Category: Current Issues

750,000 Memories Making a Difference

I love photography and capturing precious or beautiful moments in time, so I really like this unique project which started organically as part of the clean-up mission after the Japan Tsunami. Basically thousands of photo’s where collected, restored and digitised with the aim of returning these precious memories to those who they belong to.

The aim of the ‘Lost And Found’ Project is to connect people who are willing to help, however small, and the people of the town of Yamamoto who were devastated by the tsunami, by providing opportunities for people in different places to experience the disaster through seeing the photos which were damaged beyond recognition.

“There are still 1,000 families having to live in temporary shelters today.”

Through what started out as the the ‘Memory Salvage Project‘, people collected over 750,000 photos that had been swept away in the tsunami, and now through the ‘Lost & Found Project’, these photos are shown at exhibitions and sold as posters, with all the funds going back into the local towns to help with housing and rebuilding left completely devestated by the disaster back in 2011. Yamamoto was one of the worst hit towns with over 50% of the town flooded, thousands of buildings ruined and over 600 people who died from the town. Continue reading “750,000 Memories Making a Difference” →

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How did you ‘spend’ your Christmas?

Just before Christmas this year I went down to our local bargin store ‘L.A Variety’ with my 2yr old Isy and we bought 2 sets of Christmas lights for a total of $12.95 – gotta love bargin stores! I found myself wondering if we really need 2 sets, and where we’d even put the second set, but then I thought… what’s another $5.00… why not! Our local newspaper, The Manly Daily, recently ran a story on the Richards family who have spent $250k on christmas lights…yep you read correct $250,000! Read the full story.

$250k on chrissie lights Continue reading “How did you ‘spend’ your Christmas?” →

Celebrate Progress and Never Stop Asking for Change

MDGThere’s a lot of power in shocking statistics that portray the ‘doom and gloom’ of poverty and other big issues – they can help us to come to terms with the reailty of what others are going through in this world and can often move us to action. I see heaps of these ‘shocking stats’, but not so often do I come across more ‘positive stats’ – stats that highlight the encouraging progress that is being made and celebrating the change that has been achieved over the years.

I recently came across a great video that showed some great stats on the progress that has been made on the Millenium Development Goals (MDG):

In 2000, 189 nations made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This pledge became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. In September 2010, the world recommitted itself to accelerate progress towards these goals. (from UNDP website).

MDGThere’s some big goals here and it’s so encouraging to see the progress that has been made so far – here’s a snapshot of some awesome ‘positive stats’ from the video: Continue reading “Celebrate Progress and Never Stop Asking for Change” →

A Few Ways to Help East Africa

Unless you are’ living under a rock’ as they say, you would know about the drought, severe famine, fighting and massive refugee problem going on in East Africa or the Horn of Africa. This is an epic humanitarian disaster with millions of people affected and displaced – it rightly deserves our attention and more so our response through action and generosity.

East Africa

It’s great to see the massive amount of action taking place through campaigns and programs by international charity/aid organsations, but it can also be a little overwhelming to know how to help and what to contribute to!

Here are a few great ways to help the people of East Africa: Continue reading “A Few Ways to Help East Africa” →