Join Akhil & Shelle as they help victims of the California wildfires

California Wildfire

California wildfire

“My fiance Akhil and I live in the South Bay Area and have always loved giving back to our community, usually with our time. When we learned about the fires that have displaced thousands of families right in our back yard, we weren’t sure how we could help. We have no experience fighting fires or being on the front lines in a crisis…then it occurred to us that we could raise money to buy supplies and anything else these families might need in this difficult time!

Our Church, South Bay, has been sending supplies, money and volunteers up to help those families and Akhil and I both felt very strongly that we wanted to help as well. That is why we started this fundraising page so we can help those right in our backyards and help support the people who are struggling to even find a place to sleep.”

Check out how you can support Akhil and Shelle to help their community:

 

Myki Fines: Know your rights!

Myki fines, know your rights

 

Myki fines, know your rights

”When I got my first and only ever myki fine the day before my birthday in November 2015, I panicked. I knew my rights, but having three Authorised Officers stand over you is scary, especially when you’re already stressed and in a rush. I had just run for the tram to make my pre-exam block uni class after discovering my bike tyre was flat, and forgot my wallet. I was offered the on-the-spot penalty fare, but luckily I knew that if I took it, I wouldn’t be able to appeal the fine. When the fine arrived, I applied for internal review because of the exceptional circumstances of the day, but was rejected. Eventually, a Magistrate dismissed the fine.

I only knew and could assert my rights because I was in the midst of putting together a website about myki fines. I was part of Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project, and we had teamed up with Julian Burnside QC to help commuters who faced unfair myki fines. After undertaking legal research about the myki fine process, we decided that we wanted to translate the legal jargon so that commuters were informed of their rights.

We created www.mykifines.org.au – a website that is simple, easy to use and gave commuters an understanding of their rights when faced with deciding on a $75 on-the-spot penalty fare. On 6 April 2016, we launched the website. On launch day, more than 35,000 visited the website, and a month later the government announced it was scrapping on-the-spot penalty fares on 1 January 2017! This great news also meant our website would become redundant.

And we know, even with these changes the myki fine system is confusing. So we’re updating the website, to help people in that moment of panic, when they want to request internal review and when they go to court.”

Check out more about advancing the knowledge on Myki Fines on their crowdfunding campaign below:

Empowering women in North-America, the story of Kappa Kappa Gamma

Kappa Kappa Gamma

Kappa Kappa Gamma

”Kappa Kappa Gamma is a National Panhellenic Women’s Fraternity founded in 1870 to help women have a supportive group of like-minded individuals and to help women across North America grow into strong leaders.
The Beta Psi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma in Toronto, Ontario upholds these values and aims to promote them at every opportunity, including during our philanthropy seasons!

This fall semester, the sisters of KKG are holding a 4 hour philanthropy event which will be raising money for two important charities: The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and a survivor-led sexual assault awareness campaign called Silence is Violence which helps support and provide resources to other individuals who have experienced sexual harassment and assault on post-secondary campuses.

This charity in particular is meaningful to the Beta Psi chapter as we have a sister who has assisted in founding and running this campaign at the University of Toronto, and the sisters believe in supporting her in any way possible. By holding an online donation we can raise even more money for our charities to help make an even bigger impact on our community and women across North America.”

Check out more about Kappa Kappa Gamma’s mission to empower women in North-America:

Watoto’s mission to empower women in Uganda through business, the story of Emily Muller

Living Hope Workshop in Uganda, Watoto

Living Hope Workshop in Uganda, Watoto

”This year I had the opportunity to go to Uganda and see Watoto’s projects first hand, including a project called Living Hope. I went out on a community visit, to meet some of the women who were a part of the program and living in a slum in Kampala. As I was introduced to different mothers in that community and spent time listening to their stories, I was struck by a haunting contrast. The women who I met that had the opportunity to be a part of our program and had learnt skills like sewing or jewellery making to help generate an income had this incredible sense of hope and confidence about them. They were providing for their families, connecting with others in the community and doing something they loved. The mothers I met who had not had this opportunity… words can’t describe the emptiness in their eyes. I can’t begin to imagine trying to care for several children and make an income. I can’t imagine not being able to treat my child’s illnesses. I could understand that emptiness… that hole where hope belonged. This fired me up. More than ever I wanted to help each and everyone one of them, but I could not do it alone.

About six months later our head office in Uganda contacted our Australian office with an urgent need. 450 mothers were about to graduate from the program. As a team, we saw the opportunity to join together and raise funds to empower each of these women with the physical tools they needed to generate an income once they’d graduated from the program. In September, we launched Graduate to Greatness on Chuffed and began raising funds to make this possible. It’s been overwhelming to see the number of men and women across Australia who have stood beside our women in Uganda and we can’t wait to see the impact these gifts make.”

