With thanks...
Here are some of the charities, groups and people I find inspiring, powerful and worthy of praise and support... I'll be adding to it regularly...
WWF
I used some of my Christmas money to symbolically adopt a polar bear through WWF and the Hunger Site. And I was overwhelmed when a dear friend adopted a snowy owl for me for my birthday through WWF Australia. It's a beautiful way to donate to a wonderful charity that works so hard to save and protect endangered animals, providing funds for them, and also adding a personal edge that makes it even more meaningful. I got an adorable certificate with a picture of the snowy owl, which I've put on my wall.
Buy Charity Gifts from $50 with WWF Animal Adoptions
Adopting an animal is a great way to show a loved one that you care not only for them, but also for the world around you. For a one-off fee, you will not only be providing funds to help an endangered species survive in the wild, but also giving a great gift.
You can adopt a tiger, an orangutan, a panda, a pygmy elephant and more…
What Will the Recipient Get from the Charity Gift?
* Collectible display folder with photo of your chosen animal.
* Adoption certificate.
* Informative fact sheet about the animal.
You can also “adopt” an animal via a monthly payment, and receive:
* A cuddly soft toy of the animal.
* An adoption pack.
* Updates from the field.
If you adopt a tiger for instance, you are helping to:
* Restore fragmented areas of habitat so tigers can move between them.
* Strengthen anti-poaching patrols around nature reserves.
* Reduce conflict between people and tigers.
* Reduce poaching and illegal trade of live tigers and tiger parts.
* Ensure conservation laws are enforced.
Your support will also help fund other essential WWF conservation work around the world. Their priorities at the moment include protecting sea turtles, dugongs, whales, dolphins, tigers, orangutans, pandas, pygmy elephants and rock wallabies.
About WWF
With more than 40 years experience at an international level, and more than 25 years of operation in Australia, WWF is the world’s largest and most influential conservation organisation. Founded in 1961, WWF is active in more than a hundred countries and has close to five million supporters internationally. WWF’s global mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. In Australia and throughout the oceanic region, WWF works with governments, businesses and communities so that people and nature can thrive within their fair share of the planet’s natural resources.
WWF-Australia is part of the WWF International Network, the world’s leading, independent conservation organisation. In Australia WWF also works closely with Indigenous communities to protect the country’s native plants and animals and their habitats in order to deliver enduring conservation outcomes. WWF-Australia is a not-for-profit organisation with nearly 70% of our annual income donated by our dedicated supporters. Their new five-year plan has identified six important initiatives to capitalise on WWF-Australia’s strengths:
Great Barrier Reef
Southwest Australia Ecoregion
Transforming Markets
Heart of Borneo
Climate Change
Coral Triangle / Southwest Pacific
Visit WWF.
Save Our Coral Sea
Protect Our Coral Sea is one of Lucy and my favourite causes right now, and I write about them in Mermaid Magic. The Coral Sea is a tropical marine jewel located east of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which extends to Australia’s maritime borders with Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia. It features spectacular coral reefs, remote islands, towering underwater mountains and deep-sea canyons, and is home to whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, rays and seabirds – yet less than one per cent is protected, and many fishermen now operate boats there as overfishing closer to home pushes them further afield.
Global icon of marine conservation Dr Sylvia Earle is patron of the Coral Sea Campaign, which urges the government to declare it the largest marine heritage park on earth, a no-take zone that would be like a Kakadu on the water, and become a “hope spot” for the oceans. “The Coral Sea is a rare thing – a place where majestic ocean-going fish can still be found in great numbers. In the last fifty years, the world has lost ninety per cent of these large ocean creatures due to overfishing. We need to do all we can to protect one of the world’s last remaining refuges,” she says.
Acclaimed author and environmentally aware surfer Tim Winton also urges action. “Marine parks are needed because our oceans are fragile and in trouble. We still have the notion that the ocean is inexhaustible, irrepressible and indestructible, that it can go on forever, survive anything you drag out of it and everything you tip into it. Well, most coastal people’s experience and the overwhelming science shows that’s just not true,” he says. “The Coral Sea is one of the last places on earth where the greats of the ocean deep, like tuna, sharks and marlin, swim wild in healthy numbers. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect them.”
Other ambassadors include Australian actress and dolphin campaigner Isabel Lucas, tennis star Pat Rafter, fashion designer Akira Isogawa and Netscape founder and executive producer of The Cove Jim Clark. The Wilderness Society, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and International Fund for Animal Welfare also support the campaign. Visit www.protectourcoralsea.org.au.
Wildlife Warriors
On World Environment Day 2010 I donated to Wildlife Warriors because I find Bindi and her mum and their cause so inspiring. Wildlife Warriors was established in 2002, initially by Steve and Terri Irwin, as a way to include and involve other caring people to support the protection of injured, threatened or endangered wildlife – from the individual animal to an entire species. Terri remains involved as our patron and significant supporter and advisor, but the charity now operates independently. Their vision is for people, wildlife and habitat to survive and prosper without being detrimental to the existence of each other. At the moment they are focusing on helping threatened koalas and whales, along with many other projects such as purchasing land to ensure the habitats of endangered animals remain safe.
