Introducing you to the lesser-known
Here’s just a few that you may not have heard of, but are worthy causes to get involved in.
Have you ever considered leaving the corporate world to follow something more meaningful? That’s exactly what Hayley Morris, Cassie Duncan and Nikki Morris did.
Yaubula, a Fijian word meaning ‘natural resource’, is a small and innovative not-for-profit organisation founded by Hayley, Cassie and Nikki, committed to maintaining a sustainable future and educating others to do the same.
The Sustainable Table is Yaubula’s first book, a collection of recipes and stories from notable chefs, farmers, producers, winemakers, gardeners and everyday people who are reducing their impact on the environment by altering their food choices. Notable mentions are the recipes from Aaron and Astrid Turner from Loam restaurant, Coda’s Adam D’Sylva, and Tom Milligan and John Hooker from The Botanical.
You can purchase The Sustainable Table from the Yaubula web site for $39.95 with all proceeds going towards Yaubula’s sustainable development projects both locally and abroad.
Yaubula – The Sustainable Table
So many of us take for granted our ability to read and write and probably don’t consider ourselves very lucky to have access to an education – let’s see a raise of hands if you skipped a class or two?
Room to Read believes that education is the key to end poverty. They believe world change starts by educating the 10 million children in developing countries. By providing these children the opportunity to learn to read and write, they are providing them the opportunity to break the poverty cycle.
Founded in 2000 from San Francisco, Room to Read has now established 1,442 new schools worldwide, opened 11,246 libraries and distributed over 9 million books to under-privileged children.
We all have a pile of books collecting dust in our bookshelves. Donate them to Room to Read, or attend one of their quirky Beer for Books fundraiser nights. Every child has the right to an education.
Who knew by simply drinking beer, you could provide some much needed support for the world’s most under-privileged.
Introducing Shebeen, a non-profit bar. Exotic beers and wines from the developing world are sold at Shebeen and all of the profits from the drink sales will support a development project in that drink’s country of origin.
So, buying an Ethiopian beer guarantees a microfinance loan for someone in Ethiopia.
A Vietnamese beer helps a street kid in Hanoi with hospitality training and you get the idea…
The Shebeen bar relies on donations, so they plan to open very soon (they promised us within the next few months), but you can help speed up the process by providing much needed funds for this worthy initiative. Simply buy the Vietnamese beer Huda at Smith St’s Rice Queen and Panama Dining room or pick up a bottle of St George, Ethiopian’s beer at Madame Brussels and all profits from Huda & St George sales will go straight back to Shebeen, or make a donation on their web site. Being a Good Samaritan doesn’t get much easier that this..
Shebeen
If you’re a foodie or even just a food-lover (who isn’t?), attending a night with celebrity chefs Christine Manfield and Karen Martini, enjoying delicious treats and cocktails (or should we say crop-tails) is probably already locked in your dairy. But there’s one major reason that this event should not-be-missed. Attend the Cup to Crop-Tails night on 10 March and you will help feed one child living in extreme poverty for 3 months.
Cup to Crop-Tails, is part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and is one of a series of events across Australia that will raise money for Plan Australia’s new From Cup to Crop campaign.
If you can’t make it to the event, there’s plenty of other ways to get involved. You can donate money, dine in a participating restaurant or follow one of the participants in the Cup to Crop challenge (trying to live on just $3 a day!).
From Cup to Crop
Cup To Crop-Tails Event
10 March 2011, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Eureka 89, Level 89, Eureka Tower, Southbank
$100.00 wine and cocktail food
Imagine being diagnosed with a disease you’ve never heard of. So rare that often doctors don’t even realise what you have until it’s too late.
Formed in early 2009 to create awareness and raise much-needed funds, The Unicorn Foundation is the only Australian not-for-profit medical charity focused on neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) founded by the late Kate Leyden, a NETs patient who lost her battle with the disease in March 2010.
There are various ways you can show your support and help raise funds. Each year in November, The Unicorn Foundation holds the My Knight Ball, which last year raised over $100,000 (all details and to purchase tickets jump on their web site). Or you can shop their online store and purchase the super-cute beaded bracelets with the Unicorn charm for only $25 each – an accessory you’ll actually want to wear, and there’s no rubber wrist bands in sight.
