Winter of natural beauty.

After a summer of working with professional herbal medical experts making all natural hand made products and getting all the paperwork done to sell our products it was finally time to share the good stuff with others at Christmas time.

With the lip balms, hand cream, body butter, shampoo, conditioner, shower gels, bath bombs and teas all labelled with all the information required we hit the Christmas markets and fairs. We held stalls at Forest Gate,  the United Nations International Maritime Organisation's, Barclay's Bank and at Kingford School. We also sold the products to our friends and family wrapping them up as Fit Kits and Winter Soothers in time for Christmas. 

Despite the blistering cold, downpour of rain and the slow start we carried on right through the festive period. The all natural ingredients excited people as they learnt about the benefits of lavender or rose or shea or cocoa butter! The Hands UP hand cream proved exceptionally popular - Everyone who tried it just had to buy some - even selling out on some stalls.

"I must say that I absolutely fell in love with all the cosmetic products that I bought that day. I also gave some of the products to my sister for her birthday and even though she is very sensitive to most cosmetic 
products, these do not irritate her skin at all, so she is very happy too. Thank you a million for that!"  - Aneta 





So far we have managed to sell £1,000.00 worth of products and are looking forward to setting up an online shop so that eventually, this becomes sustainable. 

loveLife Generation hosts OUT - A Training Course in Outdoor Education

Half term in October when everyone else was taking a break we were hard at work organising and facilitating OUT - a pan European training course focusing on inspiring youth leaders to use outdoor education for young people's development. 
30 youth workers from 10 nations came together to explore, experience and appreciate the outdoor classroom and learn how we can use what is around us to build capacity and overcome challenges both individually and in a team. 

This training programme was funded by the EU's Youth In Action programme, managed by the British Council and delivered at Fairplay House Outdoor Education Centre in Essex. The truly international flavour was reflected by the training team from Greece and the UK with participants came from Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Portugual, Romania, Spain, Slovakia  and the UK.

The first two days covered theoretical concepts including the philosophy and history of outdoor education, its application for overcoming physical/ mental challenges for personal development and team building, stages of group work and leadership processes. This was followed by another two days outdoor exercises to experience and examine leadership styles with regard to programme design and delivery. Night exercises added to the learning by demonstrating how simple techniques with minimum resources could be used for enhancing good practice. 

Four days in with everyone exhausted it was time for some culture around London and shopping!!! Then it was back to work for the final 2 days, planning how the learning could be applied at a local/ European level with participants discussing their own initiatives and potential joint ventures for the future. 
Ideas for projects were shared along with current information available about future funding processes. Evaluations done, youth passes achieved and friendships cemented it was finally time to go...til we meet again. 

 

BloomIn Hallywell

Living in urban London with its grey concrete ground, beige buildings and addiction to fast foods makes our green natural spaces ever more important. 
loveLife Generation returned to Hallywell crescent this year but this time to take over the Green. Over the years we have worked in this area running different action projects led by young people to bring the residents together as a community. We teamed up with the Wildlife Trust and Southern Housing to bring people together, learn about the natural world around us and share in the community spirit. 


WILDLIFE ON THE GREEN
With thehelp of the WildLife Trust we went on nature walks in the urban jungle and found all sorts of bugs and wildlife. We even made a bug hotel for all the little creatures.The green was blooming with a wildlife meadow which we planted with a single poppy rising to the challenge.

MUSIC ON GREEN
Every week singing tutors sat on the green and were joined by people of all ages to belt out some tunes. Current songs as well as the old classics flowed in the Hallywell air. 
There was even African drummers one week who shared and danced with us all. 

FUN, FITNESS  AND GAMES ON THE GREEN 
Young people led other young poeple and children in fun games - taking it back to the old days when the streets were the playground! It was a lot of fun! And for those who wanted to get fit - our very own personal trainer ran sessions that got people sweaty!!

PHOTOGRAPHY & ART ON THE GREEN
With cameras, the young people learnt the art of photography.Capturing the precious moments each week they were given a differnt theme. A firm favourite was the self- portrait! 
We also captured the insects which we found but with colouring pencils drawing them on canvas.

FOOD ON THE GREEN

Food always brings people together. But here at loveLife Generation we pick our own! Rabia, our resident herbalist was back with us cooking up pots of freshly picked elderberry tea, handpicked rosebush berries and lots of other goodies!


Our final celebration saw our local MP Stephen Timms come down to habd out awards for the games and pictures. 

Take What You Need - loveLife Generation

Feel free to share this and stick on walls everywhere. 
To download or print a copy go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7O_xJTOY0uYcm5pZVNvR0M1ekE/edit?usp=sharing

and do tweet us a picture of it up @lovelifegen 

oh so Natural...Hand Made 4 U.

