At Harriet's school they have a charity each term that they're involved with. This term they chose a charity that puts together hampers for specific refugee families. It sounded like such a great idea that I contacted the charity myself in order to put together my own hamper with my local women's group. We ended up with two big tubs packed with items like a rice cooker, paper, coloured pens, ABC books and posters (they had two babies), a whole range of delicious organic foodstuffs, dishcloths, Pyrex container package, towels...LOTS of stuff. James and I were pushing the lids down and trying to pack it all in. Unfortunately my camera was away being calibrated when I finished the hamper so I only have one bad photo on my iPhone which I will have to work out how to upload here.
Then one of the other ways you could get involved was to volunteer to deliver the hampers directly to the refugee family it was for. You weren't able to deliver the exact one you had put together, you were just assigned a random couple of families to drive to. Unfortunately one of our families wasn't home (they still get the hamper, never fear, we just don't deliver it personally), however the other family had a little girl the same age as Harriet, so they ran off into the back room together, chatting excitedly and we had a few (*ahem* stilted) words with the mother and her 15mth old.
I'm so pleased we did it, mainly because it gave the children a chance to see the full circle of giving - when we give to charity or the wishing tree at Christmas or something similar, the recipient is merely an ephemeral concept to the children. This, however, allowed them to really understand the cycle involved. Even Ted, in full manic bolting mode (he has just started this particular stage of bolting like a loon whenever we go ANYWHERE), was having a great time. When we were on our way to the first family we stopped for petrol and I explained to him where we were going and explained that they didn't have much in their house. He replied matter of factly "I know, the man said they might not even have a fridge, Mama!". Honestly, it's reassuring to know he's still listening when he's running like crazy, because he doesn't seem to hear me yelling "Stop Teddy!". Hmmm...
And here's Pepper. Oh man, isn't he adorable? He loved it when we put up the Christmas Tree, and loves it when we're sitting down somewhere (at the computer, on the lounge, at the dining table) so he can climb up our legs and nestle into our lap, all the while purring so loudly his body shakes. Nawww, there's just nothing quite like a little kitten.
At Harriet's school they have a charity each term that they're involved with. This term they chose a charity that puts together hampers for specific refugee families. It sounded like such a great idea that I contacted the charity myself in order to put together my own hamper with my local women's group. We ended up with two big tubs packed with items like a rice cooker, paper, coloured pens, ABC books and posters (they had two babies), a whole range of delicious organic foodstuffs, dishcloths, Pyrex container package, towels...LOTS of stuff. James and I were pushing the lids down and trying to pack it all in. Unfortunately my camera was away being calibrated when I finished the hamper so I only have one bad photo on my iPhone which I will have to work out how to upload here.
Then one of the other ways you could get involved was to volunteer to deliver the hampers directly to the refugee family it was for. You weren't able to deliver the exact one you had put together, you were just assigned a random couple of families to drive to. Unfortunately one of our families wasn't home (they still get the hamper, never fear, we just don't deliver it personally), however the other family had a little girl the same age as Harriet, so they ran off into the back room together, chatting excitedly and we had a few (*ahem* stilted) words with the mother and her 15mth old. 
I'm so pleased we did it, mainly because it gave the children a chance to see the full circle of giving - when we give to charity or the wishing tree at Christmas or something similar, the recipient is merely an ephemeral concept to the children. This, however, allowed them to really understand the cycle involved. Even Ted, in full manic bolting mode (he has just started this particular stage of bolting like a loon whenever we go ANYWHERE), was having a great time. When we were on our way to the first family we stopped for petrol and I explained to him where we were going and explained that they didn't have much in their house. He replied matter of factly "I know, the man said they might not even have a fridge, Mama!". Honestly, it's reassuring to know he's still listening when he's running like crazy, because he doesn't seem to hear me yelling "Stop Teddy!". Hmmm...
And here's Pepper. Oh man, isn't he adorable? He loved it when we put up the Christmas Tree, and loves it when we're sitting down somewhere (at the computer, on the lounge, at the dining table) so he can climb up our legs and nestle into our lap, all the while purring so loudly his body shakes. Nawww, there's just nothing quite like a little kitten. 
1 comment:
This is a really inspiring project. I love the human element of it, that you can deliver donations to the families who will receive them, rather than just giving and it remaining almost abstract.
We have delivered donations to refugee families before, they were still in detention centres though so there was a lot of beaurocracy to navigate to ensure the intended recipients received the gifts and the detention centre operator didn't keep them in a "library".
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