Sadly, we were unable to raise enough money to ship  the medical supplies to Zimbabwe. This was a disappointment, but I think we have had a good outcome.

The medical supplies were given to Encounter Christian Church here in Auckland who will be shipping them to the Solomon Islands soon. The money that we did raise will be donated directly to the Howard Hospital in Zimbabwe. The total amount is $4733.

Many thanks to everyone who was involved in this project. Here are some photos of the boxes being taken out of our garage, one year and 5 months after being put in there. I have to add I’m more than a little pleased to see them gone.

As you can see, some of our own junk has accululated...

Gotta start somewhere....one box at a time.

Little helper

The eldest three of my four children

Working together

Thr first four van loads

Lynette from Encounter Christian Church

On pallets

About one more car load to go

It is now 15 months since I started this project and time to bring it to a close. We have raised around $5000 towards the shipping costs, which sadly will only cover the shipping of perhaps half of the medical goods. Nevertheless, it has been a good effort and way back when it all started, I knew the biggest risk was of a ‘spectacular failure‘ and it was a risk I was willing to take. I guess it hasn’t been a resounding success, but a far better result than doing nothing about the great needs so many people in the world are facing. Part of me wants to persevere and give it another burst of energy to raise the full amount needed, and see it through to completion, but we are expecting another baby. This wonderful blessing has added a rather urgent deadline to getting some garage space back for storage and to create more living area in our house. It has been quite a stress having several hundred boxes in our garage and it’s time to call it a day.

I am sorely disappointed, have learnt a lot and don’t regret taking this mammoth project on for a moment. One of these days I’ll probably post about all the things I have learned.

I worked out recently that with the money already raised, it would only cost $15 per box to see it all sent to Zim. (There are 473 boxes of various medical supplies as well as a photocopier). It seemed such a small amount in the grand scheme of things and yet I have learned that fund raising even small amounts takes an enourmous amount of energy which I can afford to give at the moment. And besides, it’s not fund raising that I really want to do. It’s not fund raising that excites me. It’s the incredible possiblities that open up when people’s hearts are impacted with compassion for the poor. A wise friend pointed out to me that fund raising is what happens when people don’t give. What really makes me excited and makes me come alive is seeing people get it for themselves. Seeing people realise what their small contribution can do in a collective effort against poverty. It’s then that we can really do amazing things together that make a real difference for people living in poverty.

So, while this is the beginning of the end of this project (I still have a lot of work to do getting the freight off the ground and onto a ship) it’s not the end at all, but just the beginning of doing new things, doing things better and changing hearts and lives. I still have the little store and once the medical goods are sent to Zim, the proceeds will be going towards another awesome project I look forward to telling you about. So stay tuned. I am looking forward to posting photos of a shipping container packed and ready to set sail.

Thanks to everyone who has got involved and supported this! I really appreciate it!

It was a great team effort. Thanks so much to everyone who got on board for a great cause!

The rest of the images can be found by clicking here.

The above amount included a one off donation from the Zimbabwe Association of New Zealand, for which we are very grateful. Thank you Titus and Japhet for coming along and showing your support on the day.  It was a pleasure to meet you.

If anyone has photos of the day and would like to share please forward them to makeaplanworld@gmail.com and I will add them to the blog. Thanks.

We are holding a community Car Boot Sale/ Market day to raise funds for shipping a container of donated medical supplies to the Howard Hospital in Zimbabwe.

This is a great chance to get rid of unwanted goods around the house as well as to support a great cause. Market stalls also available for craftspeople/traders. ($10 per car boot, $20 per market stall)

This will be a fun community event with food stalls, and kids entertainment too. Come along and get involved.

Txt or call 021 2977060 to book a space.

This event is also on Facebook if you want to invite friends on there too.

If you have friends or family that may be keen to either sell on the day or come along to browse, please Click Here for a printable flyer.  Many thanks for your support!

I’ve been feeling discouraged and intimidated about it all, and frustrated that I have a container load of valuable medical supplies sitting in my garage, when they could be helping people. As a nurse I can only imagine the frustrations of trying to care for people without adequate supplies, a point  noted in the video I have posted below, by Dr Paul Thistle of the Howard Hosptial.

In one of the first posts on this blog right back at the beginning of this project, I remember being all too well aware of the risk of failure, and I was (and still am) prepared to risk it because I think the chance of success is abslutely worth it! These medical supplies WILL make a real difference for people living lives we can only begin to imagine.

This project, if I manage to pull it off, along with the help of people around me and anyone else willing to get on board, will be the biggest thing I’ve ever done for other people, and I’m so excited about it.  When I’m feeling discouraged I only have to imagine the day we seal up the container full of goods and send it on it’s way, or the day it arrives in Zimbabwe and is unpacked into hospital store rooms, boosting the morale of the tireless medical and nursing staff there, and I get inspired again.

Having duly noted that my personal fundraising efforts to date ($1000) has been rather slow, I have been looking at other options. It’s a steep learning curve for me and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who have done this before who could do it better, but you know what….I wanted to get my hands dirty and get involved. I didn’t just want to send a cheque (as improtant as that is).  Anyway…I digress….

