[barkwindjammer]

I've tried and tried to find out how to donate a brand new 8 person tent to be sent to Haiti-with no joy so far , has anyone any info on how I could do this ?

[drewpy]

tried citizens advice?

[mervin]

try shelterbox a cornish organization that are sending out plane loads of stuff to them

[barkwindjammer]

Thanks for your info guys, still no joy, you would have thought in this day and age this would have been an easy task-not so, all the big recognisable charities are looking for cold hard cash-it would be easier to give away uranium

[Goff]

They dont want tents and stuff tha would be USEFUL..... oh no... they want COLD HARD CASH..... so that the goverment over there can spend it wisely.

The Haitians will never get the aid that has been paid for cos there is no money to pay for it - millions of pounds that has been donated will disappear never to be seen again....

[barkwindjammer]

The depressing thing is, your probably right sweet cheeks, I heard a report (might be a load of media dross)-that only 6pence out of every £1 donated to the Salvation Army actualy reaches a 'good cause'-the rest 94pence is used for admin and taxation

[pepperami]

barkwindjammer, on 25 January 2010 - 08:40 PM, said:

I heard a report (might be a load of media dross)-that only 6pence out of every £1 donated to the Salvation Army actualy reaches a 'good cause'-the rest 94pence is used for admin and taxation

i do wish you had`nt of told us that, as the Sally Army is one of the only charity`s i will give to , there was me thinking that i was doing the right thing!!!

[barkwindjammer]

People who 'give' are doing the right thing, its some of the people involved in the 'taking' that sucks, like I said its maybe just 'media dross' some investigating would make things clearer. But one thing I'm 100% sure of is that our treasury taxes all charitable donations !

[Gas up - Let's Go!]

barkwindjammer, on 25 January 2010 - 09:12 PM, said:

But one thing I'm 100% sure of is that our treasury taxes all charitable donations !

Well that's down to the giver, if you check the box that says 'Gift Aid' and fill in the details correctly then the Treasury gets nothing, in fact it gives back the tax it took from you on the donation!

Listen to me, defending HMRC....... I need to take a pill!

I can see why people want to give to these things, and that's thier own personal descision. Personally, I wonder how they struggled to get rescue teams in there fast enough, aid in there fast enough and yet ITN and BBC could put a reporter (who normally drives a desk in London) in the thick of it telling us all how bad it is...... Makes me wonder does that.

I'm very picky about the Charities I give to, I refuse to give to the RSPCA becasue of the vast amounts they spend on advertising - I want my money to go to help, not to provide postcards from Tibbie The Tomcat every month..... Call me callous, but I'd only ever consider giving to UK doorstep charities (the ones that deliver aid to the local area), such as the Air Ambulance, ChildLine/NSPCC, Macmillan etc.

[barkwindjammer]

Ok, here's the update peeps, and this reflects some points some of you have made,,,,,

took some time out at lunch time today and visited a British red cross facility in a neighbouring town, spoke to a very nice lady, she explained that the reason the charities collect cash is this-in an area of major disaster like Haiti a lot of infrastructure becomes non functioning, the charities make initial priorities like 'medical, water, food and sanitation' which they try to source as local as possible to that region, partly to localise revenue, in other words my tent wouldnt be shipped directly to Haiti-if it was sold in a 'charity shop' the cash would be used to purchase another tent (or other vital equipment)from a nearby area involved directly with the relief effort-in this case more than likely to be the USA (Haiti is approx' 600 miles off the Florida coast)

the Red cross lady was good enough (after prompting from me) to contact someone within their retail section (the high st charity shops), who gave an estimate of £15-£20 for the tent, I kind of guessed at this figure anyway.

I suppose 'every drip fills the bucket'.

Just seems a 'faff' to convert an item into cash and back to an item again (with a probable loss in monetary terms)

an 8 man brand new tent sold in Scotland for £20, 2 man tent bought in the USA for $19 and flown to Haiti, or $19 worth of clean drinking water-depends what way you look at it

what a hot foxtrelle a very nice lady I spoke to, and brilliant in her explanation of 'how-it-works'

anyhoo, 20 bucks is a lot when you've nothing !

[Goff]

If governemtns werent so damned corrupt there wouldnt be any need for charities.

What pisses me off IMMENSELY - is that our government is are banging on about how there is no money to help save the lives of our troops fighting a pointless war by providing them with proper equipment - yet all of sudden hey can donate £20 million to Haiti.

