Today begins the month of celebrating love. I received a special blessing of love for Christmas from my friend Karen that I want to share with you today.
We worked together for many years and continue to be long-time friends today. Karen was also one of our non-blogging bandage brigade participants. She made 6 bandages and is continuing her knitting so as to be ready for next year’s Junie Moon’s Bandage Brigade project.
Karen made a donation in my name to Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW). SCAW is a Canadian organization that provides a bedkit to a child of any race and/or religion in underdeveloped and developing countries.
Depending on their needs in whatever country they live, a child receives a bedkit consisting of a mat or mattress, pillow, sheet, blanket, mosquito net, outfit of clothes, towel, and school supplies.
It breaks my heart to think of children sleeping in doorways, alleys, or wherever they can find a place to curl up. They have nothing, literally nothing—so sad!
SCAW is a total volunteer-operated group. At their own expense and without benefit of a tax receipt, volunteers travel to different countries to supervise bedkit distribution. Not one cent of donations is spent on administration, 100% reaches the child.
Just like Karen, I want to help a child sleeping in the streets somewhere in this world as we begin this month of celebrating love—and there are many children enduring this. Just as Karen’s heart was full of compassion and love in giving to this worthy cause in my name, I want to pay it forward by doing it for you.
We can learn about ways to help others—together. Please share your own favorite charitable work by leaving a comment on THIS post. This means helping some cause outside your own circle of family/friends/neighborhood. I’m talking true charity.
I will randomly draw a name on Thursday, Feb. 7. A donation in that name will be made on Friday, Feb. 8 and posted on my blog. This is my way of loving the children and loving you.
May your weekend be full of the blessings of love!
Hi June,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of this give away, and I appreciate the link to SCAW. It is a worthy cause, and even though much of my giving goes to homeless shelters, our local food bank and to disabled American Veterans, I think that if I win your give away, I'd like this donation to go to them.
Thank you.
June, that's the best giveaway idea ever. One of our favorite charities is Compassion International. By sponsoring a child, they receive schooling, meals, and other help. CI also works with the community to improve conditions. It has been such a blessing to us over the years to write to and receive letters from our sponsored child.
ReplyDeleteJune - Thank you for enlightening me about this problem and about the bed kits. How heartbreaking indeed.
ReplyDeleteI make baby blankets and donate money to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. It is a non-profit hospital full of excellent physicians and staff to treat our little ones.
I also like Doctors Without Borders and The Red Cross.
What a kind thing to do, it makes me sad to know or see people suffering. Thanks for all the kindness you show in doing :)
ReplyDeletecrystalxo
Like Mrs Staggs, Hubby and I tend to only donate locally so that we know where the money goes.....church missions and shelters. This sounds like a great organization. I didn't find a link for them in your post .... might be my computer is not showing it to me right now. I'll google them and see if I can get more info that way. This is a wonderful idea for a "giveaway" from your heart :-) Thanks Rosie
ReplyDeleteJune,
ReplyDeleteYou are such a great person.
Great idea!
Rosemary
That sounds like a really great organization. I've given gifts through Heifer International in the past and have found it to be very rewarding. http://www.heifer.org
ReplyDeleteI've given you a You Make my Day award over at my blog, you really deserve it!
What a wonderful, compassionate idea! Thank you June
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I donate to "The Smile Train" - the organization that helps children who have cleft lips to get surgical repair, and St Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Both help children in need.
Hi June,
ReplyDeleteWe donate yearly to a local non-profit called COTS (http://www.cots-homeless.org/), they provide services to homeless people and have transitional housing for homeless families. I have donated lots of our gently used outgrown baby items to them as they help quite a few families with small children and are always looking for baby itmes. My quilt guild makes quilts for them monthly. I just joined the quilt guild and plan to start helping out with the quilts, its a great way to practice new quilting skills and give warm and cozy quilts to people in need.
Thanks for posting about SCAW, I had never heard of this organization.
