... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
YES ! ... you just have to know where to shop
Published on July 28, 2004 By mignuna In Current Events
i changed someone’s life with toilet paper.

i bet you're wondering how i did that, right ?. you're thinking that you might like to do that too if that's all it takes, right ?. nothing fancy or unduly glam. just some toilet paper. couldn't be simpler. well, before i tell you, let me just explain why i was in two minds about writing this article.

i find it repellant when people perform charitable acts and then go around big noting themselves for it. although i hope it's clear that this is not my intention, i do realise that a some people will misunderstand my motivation, so i've decided i can stand that as long as i get this message across.

last christmas, i opened a card with an illegible postmark. inside was a photo of a 7yo sri-lankan boy and his family. they are facing the sun, squinting slightly. they are smiling. and they love me. i have never met them, but they love me. the reason that they love me is that i decided my butt didn't know the difference between soft embossed 3-ply and nasty shiny white anyway.

and i spent the difference on sponsoring a child.

inside this card, in halting english, a childs' hand has inscribed the words "your support lightens my life". as i read those words, it occurred to me that nobody had ever said them to me before. i've had my fair share of accolades from friends and family, but the type of support that can lighten a life isn't something i get a chance to give everyday.

i started out as much a skeptic as the next person. i too had heard the stories of hard-earned money committed as donations being mismanaged or squandered by irresponsible or dishonest "charities". i was even suspicious of how much of my own tiny "drop in the ocean" was likely to have it's value eroded by "administration" costs.

world vision was such an eye opener. they are accountable, audited, and their annual report is published online. incredibly, just over 78% of their donations are expended directly on aid. they manage on an admin budget of just over 9%, and 10.9% is expended in fundraising. through them, 350,000 australians help over 10 million people annually.

seeing a 7 year old boy, an actual living, breathing child, waving and smiling with love in his heart from across the world seems like a bargain at $1.30 a day. he sends short letters which his older sister helps him translate into english. he tells me he likes to send "his very nicest writing" to us so we will feel proud of what he is achieving with our support.

as his 8th birthday approaches, we have been guided in our choice of an appropriate gift by world vision. we are sending a brightly coloured cartoon-style wall map of australia, along with some sticker sheets of australian animals, plants, places, etc. this is inexpensive, cheap to post, and (hard though it is to believe with our disposable western culture), will probably be amongst his favourite things.

to say that makes me feel good may sound like an understatement, but it's true. i don't feel proud. in fact, i usually feel like i don't do nearly enough. but i do feel good in the truest sense of the word. it's not the physical, smiley, contented good i usually mean when i say good. it's the eye-opening joy that i take pleasure from this, because only good people can do that.

so it seems fair to say that this little boy is helping me far more than i could even help him. that he writes to us and says "dear sponsor parents", that he understands that we are giving to him voluntarily what we could spend on ourselves, that he thinks of us as generous and kind even though he still has far less than we could ever dream of existing on. those things matter to me.

and toilet paper just can't measure up to that. embossed three-ply or not.




the world vision australia website: Link




Comments
on Jul 28, 2004
Beautiful article, vanessa, but...(pun intended), I think you need to be careful with the way you turn a phrase here (hehehe).

Ah, well, I'll be nice and won't go there (chuckle)...I'll just think it.

You have a heart of gold.
on Jul 28, 2004
Beautiful article, vanessa, but...(pun intended), I think you need to be careful with the way you turn a phrase here (hehehe).Ah, well, I'll be nice and won't go there (chuckle)...I'll just think it.


thanks, gideon. both for the privacy of your thoughts (especially considering the recent subject matter you and i have been embroiled in !) ... and for this:

You have a heart of gold


i do. well actually, for children and animals i do. and as you can see, it leads me around by the nose


vanessa/mig XX
on Jul 28, 2004
i decided my butt didn't know the difference between soft embossed 3-ply and nasty shiny white anyway


Really? Mine does... and so does my nose, but we don't buy the soft 3 ply either
on Jul 29, 2004
Really? Mine does... and so does my nose, but we don't buy the soft 3 ply either


what a soft, sensitive bottom you must have, trina . and i'm glad you don't buy 3-ply.

tell elana i said "jgkljk mmgu to"


mig XX
on Jul 29, 2004
Another good one we support is Foster Parents Plan (now called "Plan") Link which supports children, families and villages with practical items in undeveloped and developing countries. ABout 80% of the funds are spent on aid, with about 9% to fundraisign and 11% to administration.

Had a relationship with them for decades ...

JW

on Jul 29, 2004
Vanessa, you probably already know what an emotional wimp I am, (it really doesn't take too much to set me off), but I have to confess to genuinely balling my eyes out reading this.

You are just too wonderful for words!! Hope you feel better soon sweedie.

I really should go pack now.

Dyl xx

on Jul 29, 2004
Another good one we support is Foster Parents Plan (now called "Plan") Link which supports children, families and villages with practical items in undeveloped and developing countries. ABout 80% of the funds are spent on aid, with about 9% to fundraisign and 11% to administration


thanks for providing this information jay, i appreciate your input. and i'm glad to hear that you too know the joy of this type of program. it really is such a gift, isn't it ?

Vanessa, you probably already know what an emotional wimp I am, (it really doesn't take too much to set me off), but I have to confess to genuinely balling my eyes out reading this.


dyl, i had a good snivel writing it, too. i too am a total wimp, and needy children just break my heart. and as for being wonderful, well, same goes for you, chickie. long live the snivel sisters hehe !

mig XX
on Jul 30, 2004
lady....youre article titles drive me nuts....they truly give no clue as to what im likely to find when clicking one of your threads


hehe !. i know. i feel like i my titles have to be ambiguous to get attention. my personal paranoia !

but every single one has proven to be worthwhile...especially when ive tuckered myself out bickering with silly people half the day


i know the feeling, sabrina. and this is high praise indeed coming from you. i don't need to tell you that you return the favour inspiration-wise many times over


I see the ads from charities like this on TV a lot....and i too have been wary of sending support. Its nice to hear that the money really does do some good, and isnt being tucked away in some dictators pocket under the guise of aid.


exactly. "overseas aid" can mean almost anything these days

Me, im a sucker for animals more than i am for people, and if i ever won the lottery, (not likely because i never play it, lol) id build some huge no-kill shelters all over the place and make sure these critters live out their lives in comfort


oh, sabrina, i have 2 doggies from rescue shelters -harry (a girl) and scooterman (a boy). they were both ill and had been dumped. i've gotten all of my animals from shelters, and they mean everything to me. i don't really care what consenting adults to to each other in this world, but i'd do anything for an animal or a child.

thanks again


mig XX