What about our troops with limbs missing and not enough money to give them the best we can?

What about our troops who have been so severely injured they will need constant care for the rest of their lives??

What about the children of our troops who have been left without a parent because they have been killed??


Its fucking bollocks.

[Gas up - Let's Go!]

Goff, on 28 January 2010 - 12:53 PM, said:

Its fucking bollocks.

I've missed your apt summing up of things.

[JYA12R]

[/quote]
Monthly issue???

[barkwindjammer]

I think its an individuals choice, sometimes

good cause, or bad,

we dont have much control over what taxation etc is spent on-its deducted at source-out of sight is out of mind, we elect our 'deciders' at polls-they're supposed to take care of the bigger issues for us, mostly they get it right, right?.

It's the 'little things' my Gran used to say, was she right?, I will never know, did I block up the hole in the bathroom door ?, I got round to that when I was 14 , was that what she was on about?, that I'll never know either, is my tax used for good things or bad, that I'll never know ,,,,,

[mike1949]

Apparently the the locals are complaining about the "stench" on the streets, the .......... army said, "where only trying to help"

[Goff]

mike1949, on 29 January 2010 - 08:09 PM, said:

Apparently the the locals are complaining about the "stench" on the streets, the .......... army said, "where only trying to help"

????

[up.yours]

Goff, on 29 January 2010 - 08:28 PM, said:

????

ya should have been a blonde

[JYA12R]

up.yours, on 30 January 2010 - 01:19 AM, said:

ya should have been a blonde

A Gothic blonde?????

[mike1949]

Goff, on 29 January 2010 - 08:28 PM, said:

????

For obvious reasons I omitted the nationality of the army the joke was referring to.

[Rich_B]

I'm wi Goff, It's effin bollox. Same with the African countrys we gave to in the past, leaders got Aston Martins and palaces and ordinary folks got piss all. Same will happen in Haiti - you heard it here first!. And just to reitterate another fine point Goff made - The injured ex servicemen (soon get fucked off once you have a limb missing eh) of our country are serverly underserved by the shit government they fought for. I could go on but I won't.

[barkwindjammer]

For what its worth, I've decided to do something positive

http://www.justgiving.com/shelter-me

[barkwindjammer]

Just a simple update,
1 week into the fundraiser and its a third of the way there already £50

many many thanks to the generous people from the YOC who have 'chipped in' so far,

none of us will ever get to meet the souls that this donation will help,
and may none of us ever find ourselves on the recieving end of a humanitarian plea.

[Ttaskmaster]

JYA12R, on 30 January 2010 - 10:13 AM, said:

A Gothic blonde?????

Lucy Westenra was blonde, IIRC...

[barkwindjammer]

anyway,

Come on you guys, £2 and your in the draw to have the opportunity to be handing over an 8 person tent to your local 'chosen group', i.e. Scouts, cubs, brownies, girl guides etc, take your place beside a celebrity, named as 'anonymous', there is a clue in Jim Mitchells site-see my the page for a clue

[barkwindjammer]

second week and the amount raised so far is £80 which is heartwarming, many many thanks to all of you who have made donations, may your generosity be returned tenfold.
Jim and Diane.

[barkwindjammer]

Well, its been 1 month since this simple fundraiser http://www.justgiving.com/shelter-me went live, I'm struck by the interest in it and touched by the generosity thats pushed it toward the goal of raising £150 +, going directly to http://www.shelterbox.org/, not only to help in Haiti but all over our fragile planet-more recently Portugal and Chile, many many thanks to all of you who have 'dug deep'-including not one but three celebrities-two from this very site "can you guess who they are ?"

Update: the amount raised so far is £95, which is 63% (for the statistitions out there) of the target, £2 goes a long way.

Stay safe, and peace be with you
Jim and Diane

[barkwindjammer]

With just over a week to go before the 'draw' its looking good so far, a very generous £99.00 has been raised so far another £51.00 would see the target met, remember this isn't a raffle, its for a very noble cause, however in just over 1 weeks time someone will be taking stock of an 8 person tent, all you need to do to take part in this fundraiser is go along to the page http://www.justgiving.com/shelter-me , and donate the cost of one pint of beer-belly ale, £2.00 and your in the draw, either you or a local group i.e. the Scouts, will be sent this 'shelter',
to us this means holiday/fun/creepy crawlies etc, to the people of Haiti and other areas of disaster- this would mean 'home'.

please, please visit the web-page and make your donation
and may peace be with you all