Tag Archives: Giving

Day 360

I have found that the imagination does not work to its full potential when we are lying on the couch doing nothing, but when we are with like-minded people. – David DeNotaris

It’s 7: 53 PM on day 360 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, compile a post for Youth Voices–a section of NorthFork Collective Voices headed by my friend, Mark McKinney –prepare my Kid of the Week feature for Sunday, tweet and Facebook about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck other than the donation Heather (@TMNQueenMum) made two days ago –thanks Heather 🙂 – I got a battering from a Facebook group creator saying although my campaign might be real he didn’t feel like playing lawyer again this week this is what you get for trying to make a difference – feed myself a bread and butter sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, tweet about my campaign some more–still no luck everybody’s waiting for somebody else to fix the world’s problems and frankly I’m sick of it! – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, feed myself steamed vegetables for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday evening I was on Twitter searching for something I didn’t what until I stumbled onto this profile The Blogunteer (@TheBlogunteer): The Blogunteer profiles non-profit organizations and volunteers with a mission to inspire volunteerism! Tweets by @stacy_pearson http://blogunteer.wordpress.com and logged onto blog what I love most about The Blogunteer is that they, like me, have a passion for giving philanthropists a platform which is why I asked to be profiled why am I telling you this to remind you that no matter how influential you think you might me on your own it never hurts to ask for help from people you know understand you. Is your imagination working to its full potential?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

If you’ve given to my cause or you can’t give now, please help me by sharing my cause with others. You can tweet about it like my friend Stan Faryna. This is the tweet he uses: @Nisha360 is a brave, smart young woman trying to make a better world for us all. Please help her do an amazing thing. http://bit.ly/hC7vOu

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 359

Day 357

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Sometimes the questions you ask are more important than the answers – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 49 PM on day 357 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, fill in forms to make donations on behalf of Iris Fischer and Betsy Cross–(thanks you guys) they made donation to my campaign via Paypal (I filled in most of the page and decided to wait for my father to complete the payments because I didn’t know his credit card number only after a few hours the webpage expired so I had to do it all over again a few hours later) – pay my dad back all the money he donated on behalf of every Paypal donor I’ve ever had – I hate feeling like I owe anybody anything father or not so now we are all square – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself a chicken nugget sandwich and an avocado sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, tweet about my campaign some more–still no luck other than the donations I made on behalf of my Paypal donors and the $6.50 I personally made I figured I couldn’t ask you to do something I wasn’t willing to do :)– feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, feed myself oranges steamed vegetables for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday I was doing something – I don’t remember what it was – and I thought to myself I wonder what would happen if everybody said – to each other – how can I help you because I swear it really makes a difference – if you don’t believe me try it out for a month ask not what can you do for me but rather what can I do for you and see if you don’t feel good about yourself afterwards – my primary aim when I interact with people is to serve them in any which way I can and I think they can sense that which makes all my human interactions all the more enjoyable. Have you ever asked yourself a question that has changed your life?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 354

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The show must go no matter what– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 33 PM on day 354 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, make some sandwiches on behalf of Virginia’s Sandwich Run with the help of our housekeeper– I was sticky and messy by the end of it but it was for a good cause 🙂 – feed myself an avocado sandwich for brunch, prepare my Kid of the Week feature for Sunday, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself grilled chicken for dinner and watch TV.

As many of you know my family has been going through a rough patch of late – first my brother was hospitalized and then almost a week later my grandma (she has now been moved to a rehab center) – and because of that I put making sandwiches for our housekeeper’s neighborhood – if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to Virginia’s Sandwich Run – on hold but this week I realized that me sitting here not helping people wasn’t helping anyone least of all my grandma who I haven’t see in four weeks – I asked my father to take me but as per usual he said no I still can’t understand how a father can be ashamed his child because she has a medical condition – so today I am going to make sandwiches in honour of both sets of my grandparents – both my grandmothers are still alive – Virginia, Joseph uncle – my father’s friend who died a couple of years ago – Brennan and Rachel. Do you stop your life when something unexpected happens?

Day 353

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Your perception of your life and not the circumstances of it will be the difference between success and failure– that’s what I learned today.

It’s 7: 31 PM on day 353 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my campaign some more–still no luck I keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for the kids whose names I don’t know– feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for a while, watch TV, feed myself steamed vegetables for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Last night laying in bed I remembered my cousin’s – sorry chechi (chechi in my native tongue of Malayam has one of two meanings it either means elder sister or elder female cousin) you know I love you – Facebook status which read Justin Bieber, who is not out of his diapers yet and still breastfeeding DRIVES A FERRARI!!! could someone just shoot me now please ….NO JUSTICE!! arrrrgh!!! and I thought why can’t people look at someone who has less than them and just be grateful because let’s face it although most of us are not as wealthy as Justin Bieber we are still a whole lot better off than the people who live in Somalia or Sudan. Do you constantly compare yourself with people who have more than you and feel less than as a result?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 352

