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Charitable Donations 2015

By Health, Money / Finances, The Web, ThinkingNo Comments

Having struggled with my own mental health this year (see Finally…in Recovery and getting Back to Life), it’s unsurprising that two of my charitable donations have been to mental health charities:

sane-logo
SANE

SANE is a UK mental health charity, which aims to improve the lives of people affected by mental illness.

mind-logo
Mind

Mind is a UK mental health charity that states that it won’t give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.

JDRF-logo I gave another donation to JDRF who are an international charity that fund research into a cure for type 1 diabetes. Currently one of the things they’re funding is smart insulin, which could be life-changing for diabetics.

They have great Christmas cards and wrapping paper in their shop, all the proceeds of which go to them. So I stocked up.

the-brick-project-wigan-logo My final donation was to The Brick Project, which supports homeless people in the Wigan borough (my hometown). Through circumstances and life events anyone could end up homeless. I’d never want to be homeless and like to support any charities that help people to rebuild their lives.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Be part of the Democratic Revolution with The People’s Assembly

By Political, ThinkingNo Comments
the-peoples-assembly-logo The People’s Assembly is against austerity, which is ideological rather than essential. It’s against Britain being run for the minority of the wealthy elite and instead advocates running society for the majority.

I learned about The People’s Assembly through reading The Establishment by Owen Jones, see my review of the book here.

The People’s Assembly has The People’s Charter (below), which gives more detail on what they stand for:


the-peoples-charter

They are not associated to any political party and instead are more like a campaign group or national forum. I encourage you all to support The People’s Assembly and be part of the democratic revolution.

Want to get involved? Here’s how:

I’ve donated and am hoping that The People’s Assembly will do what it sets out to achieve – a fairer society for all.

Write soon,

Antony

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Thinking About Homelessness

By ThinkingNo Comments

This time of year when it’s dark and cold makes me feel for people who are homeless. Who’d want to spend a single night sleeping outside in this weather?

No matter the cause of someone’s homelessness; it can be a vicious cycle. A person needs an address to get a bank account, so that state benefits can be paid to them. They often need to be in receipt of benefits to get support in accessing housing and so that housing agencies can contact them. Of course there are ways around this, but people who are homeless people often don’t know how the system works.

People who are homeless also tend to have complex issues (such as substance misuse, relationship breakdowns, bereavements, etc.) that they are trying to deal with at the same time.

So I recently made two donations to The Albert Kennedy Trust and Shelter. The donations were small, but something is better than nothing. Here is some information about the work the charities do and a link for donations:

Albert Kennedy Trust Logo The Albert Kennedy Trust supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans homeless young people in crisis. They have offices in London, Manchester and Newcastle.
Donate to The Albert Kennedy Trust
Shelter Logo Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness – and they campaign to prevent it in the first place.
Donate to Shelter

A friend and I were talking recently about what we do when we see a person who is homeless on the street begging. I said that I don’t usually give money as I don’t carry it, but if I’ve got the time, I offer to buy them a hot drink.

My friend said that he collects McDonalds hot drink loyalty cards stickers and saves completed loyalty cards to give to the person who is homeless and on the street begging. I thought this was a great idea and will be doing it as well.

Anyone can become homelessness, it just needs a certain set of circumstances to happen a person. This means that it can happen to you, a member of your family or one of your friends. I once read somewhere that we are only ever two paydays away from being homeless. Considering this, perhaps it’s worth making a small sacrifice (like that cup of coffee from Starbucks/Costa you buy) and using the money to make a donation to one of the charities above? I’ll let you decide.

Foodbank Image Throughout the year, I’ve also donated items of food to a FoodBank run by The Trussell Trust. The UK is one of the richest countries in the world, yet in the last few years the numbers of people who need to use FoodBanks has dramatically increased. This is worrying and is symptomatic of some of the poorest people being forced to make some very difficult choices.

I’d like to share a thought with you: It seems to me that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I don’t write this to be depressive, simply to express a thought that many people are thinking.

Here’s another thought: This is not the kind of society I want to live in. Food, water and housing are all basic things that everyone should have access to.

So the question becomes: How do we go about changing our society for the better?
Any ideas or opinions, please comment below.

Take care,

Antony

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