The Charities that we proudly support
These are the charities that we are currently sponsoring or supporting in some way. It would be great if you could support them too in any way that you can. If you cannot help them directly, but can make use of my services, by hiring me you would help ensure that I can continue to afford to support them myself.
Are you a registered charity or non-for-profit group, or do you know any that need help with their website? Whilst at the moment we can't offer free support, we do offer a 10% discount off our already low website development prices and a generous 20% off our maintenance time packages.
Firefly Children's Home (FHC) - formerly the Orphan Help Center
About the Charity
Firefly Children's Home is a registered charity in Nepal and NZ. It is home to Nepalese village children whose parents have either passed away, disappeared, are imprisoned or are too poor or infirm to look after them.
FCH not only provides food and clothes for the children; it also provides them with a unique opportunity to be educated at a private school and to be loved and cared for in a family-like environment.
100% of all money raised goes to the children. To find out more, please visit www.fireflychildrenshome.org.
How we contribute
Whilst we do not have any of our own, we do have a big heart for children and when we saw Amanda's article in the local newspaper talking about the plight of the orphans, we simply felt compelled to get involved. Her old website was in desperate need of updating and modernising, and we offered to design a new one for her. We also set up a Facebook page and continue to maintain both as required, as our personal contribution to the cause.
Girls' Education Nepal (GEN)
About the Charity
Encouraged by the success of FHC, Amanda and Nonna (co-founder of FCH) started GEN with the aim of providing girls from underprivileged families with an education.
Sponsorship is aimed at the most desperate cases – girls who otherwise would have little or no chance of going to school.
The GEN sponsorship covers all education-related expenses, and in some cases provides a small daily lunch allowance. To find out more, please visit www.girlseducationnepal.org.
How we contribute
Once again, due to lack of time and the necessary skills to update it (and their funds being better utilised elsewhere), GEN's website was terribly out of date, the formatting had gone completely wrong and their hosting company had lost some of their most recent updates. We couldn't bear to see it so untidy so once again we offered to help out as our personal contribution to the programme. We gave them a new website (and Facebook page) and continue to oversee it and update it free of charge.
The Shakespear Open Sanctuary Society Inc (SOSSI)
About the Charity
The vision for the Shakespear Open Sanctuary is the creation of an open and accessible wildlife sanctuary which integrates recreation, conservation and farming and which provides a source and a linkage for native bird species to repopulate the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Established in 2003, the aim of the Society is to support the Auckland council in the creation of the Open Sanctuary through fundraising and voluntary work. All money raised goes to the sanctuary.To find out more, please visit their website: www.sossi.org.nz.
How we contribute
Maria was part of the management committee for some 14 months. During that time she took minutes at the monthly meetings, kept the website up to date, created their facebook page, organised online advertising of events, took photographs, attended public volunteer events and even designed posters and business cards. Whilst she is no longer a committee member, she continues to update the website and look after the facebook page, helps out in the park on Tuesdays whenever she can and recently created a small series of greeting cards using pictures taken in the sanctuary to help raise funds for the society.
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The above picture shows the pond and the predator-proof fence winding its way up the hill.
Sustainable Coastlines
About the Charity
In their own words... "We set out to sustain and protect our coastlines: this is at the core of everything we do. We love our coasts and we work with our sleeves rolled up to keep them beautiful. We coordinate and support ongoing projects around Aotearoa / New Zealand and the Pacific, to make positive, real and long-term changes to local coastlines and communities."
How we contribute
We have now been lucky enough to be able to attend 4 clean-up events organised by these guys. They do a stellar job each and every time and it's not surprising that they have been the recipients of several awards already. Apart from our hands-on contribution picking up rubbish and helping them keep our coasts beautiful, we have been proud to provide them with pictures of the events for use in the media and for their own publicity purposes. Find out more about them by visiting their website: www.sustainablecoastlines.org.
The above picture shows one of our photos as published in the NZ Herald online on 06.04.11.
CatsnCare
About the Charity
CatsnCare are doing a wonderful job looking after stray, orphaned, abused or abandoned cats and kittens through the Hibiscus Coast. They count with the support of various foster families in the area who provide the animals with temporary homes until they can be found new owners, and a group of dedicated volunteers look after colony cats which cannot be rehomed as they prefer to live in a semi-wild environment.
All cats and kittens are given a full health check, and they get desexed, defleaed, wormed, fully vaccinated and microchipped before going to their new homes. Take a look at their website (www.catsncare.org.nz) and join their facebook page to find out when their next adoptathon is taking place. All donations received go towards supporting the fostered cats and kittens.
How we contribute
Whilst they already had a website when we first heard about them, they needed help with their facebook page and we stepped in to get them set up and gave them one-on-one training on how to use and promote it.
