Latest Deed

Ever thought about how life would be if you couldn't read?  Maybe something like this...

Vhae uoy veer ouhtgth obaut woh file ouwld eb fi ouy cldoun't dear?

You wouldn't be able to waste time on Facebook, read the news, delete the spam from your email...hell even read your email, or drive or take a bus because you couldn't read the signs.  HOW WOULD YOU LIVE?! 

What if your children never got an education and never learned how to read?

You'd feel pretty crap, probably. You'd give yourself the worst parent of the decade award, I bet. You'd also be a social outcast for letting it happen. Life would be a dead end for both you and your kids. You might think - LIFE SUCKS.

Well, for an estimated 796 million people in the world, life IS that hard because they cannot read or write. 

That's one in every five adults. 

Most of these people are living in developing countries and 2/3 of them are women.

BUT... if a woman in a developing country does learn to read, her children are 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.  

AND... a girl living in Africa that received an education is 3 times - READ IT - 3 times!!! less likely to contract HIV.

Those girls that stay in school are more likely to receive higher wages, have healthier children and live longer... and the same for her children and grandchildren.  

Literacy and education improve the quality and length of life for poor communities around the world and is a key to growth and prosperity for developing countries. 

This past month UNSECO and the international community celebrated International Literacy Day. In honor of this day, the powerhouse education non-profit, Room to Read, launched a month long campaign to ensure that all children around the world learn to read. 

There is only ONE DAY LEFT in the campaign for you to help children have a chance at a better future.  

Here are some EASY things that you can do to help:

1. Invest in literacy by making a small donation. Even a little bit helps because your donation will be matched by Better World Books!

2. Educate yourself by watching this video. 

3. Spread the word. Tweet for #Literacy this message: 

Hwat wdulo hte lrodw kolo lkei fi ouy ocldu otn erda? Noigmeths kile stih. #RTforLiteracy (Each RT=$1 to @RoomtoRead) http://bit.ly/ILD2011 

For every tweet Random House will donate $1 to Room to Read's literacy programs.

4.  Start your own campaign to raise money for Room to Read. Run a marathon, host an event or come up with your own creative idea. Here are some ideas on how to get started.

Don't waste time and do it today in honor of International Literacy Day and all of the struggling mothers and children out there that need your help. 

Thanks for doing your GOOD deed today!

P.S. Its so easy to just do one of the things above! Don't be lazy!

P.P.S. If you want to start a fundraising campaign, contact us at GoodieDo and we can help you spread the word and raise additional funds!

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Women out there, do you sometimes feel like you could use a little more GLAMOUR in your life? 

Dear Gladys understands, no matter who you are.  

Dear Gladys is a charming Not-for-Profit contemporary and vintage women's boutique in Northcote, Melbourne. She has the perfect frocks for a night out with girlfriends, a day at work or a shopping day in the city. She knows what you need and how to make you feel the forgotten glamour of days gone by. She'll dress you up and send you on your way to brag to all of your friends about what a great little new shop you found. And if you attend one of her regular sewing circles you can brag even more about the stunning A-line skirt that YOU MADE YOURSELF! 

But Gladys doesn't only understand your needs for feeling more glamorous and a higher self worth, she understands EVERY woman's needs.  That is why all of the proceeds from Dear Gladys go to Fitted for Work, a not-for-profit that helps disadvantaged women get work and keep it. They do this by providing free interview appropriate clothing and mentoring and transition to work programs for women who need it. The programs help women gain the self-confidence and self-esteem they need to get sustainable employment.

So get yourself to Dear Gladys and feel the love! Try on a beautiful new outfit and watch your confidence soar knowing you look great and you are helping other women out there to look and feel their best too.

Visit them on Facebook or on their blog for more details.  Happy shopping!

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Are you raising money or running a non profit and asking for donations?

Is your strategy currently PAYING OFF?