Dear June,
ReplyDeleteI love charitable causes, but the ones near and dear to my heart are the ones that help children.
I am a board member of one of the most wonderful organizations. FORO(Friends of Russian Orphans). We are a missions based organization dedicated to caring for orphans and their caregivers, along with demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ for these people.
Russia is such a poor country where orphans are contained in living conditions not much better than a dog. We provide clothing, shoes, medicine for children, supplies to help keep the buildings from literally falling down. We have provided dental care for children. The needs are endless. This is a forgotten group of the population.
I witnessed this first hand when we adopted our son Sergei almost 10 years ago. Sergei was 6 at the time. His teeth were unbearibly decayed. One of the reasons is no floride. The pain was awful. If you would like to see the many wonderful things that FORO has accomplished here is our website:
www.fororphans.org I think that you would be surprised to see the plite of these children and the work that has been accomplished by a handful of people. It is non profit.
Another cause for children that is close to my heart is the problems that foster children face right here at home. I could go on about this one. After raising our own 5 children my husband and I adopted three two year olds this past year. So many more wait for forever families. We are in our fifties. GOD has truly blessed us with these children.
Thank you for reading.
Sweetest regards,
Shelley Davis
What a wonderful idea, Junie Moon. I would love to be entered in the drawing for the SCAW donation.
ReplyDeleteOnce again you have touched my heart deeply. You are truely an angel!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of any child sleeping on the ground tears at my heart. Two charities that my husband and I support regularly are the local animal shelter(no kill) and St. Jude's Children's Hospital in gratitude for our healthy sons. Then each year we choose a charity that we found worthy or compelling for that year. In 2007 we chose One Laptop Per Child which can be found at http://laptops.org. They are providing nearly indestructible laptops to children in impoverished areas of the world in order to open their minds to all that exists beyond their poor villages. Generators are brought in to charge the computers and the world wide web is accessible via satellite. When the child takes the laptop home at night, it is often the only source of light the family has. They are currently providing these computers to Mongolia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Haiti and Rwanda.
ReplyDeleteWhat a WONDERFUL giveaway!! So filled with love. A wonderful way to begin this month.
ReplyDeleteYou are a special lady, Junie Moon!!
Joni
That sounds like a great charity - I especially like that they don't use the donations for administrative expenses, because so many charities seem to spend more on sending out junk mail than on actual charitable work. My favourite charity, Partners in the Horn of Africa, has the same policy.
ReplyDeletewhat a Wonderful Charity, That is so Wonderful. I plan to do This for Easter,http://www.familychristian.com/shop/product.asp?prodID=55729
ReplyDeleteIt is an adopted Lamb for an Orphan, Sponsered by The Family Christian Bookstores :)
Angie
Wonderful, wonderful post...one of our favorite charities is a local one called "Starfish Orphan Ministries." This was started by an incredible group of women to work with orphans around the world!
ReplyDeleteThank you for blessing us today!
smiles, kari & kijsa
June! I am baack! And have missed your terribly! Glad to see you so lovely as ever! What a perfect idea! I would love to entered in the drawing! BUT! I would love it to go to the charity your friend helps (the bedkits for homeless children). Fab idea! You have a heart of gold dear one!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Robyn
FOUND YOU, I NEVER KNEW.. THE WORLD HAS SO MANY PROBLEMS , BUT THANK GOD THERE ARE CARING PEOPLE LIKE YOU TO HELP. I HAVE MANY GROUPS I HELP..LOL.. YOU HAVE TO CHECK MY BLOG.. I LOVE TO HELP THIS TOO.. PEACE LAURA
ReplyDeleteThat's a great giveaway! I have been donating quilts to Project Linus for years and also the Child Crisis Center locally here in Arizona. I've donated over 150 quilts. HUGS! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi June,
ReplyDeleteKnitting the bandages was a blessing...not only for the ones receiving them, but also for me.
My suggestion for the give-away would be The Smile Train. It's for repair surgery of children with cleft lips/palates. It's a problem personally very close to my heart.