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Last time you were here, you were looking to help vulnerable children and families. Your support can save and change lives.

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Whether you’re a company looking for a charity to support as part of your corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives – or a family wanting to make a difference through regular donating, choosing a charity to support requires careful consideration.

With so many worthwhile causes to support during these challenging times, the selection process can be a difficult one. To streamline this decision, we have created a guide covering the factors that most require consideration when choosing a charity to support.

1. Choose a cause

Would you like to support an organisation focused on animal welfare, the environment, sports, education, medical research, children – or something else entirely?

When choosing a charity cause, several factors come into play. These include considering what you are most passionate about, the community that you would most like to support, and what cause most resonates with your own beliefs.

2. Research charities supporting your chosen cause

Let’s say you have decided to support a charity focussed on the welfare of children. The next step is to create a list of charities which belong to this cause. These could include charities that target child poverty, or provide child protection services.

One great example of this type of charity is ChildFund Australia. ChildFund Australia is a part of the ChildFund Alliance – one of the world’s oldest and most experienced child-focused development agencies.

3. Refine and prioritise charities

After compiling a list of potential charities to support, it’s important to refine and prioritise the charities according to your own objectives.

Think about the changes that you would most like to see implemented for your cause of choice, and assess the priorities of the charities selected in alignment with these changes.

Perhaps you grew up in a single-parent household and had to commence work early to support your household. Or, you understand the importance of education and want to provide vulnerable children with the opportunity to go to school. Choose to support a charity whose mission resonates with your own experiences.

4. Review the websites of charities on your shortlist

Before committing financially, it’s important to establish the legitimacy of the charities on your shortlist. It can be helpful to review projects, testimonials, success stories and frequently asked questions on their official websites. You can also check the ACNC Register, to confirm that the charity is registered with Australia.

Published financial statements and annual reports can also be reviewed, as can any rewards or recognition received by a trusted body or authority related to the cause of choice.

After verifying the authenticity of your selected charities, it can be prudent to make a phone call to your top two or three favourites to discuss donation options.

Ask questions and see if they can provide the information you need — whether it’s further information about their annual report, or details regarding the programs on offer.

5. Volunteer

While an optional step, volunteering for a charity for a period of time can also provide firsthand experience as to how a charity operates and it’s real-world impact.

ChildFund Australia, for example, offers the opportunity to contribute to fundraising efforts. This includes options such as running a Facebook birthday fundraiser, personal fundraising event, or fundraising through school projects.

Supporting ChildFund Australia

Should you choose to support ChildFund Australia, there are a range of great donation and sponsorship options to consider.

Current priority projects include increasing COVID-19 awareness, providing hand washing stations with clean water, support of health outreach teams with vital equipment and staff.

Sponsoring a child or community can also be an effective way to contribute to ChildFund’s objectives on an ongoing basis.

Please get in touch with us today, should you wish to discuss any of the above options.

ChildFund Timor-Leste is supporting farmers in the Lautem municipality to learn sustainable farming techniques as a part of the COVID-19 economic response plan. Farmers are learning about irrigation, organic pesticides and fertiliser and how to identify different types of diseases.

Five groups of farmers were selected to take part in the program. Working with local partner, Fraterna, ChildFund delivered training over the course of six months in sustainable and resilient farming.

The farmer field school explored drip irrigation, multi-crop production and crop diversification, compost fertiliser making both dry and wet kinds, plastic mulch techniques, soil, pest and disease identification. 

After learning about these techniques, the farmers are planting cabbage, lettuce, eggplant, tomato, spinach, water spinach, banana, and papaya trees. Most group members have created their own gardens and are applying what they learned. The project is also supplying farming equipment and helping the farmers install sustainable irrigation systems.

“At the farming school we don’t really do any book work, we put what we learnt directly into practice. We all work together to learn to make compost fertiliser,” said Hermenegildo, a farmer who attended the training in August 2021.

There are, 11 women and three men in this group. All of them attended farmer field school once a week. Now they share the responsibility of growing the vegetables and the crops in a communal area that are then equally divided amongst themselves.

Maria, is also a member of the group. “Before I attended the school, I did not know how to grow vegetables with different methods. But since I came to this training, I learned how to prepare soil and make compost fertiliser and it has helped megain valuable knowledge.”

The group meets regularly to plan and schedule farm work. Hermenegildo hopes that they will be able to harvest extra food to sell in the local markets.

 “Our plan for the future is to find more space to grow vegetables. If we have extra vegetables, we’ll sell them,” said Hermenegildo.

By learning these new skills, farmers can yield more sustainable crops to help them be self-sufficient through the dry season and put healthy food on the table for their families. They can also sell the extra vegetables at local markets to supplement the household income.

This project, implemented by ChildFund, is funded by the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP). Along with teaching new farming techniques, the project is distributing food packages, hygiene kits in schools, seed kits and food storage in selected households.

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