Category «District Fifteen»

Distraction Packs

Distraction Packs are donated to local emergency services. Police and Ambulance have the packs in their vehicles to give to children at the scene of an incident or accident to distract them while their parents are being interviewed or attended to. The feedback from the emergency services has been very positive.The packs contain coloring books coloured pencils, stickers and a book or toy. The items are put in a zip lock bag. We source coloring books with a story to help with literacy. We are using a sponsorship model for this project. Businesses and individuals have sponsored packs at a set value. We assemble as many packs as we have sponsorship for. This means we can use our fundraising for other projects.

Laundromat Library

After seeing seeing Laundromat Libraries on Altrusa club Facebook pages, we placed a bookshelf in our local 24 hour Laundromat. Each club member is on a roster to keep the shelf tidy and stocked with adult and children’s books and magazines . Books and magazines are donated. Book drops are publicized on Facebook. The community have embraced the book shelf and keep it well stocked and it turns over quickly. Apart from the initial outlay of paint for a donated bookshelf and member’s time this project has not cost anything. All books donated by club members are counted in the Million Books challenge. Because of the strong community uptake we are happily struggling to meet big numbers. We hope to build on this library idea but putting up a community free library near a local park.

GEM School Bangladesh

GEM School is an English speaking school for Bangladeshi children situated in the poorest part of Dhaka where many children are begging or working on the streets from a very young age. We have been sponsoring a number of girls from this school for 15 years. Parents often struggle to pay for their children’s education & often only educate their sons and remove daughters in difficult times.
Our club has made a commitment to sponsor these girls from their first year of education until they sit their English O’ level Exams. We pay for books, annual development fees, some uniforms, O’ Level Exam fees and half their monthly fees. In some cases we pay all fees.
This will change their lives by breaking the cycle of poverty & inequity, removing girls from dangerous street life & preparing them for a safe & meaningful future.
Education is Knowledge, Knowledge is Power.
GEMS – Golgotha English Medium School

At Your Service Meals on Wheels

The club supplies the Meals on Wheels (MOW) Food Delivery Service, primarily to the elderly treats at Easter and Christmas.
At Easter the club gather Easter Eggs, cellophane packets and ribbons, putting together a small pack of chocolate eggs to be distributed for the Easter MOW delivery.
At Christmas time members bake Shortbread biscuits, up to 100 packages of six, and tie with a ribbon. These are added to the Christmas Meals delivered by MOW. These are very much appreciated by the recipients

Literacy Awards

Morrinsville club hold an annual Literacy award for primary aged children from 11 local schools. The recipients are the children who have improved the most in their reading and writing.
The children invite their parents and grandparents to afternoon tea and an award presentation. Each child chooses a new book to keep.

Aged Concern Luncheon

Morrinsville club hold an annual Christmas luncheon for elderly people who have no family living nearby or are own their own. The attendees are nominated by Aged Concern Morrinsville. The lunch is accompanied by live entertainment from the community and is Christmas themed. All of those invited receive a hamper filled with everyday supplies and Christmas goodies. They also get a pair of warm socks.

Emergency Kits in Schools

Our Morrinsville club heard from member, who is a primary school principle, of her schools need for clean, warm clothes for children to change into. Being wet and cold is not conducive to learning and is distressing for children. Our club provided 5 local schools with Emergency Kits containing track suit pants, T-shirts, under wear, socks, shorts, knitted slippers and beanies in a variety of sizes. We provided a plastic box for the clothes to be kept in. We regularly contact the schools to ask if they need a top up and what they need if their individual needs have changed. The schools decide how the use the kits. Parents can wash the clothes and return them to the school. The schools can give the clothing away to children in need. The feedback has been positive. Children who have had accidents have been able to have new underwear, children who have gotten wet in winter have been able to change into warm clothes and children without adequate clothing have been given an outfit.

Kai Shed revamp

Through our local Morrinsville Facebook community page, we discovered that a lot of people didn’t know where the Kai Shed (community pantry) was. As a club we embarked on a project to give the shed a facelift, signage and better visibility on Face to increase the number of donations. Members painted the door a bright yellow and had signs made and installed. While undertaking the facelift we learned that people didnt like using the shed because of it’s unsafe position so we spoke to our local council. We are in the process of relocating it beside a playground that is well utilised, well lit and has safe parking. This project also meets the theme of our Govenor’s tenure “improving food insecurity in our community”.

Tamariki, Togs and Towels

This project supplied disadvantaged children with resources, (namely a waterproof bag, containing togs, towel, and swimming goggles), enabling them to take part in the summer swimming lessons at school. Improving water skills is essential to reduce the drownings in New Zealand, a small island nation surrounded by water with many pools, rivers and lakes.
Each school library also received books and water safety literature.

Dyslexia Kits

The Literacy Committee presented the Board with a proposal to assemble 4 Dyslexia kits for a local school with more than 10 nationalities, who are struggling to learn English. With help from the community we sourced and created some outstanding resources that have been gratefully received by the school. This included utilising the expertise of experienced practitioners in the club, who evaluated the source and relevance of material, and many others who colour photocopied, organised, and laminated both games and sheets for ease of repetitive use,and then filled the folders ready for teachers to in or update as material comes to hand.