To read more about the empowerment of women in Uganda, please visit the link below:

 

The power of faith to fight Climate Change, the story of ARRCC

Protecting Sacred Ground, ARRCC

”The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) is a member-based organisation which, for ten years, has been mobilising faith communities across Australia to act on global warming. As volunteers working shoulder-to-shoulder across faith traditions, we believe we all share a sacred duty to protect our beautiful Earth from climate damage, before it’s too late.

With 60% of Australians identifying with a faith tradition, we have the potential to achieve a critical mass of active citizens to address what we see as a climate emergency. ARRCC has been at the forefront of leading people of faith to step up, speak out and take action. Right now, our main focus is stopping Adani’s enormous, Reef-wrecking, climate-wrecking Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s north.

With our membership growing and a big job to do, relying solely on volunteers was always going to limit our impact. We decided to hire a skilled and dedicated community organizer in Melbourne.

Angela Merriam proved to be amazing. Working just one day a week for seven months, Angela Merriam held a training day for people of faith, organised a sit-in and then a meeting with the Environment Minister, brought faith leaders together in common actions and promoted climate change action kits for various faith communities.

When she went on leave, another experienced climate activist, Tejopala Rawls, took up the role. He wrote for The Guardian, mobilised volunteers and organised a Stop Adani event on the National Day of Action. He is determined to lead people of faith in the urgent task of stopping Adani’s mega-mine.

Both these organisers have proved invaluable. Now we’d like to pay both of them 1 – 2 days a week each to work together as a team for at least the next 5 months. At this critical time in the Stop Adani campaign, this would help us with our goal of creating a tipping point among Australia’s faith communities against Adani.

The rapid and enthusiastic support for our crowdfunding campaign has been very heartening. It’s clear our supporters believe in us.”

To read more about this inspiring project, please visit the link below:

 

 

 

Bike for Life by PeopleStories

Victoria Bike for Life

Victoria Bike for Life

“After decades of my corporate life, I founded PeopleStories with the support of a team of passionate friends to drive positive and sustainable social impact. Our objective is to couple storytelling and photography whilst creating a platform for people around the world to get involved and make a tangible difference to communities.

BikeforLife program is about enabling children in the rural area of Siem Reap to have access to education. It is making the dream of a local primary school principal of providing bikes to children for their greater access to school come true.

Access to and completion of school remains a dilemma in Cambodia. Poverty drives many children away from school, with some children (that I know of) as young as 12 years old having to enter the labour market. I have personally seen many of them walking to school around 6am for 30mins or more and returning home under the hot sun in midday. Sadly, some don’t even have any shoes!

A shout out to all our supporters and chuffed to have enabled us to exceed our funding target in 5 weeks, to deliver 93 bikes to this specific school. This would have a ripple, tangible impact and get 93 more children into school in the new term this November.

These bikes will provide mobility, consistent access to school and create new opportunities for the children through education.”

Check out more about this amazing story on their crowdfunding campaign page below:

Bring Back the Birdwing, by Wildlife Queensland

Wildlife Queensland Team

Wildlife Queensland Team

“My name is Natasha and, as the communications person for Wildlife Queensland, it’s my job to help raise funds and awareness of the species we target with our wildlife conservation campaigns throughout the year. From the iconic platypus to a little-known butterfly called the Richmond Birdwing, these species all have a unique and very important story to tell, but no voice to tell it with, no way of reaching people. That’s where me and the dedicated team at Head Office come in.

Apart from being a huge advocate of the many ongoing projects that Wildlife Queensland manages to run without government support and very few grants, I have personal reasons for loving my job: saving the world one native animal at a time was actually my sister’s passion, and she has passed away. I work at Wildlife Queensland to honour her memory and support the work she dedicated her life to. The team here is like a family, drawn together by the desire to leave their patch of the planet in a better state than they found it in. Who wouldn’t want to be part of something like that?

We are excited to report that our campaign to Bring Back the Birdwing by planting 500 vines essential to the species’ survival has been very well supported on Chuffed! But it’s only got 24 hours left to run! We all have our fingers crossed for a really big finish for this really special butterfly!”

