Resources for a School in Argentina

It has just been confirmed - I will definitely be working on some projects in Argentina next month! It will be great to go back.

I will also have the chance to distribute items to an under-resourced primary school, in the province of Cordoba. I have brought donated items to this school before, and the children always seemed so pleased with the new stationery, and would crowd around the teacher who was giving out the items to each class!

Some items a volunteer collected for this school a couple of years ago.

I am based in London, and if anyone would like to contribute some items for the school, I would need to receive them by 6 December. I know this is all such short notice, but it has only just been confirmed! If you do want to help, you can either leave a comment below, or contact me through the details on the "about" page. Any items will be so much appreciated!

If anyone has any ideas either of where I could get some suitable school resources in bulk, or where I could advertise the collection, please let me know. I wish I had a bit more time to arrange all this!

I think of all the resources that were available to me at my school, and how little these children have in comparison. I really hope to be able to collect some good resources for the children at this school.

Coats in time for Christmas!

Today, I spent a few hours sorting through children's coats at a storage depot, for the Wrap Up London campaign. It was amazing to see how many people had donated coats - both for children and adults, and I was glad to think that some people who did not have coats will now have them over the cold winter months. These coats will be distributed to homeless shelters, refugee centres, and other charities, which have partnered with Wrap Up London.

Sorting through some of the coats

This is just a short post, to keep up with the NaBloPoMo challenge of blogging each day, throughout November! I have a work deadline for Monday, and I am also arranging things for a charity stall, but I will try to write some longer posts soon! Earlier this month, I wrote some posts about the Wrap Up London campaign, and also about what matters at Christmas. Another NaBloPoMo blogger had inspired me to write about Christmas! Today really reminded me of this, as it was great to see the spirit of giving - both in the way that so many people had donated coats, and also because people were volunteering their time to sort through those coats. I am really glad to know people who truly care about others, and who will go out of their way to help them!

The Value of Volunteers

Volunteering can involve doing random things! Today, I found myself at a train station at 7.00 am, whilst it was still dark, ready to hand out leaflets about Wrap Up London, which is a scheme where people can donate their unused or unwanted coats, for those in need.

Early (and rainy!) start this morning - on my way to volunteer at Baker Street station!

The Wrap Up London stand at Baker Street

 

Afterwards, I tweeted about this, and got a really nice response from Hands On London, the charity running this scheme.

 

I am always looking for ways to show appreciation to those who volunteer for my organisation, CHW, and tweeting a quote like this is a really nice idea! Everyone at CHW is a volunteer, and I am so grateful for the time they give to support the children's projects. Volunteers are indeed priceless, like the quote says!

International Volunteer Day (IVD) is celebrated on 5 December each year. It can be a great opportunity to arrange or participate in voluntary event. If you are a volunteer manager or coordinator, IVD could also be used as an opportunity to highlight the work of the volunteers you work with and to thank them.

Here is an album on facebook from last year's IVD, showing some of CHW's volunteers in action!

I mostly volunteer for causes to do with children, but do other voluntary work too, whenever I can (like today!). Do you volunteer? If you do, what causes do you support? And if you are someone who works with volunteers, how do you thank them for their invaluable input?

Busy week ahead!

It will be a busy week, to try to keep up with NaBloPoMo - posting everyday throughout November!

From Wednesday to Friday, I am going to be attending the Annual Eurochild Conference in Italy.

Tomorrow I will be at Baker Street station for a couple of hours, from 7 am, helping to promote Wrap Up London 2013. This is a great initiative, where people can donate coats they no longer need to those in need.  Although I blog about children's rights, this project is for adults too, and coats for all ages can be donated. If you are a Londoner, please consider donating a coat! You can donate on 13-15 November, from 7am until 11am at these tube stations:

Waterloo

Kings Cross

Charing Cross

London Bridge

Liverpool Street

Paddington

Victoria

Euston

Baker Street

Canary Wharf

Highbury and Islington 

Alternative places are also given at the bottom of this page, for those who cannot make it to one of those stations then. 

Logo from Hands On London's Website

I also have a piece of work to complete tomorrow, so will have to get on with it after I am back from Baker Street!

Today, I had a meeting in London with people advocating for Roma and Travellers. I will have another meeting on Tuesday with some people visiting London, who work in the education sector in Brasov, Romania.

I will really try my best to post each day this week (hoping all goes well with my internet connection in Italy!). Sending out good vibes to everyone taking part in NaBloPoMo, and especially to all the bloggers on the Yeah Write Grid!

Hope you have a great week everyone!

Ideas for a good lucky dip needed!

Have you run a stall for children before, at a fete or a fair? Some volunteers for CHW are going to run a stall with a lucky dip to fundraise on 1 December in London. For those who are unfamiliar with what a lucky dip is, it is a game where small prizes are wrapped up and children select one. They don't know what they have won until they open it! The lucky dips I have seen usually have a large container, with something like shredded newspaper, etc, so that children have to dig through it to find a present. The volunteers did have a stall last year, but want to make it even better this year!

Volunteers at the stall, with the lucky dip, in 2012

If you have any tips for running a lucky dip, or a stall in general, it would be great to hear from you! Maybe you did a lucky dip with a twist? Then it would be great to hear how you made it even more fun for the children! The volunteers will be allowed to run other games too, alongside the lucky dip, so all ideas are welcome and would be very much appreciated!

Also, if  you are in London and know anyone, or any shops, that may be able to help with donating prizes, that would be wonderful too. Below is a photo of some of the prizes that were donated last year. They were very popular with the children.

We want to make it a really fun stall for the children! It will be raising funds for children who don't have very much, so it will all be for a good cause.

Some of the donated prizes in 2012.

Getting the prizes all wrapped and ready for last year's lucky dip!