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318 | 365 Visit to Wailea Settlement, Suva, Fiji

This is Aneil. When my family and I met him in his 6ft x 8ft corrugated tin house with a curtain for a door, he looked unwell. Naively I asked him if he was really sick, he responded “No, no I am just really tired as I haven’t eaten in 4 days”.

I admit that I was caught off guard by his answer. I would feel and look unwell if I hadn’t eaten in 4 days. Hours earlier we had a beautiful breakfast in our resort in Nadi, then drove to Suva, now we sat in the slum house of a man who hasn’t eaten in 4 days.

As I sat with him all I could think of was the verses in James that say, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough."

Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” I will write more on Fiji in a later more detailed post.
 

303 |365 Pumice have partnered with the Good Trust

Pumice Bistro and Café will be undertaking a trial of clean.water donations for the Good Trust this week.
 
Had the privilege of sharing with the team at Pumice about the challenge that 1 in 8 people in the world experience every single day just to fetch dirty unhealthy water, and about how $2 can provide clean water for a person for 2 years.
 
If your in Hamilton from Monday this week and feel like dinner, lunch or coffee then head to Pumice and support clean.water and the good.trust while you are there.
 
Good Trust www.good.org.nz 
Pumice www.pumice.net.nz 

285 |365 With a click of the fingers.

This is Simon from Agora. When I walk in he often clicks his fingers, two or three times, 3 seconds apart. Strange I know, except that it has a meaning, he’s reminding me that I have things to do for the good.trust. He’s reminding me that when I delay, kids continue you die.
 
One every three seconds, while I continue to do my day job, drink my coffee or even write this post.
 
Things are moving forward on for the good.trust just not at the speed I would like. But with every click of his fingers I am reminded of the priority.

276 |365 Experiential Learning

Kyla's class (Room 23 at Rototuna Primary) have with the encouragement of their teacher become quite the social entrepreneurs. They went busking on Saturday and did a car wash on Wednesday all to raise money for help “save NZs native wildlife.”

Very cool learning for them across a whole range of areas from team work, to organisation, to volunteering.

Well to Miss Kateley. Awesome initiative.

273 |365 Banana's

Sometimes we completely forget that we import simple things like banana’s. We purchase them with very little thought to the origin or the people who produce them.

We say we care about things like poverty or the environment, but its mainly lip service. Actually purchasing only products that make a difference for the causes we believe in. Well that’s another story.

219 |365 Our first Good Trust party

Amongst the friends and conversation and laughter and music we raised over $1500 for our first good.well project.  
 
April 30th at Café Agora was the celebration of my 40th birthday. With all honesty it was really just a great opportunity to raise money and awareness for the Good Trust, and to raised funds to build clean water wells for a communities off shore.
 
Thanks heaps to everyone who came and donated.
 
Thanks to the team at Café Agora.
 
Finally and a huge thanks to  Luke and Linden (pictured) and Alice Cunninghame.

213|365 Streetworks

213|365 Streetworks

One of many many photos taken at Streetworks.

This is a shot of kids getting a huge kick out of playing with a parachute at the Fairfield family fun day.

www.streetworks.org.nz

200 | 365 Doing Good

On Sunday we heard first hand about incredible work of Rahab ministries in Thailand, and got to support them through the pink pigs. In Thailand young women, really young women are sold by their families to prostitution, often under false circumstances and with the lure of a better life, but sold nonetheless.
 
I can’t imagine ever getting so desperate, that I would even remotely consider selling my daughter. It would never happen!
 
Imagine the outcry, the laws I would break and the news coverage.
 
It would shock our nation.
 
I’m reminded that my world is not the world. Every day young women are sold. There is no outcry, no laws broken, no news coverage.
 
My world, is not the world.

188 | 365 - Pink Pig

CBC are raising funds for Rahab Ministries in Thailand. There are pink pigs at members homes all over the city, courtesy of BNZ. On Sunday the 11th everyone will bring their coin laden pigs back.
 
[188 | 365 – Pink Pig - This is a picture of the pink pig at our house, late at night, after a very busy Tuesday]

149 | 365 'Clean Water'

Water.

Where I live it’s free, but we buy it. It’s clean, but we filter it. It’s readily available, but we take it for granted.
 
Water is a significant part of the poverty cycle. It takes hours out of a persons day. Imagine waking up today and having to go and find water to survive before you do anything else.
 
1 in 8 people in the world lack clean water. Will you make a difference?
 
 
 
[149 | 365 – ‘Clean Water’ – This is a shot of Kyla, my eldest daughter, drinking fresh, clean tap water.]

$10 is not much, yet its a fortune!

  A few years ago I was in Fiji and naively asked my taxi driver if he had been to New Zealand. His reply was gentle, as though he had been asked a thousand times. He simply said ‘I would love to travel, but I’m not sure we will ever afford it. Maybe one day we will save enough money’. It turns out on an average day he would earn somewhere between $10 and $15. * So, what did you last spend 10 dollars on? In fact, what can you really buy for $10 anyway? A coffee? Lunch? If you only earned $10 for today’s work, how would you spend it? I would imagine you would spend significantly differently to the way you spent your last $10. $10 dollars per day. To live on. To feed the family. $10 dollars per day. That’s what 80% of the world’s population lives on. 5.3 billion people live on $10 per day or less. $10 dollars. That’s how much money we have started the Rich Trust. The equivalent of a days wages for 4 out of 5 people in the world. Our aim is simple. To inspire the rich (that’s you) to enable the poor. That’s why we are called the Rich Trust. To remind us that we are rich. So the next time you have a $10 note, remember how rich you are. $10 is not much, yet it is a fortune. *** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Endnotes To find out more, about the Rich Trust read our info page. * My trip to Fiji was a in 2007 so things will have changed a little. It was $10 Fiji, which at the time was around $8 NZ. ** $10 per day is an estimate in US dollars. So really it is around NZ$12.80. Artistic license, as I couldn’t find a $12.80 dollar notes. ^ *** Written by Andrew Nicol (posted at Rich Trust www.rich.org.nz)

Rich people keep driving

When I was in Fiji recently, Karina and I hired a car for the day. We wanted to drive to places that most people wouldn’t go. We wanted to see the people of Fiji. To experience. To open our eyes.

On this particular day we met with Karl (from Malomalo). He graciously led us down the coast where we checked out the water. Karl explained that the average income for the people of Fiji is $1 - $2 per hour. But the cost of living is basically the same as New Zealand.

Our journey with Karl took us down some serious back roads which was fun. We travelled through villages that 99.9% of visitors to Fiji will never see. Unlike the Villagers on the main road, they are not sponsored by Coke or Pepsi. They don’t have signs up saying they are supported by NZAID. They are just villages.

On the way back to our resort. I took these two pictures. The first is 3 guys working collecting sugar cane. As I slowed on the railway lines I took another, because I thought the lines of the track were cool. One of the guys called to this older man and he stood and posed for the picture.

I took the picture, gave him a wave and kept driving. At the time he was just a picture. Now the picture has become so much more.

I didn’t care about his circumstances.

I don’t know his name.

His family.

His needs.

Him!

He may not have had needs. He may have been happier and more content than me. But to him, I am sure, I was just another rich tourist who took a photo and kept driving.

The picture will be a vivid memory of the day I went to see the needs of the people of Fiji and forgot to see the needs of the individual before my eyes. I forgot to be.

I think we do that often.