Sally Hogshead author of 'Fascinate: Unlocking the 7 triggers of influence, persuasion, and captivation'  writes about 

LUST, 

MYSTIQUE, 

ALARM, 

PRESTIGE, 

POWER, 

VICE 

TRUST

as being the 7 key elements to being MEMORABLE. She outlines with many examples how experiences in life are chosen by us because of these seven underlying triggers, which we are often unaware of.

You know that feeling when you come across something FASCINATING and you are left lingering for MORE......?

There's something you just cant put your finger ON,  you have to see it AGAIN!

It's like an itch that won't go away. 

The more you itch it, the more you WANT TO ITCH IT!

In this book Sally answers the question 'Are beautiful people STILL more attractive with the lights OFF?' The answer to this is YES they smell better......

apparently: 'through scent, we can unconsciously detect gene makeup in other people.'

She goes on to explain the psychological reasoning behind shoe fetishes and provides an extremely useful self evaluation critique of how fascinating your company, brand or product is. 

This book is extremely useful for any who would like their story retold. From this you will understand how large companies such as Coca Cola create a lasting impression.

If you would like to FIND OUT how to:

• recruit supporters of your cause by the truckload because you are just SOOOO fascinating
• get others to buy products that you love and support
• WOW people and create a lasting impression 

THEN

1) click HERE and find the new fascinating YOU or buy it for that person or company in your life you find BOOOOOORING!!!

2) Then click add to basket (They even have FREEEE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!!!) and whammo you will finally understand why you just have to have Chinese fried noodles every Friday night for dinner.

P.S This is why I LOVE using products which have a great story behind them, retelling that story is just SOOO FASCINATING, not to mention FUN!

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For most of you reading this blog, I'd venture to say that traveling is something you love to do (and if you are lucky do often) or at least you might hold a romantic notion about traveling to foreign places, eating exotic foods and experiencing new cultures and places. I certainly do. I love to travel. Its a priority for me. I love doing it with my family and 2 year old daughter, who I'm pretty sure loves experiencing new places too (though I think we could do without the 12 hour plane rides...). 

But there is a dark side of travel for many disadvantaged people in the world. Human trafficking is a life changing experience of complete terror and vulnerability, where people (often women and children) are taken away from their homes and families and then bought and sold into slavery. Currently there are an estimated 27 million people being held as slaves in the world. They are forced to work in the sex industry or in labor camps in industries such as cocoa. It is disgusting and maddening that such crimes are committed so frequently in our "advanced" society. How can we let this happen?

So for all of you travel lovers, here is a small way that you can help. Lusso Bags is a sweet little company with a sweet little product and a big mission. They work with women in India from the fairtrade group, Freeset who have traded a life in the sex trade for a new life as a seamstress to make beautiful organic cotton and fairtrade shoe bags and other bags to help organize your suitcase and your life. Five percent of the cost of each bag is donated to help stop human trafficking. Its a win, win. You get to fill your suitcase or your diaper bag full of organized little bags of whimsy, while you are supporting women in their journey into a better life. 

We love Lusso Bags for - their clean, yet whimsical design sense; their great blog,  The Lusso Report on traveling, packing, fashion and socially conscious living; and their motto "Help a little...Help a lot." So next time you need to organize something, shop Lusso Bags and remember how you can help them to end human trafficking with your support. Happy travels!

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There has been a lot of talk and development in recent years about using games to help engage and educate people in development and sustainability issues.  UNICEF and the United Nations Development Program have used online games to educate the public and children about issues such as poverty and hunger.  Now enter OONi Games - a online social gaming project out of Buenos Aires.  Javier and Eduardo, the project's founders and gaming junkies, hope to help change the world through online social gaming.  Currently OONi Games is listed as a project on Kickstarter, "the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world."  Kickstarter lets regular people fund creative projects.  The trick is the project doesn't actually get your money unless the project reaches its fundraising target within a set number of days.  OONi Games is looking for US$24,475 in the next 25 days.  This money will help them get additional development support and a better office (right now they are working out of their bedrooms).  Here's a quick video about the game and project - 

OONi Games Project from OONi Games on Vimeo.

