A Few of my Favourite Things; Charity Organisations and projects I totally LOOoooVe!

My heart bleeds every time a child tugs the edge of my dress, begging for something to eat, because [believe it or not] I sometimes may not have eaten myself, so where do I start? There are so many challenges in [Africa and] Nigeria; aged people with no one to care for them, orphaned and/or disabled kids with no one to love them, people living with AIDS who've been rejected... sometimes I look around, and even though I want to help, it's draining... looking... seeing... being able to do something but not being able to do everything. So you can imagine my joy at seeing that more and more people now care and have decided to do something about hunger, disability, poverty, diseases/sickness and all the challenges being faced in Africa. These are some charity initiatives I love...



These Genes

Tosyn Bucknor http://ipledge2nigeria.com/blogs/33/223  [the initiator] is one of the strongest people I know. Sometimes I wonder how she does it; In addition to running these Genes, she is also a Writer, musician [Con.tra.diction], Radio personality, Blogger and a million other things… and now the shocker… she’s also living with sickle cell – Yes a ‘sickler’ can be active and strong. These Genes is simply a project to help create awareness, and also show that it is possible to live long and live well even with ‘those genes’! These Genes puts together creative and entertaining events every once in a while to help raise awareness and funds to achieve the projects mission. Last year on her blog Tosyn wrote “When people living with sickle cell fall ill or die, people seem reluctant to tell me, or when they do tell me, they look at me to see my reaction… It is very sad to hear that someone is ill, or that someone has died. But ever since I realised that it is not how long one lives that counts but how well, I learnt to celebrate the hours one has, and stay connected to GOD. Death is promised to all, so that has never been a fear of mine.
My biggest fear is being alive but not breathing” Even if she didn’t run These Genes, those words could give hope to anyone, and that for me is more than enough. God bless you Tosyn!


Ofunneka Youth Empowerment Trust Fund [OYETF]

 This initiative was birthed in December 2007 by Ofunneka Molokwu [remember her from Big Brother?   http://ipledge2nigeria.com/blogs/33/262] with the purpose of empowering youths to become contributing members of the society, through educational schemes, talent enhancement programs, and volunteer opportunities which is believed will help build self esteem and confidence. OYETF’s vision is to empower the Nigeria youth for positive change within and outside their immediate environment. Through its After School Program, OYETF hopes to provide a safe haven for Nigerian youths , a helping hand to parents [who would have to work long hours to earn a living therefore living the kids to their own devices], a partner to the immediate community, and a rewarding experience to volunteers (university undergraduates in chosen disciplines). Apart from running this Organisation, Ofunneka is anywhere and everywhere volunteering/contributing to probably every charity in existence – that’s how passionate she is.


CRYSTAL VISION

This is one project that is very dear to my heart, in fact a lot of people think that I run it as Jumoke Balogun [The Initiator] is a very driven person and a dear friend and so got me involved from the onset. If you read older posts [on this blog] you’ll understand her story and agree with me that she’s truly been tested in fire and survived. CRYSTAL VISION was set up for educational, medical and financial support to the visual impaired as well as cornea donation awareness [Africans don’t believe in such donations, thanks to the ‘after life’ concept]. For more on Crystal Vision, please read older posts




The SWITCH A FUTURE campaign

Now this is one idea I totally I fell in love with soon as I saw it; InterSwitch Limited in partnership with Freedom Foundation initiated this Cause Related - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign with the aim of touching the lives of children who would have never had access to education, by providing them with an education. And how does this work?

Each time an InterSwitch cardholder uses their card on another bank’s ATM, Interswitch will make a donation to Freedom Foundation, and by doing so “Switch A Future”. The campaign is designed to x-ray how these children futures are tragically truncated because they are disadvantaged or orphaned with no one to care for them. The campaign makes use of celebrities as models to demonstrate how bright and promising futures may not have been achieved without some form of educational support.


The “Switch A Future” campaign initiative is aimed at working with celebrities to heighten public awareness and engender the citizenry’s empathy and action to change the plight of these children who otherwise would have no hope. But truly, just imagine if MI, Basket mouth, Sasha and all those Celebs we love didn't have the right opportunities... they might have ended up on the streets. Switch a Future is just Brillant!


Kids' Clean Club

Lagos State is dirty. Nigeria is dirty... hell, Africa as a whole is dirty! dirt brings mosquitoes which causes malaria - the number1 child-killer in Africa. Dirt also brings a million and one diseases, which is why I totally love this concept. Kids Clean Club is an environmental NGO that seeks to educate children while watching them play. The objective is to encourage children to be physically and mentally involved in the fight against an environmentally irresponsible World.

The group also seeks to instill in every child the traits of Global Cleanliness, Global Safety, and Patriotism, and to reach every Home, School, and Religious Institution through the children. To achieve amongst others, the above stated visions, Kids’ Clean Club pioneered the construction of The 1st ever Kids' Garden in Ajah, Lagos State, which will serve as a haven for kids' and families within the Gardens reach for recreation, social, physical and mental development.



Poetry for Charity

Poetry for Charity is a project which aims to bring together several writers from various regions of the world using the facebook social networking website, with a common aim of donating their poems and spoken word pieces to be added to a collection. All the revenue raised from the sale of the book are donated to 3 different charities for every edition of the collection. The first “Poetry for charity, Volume one” was released featuring the work of 34 writers from different continents and backgrounds. Volume two also featured poems from various Writers including yours truly, moi [beaming uncontrollably]. Poetry for Charity is Chiedu Ifeozo’s initiative; he and his team have been able to encourage a new breed of writers, and also support worthy causes. They have been able to show that no matter your age, background or experience, writing is a form of expression and it is possible for you to develop your writing skills. The charities PFC has supported in the first volume of the anthology are: [1] Against illiteracy poverty and AIDS(AIPA) http://www.aipanigeria.org/ [2] THESE GENESwww.thesegenes.blogspot.com [3]With love from friends [WWFF] http://wlff.co.uk/aboutwlff

It just makes me happy to see that someone somewhere is doing something to help make a life better, add value to the community and put smiles on faces. We keep complaining about the Government, but ask yourself what you have done in your own little way. If the answer’s nothing, then I’m sorry to break to you; there’s really no difference between you and the Government! There are a dozen more charities I respect for their passion and worth, and you’ll definitely be reading about them soon. But till then, remember that it doesn’t matter where, when, or how… Just help make the World a better place; Do something positive today!