Hello, hello! I'm very sorry that I haven't been posting on my blog much lately. I finally finished my 41 page portfolio for Canterbury (I had to stay up till 3 ante meridiem)! Anyways, we have this cool assignment where we have to research 4 charities (Oxfam, World Vision, Plan and Salvation Army) and pretend that we have $100 to spend on ethical gifts for these orginizations. We also have to option of picking charitable orginizations different from the 4 above. I did some research on these orginizations. Although Salvation Army probably had some of the best prices (Only $40 for a goat!) I found them to not have as many gift options and I don't completely agree with their missions and values--this has nothing to do with religion or Christianity I just don't want to be supporting an orginization that I do fully agree with--so I chose to not use any of my money toward Salvation Army. World vision had some great gifts and a large variety but
most of their gift had much higher prices than the others. For example, it was $100 for a goat compared to $58 at Oxfam. One thing I found better at World Vision though is it's $50 for a whole community of children to have birth certificates whereas at Plan it's $25 for just one child! All in all I found Oxfam to have the overall best selection of gifts prices and mission statement (or the thing in the About section). I noticed that all four of the orinizations had animals that you could buy for human use so I decided to look for other charities that do the opposite and protect the animals rights. I decided to research the Humane Society and WWF and see if they had ways that you could sponsor an animal. The Humane Society had a lot of stuff to do with actually adopting an animal such as a cat or dog rather than an exotic animal that you sponsor. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) had a really cool thing where you pay money to sponsor an animal and they send you a picture of the animal you are sponsoring as well as a stuffed toy version of your animal. I chose to purchase a polar bear because they are a Canadian animal and are highly endangered at the moment. Sponsoring this animal will ensure that the polar bear is cared for, fed, healthy, etc. With my remaining money I decided to look at Oxfam for some gifts because like I said above; I prefer them over the other three. I ended up choosing to plant 50 trees that will provide fruit, shade and oxygen to a community as well as a radio to provide information on health, education and local news to different parts of the world. For my remaining 25 dollars I went to Plan Canada. It was a big toss up between Art and Play therapy in Haiti and Birth Certificate. In the end I chose Art and Play therapy because after such a horrible earthquake children really deserve the right to play and have creativity in their lives and it is also a way to heal from the tragedies they may have faced.
So here are all my purchases:
Sponsoring a polar bear ($25)
Planting 50 trees ($35)
Radio ($15)
Art and Play therapy in Haiti ($25)
25+35+15+25= $100!!!!
There was one thing that I was trying to look into that they started a bit ago in the UK and New York. It's through Street Pianos and is called "Play me, I'm yours". What they do is put pianos is Parks so that anybody can play them. It gives people who cannot afford instrument a chance to play and it adds a creative vibe/atmosphere to the parks which I assume makes people happier. I couldn't find a way to pay for a piano (even if I could it would be more than $100) or a cheaper way that I would pay for someone to maintain the piano or a cover for the piano. Perhaps I will look into that on a later date if it still interests me.
I wasn't as excited about this assignment as I was others but I have to say this is probably one of if not my favourite assignment so far. I just wish we actually had $100 to use for this assignment!
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