A is for
Audi Design Foundation, whose "aim is to encourage and empower designers by supporting and promoting designs that create a positive change in people's lives".

B is for
Beatle's inspired MINI that will raise funds for The Material World Foundation, which was originally set up by The Beatle's George Harrison to support charities and people with special needs. MINI seem to be on some kind of roll with specially designed charity cars, as they have already have a hot pink leopard spot MINI for 2009's Life Ball, Europe's largest AIDs charity event (last year's was a secret agent MINI).

C is for
Charity car show featuring Porsche, Jaguar, Mustang, Corvette and MG. It's being run by The Friends of Steve McQueen (who supposedly used to be one of Hollywood's sexiest leading men??) in USA. Hmm, someone should plan one for New Zealand - great car eye candy!

It's been a full house here with six tradesmen working here all at one go! Well worth the effort as its just more steps towards settling into this new place. We finally have a government-subsidised heat pump to help keep the office and rooms cosy in an energy-efficient & cost effective manner. (Thanks to Right House and EECA Energywise!)

It sure feels nice to make a place 'your own' & be able to call it home. And it's just as awesome to help do it for others too! Habitat for Humanity is an international not-for-profit organisation, who we are lucky enough to have in New Zealand. The ultimate goal of Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the earth by building adequate and basic housing. In New Zealand, they focus on eliminating sub-standard housing by building, renovating and selling simple, decent houses on an affordable basis, and have helped give 328 families their own home (and counting).

There are many ways of volunteering, from doing something local in your community, to joining up with a team in other parts of the country and International Volunteer trips (sounds interesting!). So if you're good with a hammer (or a keen DIYer), like travelling or meeting new people, check out Habitat for Humanity : )
Or, if you know of a family in need of a good home, here's info on applying for a house)

Ok finally got our act together and the blog looks like it belongs to us now : )

In other news, if you know of a charity or a good cause that may require funding for a project, Paul Newman's Own (what a role model! 100% profit after tax to charities/causes worldwide!!) is having its 2009 call for entries from charities. Details for Australian and New Zealand charities can be found at www.paulnewmansown.co.nz or for general details about the Newman's Own Foundation, visit www.newmansownfoundation.org. Am very very impressed by the business & foundation!

I heard about One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) last week and it's doing good in quite an interesting tech-saavy way. This organisation aims to have one laptop per child:

To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

People can help out by paying for a laptop, being a translator, providing tech support to kids/adults, or even helping to develop software (games, tools, programs)! Very cool : )
It also seems that people can help by testing the laptops to make sure they run ok before they're given away (someone had mentioned it to us). There's workshops in Wellington doing this, so it must be quite widespread round the world?

If you're in Singapore or nearby, check this new thing out at Post-Museum in Little India!

Shopper/Hero is a new project of Post-Museum which is envisaged to be a groundbreaking addition to the world of shopping in Singapore and the region.

The mission of Shopper/Hero is to promote consumption of products which benefit society. The objective of Shopper/Hero is to provide an educational platform regarding the work of NGOs and other cause-related organisations in Singapore and the region while offering consumers a convenient and easy way to purchase products which satisfy their needs and wants while contributing to the various causes.

Sounds awesome - the kind of thing we would love to be involved in! If you've been to it, let us know how it was : )

I just found out about Enable Community, a New Zealand not for profit organization, working to provide access to affordable communications to those that would otherwise be unable to afford it.

The cool thing is: they partner with Vodafone New Zealand to collect and re-use old mobile phones, and the phones are then given to provide entrepreneurs in developing countries through micro-credit programs, helping to provide one of the basic tools that we take for granted when trying to run our own businesses.

Have a mobile phone you'd like to get rid of? Just take your mobile phones and accessories like batteries and chargers to any Vodafone, Bond and Bond or Noel Leeming store!

Or freepost it to Vodafone at:
Freepost
Vodafone Handset Recycling Programme
Private Bag 92222
Auckland

If you want to take it a step further, you can even run a mobile recycling drive at your office or any other group/club. For more info, click here...

This is a great mix of doing good and recycling at the same time - and it's so easy to do too!!! Plus someone else out there gets a snazzy cool phone : )