Day 351

Day 350

6 Replies

Blessed are innovators because they find solutions to their own problems while creating opportunities for others – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 7: 25 PM on day 350 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, make a donation on behalf of Cindy (@notjustagranny)– she made a donation to my PayPal account yesterday and asked me to donate it to my campaign (Note: If you’re going to make a donation to my campaign via PayPal please attach a note that reads please donate this to your campaign) –prepare my Sponsors of my Campaign page – (read the next paragraph to understand what I’m talking about) the page will be published right after I’m done here –tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck other than the donation that Cindy made yesterday – feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, watch TV, tweet about my campaign some more–still no luck– feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, feed myself tapioca and fish curry for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Ever since the inception of my campaign I’ve been emailing big companies such as Twitter for sponsorship only now I realize that by doing that I was closing myself off to another demographic – ordinary people who want to make a difference and get some publicity for the things they care about – and to remedy that I am going to create a page on this blog – Sponsors of my Campaign – where you can post anything you wish – except for videos containing violence and pornography and adverts glamorizing smoking, drinking or gambling – for a donation of $20 or more to my campaign. Here’s how this is going to work: you will make the donation of $20 or more to my campaign, email me whatever you want to post at adventuresofme@hotmail.co.za (Note: The subject line of the email must read I want to be a sponsor) and if it does not contain anything mentioned above I will gladly post it for you (Note: All postings will be taken down after a month unless another donation of $20 or more is made). Are you an innovator?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 349

4 Replies

Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless. – Sherry Anderson (Thanks, Kathy)

It’s 7: 05 PM on day 349 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and baked beans for breakfast, publish my Kid of the Week feature – even now thinking of Rachel’s story makes me want to cry tears of joy and sorrow at the same time – read it and you’ll see why – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck this afternoon but Laura (@laurajteacheroz) did make a donation yesterday only I had already published yesterday’s post by the time I saw it so I couldn’t mention it – Laura is so great a couple of months ago she promised to donate $50 when I raised $500 more and although I had long forgotten about her promise she kept her word – thanks Laura I LOVE you 🙂 – feed myself fried chicken, baked beans and bun for dinner , brush my teeth once more and tweet about my campaign some more–I posted another tweet about it just before I came over here to finish this post read tomorrow’s post to find out if anyone did.

Today somebody – I won’t mention who – said to my sister just as she was leaving Neethu good luck with your studies study hard and all I got was goodbye Nisha and in that moment I remembered all those times when I would tell people that I was raising money to build a well and they would say in a patronizing tone oh that’s nice dear why am I telling you this to remind you to leave your ego at the door when you interact with people because ALL work has value. Do you applaud volunteers or look down on them because they’ve chosen to turn their backs on materialism?

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!

Day 346

2 Replies

Variety is the spice of life. – Author Unknown

It’s 7: 38 PM on day 346 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, read 9 ways to always have hope for your child with special needs on Love That Max, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – watch TV, tweet and Facebook about my campaign –still no luck but hey I tried my very best I asked and asked and asked and I will get up and do it all again tomorrow because I refuse to sit back and wait for someone else to change the world when I can do it myself – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch some more TV, feed myself rice and curry for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous post August is Women’s Month here in South Africa and that in combination with the fact that I’m always trying to do something I’ve never done before compelled me to interview one of the most extraordinary women I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on the World Wide Web. Take a look:

Ellen Seidman: Warrior Mom

Ellen and her son - Max

For those who don’t know, who is Ellen Seidman?

Ellen: I am a mom of two, a magazine editor, a blogger, a do-er, a dreamer.

How, when and why did you start blogging?

Ellen: I started blogging to help inspire other moms of kids with special needs. I’d had a very rough time during Max’s early years, and I wanted mothers out there to know that things do get better. I never imagined how much I’d be inspired in return.

What advice would you give people who are thinking of starting their own blogs?

Ellen: Read lots of blogs and see what makes them must-reads. Also, find a blogger mentor—someone you look up to—and ask for their advice.

What were your biggest challenges when you first started blogging?

Ellen: Finding the time! That’s still a challenge!

Do you sometimes feel the need to censor what you write for fear that you might in some way hurt those that you love?

Ellen: I never, ever write anything that would embarrass my son, either now or years from now when he might someday be able to read this blog.

When I read your posts I more often than not think wow she is an extraordinary mother do you see yourself that way?

Ellen: Really, I see myself as a mother trying to do her best. But thank you.

What was your initial reaction when you found out that your precious baby boy had Cerebral Palsy?

Ellen: By then, we were very aware of his challenges, so the diagnosis itself was not a surprise. They were just two words. Max was bigger than the CP.

How do you feel when all people see when they look at your son is his “disability”? (I feel like punching someone when that happens to me lucky for whoever that somebody is at the time I was raised better than that LOL 🙂 )

Ellen: It’s hard to tell what people are feeling when they look at my son, though I do see the pity in their eyes at times. “I’m so sorry,” people will say when I tell them Max has CP. “Don’t be,” I’ll say. “He’s an awesome kid.”

How has your son having Cerebral Palsy affected your marriage?

Ellen: I am more in awe of my husband than ever for all the help he gives to Max. I never know what vast amount of patience and dedication he could have! I could do without the farting contests, though.

Thank you Ellen for graciously answering my questions it’s been a great honour sharing you with my readers. To find out more about Ellen and what she gets up to on a daily bases visit her blog at www.lovethatmax.com

Are we connecting on Twitter? If not, say hi at http://twitter.com/Nisha360

Stan’s very sweet for saying so, but feel free to write what reflects you best.

Thanks to all my friends out there who are helping me make my dream come true: to make a better world for all of us!