Blog – Page 4 – The Chuffed Academy

January 25, 2018

The 21 Taras Thangkha: Exhibiting the World’s Largest Free-Standing Painting

“I wasn’t looking for mental development. I was a cynical materialist when I met a journalist and author of Big Love, Lama Yeshe’s life story. She had a HUGE picture of Tibetan Lama Yeshe, and told me the story of the Actress and the Lamas and how Kopan Monastery in Nepal was born. Anything she quoted from the Lamas made logical sense. In 1984 she suggested I work at Tara Institute to help run a small computer services business there.

One day I got a parking ticket out the front of Tara Institute and came in cursing. My Buddhist nun colleague, Venerable Tsapel, laughed and said, “Rejoice that it was you and not someone else who got the ticket.” I scoffed. She continued, “Think of the pleasure it gave the parking inspector to give you a ticket!” I laughed out loud and she said, “There, it works. You can’t laugh and be angry at the same time.” A few months later I was in Bodh Gaya, India, listening to His Holiness the Dalai Lama teach BIG LOVE, unconditional love for ALL beings, in the company of 8,000 Tibetan monks and nuns, 1500 Westerners, and 300,000 Tibetans from all over the continent.

An occasional student, (a mum and travelling a lot for my work in equal rights training), I’ve been a member of Tara Institute for 35 years. Then, in 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, head of the worldwide organisation FPMT, gave Tara Institute the 21 Taras Thangka! I put my hand up to help crowdfund, with Chuffed.org, to enable exhibitions of the LARGEST STAND-ALONE PAINTING IN THE WORLD.

Working with a team of members, friends and relatives, all fired up with Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa’s BIG LOVE energy, it’s been a joy sharing the context and the enchanting images of Tara the Liberator and her 21 emanations. Tara represents the enlightened actions of all the Buddhas, the wisdom that is the Mother of all the Buddhas, and unconditional BIG LOVE for ALL beings. Just looking at the precise sacred geometry of a thangka calms the mind and is ideal for those of us who find meditation challenging!

In uncertain times, a shortcut to inner peace has been easy news to share.
First chance to see it, even for the artist! White Night Melbourne, Hamer Hall, 7pm-7am February 17 (Day 2 of the Lunar New Year)”

To read more about the amazing story of the 21 Taras Thangka, have a look at their campaign page here:

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Food as Medicine: Leafy’s Story

“I’m Claire McDonnell, qualified Nutrition Advisor, mum and therapeutic diet keynote speaker in the UK and USA. Finding the right nutrition for our daughter and son’s health conditions at the right time prevented dire long term health consequences.

We plan to provide nutrition information and resources that we needed as a family when our children were most poorly. We don’t feel that finding the right information should be left to chance.

Our Food as Medicine story

When my otherwise healthy baby daughter Leafie was only 6 months old when she experienced her first seizure. It lasted a terrifying 25 minutes and she was bluelighted into the local hospital for treatment. Unfortunately lengthy and distressing seizures began to reoccur until little Leafie was suffering a debilitating 60+ daily seizures a day. Her overall health, sleep and ability to enjoy a typical childhood were being taken away and our young family were suffering from exhaustion and distress.

We researched until we came across a Canadian parent’s blog that had used a diet to reduce their young daughter’s seizures. The more we read about their Ketogenic diet the more impressive it appeared.

We started Leafie on the Ketogenic diet around her second birthday, enjoying a ‘keto’ birthday carrot cake as one of her first foods. Within 2 days of her diet
changes the majority of her seizures (up to 45 minutes long) had stopped and three years later most have not returned. Leafie’s sleep, confidence and smile returned swiftly, she became her happy, active, bright self again.

As well as the astonishing change in my daughter’s health this is also remarkable as the diet is well known, with much evidence behind it demonstrating how successful it is in treating seizures and yet it is rarely considered as a treatment option.

Our confidence in the ability of food to improve health came from having also
restored our son Rudie’s skin to glowing health after 2 years of eczema, hives and alopecia, again all through diet! Again nutrition was not a consideration in his treatment by the medical community.

Our Project Leafie appeal
With experience of taking on severe eczema and epilepsy with foods we now want to help other families to find the diets that can help their health too!