But back to making the world a better place... How does OONi Games plan to do that?  Here are 2 ways they discuss on their video.  First, they want to partner with SMEs around the world to help their gamers get "Favor Points." When a gamer buys something from an SME they get these points to use on OONi games to access premier content (I guess this means cooler clothes and better weapons for your OONik).  So this means that they'll be helping SMEs to grow their business reach through a fun social gaming platform.  Neat idea!  In addition, any OONik that takes social action in OONi (the universe world where you participate), such as recycling plastic or donating books, will be rewarded with "Favor Points" as well.  So apart from battling for control of the universe, OONiks are actually encouraged to do good rather than wage war.  

You might ask, "how will this translate into making the world a better place in the "real" world?"  Its anybody's guess as to how it might work.  But, if you are hesitant to get out there and really do something good in the real world, maybe you can practice in OONi-land with one of these guys as your avatar.  At least its a start!

To find out more about OONi Games and help fund this cool idea, go to their project page on Kickstarter.

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Have you ever dreamed of doing something to make the world a better place? Not just giving money to a charity or volunteering for a few hours, but really making it a big part of how you spend your time and energy? Cate Bolt not only dreams of making the world a better place, she does it every day on her own steam.  

In June of 2010, Cate started Foundation 18, Indonesia, an orphanage in Northern Bali, which homes children without a living parent or children whose parents have relinquished their children. The orphanage follows the group home model, where the children are raised in a family environment which means they have bedrooms instead of dormitories, eat meals as a family and the staff  play a parental role to the children.  The project quickly expanded to being more than "just an orphanage," but a child-friendly center for all children where they can access education, food and healthcare. 

In response to a need on a recent visit to the center, Cate dreams of establishing a fairtrade clothing and accessories manufacturing center to employ mothers in the area, stimulate the local economy and use profits to sustain the orphanage and other humanitarian projects in the community.  

YOU CAN HELP CATE AND THE MOTHERS AND CHILDREN IN THIS COMMUNITY TO FULFILL THEIR DREAM!!  She has registered her dream on the Sunsuper Dreams website.  Every month the dream with the most votes gets AU$5,000 to help them make their dream a reality.  

We are asking you to VOTE HERE for Cate's dream.  It will only take a few minutes and you can consider it your deed today to help make the world a better place!  

We also want to sincerely THANK Cate for all of her efforts in helping some of the world's most vulnerable people.  The world needs more people like you, Cate.  

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Child rearing in any form is a super feat for parents. Only now being a parent of 2.5 year old Chloe and 10 month old Jude can I understand a little of what being a parent is all about. Good Golly a definite paradigm shift occurred at the birth of our first child. Seeing that a parallel world exists between those with children and those without, without ever knowing such a world existed. 

The Continuum Concept is a must read for parents who no longer want to follow societies rules about child rearing and would like to try the path of least resistance. Believing in the innate nature of the child to be one that will make the right decision for itself in most circumstances. 

Author Jean Liedloff lived for two and half years with natives in the South American jungle. While deep within the forests and within the Indian communities she noted the peacefulness of all tribe inhabitants. In this book shares her observations of the psychology of South American jungle Indian's child rearing practices. She relates these practices to innate human nature which is often lost or forgotten in todays fast paced societies. 

I found the Continuum Concept initially a heavy read, but after working through the first few chapters found it to be an invaluable parenting read and have changed some of my learned parenting behaviors for more win- win and less confrontational outcomes or reactions.

I must say a big thank you on behalf of my children to my husband's beloved mother for the gift of this book. 

If you are already a parent, or thinking about a family and believe in the innate parenting skills human nature has provided us but are a bit cloudy from your own upbringing and all of the incoming messages from today's modern world THEN I highly recommend reading this book. Your children and their children will love you for it.

