Persia Castellani

October 17th marks International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, with this year celebrating it’s 27th anniversary of the declaration by the General Assembly.

Our vision is to witness a world where children no longer find themselves in poverty or need protection from it. Our focus is children connected to the street or slum. Our approach to achieving this is to work with community organisations such as Fairplay.

Local organisations better understand the needs and challenges faced by the communities in their vicinity. In the Payatas slum, for example, Fairplay is acutely aware of the problems that face children every day, and works tirelessly to offer help and support to them. Programmes such as daily free school meals not only help improve child health through better nutrition, but also help take the financial pressure off parents giving them one less meal to provide every day.

Ultimately, programmes such as those offered by Fairplay mean local children have somewhere to go other than the street. Passing their time in a more productive manner, and one that provides a way out of poverty.

The work we do is just one of thousands of drops in the ocean that represents the effort of the global charitable sector. This is a sector that is quietly working towards the eradication of poverty, be that on a global or local level. That quiet determination is fuelled by the goodwill and trust of the public that continues to support every step of the sector’s journey to date.

This International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is one to commemorate and renew our commitment to doing all we can to break the vicious cycle that children in slum communities find themselves in. Here’s some of the things you can do with us to help move things closer to eradicating poverty.

1. Make a donation. Just £10 could provide a child with a meal in school every day for a month.
2. Volunteer to do some fundraising for us. Put on a charity fashion show, a music event, or a football match and raise funds to support the children we work with.
3. Donate your old stuff. Books, gadgets, clothes, old currency. We can take most of what usually gets chucked out. We can even take your old car!
4. Shop with Amazon Smile. You shop with Amazon as normal but by nominating Poverty Child as your chosen charity we receive a donation from them worth 0.5% of your total spend.

Finally, let’s ensure that on this day the voices of the impoverished are heard. Look out for #EndPoverty on your social channels and join the conversation by liking, sharing and commenting on the issues that matter to you.

Don’t let your car be part of the disaster

To support the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, I wanted to follow up on Megan’s blog “How To Recycle Your Car” as landfills and scrap yards are in serious crisis.

David Palmer-Jones, CEO of Suez, tells us in a Future Build article (2014) that our landfill waste is an ‘impending crisis caused by a combination of Brexit, a Chinese crackdown on importing recyclable material and the government’s failure to commit to clear policy that would help deliver new waste facilities’.

Euro News (2019) tells us the damage we’re also causing is outside the UK. Ghana’s capital Accra is one of ‘Africa’s biggest electronic waste scrapyards’ and it’s filled with the ‘remnants of Europe’s discarded electronic devices.’ Europe sends millions of tonnes of scrap across each year where e-trash is burnt to extract valuable metals. This is now considered one of the world’s most polluted sites where studies have shown ‘burning of waste exposes them to toxins that can cause heart disease, strokes and lung cancer.’

This not only effects the environment in a major way, but has increased Landfill Taxes to ‘encourage the exploration of sustainable alternatives for disposing of waste.’ (Red Industries, 2019)

	Current Rate from 12th March 2018	New Rate from 20th March 2019
Standard Rated Waste	£88.95 per tonne	£91.35 per tonne
Lower Rated Waste	£2.80 per tonne	£2.90 per tonne

You can help create a sustainable alternative when disposing of your old car by taking a few simple steps:

1. Complete the online form with your car’s details.
2. Let us know whether or not your car is in working condition, has any missing parts, the damage that affects it, and whether your car is accessible.
3. Our recycling partner will be in touch to arrange a collection time convenient to you.

Recycling your vehicle is easy and convenient for you. Any profit we make in the process goes directly to our charity providing slum and street based youth with opportunities to improve their lives for the better.

Donate your old car now.

References:

1. Future Build (2014) We’re Running Out Of Landfill And Brexit Could Make It Worse [online] https://www.futurebuild.co.uk/industry-news/were-running-out-of-landfill-and-brexit-could-make-it-worse-says-new-report
2. Red Industries (2019) Lanfill Tax Increase [online]  https://www.redindustries.co.uk/landfill-tax-increase-2019/
3. Euro News (2019) Europe’s electronic waste ends up at this toxic landfill in Ghana [online] https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/27/europe-s-electronic-waste-ends-up-at-this-toxic-landfill-in-ghana
4. Poverty Child (2019) Donate Your Car [online] https://povertychild.org/donate-your-car/

Who said it has to be Spring for a clean out? After all, 2019 is the year of minimalism. But here’s the twist – what do you do with it all? Poverty Child’s simple and sustainable solution means you can sell it all from your phone.

I’ve challenged Daniel, Silva, Aline and Ben to use the app Buengo (a virtual charity shop) to sell their unwanted items from their smartphones this month where the proceeds of their sale will ‘directly fund our work’ – without having to fund staff or venues! 

The candidates:

As a student, Daniel loves a minimalist lifestyle so he doesn’t have to move a ton of stuff between university and home, even though he loves his gaming consoles and does need a wardrobe refresh every once in a while.

He tries to take his preloved clothes to charity shops, and sell or donate his electronics too, a couple of months ago he took a bag of clothes to the Red Cross charity shop, but with time as a constant pressure with work and studies, the journey isn’t always an option.

He’ll be using Buengo to sell his clothes and electronics – so we’ll catch up with him in a month to see how he’s getting on. Wish him luck! 😉 

Silva is a culprit of online shopping, then missing return deadlines ending up with a wardrobe of random bits which may never see daylight again. 

She has GoPro gadgets and brand new clothes in her wardrobe she’s been planning on selling on eBay for months. She also has several items including a ginormous lampshade she never returned to Amazon.

Although she wants to donate these bits to charity shops she hasn’t had the time to take them in the last 6 months, but she IS about to try Buengo *exciting*. Watch this space to see what she’s managed to sell, how easy the process was and how she’s contributed to Poverty Child.

Ben definitely hoards some old clothes he could get rid of. He has 2 phones and an endless supply of charging cables he no longer needs. He’s a strong believer in donating unwanted goods to a moral cause, but although he gave some unwanted clothes to a charity about 4 months ago, he couldn’t say this was a regular occurrence since between work and the rest of everything that happens in life it never becomes a priority.

He’s accepted the challenge with open arms and will give us his update next month!

Aline has always found it hard to resist a sale or bargain, so consequently ended up with a wardrobe of clothes and books she’s intended to sell but puts it off on a weekly basis. She says that knowing the sooner she puts something on Buengo the sooner she could be helping children at the Fairplay Academy attend school is a huge incentive for her to get on and sell her unwanted pieces from her overflowing wardrobe.

Buengo App: https://povertychild.org/lifestyle-giving/virtual-charity-shop/

How to sell your preloved possessions?

We use charity shop app Buengo where anyone can sell their items from their smartphone and support our mission to improve life for street and slum connected children. 

You can download Buengo from your app store and upload your items for sale without having to get them to a physical store – it’s really simple. 

Click to download the app on your iPhone or Android.

Here are a couple of things you can sell by way of a reminder:

The proceeds from the sales of these items will ultimately fund our work. Projects such as providing regular ‘sport, nutrition and social groups’ to ‘100 children’ by helping fund the ‘nutrition aspect of this project: the initiative to provide free healthy and nutritious meals to children after the twice-weekly football sessions’, Poverty Child (2019).

And why shouldn’t you just throw your unwanted bits away?

•  According to The Times in  2018, ‘Britons binned clothes worth £12.5 billion last year as the rise of “throwaway” fashion led to 300,000 tonnes of textiles ending up in landfill’ with the average of every ‘household wasted clothes with a purchase value of almost £500’,The Times (2018). Imagine what The Fairplay For All Foundation could have done with even half that cash! 
•  According to The Guardian ‘a record amount of electrical and electronic waste was discarded’ in 2014, with ‘41.8m tonnes’ of e-waste such as ‘fridges, washing machines and other domestic appliances’ being dumped. In  basic terms that’s ‘1.15m heavy trucks, forming a line 23,000km (14,300 miles) long’,The Guardian (2015). Not only is this an environmental disaster, but some old appliances would be in good enough condition to be sent to a new home rather than the dump. 

Here are some benefits of selling your preloved possessions:

1. Benefits you – it’s a fast and simple solution to clearing out your clutter. ☑
2. Benefits it’s new owner – people love paying less for second hand treasures ☑
3. Benefits children from misfortunate backgrounds ☑
4. Benefits the environment by keeping them out the junk yard ☑

References:

Poverty Child (2019) Our Work [online] https://povertychild.org/our-work/ 

Poverty Child (2019) 100 children project Archives – Poverty Child [online]

https://povertychild.org/tag/100-children-project 

The Times (2018) Clothes worth £12.5bn are thrown in bin [online] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clothes-worth-12-5bn-are-thrown-in-bin-b8rqfrcg2 

The Guardian (2015) World’s mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak of 42m tonnes [online] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/19/worlds-mountain-of-electrical-waste-reaches-new-peak-of-42m-tonnes