Week 33 - British Heart Foundation

A friend's daughter is giving up chocolate for March - no mean feat!  I tried to give up chocolate for Lent in my teenage years - got all the way to 39 days and had a hot chocolate, completely forgetting that it did count as "chocolate".  I seem to remember eating a lot of Caramac...

Anyway, Eileen Brown is raising money for the British Heart Foundation.  Founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals, they fund pioneering research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of coronary heart disease and other heart diseases and defects.  Over the last 50 years their research has reduced the size of pacemakers from a bulky, external device to one that can be implanted, explored genetics and how heart disease can be inherited and led to new and safer surgical techniques.

The British Heart Foundation leads campaigns to keep the public informed and the dangers of heart disease and preventative measures such as diet and exercise.  They also take these campaigns to governments, schools and workplaces - among other things they have been at the forfront of many anti-smoking campaigns.

Links
British Heart Foundation
Eileen's JustGiving Page

Week 32 - Shelter

I've just realised I've completely forgotten a donation for last week!  As the cold begins to bite here in the UK my mind turned to Shelter.  Shelter help millions of people with housing problems in the UK every year.  Not only the homeless - they also advise people facing repossession or eviction and try to prevent people from losing their homes with legal representation.

They also use their expert knowledge and experience to campaign for fairer housing laws in the UK.  Among recent successful campaigns are a change in the law to prevent "revenge evictions" and a u-turn on government spending on Local Welfare Assistance.

Links

Shelter Homepage

Week 31 - Youth Upliftment International

This one was forwarded by my friend Lucy Jordache.  Youth Upliftment International are a Canadian charity who work in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic with street children.  The charity was started in 2008 by Katelyn Bateman who visited the region on a holiday and left wanting to help the children she had seen begging and shoe-shining on the streets.  And first she raised money and collected donations of clothing and basic medical and school supplies and eventually led to them opening a school to educate the street children,Collège Amélioration Jeunesse.

Towards the end of last year they ran a fundraising campaign to keep the school open for this educational year.  They hit their target but funds are always needed to provide a safe, high-quality education to these children who would not be able to afford one otherwise.

I find Katelyn's story remarkably inspiring.  How one person's will to change lives is making a difference.  I'm sure we can all take something from that.

Links
Youth Upliftment International
Buy A Square, Save Our School

Week 30 - Child's I Foundation

I have been enjoying comedian and TV presenter Richard Osman's "World Cup Of Chocolate" on Twitter over the last few days and he has asked for donations to this charity.  Child's I Foundation was started in 2009 by Lucy Buck.  Based in Uganda but hoping to extend to other countries, the foundation works to place orphaned children into loving homes.  They provide short-term life saving care and aim to resettle the children within six months.  They firstly attempt to trace family members but if no extended family can be found they then place them in foster or adoptive care.

In 2011 they started the Ugandans Adopt campaign and have so far found homes for over 140 children.  This is sadly just a drop in the ocean however in a country where it is estimated 50,000 children are currently living in orphanages.

Links

Child's I Foundation
Richard Osman - Twitter

P.S. Dairy Milk won.  A travesty I tell you!

Week 29 - Christian Aid

Merry Christmas!  This week I am donating to Christian Aid.  They work globally with people of all faiths and none, primarily to eradicate poverty.  As well as dealing with the effects of poverty they challenge the causes, working on such issues as HIV awareness, equality and human rights.  They also contribute help in global emergencies; famine, natural disasters and refugee crises.

Christian Aid are also involved in various campaigns.  In particular they are focused on climate justice, calling on world leaders to cut carbon emissions; and tax justice, campaigning for the UK government to do more to collect the appropriate taxes from international companies and close tax loopholes which affect developing nations.

Link
Christian Aid

Week 28 - Alzheimer's Society

This weekend the footballing world lost a legend of the game to Alzheimer's.  Few people have changed any sport as much as he did football - like generations of football fans I grew up with his punditry and he provided much of my early education into the game.  This week's donation is to Alzheimer's Society and is also inspired by my Nana who has suffered from the disease for many years now.

There are many different types of dementia, caused by damage to the brain.  This can be due to many different reasons but is most commonly caused by Alzheimer's disease.  The symptoms most associated with Alzheimer's and dementia are memory loss and lapses but most sufferers also struggle with communication, reasoning, orientation and perception (such as visuospatial awareness).  As the disease progresses more distressing symptoms present themselves such as behavioural changes, aggression and hallucinations.  In the final stages a sufferer will become increasingly frail and will need help with simple daily tasks.

One in six people over 80 have dementia.  There is no cure but there are treatments which can slow the progress of the disease.  The Alzheimer's Society funds research into the causes, care, cure and prevention of dementia.  They are provide information and support to sufferers and their families and campaign to improve care across our health services.

Link

The Alzheimer's Society

Week 27 - Animal SOS Sri Lanka

This week's charity was nominated by Fiona Campbell - her daughter has worked for them and she has also adopted from there herself.  The UK-based charity is Animal SOS Sri Lanka who nurse and rehome street animals and strays in Sri Lanka.  They also have an approach to the bigger picture, neutering and spaying strays to reduce the population of homeless animals and working with local authorities to vaccinate animals against rabies and testing for other tropical diseases.  Although they cannot provide kennelling facilities for every stray animal they do provide homes for disabled animals who would not survive on the streets.  Education is another part of their work, campaigning to improve treatment of animals by the general public of Sri Lanka.

It's inspiring to see someone from the UK doing so much to help animals in need in another country where conditions and the culture must be much harder to work with.

Link

Animal SOS Sri Lanka

Week 26 - Mercury Phoenix Trust

1st December was World AIDS day so I wanted to choose a charity that supports work in this field.  I've chosen the Mercury Phoenix Trust, partly because I'm a huge Queen fan and partly because they support many different projects.

The Mercury Phoenix Trust was set up by Brian May, Roger Taylor and Jim Beach following Freddie Mercury's untimely death from AIDS in 1991.  They have given over $15 million to over 700 projects around the world in the last 21 years.  Although they do support large and well-known NGOs and charities the majority of the money they raise goes to small-scale initiatives and they particularly support educational and awareness projects.

Links
The Mercury Phoenix Trust
JustGiving Page