Go-Givers

My name is Latifah but everyone calls me Teefa for short. I am 10 years old. My mum is from Nigeria and Latifah is an African name meaning 'gentle'. Clothes are really important to me and my friends and we always get the latest fashion.
At school, I get into trouble for talking too much and being bossy. I don't mean to be naughty, but sometimes I get shy and then I talk too much to cover it up.

Fair Fashion
The Christmas Play: Part 2
The Christmas Play: Part 1
A day off school!
Hair, listening and problems!!
No Problemo
Spring Style
It's not fair!
Milano
Fashion Charity Show
A fashion queen is born
What a load of Rubbish!
My Untidy Room
We're not going to let them close us down!
It's good to be loud!
Snowflakes
A brother isn't always a pain

Last week, for the first time ever, I got to be as loud as I wanted and not get told off! I went with 7 kids from my class to the one of the biggest museums in the world, the V&A Museum in London.  It was the Celebration Event for the Go-Givers Make a Difference Challenge.

It's called a Challenge because my class had to vote for an issue that we cared about, then find out more about it and do something to tackle it. We chose to look at how we can help stop the effects of climate change and kids in other schools chose what they cared about most. At the V&A my group got to perform a rap and! My friend Ashley and I totally rocked it! 

It was such an awesome day! Ashley came to my house after school, and we couldn't stop talking about all the different performances.  Ashley liked the second dance the best.  ‘Their moves were so complicated. I can't remember what it was about though. Can you?'

‘Nah! But the kids from Applepeach School sang way too softly. I could barely hear it. We were by far the best!' Right then my older brother Daniel walked in.

 ‘Oh Teefs!' he said. ‘You're the only loud mouth who could spend a whole day learning about kids making a difference and then only talk about who the best singers were!'

‘But we were really good! We worked really hard to learn our lines and get our moves right! You just don't get it!' I stormed out of the room.

Daniel followed me. ‘I know you worked really hard Teefs. All I'm trying to say is that you have to make sure that you don't forget the reason why you learned all those dance moves in the first place! Just because some kids aren't as good at rapping, it doesn't mean they aren't good at helping other people.

There is more than one way people can make a difference to the world they live in. Sometimes the quietest people make the loudest noise.'

‘What?' I said. ‘That doesn't even make sense. How can people who are quiet make any noise?'

‘Well, it means that there are lots of people in the world who are busy making a difference every day of their lives by making small changes. They are writing to their MP to ask the government to do more to help the environment, or turning off the lights when they leave a room to save energy, or walking to school instead of travelling by car. When lots of people take small steps, together they can make a lot of noise!'

Hmmm. Maybe Daniel was right.  What was the point of our rap and our dance? It was to remind ourselves and other people of the things we can do to save our planet. But now that we've sung about it, we have to start doing it!   And since we like being loud, we decided we had to use our voices to speak up for those that can't be heard! Like all the animals being affected by big changes in our climate and by deforestation. 

Even though Daniel can be an annoying big brother, sometimes he is right.  Our moment in the spotlight may be over, but there is so much left to do to make a difference!