Giving with love – a guide to sensible donation

Giving with love – a guide to sensible donation
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Choosing a charity to support isn’t as easy as picking one out of a hat. Your choice should be personal and your reasons unique to you. Here are a few things to consider to help you choose.

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What cause do you want to support?

What cause do you want to support?
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Typically, the first thing that people think about when choosing a charity to support is the cause. There are children’s charities, animal charities, charities for the elderly and charities that raise money and awareness for a wide range of illnesses, disabilities and issues. Think about which organisation’s cause is dear to your heart or tackles a current problem you care about.

Do you want to support a large or small charity?

Do you want to support a large or small charity?
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There are big name charities such as the Red Cross, SPCA and Barnardos. There are also much smaller charities, some of which work at a local level or are only recently established. Decide whether you want to contribute to a large and potentially powerful charity that will be making big waves but will have high running costs, or whether you want to support and contribute to a smaller charity that might only help a few people at a time but will be fighting to get noticed and raise funds.

Is location important?

Is location important?
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Some people don’t mind where their charity is based or who it helps. Others will want to contribute to their local community.

Find your reason

Find your reason
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Once you have decided that you would like to give some of your time to help others, you need to make some decisions.

People take up volunteering for lots of different reasons: some want to ‘give something back’ while others want to meet new people or learn new skills. Whatever the reason, charities rely on volunteers. Without them, they simply wouldn’t be able to carry out their good work. To choose an organisation or charity, firstly decide who you want to help. Perhaps you have been affected by issues in the past that a particular charity supports, such as cancer or child abuse. Or perhaps you want to add your support to your local school which relies on parents and other members of the community to help children with their reading and maths.

Decide on the kind of work

Decide on the kind of work
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Once you have decided where you want to volunteer, you then have to decide what sort of volunteer work you want to do. Think about your existing skills: do you prefer hands-on work, are you good with people, do you have a background in administration or secretarial work? Charities need a wide variety of skills, such as working in shops, organising fundraising events, driving vehicles or, in the case of animal charities, walking dogs or checking out foster homes.

Find a position

Find a position
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Larger charities will advertise vacant positions on their website. For smaller charities without IT capabilities, you may need to phone or visit their offices.

CBM New Zealand

CBM New Zealand
cbmnz.org.nz

Improving the lives of people with disabilities in developing countries.

Christian Blind Mission (CBM) is an international development organisation, operating in 54 countries, bringing support and assistance to children and adults who live with a wide range of impairments such as intellectual and physical disability, blindness and hearing impairment.

For 110 years CBM has devoted itself to improving the lives of people living with disabilities in the poorest places in the world. One billion people worldwide live with a disability. Many are isolated from society due to stigma, because of the barriers they face moving around the community or because they live in communities too poor to help them. In these developing countries disability and poverty reinforce one another – disability is both a cause and a consequence of poverty.

CBM’s work is focused on improving the quality of life of the world’s poorest people, supporting programmes on education, livelihood skills and development and community awareness, as well as providing medical and health care.

CBM liaises with local partners to treat preventable causes of blindness such as cataract and river blindness, and treat conditions such as club foot to avoid permanent impairment.

CBM works closely with communities, NGOs, disabled people’s organisations and local governments to ensure the rights of people with disabilities are acknowledged and their voices heard.

Its vision is to see a world where all people with disabilities can reach their full potential.

For more information
Visit: www.cbmnz.org.nz Email: enquiries@cbmi.org.nz Freephone: 0800 77 22 64

Breakthroughs in Breast Cancer Depend on Vital Donor Funds

Breakthroughs in Breast Cancer Depend on Vital Donor Funds
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ

Work has begun on finding a breast cancer vaccine in New Zealand, made possible with the support of generous donors – but more funding is needed to continue this kind of vital research.

The BCFNZ Ferrier Breast Cancer Research Programme – a five-year partnership between Breast Cancer Foundation NZ and Victoria University’s Ferrier Institute – offers the prospect of a game-changing scientific breakthrough.

Unlike regular vaccines given to healthy people, a therapeutic vaccine will stimulate a patient’s own immune system to attack and destroy breast cancer cells. The Ferrier Institute has already done exciting work in this field.

The chief executive at BCFNZ, Evangelia Henderson, says, “We went looking for a research partner who would give us the best shot at moving toward our vision of zero deaths from breast cancer. We were blown away by the calibre of the Ferrier team.”

Mrs Henderson says the need for this kind of research is urgent and ongoing. “Breast Cancer Foundation NZ has a long history of funding critical research at key institutions around New Zealand.

“We’ve tackled important questions about ethnic differences in breast cancer, funded investigations into less toxic, more cost-effective drugs and improved scientists’ understanding of resistance to cancer medications. So much more needs to be done, yet we receive no government funding.”

