Tag Archives: Philanthropy

Day 362

Everybody goes off track once in a while – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 8: 03 PM on day 362 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself toast, and scrambled eggs and chicken polony for breakfast, drink guava juice from a glass and not a cup–I usually drink from a mug because it has a handle on it– make sandwiches on behalf of Virginia’s Sandwich Run– special thanks to my mom who helped out today 🙂 –feed myself uzhunnu vada–a savory Indian doughnut – and chutney for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – chat to my friend from the U.S, Jack King –he actually gave me some tips on how to raise money –start reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, feed myself pineapple for dinner and brush my teeth once more.

This morning I was in the bathroom when it occurred to me that this blog has become more about giving and less about gaining my independence in that moment a light bulb came over my head and I decided to kill two birds with one stone i.e. I am asking those of you who are yet to donate to my campaign to donate $10 for every new task I accomplish – see the progress I’ve made in the self-assessment below (Note: For the sake of proof I will post pictures of me accomplishing all the tasks I will tell you I accomplished). Do you find it harder to get back on track once you’ve gone off?

Reflections of the past 321 days: Self-assessment (Note: This assessment was made on July 31, 2011)

To push myself around on my wheelchair – needs more practise most of the time I’m too lazy so I ask my family to wheel me around

To get in and out of bed by myself – not yet attempted because my parents are always around and even if they weren’t I would be too afraid to try because I fall and break my bones

To go to the bathroom by myself– again not yet attempted because my parents are always around and even if they weren’t I would be too afraid to try because I fall and break my bones

To bathe myself – attempted/needs more practice – I tried two days ago when my mother was in the hospital with my brother but since I can’t bend my back because there’s a metal rod in it – I had Scoliosis – that proved to be difficult

To undress and redress myself – attempted/needs more practice – sometimes I can only get one hand out a sleeve other times it’s both and on a really good I can take my whole shirt off

To brush my teeth – partially achieved – I can brush my teeth just fine but I need someone to help me lean over the sick so that the toothpaste ends up in the sink and not all over my shirt

To sign my name on a document (I never write anything out I always use a computer/laptop) – achieved sort of/needs more practice – I signed for my debit card and it was accepted bt when I signed to renew my passport it was denied

To type with both hands – needs more practice – I have been typing with only my left hand so long that it’s hard to break

To eat and drink by myself – partially achieved/needs more practice – I can feed myself with a spoon and drink from a mug but feeding myself with a fork and knife and drinking from a glass (because it has no handle) is still difficult

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 361

Day 360

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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

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 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

1 Reply

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

Day 329

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Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security. – John Allen

It’s 8: 09 PM on day 329 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 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more–I worked most of the day and all I got is I’ll consider it it’s really disheartening if people knew (I’m not feeling sorry for myself) how heard it was for me to go from morning to night with a smile on my face I bet you they would be less flippant about it – start reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, watch TV and feed myself avocado sandwich for dinner.

In the early hours of Friday morning my grandma was rushed to the hospital – she was having seizures – and subsequently underwent a brain scan to discover that one of the blood vessels in her brain had burst as I write this – it is now 7: 25 AM – she is probably being prepped for surgery and although it pains me that I am not there right now – I didn’t go because I knew that my father would make a huge song and dance about taking me – he did the same thing when my brother was in the hospital although I did go on that occasion because he knew that I would trample over millions to be with my brother in his hour of need – and plus I didn’t want to get sick from all the germs in the hospital – I am not worried because I know that she’s going to be fine – she was bitten by snakes SEVEN times all seven times the snake met it’s end LOL so I highly doubt that a little brain surgery’s going to bring her down. Do you security because you can deal with uncertainty adequately?

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 328

2 Replies

The only courage you really need is the courage to stand by your actions– that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 8:41 PM on day 328 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself an avocado sandwich for breakfast, publish my Kid of the Week feature, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign – no luck – read Little Wonders, A day in the life of Reagan and A New Kind of Perfect – all of the blogs although told different stories illustrated the triumph of the human spirit– feed myself spaghetti bolognese for lunch – it got a bit messy but I did it 🙂 – and continue reading Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer.

Last night my father found out that I posted a notice about my campaign on our community’s website (if you have no idea what I’m talking about refer to Day 301) and just as I expected he TOTALLY freaked going on like I murdered somebody saying now people are going think I am using you to collect money email them and ask them to take it down to which after I initially considered following his orders said I stand by my actions if you want them to take it down you’ve got to call and ask them to do it yourself – he did but the guy wasn’t there after which he reconsidered – and that I guess is my message to all of you guys if you know that you’re doing the right thing don’t let anybody make you apologize. Do you courageously stand by your actions because you know that you’re doing the right thing or say I’m sorry for doing that at the first sign of disapproval?

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!