced verbal and physical abuse or harrassment for what they wear or the way that they express their sexuality.

I walked in the hopes that it would help to create a dialogue about consensual sex, healthy sexual relationships, asexuality, the failings of sexual education in schools around Australia, the rights of people to wear what they want and act how they want without fearing assault.

Mitch, Lia, Blair and I.  Photo by Lisa B.

No one should be harrassed or abused or raped for what they wear, or because they are refusing to have sex with someone, or because their sexuality needs to be 'fixed'.  Most rapes that occur are perpetrated by people close to the victim and it often has nothing to do with what they are wearing.  Learn more about the official statistics.

Making Signs
I had prepared my signs for this day at 1am that morning before heading to bed.  My sign ended up with the slogan "Still not asking for it; no one asks to be raped" on one side and "I am a person, not a sex toy; I require consent, not batteries" on the other.  I was hoping to make something a little more witty and I regret not covering something along the lines of 'ask before touching' as this is a topic that is close to my heart.

The Speakers
I turned up just on one and almost had a panic attack the whole trip there as I was freaking out about someone talking to me about it or getting confrontational.  Once I got there and saw my friends though, I managed to calm down and then the speakers started. I missed out on the introductory speech as I was still handling my anxiety (poorly), which I am a bit sad about.

A representative from Respect Inc (sex worker rights organisation) talked about how there is a lot of violence in sex work, which is usually written off by society as something that they should 'expect' as part of their work.  This is not right; people should never expect to be abused or assaulted because of their job.


Someone from the Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivors Support Centre (BRISSC) stood up and talked about how great it was to see so many people there.  They talked about how many of the survivors often blame themselves, and that the speaker would be taking back this support, the support shown today, to show the survivors that they are not alone, that there are people out their fighting for them and fighting against a culture that makes victims feel this way.

Andrea Silva was up last and her speech was really good.  She talked about the mechanisms of slut shaming and how they are used to control people who are open about their sex lives, or who dress differently.  How people can be alienated, lose their jobs, be abused and more just because they are sexual or dress in certain ways.  There was some talk about the BDSM community and how there had been some controversy about her coming to speak.  As she said, there are negative behaviours in any community.  These negative behaviours are what need to be fought against, not consensual sex between adults.

Photo by Lisa B

The March
We walked around one block in Brisbane with about three or four policepeople on motorbikes, while following one red police car.  We drew a lot of attention and there were a lot of photos taken.  It was over within half an hour as there were only a couple hundred of us.  I hope that next year there will be a greater turn out as people become more aware of the issues that SlutWalk is fighting against.

The chants that were yelled as we went around the block are listed below (please forgive me if I have remembered some of them incorrectly).

• 2, 4, 6, 8, stop the violence, stop the hate.
• Hey hey, ho ho, sexual violence has got to go.
• Yes means yes, no means no, however we dress, wherever we go.
• There are no bad whores, just bad laws.

Photo by Lisa B.

In Conclusion...
It was nice to have so many people there supporting this movement and standing up against rape culture, mysogyny, victim blaming and slut shaming.  I felt more sure of myself and I felt stronger for going.  I know that I am not alone in my views or in my efforts.  I also got to talk to someone who was a rape survivor; they told me how thankful they were for this walk, how we all had to stick together and that hopefully one day attitudes would change.  I truly believe that together, through events like this, we will be able to create positive discourses about sex and create a community were victims are able to seek help without fear of persecution by friends and the media.  Thank you to the organisers for putting this all together.

Fact Sheet: Writing to Animal Rights Prisoners

I have been thinking a lot lately about more action that I can take in the animal rights movement.  While I may or may not agree with the actions taken by these individuals, I do believe that it is their human right to have some support so that they don't get lonely, depressed or despondent.

'Writing' by J. Paxon Reye

I ended up finding the list of prisoners by the Animal Liberation Front, and another by Bite Back.  They both seem to be updated regularly and focus mainly on the UK and US.  There seem to be no lists for Australia (although that could change with the meat industries here pushing for the same laws as the US has).

I then found a few places where I could buy cards to send to them (funds are donated to charity and the pictures are of animals):

• PawsForCharity
  
• Cards by Teri
  
• AnimalsAsia

There are some great guides all over the net, with my favourites being by Striking At the Roots (very thorough) and How to do Animal Rights.
The main points to take from their articles are:

• your mail will be read before it gets to the prisoner
• don't talk about the case
• don't include any stickers or items that are not a letter, postcard or card
• don't be too bummed if you don't get a reply
• stick to one or two activists who you can talk to regularly
  

If you have any more information that I can add, please let me know so that I can keep this updated.

Charity: New Farm Neighbourhood Centre

The charity that I will be raising funds for for the month of May is New Farm Neighbourhood Centre (NFNC).  I found out about them after looking at jobs on Seek that I would maybe like to do once I have graduated.

NFNC is located on Brunswick Street, near New Farm Park.  They have been working within the community for over 25 years, providing a myriad of services including:

• help people who are homeless
• help people access housing
• create events that are accessible to all people to encourage community
• maintaining a community garden
• a craft group for women every Thursday

They use various means to raise funds, such as tennis court and venue hire.  If you are interested in volunteering with them, please contact them as I am sure they would appreciate any help that they can get.  If not, maybe consider them as a place to hold your next meeting or event.

I truly believe that they are doing something wonderful and they cannot do this without the community being involved.

Vegan French Toast

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2/3 cup nondairy milk
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• bread

Method:

1. Mix together bananas, milk, cinnamon and vanilla.
2. Soak bread in mixture on both sides.
3. Fry in pan at medium heat with a bit of butter or oil.

Makes: 4-5 slices of bread