"Because you're worth it"
but it seems like you are only worth it if you have long sleek straight hair, perfectly straight white teeth and skin that screams 'fake tan'!

But is this really beauty? What happened to natural beauty never mind beauty within.
Well we're not putting up with the status quo anymore! We are on a journey to reclaim natural beauty inside and out. So join us and *SHINE* with our hand made natural products that are good for our body, soul and the environment.



At loveLife Generation we teamed up with Haqqani Herbs (medical herbalist) who taught us about using herbs, essential oils and natural products for health benefits and cosmetic use. 
We also learnt about health and safety, certification for public use, labeling, marketing and building our social enterprise.


All this learning came together in the creation of our own Fit Kit made up of:

• Born Free Shampoo & Conditioner
• Proud to be Me Shower Gel & Body Butter
• Fly High Soap
• Shine Body Butter
• Hands Up Hand Cream
• Full on Lip Balm
• Make a Difference Detox Skin Tea;Calming Tea & Warming Digestive Tea

The products have been made, packaged and tested. The Fit Kit rocket is ready for take off and light you up ...inside and out! 

Flourishing Fitness

Flourishing Fitness, part of loveLife Generation was created to encourage and help young girls to get fit! The idea was created by Salma, a loveLife Generationer- 

Looking at statistics, it was shown that only 38% of girls did moderate amount of exercise compared to 68% of boys. But this was about to change.

Flourishing Fitness came about due to some of the problems young girls have in society. Body image issues, weight issues and confidence issues. 

Being a young female, I understand the issue that some young girls go through with confidence and exercising around both males and females. I decided to create an opportunity for a short period of time to get girls and only girls to exercise with a female personal trainer. 

Discussing our nutrition plan!

This was a way to get them away from all that lazying around in front of the telly and laptop. Personally, I fell well developed technology is part to blame in keeping young people in the house as opposed to going out to play. I remember those days of playing 'BullDog' and 'POLO' on the side street with the children from the rest of the neighbourhood. 

Anyway, I applied to get a small amount of funding from 'o2 Think Big' to get me started and fortunately  they did not disappoint me. 

So, I started of my journey. I had to get a qualified female personal trainer, a place where the sessions could take place, timing, getting young girls/ladies involved. Luckily, I am part of  loveLife  and could do most of that. 

I think its important that young girls get fit and active and have an awareness of nutrition and what benefits the health because, the knowledge will go far. Starting to take care of health now benefits later on in life and helps protect against diseases.

Starting Flourishing Fitness was also a way of letting the young girls share what knowledge they had of fitness and health. 

I took part in a few sessions and I must say, the energetic sweaty, feeling at the end felt awesome because I knew I worked my muscles and mind. 

It wasn't long before Flourishing Fitness was moved to the open streets in Beckton where the loveLife Generation BloomIn Hallywell street project took place. 

Young girls who lived locally were intrigued by the boxing gloves and the fast skipping on the spot and joined in enthusiastically. 

The huffing and panting that went on, I can only thank the trainer. 

The thing is, young girls avoid joining the gym because there are males there and it's always the same old machines. With Flourishing Fitness, we had different activities, both indoors and outdoors so it allowed the young girls have a feel of exercise in two settings. It helped that they had a trainer who was also female and could relate to them but also show them that getting fit is not just about looking good but most importantly feeling good too.

I find it more fun outside and I'm sure the young girls did too. I could see some of them get all fired up and wanting to punch the boxing pads some more.  

What made me want to start this project was the Olympics in 2012 being in London, in Stratford, not far from me. I felt that if young girls could come from around the world to perform in our town, then our girls could also perform in our town with a little bit of help. Flourishing Fitness was that little bit of help. 

I wanted the young girls like me to feel like they were part of this legacy that London had. 

I only hope that Flourishing Fitness taught them more about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and that it has got them eager to look out for what they put in to their mouths and what exercise they participate in. 

I know it has changed me.

By Salma Razia Khatun, A loveLife Generationer :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/10269797/Golden-legacy-from-London-2012-lost-on-young-girls-missing-out-on-the-benefits-of-sport.html

Kingford Take Back The Future

loveLife Generation were back at Kingsford School in Beckton - this time with the Year 10s. 
This group have self confessed that the rest of the school did not necessarily have the best perception of them...BUT that was about to change.

How you see yourself determines how others see you and as loveLife Generation started to get these young people to start reflecting back on themselves they started to recognise that not only were they a great year group but that they could really make an active difference in their lives and that of their school. 
Themes that were looked at included identity, perception, personal reflections and our talents.