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Give Your Old Specs A New Life
Poverty and a shortage of skilled opticians affect millions of people who do not have the spectacles they desperately need. For those in the developing world poor vision can keep education and employment out of reach. Many find daily living difficult and dangerous. Receiving a pair of specs can transform their lives – with the correct spectacles, people can learn, work and achieve a quality of life otherwise completely unobtainable.
Started in 1985, Vision Aid Overseas has provided 600,000 eye tests and given 300,000 people the ability to see with a pair of spectacles.
Donate your old pairs of glasses by dropping them in at your local opticians (as long as they support VAO – you might have to ring first and ask). Any Vision Express or KODAK Lens Vision Centre will also accept them. From here they are sorted, and then sent to UK prisons where prisoners have been trained to clean, grade and pack the spectacles ready for their use in the developing world. (Broken/damaged spectacles and bifocals/varifocals cannot be accepted.)
So if the only role your old specs are playing is to clutter up your home, turn them into a little miracle… send them on a one-way trip to transform someone’s life
For more information, see here
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Give Your Old Specs A New Life
Poverty and a shortage of skilled opticians affect millions of people who do not have the spectacles they desperately need. For those in the developing world poor vision can keep education and employment out of reach. Many find daily living difficult and dangerous. Receiving a pair of specs can transform their lives – with the correct spectacles, people can learn, work and achieve a quality of life otherwise completely unobtainable.
Started in 1985, Vision Aid Overseas has provided 600,000 eye tests and given 300,000 people the ability to see with a pair of spectacles.
Donate your old pairs of glasses by dropping them in at your local opticians (as long as they support VAO – you might have to ring first and ask). Any Vision Express or KODAK Lens Vision Centre will also accept them. From here they are sorted, and then sent to UK prisons where prisoners have been trained to clean, grade and pack the spectacles ready for their use in the developing world. (Broken/damaged spectacles and bifocals/varifocals cannot be accepted.)
So if the only role your old specs are playing is to clutter up your home, turn them into a little miracle… send them on a one-way trip to transform someone’s life
For more information, see here
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Love books? Join the library
Love books? Can’t live without a good novel beside your bed? Addicted to biographies? Prefer browsing through cook books to cooking itself?
Don’t feel you always have to buy brand spanking new. Sometimes you could borrow it instead – if you’ve joined your local library. It’s free. You can borrow up to sixteen books at a time, and you can have them for up to three weeks. If you borrow a book you fall in love with and just can’t be without, THEN go and buy it new.
It’s so high-tech these days that you can even go to your local library’s website and renew your books online. If your library doesn’t have the book you’re after, you can order pretty much ANY book that is in print – this will set you back a whole 80 pennies. (Children may request up to 6 books at any time free of charge!)
These details will vary from county to county, but on the whole they are fairly similar across libraries in the UK.You can also have use of a computer (with internet) for free in your local library.
For a small charge you can hire out videos, DVDs, music CDs, talking books and computer games.
Some libraries also run reading groups (or support local reading groups, and can give you information about them). Or how about starting your own?! The more you use your library, the better you’ll make the library service for those in your community.
As one Generous member who suggested this action puts it, ‘Many public libraries were supported by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Once books were available to the privileged few. Now every town and city has free public libraries offering more printed and electronic resources than any of us could hope to own. Sadly, the percentage of the population using libraries is falling. Instead of buying lots of books and then having to find ethical ways of getting rid of them, get into the borrowing habit, widen your horizons and save libraries for the future.’
Sign up today… or dig out your old library card, dust it off, apologise for neglecting it, and put it back into action.
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Get someone to join the Generous Community
Every day comes news about how the world’s climate may be close to a ‘tipping point’ unless people – especially those in developed countries – begin to live differently. What is less often in the news is that two thirds of the world’s people don’t have enough to eat… while many of the rest of us are worried about our weight.
At Generous we think that while most of the politicians may be in denial, the rest of us should maybe make a start.
In The Year of Living Generously community we aim to inspire each other online with advice and encouragement as we undertake small changes in our everyday choices in order to create a bigger change which benefits everyone.
So if you’re a member of Generous and trying to do your bit, month by month, to live differently, how about recommending Generous to one of your friends to join ?
The more of us taking part, the more of an impact we will have. If you get a friend or two to join and they get a friend or two… who knows, this thing might become contagious!
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Organise Your Money (What You Want To Give Away)
Many of us give to charity, but most of us do it with our heart, not our brains. It’s great to respond to an emergency – but charities need to predict their income, not rely on special appeals. Why not decide how much you want to give to charity every year, and then open a special charitable giving account – into which the government adds the tax you have paid on the money you are giving away.
The best people for this are the Charities Aid Foundation – opening an account with them simplifies and streamlines what you give and at the same time ensures you maximise the benefits of your gifts.
They say:
- We’ll help you take control of your giving.
- We’ll ensure every donation you make, large or small, is tax-effective.
- We’ll supply you with a CharityCard that enables you to make donations at your convenience.
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Make Your Will (Give to a Good Cause)
Ever heard of Will Aid ? It’s clever. Will Aid means you can have your will professionally drawn up by a solicitor, but instead of paying their usual fee you make a donation to help a charity.
Around 70% of people have either not written a Will or not kept it up to date and a similar percentage die without having left a Will. But making a Will is the only way to make sure your money and possessions go to the people and causes you care about. If you die without a Will, your property will be distributed according to intestacy law, a complex set of rules that dictate how assets are distributed – and which is far too tedious to describe here.
"Too many people don’t realise the problems it can create if they die without a will.” says Will Aid campaign manager, Shirley Marsland. “The biggest problem is that people assume that their spouse will automatically receive everything. That is not necessarily the case – there is no guarantee that they will even have the house. It’s even more of a problem if you and your partner are not married.
All these problems can be resolved if people make a Will. With Will Aid solicitors throughout the UK waive their fee to draw up a basic Will. Instead they ask you to make a donation to the Will Aid charities. All the money raised by the participating solicitors firms is given to the Will Aid charities to support their work.
Christian Aid, The British Red Cross, the NSPCC, Help the Aged and SightSavers International are among the charities you can support in this way.
Go on – it’s not so scary – make your will now!
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Phone a friend - someone who has sent you a card this year who you don't see often
Go through the Christmas cards you were given at Christmas, and choose one person or family you don’t see very often, perhaps someone who could do with some company and friendship. Decide to make contact with them this year, more regularly… ring them up, invite them over, find out what’s going on in their lives.
Also, remember that the bin is NOT the place for your old Christmas cards! Use them for shopping lists or scrap paper. Or, use them to make more cards or labels with next Christmas!
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Pass On Those Unwanted Gifts
Instead of ending up with a houseful of junk, how about sorting through all those scarves, ties and smellies? What can be given away to a friend, who might appreciate it more than you do? And that cocktail making kit – are you really ever going to use it? If not, get down to your local charity shop – or experiment on Ebay! If you received a pressie you don’t want, could you give it to a friend for their birthday this year, or even next Christmas?
If you feel you can’t part with pressies you’ve just been given, what about going through all that ‘stuff’ you had in the first place. Could you get rid of some of your old clothes, now you’ve been given new ones? Does your old mobile phone need recycling? Who might be able to make better use of those books you have read over and over?Linked actions:
Give Your Unwanted / Unworn Clothes To Charity
Give Something Away – and declutter your life
Get Rid Of Some Of Your Books
Donate Winter woolies to the Salvation Army, or a local shelter.
Recycle Your Old Mobile
Recycle Your Stuff – here’s where to find your nearest facility -
Become a Fair Trader (Promote the benefits in your community)
Being a Fair Trader is about being a part of the trickle-down of the Fair Trade concept into practice in local communities.
Traidcraft Fair Traders contribute towards extending the benefits of fair trade for all by:
- Passing catalogues to family and friends and collecting orders
- Selling fair trade products from stalls at church or events
- Organising parties at home
There are 5,000 Fair Traders operating in the U.K., providing an extensive and friendly support network that can give you all the advice you’ll need to help you get started. But to learn more about what new Fair Traders receive, go here.
And then, if you’re interested in becoming a Fair Trader, call the Traidcraft Fair Trader helpline on 0870 444 1543, send an email here, or complete the online registration form here.
- Passing catalogues to family and friends and collecting orders
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Encourage Others To Go Generous
Encourage a friend outside the Generous community to undertake one or more of the actions. One Generous community member has had several hundred save-a-flushes (see action 4) delivered to the local Bishop for distribution to his flushing flock (careful how you say that)
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Donate winter woolies to a homeless shelter.
Do we really NEED seven scarves, four pairs of slippers and twelve warm jumpers? So let’s pass them on to those who don’t enjoy the benefit of central heating in the winter months. Check out some more generous reasons for doing this on the Salvation Army website
Linked actions: Give your unwanted/unworn clothes to charity Buy a ‘Crisis’ Christmas Pud – Feed The Homeless Give Something Away – and declutter your life Volunteer Locally With The Homeless
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Send Some Cards, Through The Bars.
As well as remembering your friends and family, stick a ‘prisoner of conscience’ on your Christmas card list.
Both Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide have details of prisoners and other persecuted people who would benefit from you sending them greetings cards with words of support and encouragement. Make sure you don’t miss the last posting days.
Write for Christian Solidarity here
Linked actions:
Make Your Own Greetings Cards -
Give Thanks Before A Meal
OK, many of our meals are rushed; many of them take place while other things also demand our attention. Many times we are with people who might not fully recognise what saying grace signifies.
But taking a moment of quiet around the table or with some simple words of thanks, reminds us – and those we are with – that life is a gift and not a race and that what we eat is often provided by people who have very little compared to us.
Might be silent. Might be from a book of graces. Might be very short.
Making time to give thanks reminds us of all we have forgotten to be thankful for.
If you know of some good resources to help with this – even some collections like the recent one from the Iona Community – add them to the Comments below.
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Know your local political leaders
Action: Make sure that you know the name of your Member of Parliament and the name and party of your local councillor.
Why? Feedback from the Generous crowd in the last year shows that you would like to see more actions with a political and local community feel – so here’s an easy one for starters. Both your MP and your local councillor are there to serve you and represent your concerns and interests. Start thinking about local issues that have played on your mind for a while, and make sure that you let your local political leaders know what’s on your mind, for example:
- Litter pollution or noise pollution – is it out of control?
- Crime – how can residents of your area help themselves to stay safe?
- The homeless – what help can they be given?
- Young people wandering the streets – could they benefit from a youth centre?
- Young Mums or single parents – do they get the support they need?
- Recycling – is there adequate provision for both households and businesses to recycle their waste?
Links: A list of all UK councils and their contact details is www.direct.gov.uk
Your local council website should direct you to a list of serving councillors and their responsibilities.Related Generous actions: (issues that you might want to talk to your local political leaders about!)
Volunteer Locally With The Homeless
Slow Down, Calm Down – stick to the speed limit
Recycle Your Stuff – here’s where to find your nearest facility -
Sharing with students
Action: Calling students to share with each other… and non students to share with students! Are you are a student in a house-share situation ? Why not decide to share certain household items, rather than buying them individually. For example: ketchup, spreads, bread, milk, cleaning products and loo rolls.
Why? This action not only allows you to be generous to your equally impoverished housemates, but it is also economical and space efficient. A fridge with four different spreads, bottles of milk, and ketchup can easily become very cluttered and a source of household contention. One person rarely manages a whole loaf of bread in a week and thus has to fight to the ever-advancing mould – share it and you can all have fresh bread every day! It makes sense. Of course this action does run the risk of free riders, but if you calculate roughly what each of you should be spending on household shared items a week and make an effort to do so, if someone doesn’t contribute one week they can do more the following –there you can prove your grace and generosity!
Link: Students might be interested to check out People and Planet the UK student campaigning organisation working to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment.
And if you’re not a student … invite a student round to your home to enjoy your amenities for an evening. Offer hospitality to students who do not have access to mundane things in your life such as sofas, baths, and not having to queue for their laundry!
Why? Many students in halls of residence dearly miss their family home and basic creature comforts. The student life is highly pressurised and strangely abnormal, in that they hardly get to interact with people of different ages or situation in life. Many crave a friendships outside of studentdom. Perhaps if you live in a university town/city you could be generous with your heart and home and maybe they will return your generosity with free baby-sitting – you never know!
Related actions: Share a Meal With Someone Outside Your Comfort Zone Make A Special Effort To Look Out For And Think Of Strangers Encourage Others To Undertake Living Generously Actions
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Use your skills and resources to help someone you hardly know or even a stranger. Why? Most of us have something that we are good at and sharing this with someone outside our immediate circle of friends can make a big impact. It doesn’t even have to be a skill – just doing something kind for others is all it takes to make the world a more generous place. What about…Commit random acts of generosity
- Babysitting (for a single parent perhaps)
- Lawn-mowing (or lend out your lawnmower)
- Gardening (weed removal!)
- Computer repair or advice
- Cook a meal (for new parents, or for those too ill to cook for themselves)
- DIY (painting, decorating, plumbing… or lend out your tools/equipment)
Don’t hide your random act under a bush though – add it as a comment to the Generous website, so we can share ideas and encourage one another.
Link: Visit www.helpothers.org for many more ideas!
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Give Something Away - and declutter your life
Most of us have more than enough ‘stuff’ and when we acquire more things, we rarely choose to let go of something else. But a lot of the time our ‘extras’ or duplicates, some of which we are never going to use again, can be of use to someone else.
But first of all we need to let go of it – which requires a moments
concentration, a decision or two, and a short burst of activity – without which the stuff will remain under the bed or in the wardrobe or in the shed and of no use to anyone.Could be taking it to a local charity shop or a sale organised by a youth club or school. Could be putting an advert in a shop-window or in the church notices. Could be offering it on generous-style websites like Freecycle – and as you mention it, that’s another Generous Action
One person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure!
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Recycle Your Stuff
What may be surplus to you, may turn out to be essential to someone who is only down the street. Of course you don’t know everyone down the street – let alone what they need at any point in time. But you could start taking your surplus furniture, toys, electronic equipment etc to your nearest recycling centre – which might be the place your neighbour is looking in as well.
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Go Ethical With Some of your Savings
Not everyone can afford to have savings but some people are saving for key moments – their wedding, their first home, helping kids through college, the ‘third age’, the fourth…
Most of us don’t think twice about what might be happening to our savings while they are sitting in the bank. We don’t imagine they might be buying tanks or tobacco. How could we sleep at night if they were ? So how about moving some savings – however small an amount – to an ethical account.
One such ethical bank is Triodos. Here Triodos explains the merits of banking ethically
Triodos has a range of different accounts like these
Triodos has also recently launched a share issue allowing individuals to invest in the UK’s flourishing renewables industry. To find out more visit www.triodosrenewables.co.uk
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Don't just recycle, Freecycle
Ever feel like you have too much stuff ? Sometimes think that you’d just like it to go to someone who needs it – rather than someone who will pay the most for it ? If you are an Ebay fan or a recycling nut then freecycle.org is for you.
Freecycle is Ebay’s philanthropic cousin – do the Generous thing and start freecycling today!
Freecycle resembles a cross between an internet auction house and a global chain of charity shops – like ebay. But unlike ebay, no money changes hands.
You see, as the name suggests, everything advertised on Freecycle must be free – whether it’s an old sofa, or even just a few unwanted CDs. Anyone interested simply replies by e-mail: deal done. Brilliant. It’s not the latest kit, but hey, it’s free, and it stops the need for going down to the dump, filling up landfills with stuff you no longer need!
The site is the creation of Deron Beal, an environmentalist from Arizona, in the US, who started it in mid-2003 as an automated e-mail list. The Freecycle network is run through Yahoo! Groups and has 1.2 million members in 2,700 clusters worldwide. These clusters are based on location – there are about 275 in the UK – which means goods can be picked up rather than posted, handy for bulky items and you get to meet like minded locals too.
Click on the link, find your local group and join up at http://freecycle.org/
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Make A Special Effort To Look Out For Strangers
Why not consider engaging more with strangers ? A smile, a greeting… even just the odd eye contact on the bus on the way to work. Sometimes it’s the very smallest and seemingly most insignificant things that can have the deepest impact. (On the eye-contact thing… try to avoid getting picked up or beaten up…)
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Volunteer Locally With The Homeless
Every town has them: the sort of projects that provide food and shelter for the homeless on the streets in the local area. These ventures need all the volunteer help they can get. So why not enrol with one and get stuck in? The difference that such projects make to the lives of those sleeping rough, or in the community but not quite of it, is immeasurable. Don’t just leave it to the Sally Army.
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Become A Blood Donor
Every day new medical treatments are being developed and more operations are being carried out in the UK. Not surprisingly, then, The National Blood Service constantly needs donations for these vital procedures. About 2.5 million a year, to be exact.
So why not give blood and become a life-saver? It’s not a difficult thing to do. When you show up, they’ll ask you a few questions about your health and lifestyle (just to make sure you haven’t been exposed to anything infectious). Then they’ll take a drop of blood from your finger to make sure you’re not anaemic. And then they’ll take your blood donation – just under a pint. It takes about 10 minutes. Most people don’t feel a thing. Apart from a tremendous sense of well-being that, that is.
Search for you nearest session online.
Or you can call 0845 7 711 711 to find out more.
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Share a Meal With Someone Outside Your Comfort Zone
We gravitate towards people like ourselves. Or to people in whose circle we would like to be found. People whose friends we have been for a long time – or whose friendship we would like to have.
Nothing wrong with that but wouldn’t it be good to discover friendship with people we didn’t know we could be friends with? People who maybe don’t have as varied a social calendar. What does the old parable mean when it talks about inviting to the feast all the people you would least expect to get an invite?
This action is about friendship – and expanding the circumference of our current friendship circle. It’s not particularly about going into town and finding someone sleeping in a doorway and inviting them back for the night. It’s about remembering someone we may already know and deciding perhaps we could get to know them better.
Over to you.
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Sign Up Online To Become An Organ Donor
More than 5,500 people in Britain are waiting for an organ transplant that could save or dramatically improve their life. Most are waiting for a kidney, others for a heart, lung or liver transplant. Transplants are one of the most miraculous achievements of modern medicine – but they depend entirely on the generosity of donors and their families who are willing to make this life-saving gift to others.
The more people who pledge to donate their organs after their death, the more people stand to benefit. By joining the NHS Organ Donor Register each of can help make sure life goes on for others.
You can sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register or call the NHS Organ Donor Line: 0845 60 60 400.
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Plant A Tree
Apparently this kind of activity has been going on since time immemorial. Turns out that a large beech tree can provide enough oxygen for the daily requirements of ten people. At the same time trees help to lock up the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
All that, and they look good too.
Plant a tree in your garden or support one of the organisations that plant trees on your behalf in cities ort woodlands.
And what a great idea for a present for someone – especially the increasing number of people who, like ourselves, already have quite enough stuff about the place. Two organisations, Trees for Cities and The Woodland Trust, offer the opportunity to donate a tree as a gift.
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Give Your Unwanted / Unworn Clothes To Charity
Go through your clothes. No, really, you can do it! Pull out the items you don’t wear – not just the ones you will never wear. Most of us have a few too many jumpers or blouses, t-shirts or trousers. Someone else will value your cast offs.
There are around 6,500 charity shops in the UK. The re-use and recycling aspects of the work of charity shops often goes unrecognised. For many years, charity shops have been recycling in large volumes, ensuring that large quantities of clothing and other goods are re-used which is good news for people who rely on charity shops for their clothing – and good news for the landfill sites.
An alternative to charity shops is organisations working with refugees, homeless people or victims of domestic violence many of whom are grateful for donations of clothes and in some cases household goods.
Shouldn’t be difficult to find an outlet near you.