Chuffed.org/project/leafie

We quickly raised over half of our campaign target of £6,000! We need to raise £6,000 total so that we can:-
• Provide a free family nutrition introduction course
• Populate our leafie.org website with evidence and information to help families
get started
• Publish family’s stories of using nutrition to manage a variety of health
conditions; included Bowel Disease, Epilepsy and Eczema. ”

Read more on Claire, Leafy and Rudie’s experiences with a Ketogenic diet on their campaign page:

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018

Progressive Podcast Australia: A Podcast for Activists

“We are Nick and Katie. Nick is a sociologist, Katie is a social justice lawyer and we are both activists. We have been involved in a wide variety of social movements, including animal rights, Occupy, refugee rights and workers’ rights. We are both passionate about social change and as when we first got together as partners we would regularly discuss political issues. These discussions turned into Progressive Podcast Australia over 6 years ago, starting during the worldwide Occupy movement that highlighted economic inequality. We do this podcast in our spare time, around work and other commitments.

We started the podcast partly out of our frustration about the neglect of activist voices in the mainstream media, who generally only give activists a few seconds to get their message out, in the rare times they are given a voice at all. We were also concerned about the limited range of perspectives given in the mainstream media generally. In the spirit of alternative, independent and activist media, our podcast gives a voice to Left, progressive and anarchist voices and ideas that are neglected in the mainstream media. We cover a wide range of human rights, animal rights and environmental issues.

We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign to help us buy some new recording equipment and are also giving supporters a chance to choose the topics we cover on the show this year. We have reached the half way point of our goal so will buy a second microphone stand, which will be a big improvement on the board games we are currently using as a second mic stand! We appreciate any support in helping us get to our full goal and if we achieve this we will also be able to buy a new microphone. ”

You can read more about Nick and Katie’s podcast for social change here:

January 23, 2018

Good Bye Locks for Little Oak Sanctuary!

Samantha Little Oak Sanctuary

“I am a veterinary nurse, I have been in this industry for nearly a decade! I work each day ensuring that my patients are taken care of, at the highest standard possible. I am also a vegan, so there are many facets of my life that involve the wellbeing of animals, as well as being conscious of what is important to me, and what I believe is ethically right.

It occurred to me that I have the ability to give back, and that it would be easy for me to be more active in creating awareness for the care of animals that aren’t necessarily treated the same way as pets. I decided that I wanted to choose a worthy cause to pledge my time and effort to, which brought me to the Little Oak Sanctuary. I wanted to raise some money to lend a hand to this amazing place, so decided I would set a goal of $3,000, and if I managed to reach my goal, I would shave my head! This seemed like a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things, especially if I was able to make a small difference.

I am extremely passionate about this cause, as Little Oak Sanctuary prides themselves on creating awareness, promoting a cruelty-free way of living, and giving a home to those who are often forgotten in our world of mass-production and sheltered living. I want to be able to do more, to help, and to get out there and make a change.

I am now half way, both in my time frame and in my goal of raising $3,000 – This has made me that much more determined to reach my goal, and at the same time, perhaps create some awareness for this cause and for the amazing work that the Little Oak Sanctuary does.”

Help Samantha help Little Oak Sanctuary by checking out her awesome crowdfunding campaign below:

January 19, 2018

Alan’s Week of Action Against Adani in Queensland

“I am semi-retired and recently became a grandfather. 10 years ago I became concerned about Climate Change and became involved with taking local action to address it. Initially I was involved reducing my own carbon footprint and others who wanted to do likewise. Four years ago I met a young Climate Warrior who had come from the pacific Islands to protest at Newcastle against our coal exports. She told me how she sat and watched the coal ships sail past and she cried because they were destroying her island home and she could do nothing to stop them.

I realised that Climate Change is not something that will affect us in the future but is affecting real people now.

Since then I have become more involved with taking global action on Climate Change. 12 months ago I became involved in the #StopAdani campaign. This campaign is to stop the Adani coal mine from being developed in central Qld. I see this mine as a pivotal moment in Australia’s fight against Climate Change. If we can stop this mine, it is unlikely that any other coal mine will be opened in Australia. The campaign has been very successful, convincing WestPac not to fund it, convincing CommBank not to fund it, convincing the Qld govt not to accept one billion dollars from the federal government to fund it, convincing China not to fund it, convincing 30 international banks not to fund it and convincing Downer not to help build it.

