In lieu of Christmas gifts, we are donating to three charities this year.
We are giving back to the Love Mercy Foundation, Mèdicins Sans Frontières and The Fred Hollows Foundation. Read on to find out what impact the donations will make...
Christmas is a time for exchanging gifts, indulging in good food and enjoying some wonderful moments with your loved ones, but Christmas is also the season of goodwill and can be a tough time for many people.
Giving back at Christmas is an important part of the festive season for many of us but at this busy time of the year, it can be difficult to find the time or the money. However, there are many other ways to contribute such as volunteering, giving blood, befriending a lonely neighbour, donating some food or buying a homeless person a coffee. The list is endless! Research has also shown that acts of kindness can also have a huge benefit to your own happiness, health and well-being.
For the third year in a row, in lieu of gifts for our doctors and healthcare clients, we chose to give back by making a donation to three charities that are close to our hearts, Love Mercy Foundation, Mèdicins Sans Frontières and The Fred Hollows Foundation. We asked our doctors and healthcare employer clients to vote for the cause they felt most passionate about, tallied up all the votes and made a donation on their behalf.
What impact will our Christmas donations make?
Love Mercy Foundation
Love Mercy began in 2010 in Sydney, after Eloise Wellings an Australian Olympian, met Ugandan Olympian and former child soldier, Julius Achon and heard of the struggles he had endured. The foundation exists to empower communities in Northern Uganda to overcome poverty caused by the horrors of war.
Love Mercy has continued to grow since it was established and now runs multiple projects in order to help as many people as possible. This includes their Cents for Seeds initiative, a micro-loan project in Uganda, where a small $30 donation provides a woman with a 30kg loan of seeds such as beans or sesame, as well as a handheld gardening tool, educational workshops, and access to savings groups. A 30kg loan can harvest approximately 150kgs to sell and feed their own family, all enabling a woman to free her family from poverty. The aim of Love Mercy is to provide 20,000 women with seed loans by 2020.
Another major success of the Love Mercy effort is the Kristina Health Centre. The centre provides primary medical care including disease testing, inoculation, medication dispensation, education and maternity services. In 2018 the maternity ward was added, including an Intensive Care Unit, Ultrasound, Antenatal & Emergency Services, X-Ray, Obstetrician & Anaesthetist, NICU humidicribs, Post Natal Services, a Senior Midwife and three Junior Midwives.
We are delighted to be helping Love Mercy again this Christmas. Our donation will help pay for one qualified midwife’s salary for six months, who will help to deliver approximately 180 babies in that time.
“Thanks to the generous contribution from Wavelength, Love Mercy will be able to continue to provide life-changing maternity services to the women of northern Uganda who would otherwise give birth with no medical support. Thank you, your contribution saves lives!” – Caitlin Barrett, Love Mercy Australia CEO.
Mèdicins Sans Frontières
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is the world’s leading independent organisation for medical humanitarian aid. Every day 30,000 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) field staff aid people caught in crises around the world, i.e. armed conflicts, epidemics, famines and natural disasters.
These situations require a rapid response with specialised medical and logistical help. Currently running projects in over 70 countries, MSF also runs longer-term projects, tackling health crises and supporting people where the need is greatest.
Their amazing medics carry out more than eight million patient consultations a year. Medical activities run from basic vaccination campaigns to complex surgery. Their medical work envelops forgotten diseases, long-term care for chronic conditions and sourcing medicines for the poorest people in the world.
How will our donation help?
The Fred Hollows Foundation
The Fred Hollows Foundation has a very clear goal; put an end to avoidable blindness. The Fred Hollows Foundation began after Fred Hollows visited numerous Aboriginal camps in the late 1960s and was shocked by the poor standard of health at the camps, particularly in eye health. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Fred took on the world and became an advocate to produce affordable lenses so that poorer countries could access adequate eye care.
In developing countries today, 4 out of 5 people who are blind don’t need to be. Eye diseases like cataract, trachoma and diabetic retinopathy can lead to blindness when, in fact they're either treatable or preventable. In some countries, The Fred Hollows Foundation can restore sight for as little as $25. We are delighted to say that our donation can restore sight to 64 people in the developing world.
We're sending a heartfelt thank you to all of our doctors and healthcare employer clients for helping us donate to the Love Mercy Foundation, Mèdicins Sans Frontières and The Fred Hollows Foundation.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!