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide’s Objectives are:
* To protect and enhance the natural environment.
* To provide information and education to the public and raise awareness of wildlife issues.
* To undertake biological research.
* To research, recommend and act in the protection of threatened or endangered species.
* To enter into cooperative arrangements with like-minded organisations.
Visit Wildlife Warriors.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
A controversial but inspirational cause is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, led by Captain Paul Watson, which is dedicated to research, investigation and enforcement of laws, treaties, resolutions and regulations established to protect marine wildlife worldwide. Last year I went to a Writing Festival event where Peter Heller was discussing his book Whale Warriors: On Board a Pirate Ship in the Battle to Save the World's Largest Mammals, which detailed his time onboard a Sea Shepherd vessel with Paul Watson and his crew during their campaign to stop illegal Japanese whaling in Antarctica. It's a fascinating read about a fascinating man, who is loved and loathed in equal measure, but is so passionate about his cause that he often puts his life on the line to protect the animals he lovesso much. Whatever you think of his methods, it is inspiring and very moving to understand the depths of his commitment.
Read my blog about Sea Shepherd here.
Visit Sea Shepherd.
KIVA – loans that change lives
One of my favourite organisations is Kiva, which makes loans to people in developing nations so they can start their own business and become self sufficient, breaking the cycle of dependence on aid and empowering them to take control of their own lives.
Each person “donates” US$25 – which is nothing to us – and becomes part of a group financing a business, be it a woman wanting to start a sewing business in Chile or a pig farmer in Africa needing to buy a boar for breeding, a single mum in Nepal trying to support her family or a widow in Afghanistan hoping to get into retail to earn enough for food. They get the start-up costs and get straight to work, and repay their loan promptly. And despite many of them living in war zones and in countries where it can be hard to grow crops, there is far less defaulting on loans than from westerners to their banks!
Most loans are repaid in full – all of mine have been – and when that happens you can either take your money back, or re-loan to someone else. I love it when a loan is repaid because then it can be put to use for a new person.
I’ve made six loans in the last 18 months – to a young mum near Cusco, Peru, to open an internet café, to a group of women in Uganda to start a poultry farm, to two women in Peru’s jungle to expand their food production company, to a widow in Bosnia for piglets for her farm, to a group of women in Nicaragua for their cooking business, and to a man in Iraq to start a taxi business – four have been repaid in full, and two are in progress. I love getting the updates on the businesses, and seeing in such a tangible way how lives can change so easily. These people desperately want to be able to work and earn enough to support themselves, and this is a brilliant way to empower them to change their own life.
As a wise man once said, don’t give a man a fish, teach him how to catch his own.
Visit Kiva.
40 Hour Famine
I've been doing the 40 Hour Famine since I was a kid, and throughout high school I was a group organiser, "encouraging" my fellow students to do it too, and chasing them up for the money at the end.These days I do it accompanied by my sweet husband, who takes part as much to be supportive of me.
It's not easy, but it's not *too* hard, and it's definitely worth the effort to be able to raise so much money to help people in developing nations. The famine is run by World Vision, which this year was fundraising to help alleviate the pain of the global food crisis. Currently there are over 900 million chronically hungry people around the world, and approximately 1.4 billion live in extreme poverty. Malnourished children are more likely to die from ordinary illnesses like diarrhoea, malaria, tuberculosis and respiratory disease. 25,000 children die from hunger and preventable diseases every day.
Funds raised in the 2009 40 Hour Famine will help to:
* provide emergency food aid
* provide sustainable agriculture and development programs
* increase reliable access to food and water
* reduce the effects of climate change by creating sustainable environments
* bolster investment in agricultural education and development.
Remaining funds also provide short-term relief to poor countries as emergencies arise.
In Australia, the 40 Hour Famine began in 1975, in response to the famine in Ethiopa, and similar events are held around the world – although in the US they do the 30 Hour Famine, and in the UK it's the 24 Hour Famine. Wusses!
Kids can take part in the 8 hour famine, and today you can give up something other than food if you'd prefer – furniture, technology, sleep... This year's is now over (thanks to everyone who sponsored me!), but the next one will take place next August...
Visit 40 Hour Famine.
CanTeen
I've been writing about CanTeen and their wonderful work since I was editing the uni paper in Perth many moons ago. It's the Australian Organisation for Young People Living with Cancer, which focuses on young people (12-24) living with cancer, including cancer patients, brothers or sisters of cancer patients and young people with a parent or primary carer with cancer. For more information, visit www.canteen.org.au.
CanTeen’s major fundraising event falls in October each year. On National Bandanna Day, Australians are asked to buy a bandanna to show their support for teens living with cancer, raising much needed funds as well as awareness. The money raised from National Bandanna Day funds more than 80 CanTeen programs, camps and services bringing young people living with cancer together in a secure, supportive environment.
Visit CanTeen.
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Mermaid Magic, The Book of Faery Magic, Seven Sacred Sites and A Magical Journey are available from bookstores across Australia, distributed by Brumby Books, and through this website.
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