Buy it here 

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When you get out of bed and choose your outfit for the day. What is is saying about you? How do you feel? Are you co-ordinated, comfortable, proud to be wearing something which tells the world a little about you or does it give you a great feeling knowing that you stand for something? Is it creating a sustainable environment, a cleaner environment, a fairer work place, peace, education, a wage for a working mother to feed her children?

OR is it contributing to global pollution, disempowering poorly paid workers and compromising your  health and well-being?

Being a part of GoodieDo I have the good fortune of sourcing gorgeous clothing items which are benefical to others and to the earth. And in this great job perk, I get to try all of the empowering products before offering them to our fundraisers.  

For example I throw on a funky pair of tropical stripe organic, fairtrade, Pant to Poverty knickers, then an Omni Peace t-shirt , I dangle a Dialog handbag over my arm, and my outfit is almost complete minus the pants. I have constantly been on the lookout for a pair of pants or skirt/dress to complete my empowered outfit and finally I have found them.

I have recently been in contact with the yoga clothing company wear.it. Their approach to creating beautiful, fashionable clothing which is so comfortable it can be worn out or can be worn to practice yoga in is based on yogic principles of respecting communities and nature. Many of we'ars pieces are made from organic cotton or bamboo, and some of their dyes are plant based 'so when you have worn your t-shirt to shreds, you can throw it on the compost heap and let it feed back into the earth'. 

In manufacturing clothing it is often difficult for small companies to have strict production requirements which are beneficial to the environment and the workers and be competitively priced at the same time. Here is another example of an inspirational company basing their whole ethos on making the world a better place. Well done wear.it!

We are looking forward to offering some of we'ars  clothing pieces to GoodieDo fundraisers in near future. Stay tuned for notification of this exciting addition.

If you could make the world a healthier place and feel amazing in the fibers you wear knowing that your action as a consumer is changing the world for the better would you?

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When I first decided to travel abroad my reasoning was to see if people all over the world live, love, play and laugh just as I do in my community. Having just arrived home from a month long holiday I am still happy of the conviction that they DO. 

To highlight 3 examples of my own experiences on this last trip of communities helping me - being a part of the traveling community:

1. When my 2 sick children under the age of three, one with an ear infection, the other with bronchiolitis needed medical attention on the small rural Island of Rodrigues. The hotel owners wife, a trained antenatal nurse provided homemade throat soothing remedies and the local hospital with internationally trained doctors provided immediate FREE assessment and medication for both children. I doubt this happens in  many so called, developed countries. It was such a fresh and stressless experience.

2. Upon asking a local Mauritian man if he knew the phone number for a taxi to the airport and being offered by him to take us at our desired time just through good will.  The trip was a 20 minute drive each way and would have cost $30aud and then an additional airport fee. I do wonder in our own busy worlds if we too would offer the same to a traveller.

3. Upon arriving at Kuala Lumpur airport after an over night flight with the two over tired children by myself to find at least 200 people before me in the customs/immigration que. Then waiting for one hour and expecting to wait for at least another hour and a half before getting through with one screaming, over tired child on my back in a back pack and another upset child in the pusher; for this act of kindness I must say a massive thank you to the lovely family who let me take their position at the front of the immigration que. Another hour and a half would have been extremely unpleasant.

This list could very easily go on and on and it reminds me of the #30 days of GOOD Challenge on good.is which this month provides a daily challenge aiming to connect you with other people. It is currently at day 10.

The challenges so far are: 1. Send someone a postcard; 2. Have a conversation with a service employee; 3. Share an old photo with a friend; 4. Ask a relative what they did today; 5. Coordinate a group event; 6. Get coffee with a Co Worker; 7. Buy a friend a gift under $5; 8. Email a twitter Pal, 9. Video chat with a far away friend; 10. Feed a homeless person.

A GOOD gestured act is just so simple and it feels amazing too. I am always amazed at the snowball effect of doing one good thing on a regular basis has on my life. Give it a try and see if you can do the next 20 days of the GOOD Challenge.

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