I have always perceived that helping people less fortunate has to involve time and or money. And if you’re not doing one or both of these things (and are able to) then you shouldn’t feel guilty, because we don’t all need to think we need to save the world.

But when in fact that is completely untrue and yesterday I quite happily sat here and ate my words. In our own little ways, we could all be contributing to saving the world, and helping those less fortunate, without even knowing it.

Don’t worry I’m not about to add the word Saint to the beginning of my name, but now that I’ve sat down and thought about all of this I think I have contributed to saving the world in ways that I hadn’t really considered before. As I said, I always perceived helping to involve money or time but here’s other ways you might relate to:

• I’ve have links on this site to Cate’s charity. I never thought anything of this until I realised if just one person clicked on that link, donated to the charity, passed on the link and grew awareness, then I have achieved something.
• I walk to work – not because I’m hugley green conscious and I live 3 minues from work, but at the end of the day for 5 days a week it’s one less car on the road spitting out fumes.
• We adopted our puppy from the RSPCA. Yes ok, I’m kinda cheating here because that involved a little bit of money and continues to do so, but still we saved an animal.

We aren’t a green household, but I would imagine it wouldn’t take much to change some things around the house. Yes buying organic things costs money (damn money keeps poping up here!) but you’re really just redirecting money you would have spent anyway.

Anyway, that’s my little ramble for today – if you’d like to share ways you’re helping the world, please do. Big or small, it doesn’t really matter. Maybe you’ll pass on some great ideas that we can all relate to and / or even adopt ourselves.

I get inspired by people like Cate Bolt (I encourage you to check out her site: www.catherinebolt.com, and this post specifically: Realtiy is a funny thing.), but inspired to do what I’m really not sure.

Save all the starving children in the world. Sure. I’d love to. Host cancer fundraiser after cancer fundraiser and make a bucket load of cash for the various cancer charities. Sure. I’d love to. Volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House and cheer up the sick kids. Sure. I’d love to.

You get my point. I often feel guilty about my life and often feel the need to give something back. Back to who? Well I’m not really sure.

I sponsor a little boy from Bangladesh, who is just so gorgeous and sends me the cutest drawings and his mum writes me the most heartfelt letters, but is that really enough.

People whinge about having a mortgage, but shouldn’t we be happy that we even just have a house in the first place. Unfortunately it’s human nature, and for that I can’t apologise, or even begin to try to change. I can change my own attitude and thinking and I often do.

But the sad reality is it doesn’t last very long, and I find myself saying to Hubby, where the bloody hell is our new dishwasher coz the old one is giving me the shits. Then I stop and think to myself, god that sounds ungrateful. And I shut myself up quicker than you can say dishwasher. But no doubt a few days later I’ll find myself in the exact same situation, having a whinge about something else.

I would have donated to at least 4 different charities since July this year, but that’s in a way taking the easy way out and just giving money as oppossed to giving away your time. Which one is more valuable? I’m not really sure. So I guess my point in all of this is, I’m sure we’d all love to save the world, but reality is, few of us would take any drastic measures to do so.

We shouldn’t feel guilty for the lives we lead, most of us have worked hard for it, but it’s also good to give back and to give to those less fortunate. And if you find someone inspiring, then do something with the inspiration. Buy Christmas presents that will benefit a charity, get rid of those old clothes to Vinnies that you’ve been hanging onto, and while all of this will have selfish tendencies behind it, because it’s making YOU feel better, at the same time you’ve also helped someone less fortunate than you.

And to those that have made life changing decisions and dedicated their lives to helping those less fortunate I truly applaud you, and if you inspire a handful people to change one small thing in their lives and then they pass on the inspiration and so on, well then that WILL make a world of difference.

Clearly there is no need for me to make Puff Pieces pink for October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Puff is a lovely shade of pink all the time, however, for the rest of this month we’ll say it’s for the National Breast Cancer Foundation!

So, yes October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and you can do your bit, big or small by buying a pink ribbon or heading to the National Breast Cancer Foundation website and purchase some of their awesome pink merchandise. Me and this charity certainly are a match made in heaven aren’t we!

Here’s my purchase’s for this year: an extra pink t-shirt and slippers, on their way!

Call it a mid life crisis, a quarter life crisis, or whatever you like, I guarantee at some stage in your life you have uttered that phrase. I know I certainly have. Many a times I have thought in the past, I really should be doing something more worthwhile than looking after the marketing for a golf course or telling people how to spend their advertising money. I should working at the children’s hospital or volunteering at the Breast Cancer research foundation. But have I ever done anything about it? No. The closest I’ve come is sponsoring a little boy through World Vision and really it doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough.

Sadly it seems life gets in the way and the security of a full time job and the demands of bank payments for the mortgage all make wanting to do something worthwhile seem far to unrealistic.

So where is all this leading, apart from my rambling on wanting to do something ‘worthwhile’ with my life.

