Tag Archives: Giving

Day 340

I can’t say whether this is better or not. But it’s down to belief– just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t t there. – Horton in Horton Hears A Who

It’s 8: 03 PM on day 340 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself avocado sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign while listening to Jason Derulo‘s music– somebody told me off because I put her on the spot and asked for a donation but it’s okay I can take the heat 🙂 – read On Being Alone With My Child on Love That Max feed myself rice and curry for lunch, continue reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, watch TV, feed myself steamed vegetables and chicken for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Last Night I was watching John Edward Spirit of South Africa – a show about John Edward – world-renowned psychic medium and the readings he did on his recent visit to this beautiful country – and I couldn’t help thinking I wonder what it would be like to be visited by someone who has crossed-over a few minutes later I remembered all those times I felt Virginia’s – if you have no idea who I’m talking about visit Virginia: An Angel in Heaven – energy around me I guess what I’m trying to say is keep an open mind and know that when your loved ones come to you, you won’t hear them or see them you will only feel them. Can you feel the energies of your dearly-departed loved ones?

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 338

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Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced. – Swami Vivekananda

It’s 8: 40 PM on day 338 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – do research on helping kids lose weight–I feel really guilty for the shape that my brother’s in right now I feel like if I played with him outside like I did when I was younger he wouldn’t be so out of shape maybe I’ll do that this weekend–have no idea what I’m talking about read the next paragraph – tweet some more about my campaign some more –still no luck –watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, continue reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini watch TV, steamed vegetables for dinner and bush my teeth once more.

As you know I love social media Facebook, Twitter etc because people can’t see me and therefore don’t judge me by my disability but this weekend I am going to be totally off the social media grid i.e. there won’t be any manual Facebook postings or tweets from me all for the idea of equality – I want to raise the remaining $1 901.10 that I need to build a well in Africa/India or get close to it by means of this fundraiser – special thanks to Stacey over at My Lifestyle Max who wrote a blog post called How To Put “First Things First” – And Reclaim The Life You Love which inspired me to do this – here’s how this is going to work –if you want to help out – you will tweet me –@Nisha360 – over the weekend I pledge – however much you wish to donate – to your campaign and do as such. Do you have an idea that you live by?

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 337

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There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein

It’s 7: 45 PM on day 337 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – prepare my gratitude journal page – (see why below) estimated time of publication right after I’m done with this – read How To Put “First Things First” – And Reclaim The Life You Love on My Lifestyle Max and A special kind of sibling torture on Love That Max – both very good blogs – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV, feed myself oranges for dinner, watch some more TV and brush my teeth once more.

As you know this month has been a wrenched one for my family – my brother was in hospital and is still recovering and my grandma is still in hospital – but what astounds me is that no matter what happens on a given day every night or the next day I make an entry in my gratitude journal – sometimes all I write is I am grateful that I am grateful – which is something I think everybody should start doing so in the hopes that you will follow in my footsteps and see your life in a different way I am going to create a page on this blog called Gratitude Journal of 2011, copy and paste all the entries I’ve made so far this year and continue to make new entries until the 31^st of December. How do you choose to live 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 336

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Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. – Auguste Rodin

It’s 7: 42 PM on day 336 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, read Endless Jubilee– a blog about the joys of raising a child with Cerebral Palsy I actually cried when I read Chloe helps us truly see who she is — which has nothing to do with what she can do or how her body works. It’s a blessing to see a person in this light, outside of how society determines a person’s value. There is so much more to all of us than what we can do or cannot do. (an excerpt from Chloe 101) because that’s all I’ve ever wanted from family, friends and even strangers– tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself hotdog for breakfast, hang out with my brother who stayed home from school because he was sick, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, watch TV, feed myself oranges for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

At 10 PM last night my brother was rushed to the hospital – he had an asthma attack – and although he’s fine now – THANK the LORD – I figured it would be a shame to let his suffering go to waste so I compiled a list of symptoms that your child with asthma might present with. Take a look:

Asthma in Children – Symptoms

Symptoms of asthma can be mild or severe. Your child may have no symptoms; severe, daily symptoms; or something in between. How often your child has symptoms can also change. Symptoms of asthma may include:

• Wheezing, a whistling noise of varying loudness that occurs when the airways of the lungs (bronchial tubes ) narrow.
• Coughing, which is the only symptom for some children.
• Chest tightness.
• Shortness of breath, which is rapid, shallow breathing or difficulty breathing.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Tiring quickly during exercise.

