It’s now over a month since I cycled in the 25000Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge for Compassion Australia. I’m already thinking of taking part next year and hoping that you might join me.
Check out the video above, which was released today, to get a better idea of what’s involved. If you’re a cyclist looking for an amazing adventure while you help release children from poverty, sign up now for the 2013 ride. You will not be disappointed.
I am so thankful for all those who contributed so generously towards my fundraising goal of $3000. I fell just $180 short. Of course, the fundraising page is still open for a short while so I’m still hopeful that a couple more people will chip in to get me over the line.
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Water is the most important ingredient to life — we’re dependent on it for everything — so it makes sense to take one day a year to focus on the importance of fresh water and advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
While there are still more than 780 million people around the world who lack access to improved water sources, there’s some good news. It seems that the clean drinking water target of Millennium Development Goal seven has been recently achieved.
Adopted by world leaders in 2000 with a 15-year timeline, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. MDG 7 is to halve by 2015 (from 1990 levels) the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. And we’ve done it.
In 1990, only 76 per cent of the world’s population had access to clean drinking water facilities. By 2010, this had increased to 89 per cent. This means that over two billion people gained access to improved water sources from 1990 to 2010. At this rate, there will be universal access to clean drinking water by 2027.
So with a major Millennium Development Goal now being met is the job of providing safe, clean water for everyone on the planet in reach? This morning on my radio program, the Morning Cafe, I spoke to DJ Konz – Executive Director – Advocacy with Compassion Australia.
Compassion’s child development programs place access to clean, safe water at a priority. Through a program called Critical Interventions, Compassion tackles issues like clean water (wells and water purification systems), toilets and hygiene to provide solutions that enhance and improve living conditions for children in Compassion programs.
If you want to hear our conversation and find out what you can do to help provide clean water for more people on our planet, just click the play button of the audio player below.
Can we slow things down a little? I don’t know about you but I reckon this year has started way too fast. My head is spinning with all that’s going on. So much is happening and in less than two weeks I’ll be cycling the Great Ocean Road in Victoria to release children from poverty.
If you want to find out more about my big adventure just watch the video below. In it I tell the story of escaping Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, as rioting escalated and smoke from burning barricades filled the air.
Haiti is just one country where Compassion is working. All over the world, often in difficult circumstances, Compassion is working to release children from poverty. They can only do their job if we’re prepared to get involved.
Having seen first hand, both in Haiti and Dominican Republic, how effective Compassion’s work is, I am determined to do more to help. That’s why from the 12th to the 14th of February I’ll be taking part in the 25000 Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge.
I’ll be riding 290 kilometres in three days and I need your support. By sponsoring my efforts on the challenge you’ll be releasing children from poverty. You’ll be giving children a real chance at life. Please visit my fundraising page and make a contribution. Maybe you can afford to sponsor me for a dollar a kilometre, maybe 50 cents a kilometre, or perhaps you’d just like to donate $10, $20, $50 or any other amount.
The other thing I’d ask you to do is to spread the video as far and as wide as you can so that it make the biggest impact in releasing children from poverty. Please put it on your blog, share it on Facebook, use the sharing buttons below and do whatever else you can do to help raise much needed funding to support the work of Compassion.
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25000 Spins is a non-profit business dedicated to making a difference to children in need. Their vision is to not only make the lives of children better but to empower and challenge people to get involved in the cause through physical challenges.
Craig Shipton was living in London back in 2008 when he decided to do something that would help some of the one billion children in our world who live in poverty. Craig joined me on the phone this afternoon during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM.
I talked to Craig about why he created 25000 Spins, what the name means, what they’ve achieved so far and what plans are in place. You can listen to our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
25000 Spins is of particular interest to me because I’ll be cycling with Craig and a group of others next month. The video below explains why I’m so passionate about riding with 25000 Spins. In it I tell the story of escaping Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, as rioting escalated and smoke from burning barricades filled the air.
Having seen first hand, both in Haiti and Dominican Republic, how effective Compassion’s work is, I am determined to do more to help. That’s why from the 12th to the 14th of February 2012 I’ll be taking part in the 25000 Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge.
I’ll be riding 290 kilometres in three days and I need your support. By sponsoring my efforts on the challenge you’ll be releasing children from poverty. You’ll be giving children a real chance at life. Please visit my fundraising page and make a contribution. Maybe you can afford to sponsor me for a dollar a kilometre, maybe 50 cents a kilometre, or perhaps you’d just like to donate $10, $20, $50 or any other amount.
The other thing I’d ask you to do is to spread the video as far and as wide as you can so that it make the biggest impact in releasing children from poverty. Please put it on your blog, share it on Facebook, use the sharing buttons below and do whatever else you can do to help raise much needed funding to support the work of Compassion.
It’s a story we seem to have let slip into history. Just before 5:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday the 12th of January 2010, two years ago today, a a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit just outside Port-au-Prince, the capital of the impoverished nation of Haiti. Within the first fortnight after that event, at least 52 major aftershocks had been recorded.
The quake killed around 220 000, injured more than 300 000 and affected 3.5 million people. Even before the quake, 86% of people in Port au Prince were living in slum conditions. Compassion was there and continues to work with the people of Haiti.
While we heard story after story about the tragedy in the weeks immediately following the earthquake, the plight of the Haitian people has already faded from our TV screens and newspapers. The rebuilding isn’t even close to being finished but we’ve already moved on.
Compassion International has been working in Haiti for over forty years so they were one of the first aid agencies to begin helping the people of the affected area. They’re committed to the people of Haiti and they’ll continue to help them in the years and even decades that it will take to return life to what we might consider normal.
Just ten days after the quake I spoke to Tim Glenn from Compassion live from Haiti. You can hear that radio interview by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.
Over the past couple of months I’ve been looking back at my visit to Haiti and Dominican Republic with Compassion Australia in April 2008. That visit is the main reason I’m passionate about taking park in the 25000 Spins Great Ocean Road Challenge. Next month I’ll be riding 290 kilometres in three days and I need your support. By sponsoring my efforts on the challenge you’ll be releasing children from poverty. You’ll be giving children a real chance at life. Please visit my fundraising page and make a contribution. Maybe you can afford to sponsor me for a dollar a kilometre, maybe 50 cents a kilometre, or perhaps you’d just like to donate $10, $20, $50 or any other amount.
The ride isn’t specifically raising money for Haiti but I know that whatever is raised will go to those who need it most right now. Please consider how much you can afford to give.
Did you know that today is 