Kids's Clothes Swap... ALL Cash Goes to Families in Need

The Goods!!!

Read's a bit like a newspaper headline, doesn't it?

Well, as I walked around this morning, just 'soaking in' the HUGE pile of Kids Goods that had been donated, I was in awe.  Truly!  So many of you brought in a heap of good quality clothes and toys and were so willing to just give it away!  In these TradeMe days, I do think it's rare.  And we think it is just so fabulous!  Instead of making a profit for yourselves, you were willing to donate, and then to buy back with all the money going to Charity.

To be honest, we were praying we would be able to make a couple of hundred dollars.  We would have been very excited with that.  But we made over $700 dollars!!!!  INCREDIBLE!!!

A huge thanks to all those who selflessly gave us goods to sell.  Another huge thanks to all of you who purchased goods today - without you, it wouldn't have worked at all!

So, where is the dosh going?

Well, we care a lot about Mums, Dads, Kids and Babies who are less fortunate than ourselves.  A lot!  So we are going to donate this money to both IOSIS family solutions, and to Tearfund's Child Survival Programme (CSP).  (See below for a quick description of what these organisations are about.)

So what is happening to all the goods not purchased?
It's all going to IOSIS.  They have their finger on the pulse of the largest needs in this community of ours and we know it will all be put to such good use!

Why?  Why do we care?
One of our values at WonderMums is Generosity.  We believe that it is our responsibility to have a part in reducing poverty.  Each of us on our WM Team has a heart for this.  We each feel so blessed that we are able to get jobs, feed/clothe and house our children.  When we see the documentaries of those living in poverty, both in NZ and overseas, it breaks our hearts knowing that these Mothers must be in such anguish having no ability to care for their families in the way they want to.  If we were in their position, we would need help.  So we want to be able to help out where we can.  This is the motivation for WM sponsoring Lokesh, who we have now been sponsoring for almost a year!  We are so proud to be a part of a mothers group who always gets behind the fundraising efforts we do for charity!!

The Shopping!!!

IOSIS is involved in serving our community in these areas: Social Work, Foster Care, Counseling and Family Therapy Centre, Merivale Whanau Development Centre, Family Learning Centre, Supervised Visitation Centre, Parent Support and Coaching, Budgeting Services, MenD - Mens Development Programme, "Strengthening Families" Facilitation.  They are truly an amazing support to the families of South Auckland.  You can get involved in more ways than one, and information to that effect can easily be found on their website. 

"Tearfund's Child Survival Program which is a pre-child sponsorship early childhood program (similar to Plunket here in NZ).  The age range for CSP is pre-natal through age three.  The program involves the mother or other primary caregiver.  The children once past the age of three will then become part of the child sponsorship program.  The needs of young children living in poverty are severe and immediate with great potential for negative impact, including infant mortality, premature birth, illness, developmental delay, and decline in intelligence scores, poor future school performance, and relationship problems (St. Pierre & Layzer, 1998; Yoshikawa, 1995).  The longer a young child lives in poverty, the more severe and lasting the negative impact (St. Pierre & Layzer, 1998)."