If your child has only one or two of these symptoms, it does not necessarily mean he or she has asthma. The more of these symptoms your child has, the more likely it is that he or she has asthma.

An asthma attack occurs when your child’s symptoms suddenly increase. Factors that can lead to an asthma attack or make one worse include:

• Having a cold or another type of respiratory illness, especially one caused by a virus, such as influenza.
• Exercising (exercise-induced asthma), especially if the air is cold and dry.
• Exposure to triggers, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, dust mites, or animal dander.
• Changes in hormones, such as during the start of a girl’s menstrual blood flow at puberty.
• Taking medicines, such as aspirin (aspirin-induced asthma) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

(Note: I am not a doctor the list above is courtesy of WebMD)

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 335

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It’s not what they call you, it’s what you answer to. – Dr Toni Luck

It’s 6: 59 PM on day 335 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an egg sandwich for breakfast, help my brother study for his English test, publish my Kid of the Week feature, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, chat to some family members on Skype, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – feed myself an avocado for dinner, tweet about my campaign some more – special thanks to Anna – a kind stranger who made a donation just when I was losing all hope –and brush my teeth once more.

Yesterday I was watching Bicentennial Man – a movie – starring Robin Williams – about a robot who desperately wanted to become human – and what I learned from that was that if you know who you are you don’t need acknowledgement from anybody else which confirmed for me that saying to my mother earlier in the day I try every day to help others and if that makes me a failure then I’m happy to be one when she said I hope at least two of my children succeed in life was the right thing to do. Do you answer to labels that are not your own?

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 334

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The past is a good place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. – Author Unknown

It’s 6: 34 PM on day 334 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bread and scrambled eggs for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – listen to music, accompany my father on coiffeur duty – he had to drop off different members of my family from different places and since the housekeeper didn’t show up for work today I had to go with him – feed myself fruit salad for lunch, accompany my father – again – on coiffeur duty, feed myself pasta for dinner and brush my teeth once more

I believe that you can tell a lot about a person by the kinds of books they read and the music they listen to and as I looked back last night on my favorite songs growing up I realized how innocent I really was you’ll see what I mean. Take a look:

My past in music

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 333

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I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common — they all wanted validation. … They want to know, do you hear me? Do you see me? Does what I say mean anything to you? – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 7: 36 PM on day 333 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – compile a post for Youth Voices – a group headed by my friend Mark McKinney – prepare my Kid of the Week feature for Sunday, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, listen to music – I LOVE Who Says by Selena Gomez (press play and listen to the song below) it’s song for every girl – go to physiotherapy, watch TV and feed myself steamed vegetables for dinner.

A couple of days ago Dr. Joni Redlich – @JoniRedlich on Twitter – asked me What have been ur best /worst PT – physiotherapy – experiences – she’s a pediatric physical therapist specializing in children with developmental disabilities I suppose that’s why she was curious – and I replied I don’t have a worst PT experience my best was meeting my 2nd PT she makes me feel seen 🙂 not realizing how true that actually was until today because although my mom tries her hardest there are days when I just need her emotionally but she’s too busy taking care of me physically – making sure that I’m bathed etc – to notice which is – I know that this is not a fair comparison since I only see my physiotherapist every two weeks for thirty minutes but please bear with me – totally different to what happens when I’m with my physiotherapist – we talk about politics, sports, books, movies, what’s going on in my life, what’s going in her life basically everything except for my “disability” – my point is your kids don’t want the things you can buy for them or the things you can do for them all they want is to know that you see them like I know my physiotherapist sees me – first and foremost as a human being. Do you make it a point to validate people when they interact with you?

