Saturday, July 28, 2007

Gave £10 to Virgin Unite (total £403.48p)



I have just finished reading Richard Branson's 'Screw it, let's do it' book, kindly given to me by Darren who is working for 6 months as a volunteer at Mona... In the book, Richard (perhaps rather cleverly, since I'm now donating something) mentions his Virgin Unite arm of his empire, which is the independent charitable arm of the Virgin group. Virgin Unite are about driving entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues, changing the way social and business sectors work together to form partnerships that will drive sustainable solutions. To do this they focus on three key areas, Connecting People, 'Good' Investments and Social Businesses.


Some of the campaigns they're currently running include: (taken from the website)


Heaven's Angels is a campaign to raise funds for bikes for the Rural Transport Network - getting healthcare delivery in Africa moving.
The Re*Generation is a campaign supporting vulnerable young people on our doorstep in conjunction with our amazing grassroots Unite Partners.
The Music Movement is a creating and supporting a community of musicians who are willing and able to help tackle tough social issues. Such as Natalie Imbruglia who has gotten behind the issue of Fistula.


Well done Natalie...


The concept is really interesting and you can wander wonder through the site for hours, in terms of donating money there are several ways of doing it, including 'give time', 'give stuff' 'give voice' and 'give time'. Since I'm doing shed loads of expenses on a Saturday night (terribly social me) time isn't something I can give, so I looked in to 'give cash'; even here are there several ways of doing so, including sponsoring a fundraiser, sponsoring a project or something else entirely. One of the projects you can sponsor is the UKs Invisible Children campaign, who are living in extreme poverty and deprevation right here on our doorsteps. £10, by the way, provides a bath and three emergency meals for a young person living on the street. Well, I might be staying in on a Saturday, but at least I've got a damn roof over my head. Lucky wench.


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