For more information on this awesome story, check out their crowdfunding campaign page below:

A Journey to Improve Living Conditions in South-east Asia, by WISE

WISE Team

WISE Team
“WISE is a non-profit organisation started by me and my Indonesian colleagues almost 2 years ago. I had been involved in water-related issues since university, where I joined Engineers Without Borders UK and did a project on faecal sludge management (toilets!) as part of my civil and environmental engineering degree. I didn’t look back. I went on to work on similar projects in countries such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka. I eventually ended up in Bandung, Indonesia, writing a PhD dissertation exploring innovation post-disaster sanitation technologies (toilets again!). This is where I met my co-founder, Dian, who was studying in the department. Clearly, we have a joint interest in faecal matters 💩..

For me, it’s not that I have a particular passion in water and sanitation – I could have just as easily ended up in education, or energy. Rather, I believe that everyone has a right to life with dignity, and this is where my expertise can best make a difference.

I love how WISE is trying to achieve its vision of universal and equitable access to water, sanitation and hygiene in South-east Asia. We are building a team driven by South-east Asians because we understand that projects must be driven by the people who understand, who live, the problem in order for the solutions to be relevant and effective. Take for example, our project in Phnom Village, Cambodia. Only 29 of the 101 households have toilets, the lowest access in the commune. This month, we will be facilitating a community planning process, called the Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation approach, that is designed to increase the self-esteem of the villagers and empower them to take ownership of planning and implementing sanitation improvements. This participatory process may take significantly more time and effort on our part, compared to simply constructing toilets for people, but I have witnessed enough abandoned and broken down toilets to know that imposing a solution on the community will not achieve sustainable impact.

The best part of my work is working with youth from across Southeast Asia who want to make a difference in their own communities, and I hope WISE can continue to provide such opportunities for years to come.”

Check out the crowdfunding campaign page of WISE below:

Keeping the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre Alive

Muzafar, Khadim and Jolyon
“I was living in Indonesia and had made friends with two Hazara refugees, Muzafar Ali and Khadim Ali. They told me that, against official advice, they wanted to start a school for the refugee children, so my wife and I helped to pay the rent on a small space. The school was called the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre (CRLC) and was an instant success. It had 55 students in the first week and 35 on the waiting list after two. We quickly realised that we needed a bigger space and more money so we started building a coalition of Australian supporters.

My wife and I moved back to Australia and luckily Muzafar was resettled there too, so together we started an Australian registered non-profit organisation, Cisarua Learning Limited. We continued to build our community and attracted many supporters who bring educational materials, teaching support and friendship to the refugees. The school has now been running for over three years, it has nearly 200 student and 18 volunteers teachers. There are at least 7 other refugee schools in Indonesia who have followed the CRLC model.

Some of the teachers and students have been resettled in third countries, where the students have moved directly into their age appropriate classes and two of our teachers are already halfway though teaching degrees. The school receives hundreds of visitors every year and, as much as it is a space the the refugees to learn and teach, it is also a space for outsiders and Australians to learn about refugees

The CRLC is a place of community, connection, resilience, learning and hope. It has changed the lives of everyone who has been involved, not the least mine, and we are committed to supporting it for as long as it’s needed.

Muzafar, Khadim and myself have made a film about our journey called, The Staging Post. That film is currently screening around Australia and Indonesia. Learn more about it here!
Jolyon Hoff

For more on this inspirational cause, check out their crowdfunding campaign below:

Filming for the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre

Healthy Dogs & Cats Clinic in Krabi, by AWARE

AWARE Team

AWARE Team

“The AWARE Foundation is co-founded and run on a part time basis by Shirley, Vivian, Alfreda, and Rocky, who are animal professionals and Harry, an entrepreneur. We are all very passionate about promoting good animal welfare practices in Asia.

Our story started 3 years ago when Shirley shared her experience of volunteering at a rural animal clinic in Thailand. She noticed that despite their best efforts, the lack of resources, especially man power, was desperately lacking in these areas. Thus we decided to setup AWARE as a platform for animal nurses and veterinarians to volunteer at these rural animal clinics.

AWARE, which stands for Animal Welfare Awareness by Real like Experience, is a win-win situation for all. Not only do the animals and clinics get the help they need, but the volunteers gain valuable knowledge on real world animal welfare issues, and also gain practical animal surgery skills. AWARE also holds talks and seminars at organizations such as schools. So far our results have been very encouraging, having operated on over 400 dogs and cats, and recruiting nearly 20 volunteers.

We are very motivated when we see healthy animals, as well as when we receive positive feedback from our volunteers, clinics, and locals. With your support, we hope to continue to fulfil our goals as AWARE Foundation – to join forces with local animal charities, bringing veterinary care to stray animals, to educate local communities and raise animal welfare awareness across Asia.”

For more on the awesome work of AWARE, check out their campaign page below: