Here are a couple of people doing practical things to assist disadvantaged indigenous children.  At the moment Young and Free are collecting items that many of us take as a given - clothes, toiletries, nappies, shoes, sporting equipment, books, stationery, school bags, basic household items....use your creativity.  You could even make up a pack suitable for a child of a particular age - get together with some friends, pool resources and put some together.

It's Fair Trade Fortnight.  Your small change will be life changing for someone else.
Tea
Coffee
Chocolate
Bananas
Sugar
Cotton
Artisan products
Sports balls

Fair Trade Association Australia & New Zealand

Mothers' Day, on the second Sunday in May in Australia, has reminded me.  I look at all the pressure retailers place on families for days like this and would love to see it stripped back to basics. It's not to everyone's taste, but consider buying mum something that could mean a whole lot more.   

• Oxfam do Oxfam Unwrapped - buy a goat for $38.  It'll help to give a family a livelihood, or milk.
  A Lutheran long-drop loo - $60 will get a loo somewhere like Sudan and make a massive improvement to santiation, via Australian Lutheran World Service.
• At CARE $20 buys a blackboard to help teach and improve children's education or $125 will train a woman to sew so she can start to support herself.
• UNICEF have a wide range of gifts sorted into categories such as Mums & Babies and Health & Nutrition.
• I've mentioned Kiva in a recent post, but with the Aussie dollar so good against the US dollar less than $25 will get a gift card and mum can choose who she'd like to help.
• Or try a website like charity gifts where there are a number of organisations from whom you can choose gifts.

I'm sure a lot of mums/mams/moms would love it if she got to spend some time with you and had a little fun.

I remember being struck by whole towns and cities in the UK and Europe declaring themselves as Fair Trade, with plenty of publicity. I don't think it was that long ago when Fair Trade was unpublicised and more expensive in Australia. Is that still the case? Are there any cities or towns in Australia that have taken a public Fair Trade stance?

I wanted to pick up my 2011/2012 Entertainment Book this week and it reminded me that I could share the work of the Enfield Community Food Centre, where I got my Entertainment Book this year. They provide low cost groceries for people who struggle to afford them. The Centre needs financial support and a lot of the Centre's work is done by volunteers. The ECFC recently relocated from Enfield to Gepps Cross which has cost them a lot. I visited the centre just before they moved, and it's an amazing place, run by extraordinary people for extraordinary people.

While I was waiting for the bus a couple of days ago I was reminded ofOzHarvest when I saw one of their zippy vans scooting down North Terrace, Adelaide.  I'm thrilled they're in Adelaide now, and think OzHarvest food rescue an inspired initiative by Ronni Kahn.  OzHarvest collects excess food that would be discarded, but is still ok, and distributes it to those who need it.  It's worth reading some of the Food Waste Statistics here.
There are many ways of helping OzHarvest: volunteering, donating food if you have a business with excess, or donating money to assist with the running of the organisation.