More Give, Less Take

Yet another nice thing about blogging is being able to reach people easily. Our floods have made international healines and referred to as an inland tsunami. There is billions of dollars worth of damage and even though our eyes are peeled to the TV and the huge phot spreads in the papers, I still can't imagine what it would be like to really see your street totally covered in water with just the roof tops poking out. At first it was the tragedy of losing posessions, collected over years, bought back from travels, a house you've been paying off you whole life and invested everything only for it to be taken away, no help from insurance companies. Then there is no access to milk and bread, no clothing, no toiletries. The most tragic thing to happen though is the loss of lives, the parents who can't find their children, the stories that then emerge. The impact is far reaching and will remain so for a while yet. If you can afford to help please donate to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal. You can donate online from anywhere in the world.

While I'm on the topic, a couple of exceptional readers have written to tell me about the brilliant contributions they have been making. The lovely Julien Denoyer wrote to me to tell me about her Etsy shop selling Fine Art Prints like this egg image above and giving a percentage from every sale to charities close to her heart like Doctors without Borders & Lend with Care.

Even more amazingly Lesley, a volunteer with a non-profit called FXB International who are running the What Women’s Empowerment (W.E.) Can Do (What W.E. Can Do) campaign created by FXB and the FXB Action Network to inspire and engage young professionals concerned about the welfare of women and children in the developing world and are looking to establish a network of supporters in the blogosphere and other online communities who share their desire to fight poverty and AIDS and empower women worldwide. By partnering with FXB, we can enable FXB’s programs to continue to provide mothers with the capital, training, and tools necessary to start their own small businesses, allowing them to provide for their families and affording their children with the real possibility to escape poverty once and for all. You can make donations directly.

Images from WA Today A car lies on its roof near Queensland's storm-lashed Currumbin Surf Club yesterday. Photo: Eddie Safarik; Etsy; FXB hand made necklaces from women program in Uganda.