Catherine Bolt

Well. I recently discovered a lady who has done exactly that, something not just worthwhile but amazing. Her name is Catherine Bolt and her story will inspire you.

A bit about Cate from her website: www.catherinebolt.com.

“A writer, photographer, humanitarian, conservationist, small business owner & mother of 9. She recently walked away from a successful business & luxury lifestyle to dedicate the rest of her life to building an orphanage & wildlife refuge in Indonesia.”

So after reading that, my first thought was, what an amazing thing to be doing, and then, I wish it was me! To actually be doing something like this and not just talking about it, I think is absolutely fantastic.

From Cate’s website:

About the Indonesian Orphanage/Wildlife Refuge Project

We love children, and we raise our children to love and respect the earth. I’m passionate about children and it pains me to see children suffering in any way. For those of you with children under 5, or even older, try this simple visualisation exercise for a moment:

Imagine taking your child into a crowded street at dusk, walking away from them and never going back. Imagine the fear in that child when they realise you’re gone. Imagine them wandering scared and hungry through the streets…imagine their life now, day after day.

If you can do this exercise without tears, then you are stronger than me, but for 1.8 million children in Indonesia, this is reality. Every night 1.8 million children in Indonesia sleep homeless. For most of us that number is unfathomable.

I couldn’t READ the above paragraph without tears, and I don’t even have children yet.

Some information on the project:

Project Overview

Our program has three different levels:

Orphange/Village – The plan is to establish an orphanage on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. When complete the village will consist of 18 x 3 bedroom homes, each housing up to 8 children and a house mother. The system is based on effective plans in Africa, where the children are raised in a loving family environment, rather than in huge dormitories with 40+ children to a room. An investigation into the conditions in Indonesian orphanages in 2007 showed that most “childcare institutions” in Indo did not consider the emotional wellbeing of the children to be the responsibility of the institution. The first stage of the orphanage will consist of 4 cabins, increasing to 10 and then 18 over 5 years. The village will also include a school, community centre including a medical centre, and a staff residence. The orphanage will be built using sustainable methods using the principals of solar passive design. The entire village will also be solar powered with rain water collection. We hope to be able to employ local people for the construction and offer long term employment to some of those men for building maintenance and village expansion over the coming years. It is our hope that we will be able to place the first children at the village in early 2011.

Outreach Program – Given the number of children who end up in these institutions due to their families desperation for them to have a better life, we plan to run an outreach program which means approaching smaller villages with less prospects, liaising with the community and through consultation with their local authorities building them a school, we would then provide schooling for the village children, and one meal per day. We believe this would eradicate the need for the families in these villages to abandon their children, and lessen the burden on the already overflowing orphanages. We would also be able to offer medical assistance to those in need through the orphanage medical centre.

Wildlife Refuge & Reforestation program – I’m sure you’re aware of the dire situation in Indonesia at this given time due to the deforestation of the native habit for the local wildlife. This has seen the rapid decline in species such as the Sumatran Tiger and the Orang-utan over recent years. Our program intends to include a conservation program, whereby each child who schools with us will have wildlife conservation as a key learning outcome, and the children will be able to participate in a refuge program for displaced animals. We hope that by getting these children up-close and personal with this amazing wildlife, and instilling an understanding or the importance of wildlife conservation they will be more inclined to carry that with them into their future lives. In the short term, we would envisage providing refuge primarly for orphaned & injured orang-utans, possibly extending to include other animals in future. Eventually we would like to be able to buy up some of the land which has been destroyed by palm oil plantations, and commence a reforestation program to expand the corridors of native habitat that are remaining.

We will be negotiating with existing programs to offer a support role to them using our land and resources, as this is not our area of expertise and we will need direction from those established.

Funding for the Project – We are counting on the kindness and generosity of the greater community to raise a large percentage of the money required for this ambitious project. I have also started a program which will be continued by the house mothers in the village to raise a residual income to maintain the program – this is recycling unused/unwanted clothing and fabric items and making them into saleable fashion and homeware items, such as bags, placemats, quilts, aprons, pillow covers etc. We are also making wedding items from donated wedding dresses (including my own). I should have enough stock made up for a decent stall at the Eumundi Markets by summer (hopefully mid-late October) continuing indefinitely.

Other than that I have committed all the profits from my art & photography sales, and my husband and I have committed to donating 50% of the profits from our small online business also. Long term we plan to start a sponsorship program – as the major foreign aid agencies do.

We will be setting up an affiliates page on the website in the coming weeks, if you click on these links and make a purchase a percentage of your purchase will go to the IO&WR project.

Look out for charity events in 2010!

I think you will agree when I say it really is truly incredible what Cate and her family are trying to achieve.

I applaud Cate and her family’s courage to stand up and make a difference in the world. If you could like to know how you can help please visit Cate’s website. Here it is again: www.catherinebolt.com.