Check back each week to see more short documentaries of Helping Hands from across Australia.
“I’ve done shoeboxes since my kids were little – they’re now in their twenties. But I came to the warehouse one day and I looked and thought, this really is an operation – called Operation Christmas Child – and I’m volunteering and realising the magnitude of what can be done,” says Operation Christmas Child volunteer, Jo Lawrance.
In this episode of Helping Hands, we see the Little BIG House breaking through the barriers of loneliness and isolation, and creating deep and meaningful community connections.
“The Little BIG House is our neighbourhood hub,” says Sarah Mathews, CEO of the Little BIG Foundation. "It’s a place where people come together. We have ninety events a month." Everything is based around creating connection and meeting your neighbours and bringing people together.
“Operation Christmas Child is a really tangible, hands-on way that Australians can show love to kids in need around the world,” say Leanne Palmer from Operation Christmas Child.
It’s a hot day in north-western Sydney. Leanne is overseeing the busy activity at the Operation Christmas Child warehouse, from which Samaritan’s Purse coordinates its annual Australia/New Zealand charitable gift-giving initiative.
Amar Singh established Turbans 4 Australia in 2015 to provide aid relief to people across Australia, and to promote multiculturalism and religious tolerance.
Since calling Australia home as a teenager, Amar has experienced racism, abuse and discrimination, and was once told by a co-worker that he looked like a terrorist because of his turban.
Amar used this experience for good.
This week, we join the team at CBM Australia to find out more about the work they do coming alongside people with disabilities living in the world’s poorest places. Through interventions like the gift of eye surgery and other eye health services, the CBM team fight poverty and exclusion, and transform the lives of individuals, families and communities.
This week, we join Aduk Dau at her Women's Afternoon Tea fundraiser and see the inspiring story about her passion to provide secondary school education to vulnerable South Sudanese youth, displaced by civil war and living as refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya.
For Australians, freedom is something we rarely think about. However, millions in the world are slaves to poverty, slaves to the sex trade, and slaves to unfair work practices. For them, freedom is something they may only ever dream of. Is there an answer to this overwhelming problem?
Yes. Fair trade.
For Australians, freedom is something we rarely think about. However, millions in the world are slaves to poverty, slaves to the sex trade, and slaves to unfair work practices. For them, freedom is something they may only ever dream of. Is there an answer to this overwhelming problem?
Yes. Fair trade.
When Mel Burgess opened Op for Change in Manly on Sydney’s Northern Beaches three years ago, she was inspired to do so by the vision to take the humble building blocks of a traditional Op Shop and transform the concept into something much bigger than a place to resell used goods.
Op for Change is Mel’s dream successfully realised. In Part 2 of this Helping Hands documentary, we see that the popular social enterprise has become a staple in the Northern Beaches landscape, providing plentiful opportunities in and for the local community to be a part of the revolving doorway of generosity that the shop facilitates.
When Mel Burgess had a dream to open an Op Shop, she was determined to find a way to give back to the local community. In this episode of Helping Hands, we see Mel’s dream come to fruition in Op for Change, the social enterprise Mel opened in Manly.
In just her third year of running Op for Change, Mel and her team of op shop volunteers have received and sold over ten thousand items donated by Northern Beaches locals, and the social enterprise has given away over $50,000 to local charities.
When Amy Croucher needed tools for some DIY around her home, she was faced with two choices; to buy tools from her local hardware store, even though she suspected she may use them once and leave them on the shelf to gather dust for the rest of their lives, or, find a way to access and use the tools she needed without such economical and environmental expense.
On Helping Hands this week, we talk about the importance of education for social change and announce our partnership with Learning for Good.
“It’s fabulous to have access to these online resources that have such a variety of learning experiences … It really shows the depth of learning that these kids are getting access to,” shares Miss Ellis, speaking about the Learning for Good online resources she uses in her remote western NSW classroom.
“We understand business really well,” shares Yasser Zaki, Global CEO of TLC Disability Services, “but to deliver the story-telling component, we had to find the right partners. That’s when we met Richard and the Helping Hands guys and it just connected that link for us.”
Yasser generously shared his praise for Helping Hands at our recent 100th episode celebration, held in March this year. It was an event that drew together Helping Hands partners, supporters and sponsors to celebrate all that Helping Hands has achieved across its first 100 episodes.
“There’s no bad kid. There are only children with negative learned behaviours,” says Matthew French, co-founder and director of Veteran Mentors. “There isn’t a better beautiful sight than watching a parent and child reunite.”
Matthew served in the Australian armed forces and post-military, is using his training to help change the lives of young people and families across Australia through Veteran Mentors - a nine-day youth development program designed for troubled teens.
In this special Easter episode of Helping Hands, we join Alison on her property in outback Queensland.
“I like the isolation, but I also am a social person,” shares 76-year-old Alison Gray. “I have the radio on most of the time – on my phone. I just have it in the background, and it helps, it encourages me – lifts my spirits up.”