How you can help LONGTERM // #AustraliaBurns
Image Credit: Melina Illustrates
The last week has been mind-numbingly horrific, and I am emotionally drained by the Australian bushfires. Over the last week I have seen images that will haunt me for the rest of my life; children in gas masks driving boats to escape fires. Mothers holding children in the water to escape the fires. People being evacuated by the Australian Defence Force. People are dying. Animals are dying, the animals. I’ve seen the most horrific images of kanagaroos trapped in fences, burned alive because they were stuck. Koalas frozen mid run because the fires were faster. And if that disturbs you, good. We need to be disturbed, shocked and horrified.
There are a thousand ways we can all help moving forward, and I wanted to share them here - more of as a reminder to me, because without a doubt we will need to carry this genersity with us for months to come.
Donate Money
The one thing that hasn’t surprised me is our Aussie Spirit. It’s what we’re famous for and I’ve been moved to tears by everyone’s generosity. There are dozens of charities we can donate too, and no doubt you’ve heard of at least a few.
Here’s what we have personally donated to this week:
I also adopted a koala (Jimmie Jams, to be specific) through the Save The Koala group ♥
Please remember that all donations to registered charities over $2 are tax deductible. This means that when you lodge your tax return, you can provide details of your donation as a deduction, which works to reduce your taxable income (and therefore potentially reduce the amount of tax you pay, or get back, from the government). Just make sure you keep your receipt, and
For the rest of 2020, I’ll be donating to the my adopted koala, the Red Cross and WIRES and WWF on a monthly basis through my business. I’ll also be aiming to donate 5% from every session for 2020 to these charities and to a small budget which will allow me to travel to fire affected communities and shop local ♥
Visit fire-affected communities and buy local
After fires have calmed, and in the months and years to come; dedicate a weekend to a roadtrip to a fire affected community and buy all.the.things! Their fuel, their food, their accommodations - anything you can. This will help boost their towns economy, which will help them rebuild faster. There are some great campaigns going on Instagram, in particular @SpendWithThem has created an account that will feature business in fire affected areas to help you know where you can shop.
Moving forward, purchasing from local, organic growers and farmers will help them rebuild.
Lobby for Change
So we’ve all been yelling at #ScottyFromMarketing pretty loudly for the last week at his inept leadership, lack of empathy and for being a #ClimateCriminal. And while I stand with you…. after all, he’s the face of Australia and is not representing us well in this emergency.
But what about the other hundreds of politicians who are *actually* responsible for creating and shaping our laws?
The most important thing you can do for our planet moving forward, is to lobby your local politicians for change.
VOTE WISELY
You can do this by VOTING for POLICIES (not politicians) at your next local and federal election. I have historically not been very political, but that is going to change. Usually I hate conflict, and choose to stay silent because conflict makes me freeze, but I’m committed to changing that now because our planet needs me. It needs you, it needs all of us to speak up. Our children need us to speak up, so they have a future.
CONTACT YOUR LOCAL MPs.
So #Scomo isn’t actually in charge of creating or passing our laws - we have a team of MPs (Members of Parliaments) that we vote for during our federal election, who are responsible for voicing our concerns and wishes. The thing is though, that our MP needs to know our voice, before they can act on our behalf. Shouting and raging on social media to our friends and families isn’t enough - there’s a lot of noise but how is your MP going to know whether all the people shouting on social media belong in their electorate or not?? Politicians CAN AND WILL IGNORE SOCIAL MEDIA OPINIONS.
You need to share your thoughts directly with your Federal and local State/Territory MP, so they know how to act and vote in Parliament (at both a federal and state level). Because politicians will not (and cannot) ignore crowds of voters within their electorate, filling up their inboxes and mailboxes and voiceboxes with their concerns.
You can do this by calling their office and leaving a message with the staff, or you can send them an email or a letter.
The details of who your Federal MPs can be easily found at this website (https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/) by typing in your suburb or post code. You can then head to this page on the Parliament of Australia’s website to get their email or mailing address.
And folks, it’s important that you only contact the MP for your electorate (the area you are registered to vote in) because they are the only people authorised to act on your behalf.
No idea what to write? If you are passionate about Climate Change and would like to see our government take action to lower our greenhouse gas emissions, you can use THIS LETTER TEMPLATE created by Anna Rose Richards (a former. It’s a downloadable Microsoft Word template that you can edit to include your name, address, and the name of your local MP.
ATTEND STRIKES + RALLIES
Hopefully, once the crisis is over, the community will rally for change in a big, big way. Whatever rally you can attend and lend your time and energy to, please do. The more people who attend (you don’t even need to have a sign) the more people will listen.
Hold your loved ones close, and celebrate the little things
There are so many wonderful, beautiful happy things I want to share with you, and I will soon because my goodness, we are all in dire need of some happiness right now. In the meantime, hold your loved ones close, tell them you love them, and look out for each other.
Stay safe out there friends.
With love,
Lecinda ♥
