Giving 100%Brian Tuddenham — Cambridge, ON My wife, Pat, and I were first attracted to Sleeping Children in large measure because it is a Canadian 100% charity. But not until we had the good fortune to become travelling volunteers in India and Bangladesh did I realize that such a claim is an understatement. 100% barely describes the enthusiastic effort and resources invested by Canadian SCAW volunteers. And, certainly, every Canadian penny contributed to the Lions Bangladesh distribution has gone directly to a very needy child – in fact, because the bedkit contents are made in Bangladesh the $35 buys closer to what would cost three or four times that much at home.
As a stay-at-home contributor I completely missed how much Murray Dryden's dream is realized through the passion and generosity of our Overseas Volunteer Organization(s) [OVO]. Without their time, energy, talents, and enthusiasm SCAW could not have blossomed into a million bedkits. Bangladeshi volunteers are responsible for identifying each and every girl and boy receiving a bedkit. They arrange for the manufacture, purchase, collating, and packaging of the thousands of bedkits distributed. They arrange our distribution sites and then transport to each one all the finished bedkits and all the eager children. Bangladeshi volunteers provide the many extra helping hands needed to hand out 800 bedkits each day of our distribution.
And it is Bangladeshi volunteers who so graciously host SCAW travelling volunteers and blessed each member of the Lions team with one-to-one interaction with 4,000 delightful children. This would not have been possible without their kindness and hard work. So, Sleeping Children is a Canadian 100% charity. But it is also, increasingly, so much more: SCAW is a worldwide network of caring individuals committed to helping very needy children get a good night's rest. I, for one, sleep much better at night for knowing that. |
