It is hard to be sick. We all hate it when we have to stay in bed whether it is just with a fever or with a worse bug. The feeling of lethargy dampens our spirits. Having your body let you down is really annoying especially when there is much that you want to do. It is even worse when it is cancer.
Just imagine how much worse it is when you’re a kid. Very few people see you as normal. You regularly need chemotherapy, you may undergo surgery, not to mention losing your hair. It can be difficult to keep your spirits up when you are undergoing so much treatment.
It isn’t only the child who suffers. The whole family shares the difficulty, not physically but in the finances, in their schedule, in their lifestyle. Their whole lives tend to be rearranged to work around the needs of their family member with the disease. When the times are rough, the whole family tend to be down.
They need people to help them. Financial assistance is a great help but that isn’t all they need. They are looking for angels. That doesn’t mean they are looking for miracle workers in spite of the title.
The simplest way you can support the cancer warrior (child fighting the disease) is to send a card. You can be a birthday, christmas or a card angel. This means sending a card on those special occasions just to wish them well.
If you are willing to give a more long term commitment, why not be an angel. Angels are people who commit to a year (or more) of supporting a family through the difficult years of treatment. These angels are asked to send a card or little gift once a month to the cancer warrior and one member of the child’s family. Angels do this without expecting any response from the family. They may be too busy trying to cope with the situation to respond. They need people who will consistently send every month without fail.
If you want to know more, please visit the Cancer Warriors website.
Categories: Children, Ideas, Organizations, Programs, Tips, Volunteering
Where do you go when you want to find things to buy online? We all have our special favorites but I would be willing to bet that a lot of people have eBay at the top of their lists of web sites. And why not? You can find most anything on eBay.
Auctioning off things for a profit is not the only thing that eBay is busy with these days though. One of their projects is to hold a sale – not an auction, mind you – of fashion items for charity. Auction Bytes has this report:
eBay announced a collaboration with fashion designer Yigal Azrouel for Mercedes-Benz Fall Fashion Week. eBay is an online sponsor for Azrouel’s men’s and women’s Fall/Winter 2009 runway shows and will host a charity sale – not auction – from the designer’s Spring/Summer 2009 collection.
eBay said the collaboration represents its continued commitment to support the fashion world. In 2005 and 2007, eBay partnered with the CFDA and Vogue to present 7th on Sale, the largest sample sale on the Internet. eBay has also partnered with leading designers for past charity auctions.
So where does the charity part come in? Read on:
As part of the collaboration, eBay will sell a variety of looks from Azrouel’s Spring/Summer 2009 collection in a sale to benefit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The charity sale, launching on June 4, is unusual in that typically such charity fund-raising events are offered in an auction format. eBay said all pieces would be offered at fixed-prices that are below retail in order to make high-end fashion accessible to eBay’s users while raising money for a charity benefiting environmental causes.
High end fashion pieces for lower prices and the environment benefitting – not such a bad deal, don’t you think?
Categories: Activities, Campaigns, Charities, Children, Environmental, Fundraising, Ideas, News, Organizations, Programs, Shopping
Charities have not been known to provide the better side of life as far as taking care of the people under their wing. While it cannot be declared as also being too generous, the fact remains that if charities are to survive in these times of crisis, saving also has to be done.
This does not only include expenses. It goes as far as trying to limit food needs for the meantime that the world is in crisis. It is not something that they have much to decide on. Today, if you don’t do the right measures, chances are you may find yourself worse than the beggars we see sleeping in the dark alleys today.
No one is exempted from the economic disaster we are experiencing today. Everyone is included and surely we are all adjusting to it. Even charity groups need to do their adjustments as well and most of them can be perhaps tagged as basic measures to get through this debacle besetting us.
So can they do it? Of course they can. We are all in this together. While some people can still provide some sort of help, it is best to measure that they are not as bulky as before. Unless something comes up to improve the problems we are facing, then we just have to wait and see if things look up, charities included.
Categories: Analysis, News, Programs | Tags: Charities, economy, saving
In true fashion of giving, an Israeli Charity has been working for 10 years to save children from various heart diseases that afflict many in the war-torn region. The Hospital, Wolfson in Israel has been operating on Iraqi children who have managed to get there with their parents to seek help for their child’s defective hearts. Children from all over the world have benefited from the work they do there, from Palestinian, Iraqi and all other nationalities, they open their doors to children who would otherwise have died due to heart problems their parents could not afford to pay for treatment. The hospital claims to save a child’s life every 29 hours and that means a lot for the war torn region. This is the true spirit of giving; even long time enemies turn back on their differences for a child whose life is in jeopardy. Pediatric heart surgery is one of the most specialized and expensive types of surgery a child can ever have, many children die from heart problems such as defects and injuries received during conflicts in the region. The hospital works with some of the most sophisticated equipment and some of the best pediatric heart surgeons in Israel and the world over who donate their time and skills to help these children allowing them to live normal adult lives.
The hospital and the Organization also aims to educate doctors in their respective regions and award facilities to develop and cater to their local needs. The full-outreach program does not look at color, race, ethnicity or any other distinguishing factor other than the fact they all share a common goal, to give a child the life they deserve with the best possible treatment the developed world has to offer. Their doctors also conduct outreach programs, going to the far corners of the world to do heart surgery on children who would otherwise have no futures if it were not for their pioneering work. Visit them and get to know the pioneering work and lives they have saved. Be inspired by the stories of survival and hope that have resulted from their actions as they close their eyes to discrimination focusing on the task at hand, saving lives!
Categories: Campaigns, Children, Inspiration, News, Programs, Teens | Tags: Children, Free Care, Heart Problems, Heart Surgery
Member of the Animal Charities of America, Neads was established in 1976 to train and rehabilitate puppies and dogs rescued from all over. Their main goal is to get these dogs, raise them, and then train them as aids to deaf and disabled people who need independence. The rising cost of medical care and care of animals has strained many charitable organizations that rely totally on the goodwill of people who provide donations in monetary and kind. Located in Central Massachusetts, the organization has trained and awarded dogs to many of America’s disabled and deaf. They have allowed people with disabilities to live normal lives without much reliance on other people boosting their self-confidence making them more productive members of society.
Dogs undergo a six-month training cycle where they learn the ropes of becoming a hearing-eye dog becoming the ears for the deaf and eyes for the blind. People who are candidates to receive NEADS trained dogs are houses for two weeks in fully furnished housing units where they work together with the trainers in getting to know better their animals and learning about proper treatment and care of their special animals. Being a charitable institution with little financial might, all candidates have to pay for all the equipment and training costs for their animals. But many who have received animals do earn a lifetime of memories for their dogs become more than guide dogs but members of their family. Often times we hear stories of people getting saved by these magnificent animals who would otherwise have been euthanized, given a second life as aides to the disabled.
Categories: Activities, Animals, Campaigns, Charities, Families, Organizations, Programs | Tags: Charities, Hearing dogs, Seeing eye dogs