Mrs Henderson urges donors like you to support the Foundation – whether by regular giving, fundraising or bequest – to ensure the best possible chance of achieving urgently needed scientific breakthroughs.

While the scientists toil behind the scenes, other crucial work is being carried out every day by Breast Cancer Foundation NZ nurses and educators.

“Education and awareness-raising is the most important pillar of our work, because we know that detecting breast cancer early is the key to saving lives right now,” says Mrs Henderson.

“Every year, we take to the road, the airwaves and the online world to promote breast awareness and screening. We focus on reaching as many Kiwis as we can, from health professionals in the cities to individuals in remote communities,” she says.

“We offer patient support via a free 0800 helpline and online community called mybc. We also fund rehabilitation and counselling.”

None of this work would be possible without the support of donors and volunteer supporters.

“Nine New Zealanders are diagnosed with breast cancer every day. It’s shocking to think that more than 600 people die of breast cancer every year. This heartless disease is robbing us of loved ones – mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends.

“We can never relax or sit still while we are losing so many New Zealanders to breast cancer. Innovation is absolutely key, now and in the future.”

We are so grateful to all our supporters. Please help us to continue making a difference by donating today.

For more information
Visit: www.breastcancerfoundation.org.nz or call 0800 902 732 to make a donation.

A Good Deed a Day

A Good Deed a Day
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Read how Lisa Bendall made doing good deeds a part of her everyday life and find out how to adopt the same mantra yourself.

It’s an ordinary weekday, and I’m juggling ordinary duties in my home office: researching and writing, making phone calls, doing a load or two of laundry. Amid these tasks, I pop across the street to clear up an elderly widow’s computer problems. I mix up batter and throw a batch of chocolate cupcakes into the oven, to be given away to some rather reclusive neighbours. None of these acts takes long, and none is difficult or costly.

Not long ago, I would have been surprised by how easy it is to lend a hand, brighten a day or make a difference. But now I’m not. That’s because I achieved my goal of doing a good deed every day for 50 days straight. Am I some kind of bleeding heart? No way. Was a good deed a day a daunting concept? You bet.

Most of my days are hectic. I’m a hands-on mum to Emily, now ten. My husband, Ian, and I work full-time. When I’m not at my desk, earning a living as a freelance writer, I’m cooking, cleaning, paying bills. I take my daughter to school, choir and swimming lessons. I provide assistance daily to my husband, who is a quadriplegic. Like millions of others, I’m short on time and careful with spending.

It’s a sad reality that many of us find ourselves just too busy to contribute to our communities or the world at large. For a long time, I, too, believed it cost too much in time, money and energy to make a real difference. But all that changed when I started my good-deed-a-day project. My daughter was my primary inspiration. She already knew we supported a foster girl in Egypt, donated our used clothing, gave change to door-to-door collectors for charity. But I wanted to show her we could do more, so I resolved to do a good deed a day for 50 days.

The first week, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. I browsed the internet for ideas and looked for potential acts of kindness to fill my daily quota. One day, I cleared a handicapped-parking spot of shopping trolleys. Another day, I guided a blind man at the train station. He beamed as he thanked me.

Sometimes, I had to go out of my way to find something kind to do, which meant straying from my comfort zone. I gathered up rubbish at the playground, disconcertingly aware of other families watching. I could only hope I was sparking ideas in others.

After just a few days, though, I found it easier than I’d expected. I felt almost guilty for the smallness, the simpleness, of the deeds I was doing. I was slotting them into our jam-packed lifestyle in a way that suited me. But wasn’t that the point? That good deeds don’t have to be taxing? And even though most of what I’d done was small potatoes – I hadn’t funded an orphanage or saved a life with the Heimlich manoeuvre – I knew I was making a difference.

Of course, being a do-gooder wasn’t without hazards. One day, on a bus, I was squatting to pick up newspapers when a woman pushed past, scraping the top of my head with her oversized handbag. I returned home with a headache, but still a sense of a job well done. Other good deeds went flat.

I went to donate blood, but after fruitless poking at my inadequate veins, I was sent away. Another time, I tried to give food to a homeless person, only to have it rejected because she was vegetarian. (She gladly accepted some coins instead.) On day 50, I congratulated myself for rising to the challenge. I had done it! More importantly, I learned that three quarters of my good deeds had taken less than 15 minutes to do. Three quarters of them had cost no money. And yet these acts had surely made an impact.

On day 51 to my own surprise, I felt compelled to throw away rubbish left in a public cloakroom. As it turned out, 50 days of good deeds had established a habit in me that has continued ever since. I now do many more good deeds than I used to, as does the rest of my family.

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