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 332

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It is not good to know more unless we do more with what we already know. – Bergethon, R. K

It’s 7: 49 PM on day 332 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, watch and donate to the telethon held to raise money for the people of Somalia – I already made my donation to the World Food Programme but I didn’t tell my father that and coaxed him into making anotther donation because I wanted to teach my sister the joy of giving anyway coming back to the telethon 1.2 million rand was raised I am SO proud to be South African today 🙂 – feed myself banana for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – visit my favourite blogs Love That Max, Chasing Rainbows and Bird on the Street, feed myself rice and fried fish for lunch, watch TV, feed myself pasta and fried chicken for dinner, brush my teeth once more and help my brother act out the play that he wrote.

Yesterday as I was writing a post publicizing the telethon that took place this morning (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to Day 331) I realized that the SABC – South African Broadcasting Corporation – although had the best intentions in wanting to raise money for the people of Somalia were a bit lacking in the knowledge of how to use the internet to publicize the upcoming telethon – I spent hours online looking for the telethon phone number eventually giving up and deciding to wait until the telethon was going on to add the number to my post – so today I am going to give you some tips on how to make the internet work for the philanthropist in you because I believe that knowledge is most powerful when it is shared. Take a look:

How to use the internet to raise awareness and money for your favorite charity: Things I wish someone had told me before I entered the world of philanthropy

Make sure that the charity you support is registered – most charities will display a tax/EIN number on their respective websites if they don’t email them and ask for it

Find out whether your charity is linked to a fundraising website e.g. Firstgiving, Justgiving, My Charity Page – the advantage of using a fundraising page to raise money for charity is that you as the fundraiser don’t have to do anything – it’s fully automated – and there’s the added benefit of being able to receive donations from all over the world twenty-four hours a day with the only disadvantage being that the fundraising website gets to keep a small percentage of whatever you raise

Set up social media accounts e.g. Twitter, Facebook and connect with people who can identify with you – you will often find me asking people who have been affected by disability to make donations to my campaign because I know that they know how hard my life is.

Create a chain – mingle with the people that your donors interact with and tell them about what your trying to do chances are that they will donate too and when that happens you have to start the process up again and so on and so on

Don’t pester people – if someone says that they can’t donate to your cause for whatever reason accept that with grace and move on don’t keep sending them Facebook messages/tweets they will get very irritated with you and unfriend/unfollow you

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 331

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And I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place. – Christiane Amanpour

It’s 7: 51 PM on day 331 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 brunch, tweet about my campaign some more–outcome pending – and watch TV.

This morning I heard on Morning Live – South Africa’s premier breakfast show – that they are going to be holding a three hour telethon tomorrow to raise money for the people of Somalia –if you live in South Africa call 083 9133 555 to make a pledge or text SABC to 38722 (one text costs R10) (Note: Lines only open tomorrow so if you call or text today it would just be a waste – and I would like to thank reporter Vauldi Carelse and cameraman Herbert Mamela for the staler work that they did because I believe that had it not been for them the SABC – South Africa Broadcasting Corporation – wouldn’t have been moved to get involved. Have you witnessed good journalism making the world a better place?

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 330

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Kids notice things that we overlook – that what I learned today 🙂

It’s 8: 29 PM on day 330 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself toast, scrambled eggs and sausages for brunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – Debbie (@MissShuganah) made a donation yesterday and my aunty and uncle made a second donation today only $1 912.10 more to raise to reach my goal I am SO happy 🙂 – watch TV, feed myself steamed vegetables for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

Last night my siblings and I were watching the seven o’ clock news on which they featured a story about the good work that doctors were doing in Somalia and my brother (who just turned eleven yesterday) said something along the lines of how come they always mention the doctors what about his team what about the nurses the nurses who took care of me (he was in hospital a couple of days ago) weren’t that bad and because I know that what he said was (and still is) so true I would like to say to all the nurses out there I SO appreciate what you do particularly with today being Women’s Day in South Africa I know that most of you are overworked and underpaid but without the healthcare sector would be on its knees so please keep doing what you’re doing and know that your work has value. Have the words of a child made you more appreciative of the people around you?

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!