The only thing left is to get Adani to walk away from the project. They have started preliminary work in Qld on the rail line. Since September there has been an ongoing protest to disrupt this work with over 50 people being arrested. In early December I joined with 45 others to blockade the work site. I, along with 15 others, were arrested and charged with trespass and fined. We were also charged with obstructing police. My Chuffed campaign is to raise money to help pay my fines and the fines of others. I see this campaign as an opportunity for others to show their solidarity with the protesters even if they are unable to go to Qld and participate.

I have always been a law abiding citizen, but I am convinced that we must take a stand against this mine, even if it means breaking the law.

The recent arrival of my first grandchild has encouraged me even more to make sure this mine does not happen.”

Learn more about Alan’s week of action to help the environment on his crowdfunding campaign below:

January 17, 2018January 22, 2018

Join the Crowd

Click here to join the Chuffed Crowd. Don’t forget to say hello!

Our mission at Chuffed is to do everything we can to help people make a difference in the world. There’s a lot more to making a difference than just raising funds. While we’ll always be there to help with that, we want to do more.

We’ve created a community of Changemakers, just like you. Here’s 5 reason’s why you should join:

Learn from the best

Many of our campaigners have gone on to build amazing organisations. Like Rob from TwoGood and Kyle from Edgars Mission. You can talk to experts right now and not just about running your campaign, our experts know how to help you achieve the greatest impact with the funds you raise.

Surround yourself with people who believe in change

Sometimes it can feel like you’re the only one who sees how important it is to just do something. This is a great way to meet others who believe in making a difference.

Meet people just like you

We have an international crowd with campaigners making a difference on almost every continent even Antarctica. We work with people involved in every cause imaginable, from building schools to saving animals, and everything in between.

Build connections to help you find more donors

We are surrounded by incredible people who are willing to donate to make a difference. Build connections with those who have run campaigns in the past and get their help to link you up with the donors that helped them.

Help others make a difference.

Running a successful campaign is an art form, and it takes great skill to use the funds raised wisely and effectively. The more support we can give each other, the bigger the changes we can make in the world.

We need your help to make our community grow. Whether you’re brand new to this world, or a seasoned veteran we’d like your help to create a movement around making a difference.

Click here to join today!

Above: Members of our community from the Hummingbird Project. They raised 15,000 to help people in Calais. Click the link to find out more.

January 17, 2018

The Inception of Saved by Soup: Helping Homeless People with Mental Health

“Two years ago, while on a lunch break, I walked past the Whitfield Street soup kitchen in central London. It is next door to my office – we are neighbours. At the time, I wasn’t sure it was a soup kitchen, but I had regularly noticed crowds of people outside – people whose look and demeanour suggested they were homeless or had fallen on hard times. There I was with my £7 lunch from Pret-A-Mange, in the privileged position of having a good job, and a roof over my head and I was walking past… again.

In that moment I decided to go in and find out what was going on. I met the then manager (Miranda) and in that brief meeting I realised I could help her, and she could help me. She needed volunteers, and I had access to a couple of hundred people who work in the business I help to run (I am the managing director at an international media business. People who work in this environment tend to be from privileged backgrounds). I felt we could do with a sense of perspective: We all moan about our lives, work and pressure , but by comparison to rough sleepers and the long term homeless, what have we got to complain about!?

Fast forward to the present day and everyone at MKTG (my business), and its sister agencies (Posterscope and PSI) are weekly volunteers. We help prepare food, work front of house and raise funds to keep the larder stocked. We have got to know many of the customers, and this has given us a sense of purpose and helped us understand that homelessness is closely linked to mental health issues. Many of the guests at Whitfield St have such issues, which if left untreated, ensures they will remain homeless. Simultaneously, the sufferers we know have become disengaged with their health problems. The reasons for this are complex but include the reduction of funding for mental health outreach in the NHS. Being homeless also reduces the likelihood of being seen by a mental health professional.

After a company brainstorm we had the idea to launch a crowd funding campaign to create London’s first ever mental health drop-in centre inside the soup kitchen. We aim to connect guests back to their mental health issues in a trusted environment, and provide a model for all soup kitchens in London.”

You can have a look at Michael’s campaign to help Homeless people with their mental health, here: