How your refurbished sewing machine could help change the world! Third world poverty, famine and starvation, HIV aids, child labor and exploitation, all subjects that are never far from the news or general conversation these days.
No bad thing as without these reminders most of us cushioned in our western lifestyles would never come into contact with the daily life and death struggle that is the way of life for much of the world.
Even when we are confronted by the results of global inequality and the deaths of thousands there is a very real danger that it's all too big and too difficult and this can be a real turn off for any action we might feel we could take.
We need to know the big global picture but we also need to make the issues less distant.
To reduce the problems involved into more people related, bite sized chunks.
So what's this got to do with your old sewing machine? Well as long as it's able to be serviced your refurbished sewing machine could have a major impact on the life of someone half a world away.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that a sewing machine "was one of the few useful things ever invented".
For those who have very little a sewing machine is not only a means to clothe themselves and their family it's a way that they can produce clothes and other items for sale to others.
A chance to earn, to have pride in providing for yourself.
To get all the benefits that confidence and self esteem can give and that dependency and living on hand outs destroys.
Like the truism 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day give a man a rod and you feed him for life' a refurbished sewing machine can be a tool to fashion the way out of poverty.
Charities need your sewing machine and other tools for those who are trying to build their communities.
In poverty stricken countries in Africa these charities work with local organisations to train workers to use donated refurbished tools and to acquire skills that will make them able to work towards self sufficiency and move away from poverty by their own efforts.
Just one of these charities is able to ship $1.
500,000 worth of refurbished sewing machines and tools to support projects working with local people.
Simple isn't it? Everyone wins.
You get rid of something you no longer need, the charity gets a tool it needs and far away the family who receives it gets a chance of a new way of life.
You guessed it; it doesn't stop there as there are many other tools which so many of those living in poverty can't afford.
Look them out, talk to your friends, talk to the charity.
Have you skills you could use to help them with preparing and repairing the tools that will change lives.
Get involved, make a difference.
The problems may be world sized but even the eating of the biggest cake starts with the smallest bite.
So that's how your refurbished sewing machine will help to change someone's world and perhaps yours too.
No bad thing as without these reminders most of us cushioned in our western lifestyles would never come into contact with the daily life and death struggle that is the way of life for much of the world.
Even when we are confronted by the results of global inequality and the deaths of thousands there is a very real danger that it's all too big and too difficult and this can be a real turn off for any action we might feel we could take.
We need to know the big global picture but we also need to make the issues less distant.
To reduce the problems involved into more people related, bite sized chunks.
So what's this got to do with your old sewing machine? Well as long as it's able to be serviced your refurbished sewing machine could have a major impact on the life of someone half a world away.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that a sewing machine "was one of the few useful things ever invented".
For those who have very little a sewing machine is not only a means to clothe themselves and their family it's a way that they can produce clothes and other items for sale to others.
A chance to earn, to have pride in providing for yourself.
To get all the benefits that confidence and self esteem can give and that dependency and living on hand outs destroys.
Like the truism 'give a man a fish and you feed him for a day give a man a rod and you feed him for life' a refurbished sewing machine can be a tool to fashion the way out of poverty.
Charities need your sewing machine and other tools for those who are trying to build their communities.
In poverty stricken countries in Africa these charities work with local organisations to train workers to use donated refurbished tools and to acquire skills that will make them able to work towards self sufficiency and move away from poverty by their own efforts.
Just one of these charities is able to ship $1.
500,000 worth of refurbished sewing machines and tools to support projects working with local people.
Simple isn't it? Everyone wins.
You get rid of something you no longer need, the charity gets a tool it needs and far away the family who receives it gets a chance of a new way of life.
You guessed it; it doesn't stop there as there are many other tools which so many of those living in poverty can't afford.
Look them out, talk to your friends, talk to the charity.
Have you skills you could use to help them with preparing and repairing the tools that will change lives.
Get involved, make a difference.
The problems may be world sized but even the eating of the biggest cake starts with the smallest bite.
So that's how your refurbished sewing machine will help to change someone's world and perhaps yours too.