Who are the Homeless?

National Homeless Persons’ Week 2010 starts today and runs until Sunday. It aims to raise awareness of homelessness in the community, celebrate and acknowledge current services being offered to homeless people, foster collaboration of services working with the homeless and attract more volunteers and financial support into the sector.

Every day this week on my radio programme I’ll be talking to people who serve Perth’s homeless community.

Today’s guest was Beth Innes, Project Officer Red Cross. I spoke to Beth about the growing problem of homelessness and discussed the fact that contrary to the sterotypical view of the homeless being older down and out men, over 40% of the homeless in Perth are under 18.

Families are living in cars; people who have jobs can’t afford the fuel to get to work; rent increases mean that parents can no longer put a roof over their family’s heads.

You can hear our discussion by clicking play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR080210_1152.mp3]

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A Real Masterchef Challenge

If you’ve been watching Australia’s Masterchef you’ll love this video put together by the team at Compassion Australia.

Enjoy the video …. but don’t just leave it there. Find out more by visiting the Challenge Website.



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Privilege and Responsibility

Tomorrow my beautiful daughter turns 14.

Emily has brought me more happiness than I could have ever imagined possible, but not everyone gets to celebrate such milestones. It is only becuase she was born in a developed country like Australia that she has had the opportunity to grow up in the amazing young lady she is today. I don’t take that for granted and I can’t help but feel deeply for millions of parents around the world who battle to simply keep their children alive.

Tomorrow we’ll celebrate fourteen healthy years for our eldest child. In many countries it’s a major achievement for any child to just make it to the age of five.

Every day, over 24,000 children under the age of five die from mostly preventable and treatable causes, such as diarrhoea, malaria, measles, pneumonia and HIV/AIDS. They don’t die for a lack of knowledge or science-we know how to prevent thousands of these children from dying each day-we simply need to put our knowledge into action. It’s not up to philanthropists, non-government organisations, religions, governments or individuals alone: this will take all of our efforts, working together.

One of the things that I hope Emily has learned is that with privilege comes responsibility. We live in an amazing country and although we are far from being rich by Australian standards, when we look around the world and then at our circumstances we see how good things are for our family. That means we have a responsibility to help others in more difficult circumstances.

Our finances are pretty tight at the moment but we still have a very good roof over our heads, food in our tummies and a whole lot more. Millions around the world don’t have any of that.

Of the approximately 2.2 billion children living in the world today, more than half are living in poverty. That means they lack opportunity and options, and face challenges that can rob them of even basic rights: safety, good health, education and enough food to develop properly. Today’s children embody tomorrow’s world, and uneducated, malnourished, poor children are likely to become tomorrow’s uneducated, malnourished, poor adults.

One of the ways we help others is through Compassion Child Sponsorship.

I know that most of us don’t have too much to spare at the moment, but please consider helping others who have nothing. I’ve been to developing countries and seen the work Compassion does first hand. Believe me, they do amazing work. The money does get through and it makes a world of difference.

I’m so thankful that I have two healthy children. I want to ensure that other parents know what that’s like too so I’ll continue to support Compassion.

Please think about how you can change the life of a child and their family through Compassion Child Sponsorship.



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1600 Reasons to Respond

Compassion Day 2010If you’ve had something to eat today … if you had somewhere to sleep last night … if you know where your next meal is coming from … please take just a few minutes to consider being part of Compassion Day 2010.

Throughout today a number of radio stations across Australia are encouraging listeners to sacrifice $44 a month to change the world one child at a time. As someone who has seen the work of Compassion first hand, I can assure you that this is vital work which is quite literally saving lives.

Compassion does amazing work and when you sponsor a child through Compassion you are impacting many people in the life of that child. You can help turn a whole community around by the simple act of sponsoring a child.

If you have children of your own this is a great start in teaching them the responsibility we have to reach out to those in less fortunate circumstances. It’s such a joy to hear our son James pray for Collens, our sponsored child in Haiti, every night.

On Thursday, April 29 radio listeners across the nation will have 1600 reasons to respond when stations join forces with Compassion to see 1600 children sponsored in just 16 hours. This year’s focus is on the children of East Africa, specifically Kenya, where 20 per cent of the population lives below the international poverty line, 1.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, 2.5 million children are orphans and where a third of women between 15 and 49 have suffered from genital mutilation.

This is the eleventh year for Compassion Day and we’re hoping that Australia wide 1600 children will be saved from poverty. Will you be part of Compassion Day by sponsoring a child?



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Give it away

aussie_money.jpgWhat are you prepared to give away? I guess that depends on what you truly value – not what you say you value – but what you really do value.

An Australian academic has just made a pledge to give away half of his lifetime earnings. Dr Toby Ord reckons that his days as a student weren’t too bad so he’s going to continue living like a student so that his money can help make the world a better place.

Dr Toby Ord, a 30-year-old ethics researcher with the Future of Humanity Institute, has agreed to give up 10 per cent of his annual salary, plus any yearly earnings above £20,000 (AUD $35,631).

Dr Ord says if he lives like a student, he should be able to give away around £1 million (AUD $1.78 million).

“My student years were not extravagant, but were immensely enjoyable, with the chief enjoyments such as reading beautiful books and spending time with my wife and friends costing almost nothing,” Dr Ord said. – News.com.au

That’s a tough act to follow but it really does raise the question for each of us of what we are seeking in life. Are we seeking better relationships and simple pleasures or do we still run after material goods? We might say that money doesn’t buy happiness but do our lives back that up?

I love the fact that Dr Ord has picked up on the fact that the things that give him the most pleasure and give life greater meaning are not things that money can buy. I do wonder why so many of us keep chasing things that we know will never make us happy when the opportunity to enhance our lives and the lives of those we love are already within our grasp.

I need to be honest and say that I couldn’t give away half my yearly earnings. I’m not on an academic’s wage. In fact, my wage looks very much closer to the amount that Dr Ord has agreed to restrict himself to using each year. Out of that money our family supports a number of worthwhile causes yet I have to keep asking myself, should I be doing more? Our standard of living is still extremely extravagant compared to those I’ve seen in places like India, Haiti and Dominican Republic.

The good news is Dr Ord doesn’t expect us all to cut our earnings in half. He’s launching a site called Giving What We Can, encouraging us all to examine what we can be doing to alleviate the suffering of others in our world.

One of the great things about giving money away is the freedom that it gives. It says that my money doesn’t control me – I control my money.

If you do decide that you need to use the resources you’ve been given to create a better life for others there are many organisations doing great work around the world. Let me encourage you to check out Compassion. I’ve seen their work first hand and I seen the proof that the money donors give makes a world of difference. You can visit Compassion Australia or the Compassion International site.

So what do you really value? Think about what truly matters to you, examine the way you’re living, and see if the two match. It’s a challenge we all need to face.



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