I will continue to do what I am doing (selling candles, and soaps etc….see above links), and would still absolutely welcome any donations (please) but in addition to this I am starting the process of applying for grants which are available through the NZ Government as well as various Charitable Trusts. This can be a lengthy and tedious process with lots of paper work and probably red tape.

If you’re reading this there are  a few ways you can help.

• Consider a donation. You can donate online here via paypal (it’s an easy to follow form. You can use a credit card) or email me at makeaplanworld@gmail.com It doesn’t matter how small you think your contribution is. Every little bit counts.
• Buy something from the store. See tabs and the top of the page. All profits go towards the shipping.
• Help with the grant application process. Email me if you can do this at makeaplanworld@gmail.com
• Spread the word. Pass this website link on to anyone you know why may be interested or able to help.

Thanks!

I couldn’t believe people lived in such terrible conditions, day after day. I couldn’t believe there were people begging who had massive open wounds, and no one did anything about it. Or someone lying on the road in dust and dirt, and quite possibly dying and ordinary people walked straight past. I wanted to stop and do something! I wanted to get that person to a hospital and cared for.

But I walked past too. I was intimidated. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where I could take these people, didn’t speak the language, and couldn’t very well scoop them up and take them in an auto rickshaw back to the backpackers hostel! I was also just too scared. I thought I might be told I was doing something wrong or offensive in a foreign culture. In a way, I was too young. Yes I was naive and idealistic…sometimes the issues aren’t simple at all, and I didn’t give much thought about the reality of taking on a person’s care when I was just 20 years old, in India for 3 weeks on a very limited budget! I didn’t have a clue.

But in a way I never want to lose that youthful naivety, and almost reckless approach to poverty. So often we don’t do anything at all because the problem is too big, or too complicated, or not our problem. We don’t act because it’s a political issue, or it could be dangerous, or we are just one person and what difference will it really make. We are intimidated.

Earlier this year, a friend of my husband’s who lives in Taiwan and regularly emails us, sent us an email about the political situation in Zimbabwe. I’ve seen these emails before…you know what I mean. Emails about a cause. Most of the time I delete them thinking that I can’t take on the worlds problems, and often just not interested. Something about that email caught my eye though. I think because it was a story about an ordinary person just like me, a family just like mine struggling in life. I became interested enough to start searching the internet to find out more. I remember typing “What is going on in Zimbabwe?’ into google. The results were alarming for me.

I read about chronic shortages of the most basic kind, of hunger, of starvation, of illnesses. I read about hospitals unable to treat patients because of lack of basic medical goods and pharmaceuticals. I was moved to pray and continued to read about the situation (then approaching the March 29th elections)

And then a few weeks later by chance I stumbled upon an article which listed the wish list of items required by a hospital in a rural hospital north of Harare. The list had been collated by the Chief medical officer, and I was shocked to read some of those items. Things such as toothpaste and toilet paper. The most basic supplies. Also large quantities of fairly basic medical supplies like gauze and dressings.

‘Stuff it’ I said. ‘I’m going to send something’. I was sick of talking about how bad things were and doing nothing. I didn’t want to walk away again. So I emailed the doctor and indicated my intentions to send something and he gave me advice on how best to go about. My secret dream was to send a shipping container, but I mentioned this only to my husband and privately told myself to get my head out of the clouds and just take baby steps. Personally we didn’t have the money to send a container and I knew that it was more realistic to send a couple of boxes.

I started by emailing local medical supply companies and asking outright for donations. I approached over 15 companies and heard back from only one. They offered 4 pallets of perfectly usable goods.

I was so excited I could hardly think. A few weeks later this was followed up by a further large donation from the same company, and eventually a third. Now our garage is full to capacity with boxes of medical goods to be sent to Zimbabwe. It is approximately 28-30 cubic metres. ( A 20ft shipping container hold exactly 33 cubic metres.)

Our next challenge is to raise the funds to ship it there. It’s been a slow process, but I’m confident we’ll get there. I can’t wait to get it sent, and that hopefully my little crazy idea is actually going to make a difference in peoples lives.

This project has shown me that everyone has something to give no matter how insignificant you think it may be. Some people think that dealing with poverty is only about money. Yes, some people have money to give, and I think that all of us who live privileged lives in developed nations should consider giving something regularly. After all we live like kings and queens with our clean hot running showers and fresh food every day.

But it’s not just money. Some people have time on their hands. Some people can paint. Some people can give manual labour. Some people are good in business. Some people have blogs. Some people are hospitable. Some people are nurses. Some people can pray. Some people can design websites. Some people are doctors. Some people can sew. Some people can write. Some people can sell. Some people are politicians. Some people can make amazing food. Some people can sing. Some people can fundraise. Some people can spread the word. Some people can create beautiful things. Some people are lawyers. Some people are actors. Some people are activists. Some people work in medical supply companies and make compassionate decisions about what to do with surplus or written off goods.

Anyone regardless of age or background has something to give. Be creative about what you can do to help those less fortunate than yourself.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…especially if you’ve come here for Blog Action Day. Drop me a comment and let’s talk about what we can do about poverty.

To help with this project called Make A Plan please consider a donation using Paypal here or join our Facebook group here. You can read more about the project or order items from the store here