Campaigns and programs to improve our world
m.a.d.woman is committed to encouraging, inspiring and enabling people to make a positive difference in the environment, community and to the lives of people who need support.
Anyone can make a few easy changes to improve the quality of their life, the environment and the world around us.
Common sense applies in all cases - save the planet at your own risk. Act with care, but in order to make a difference, you need to act!
This site contains information and tools to help you get started. Check out m.a.d. books crammed full of tips to inspire you to better contribute to your community and the environment, Single Volunteers singles events and Connecting the Community events, Earthmaker - a compost bin that helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cute critters that can help give autistic children a way to communicate.
Get m.a.d (making a difference)!
Here's an opportunity for Sydneysiders to multi-task. Improve your business and personal relationships, meet new people AND raise funds for a fabulous initiative - a Midwife on a Motorbike!
Guest speaker for this m.a.d.woman Connecting the Community event is motivational psychologist Eve Ash, a dynamic and inspiring speaker, winner of over 140 awards, including a Telstra Businesswoman of the Year - Westpac Business Owner award, and co-author of Rewrite your Relationships.
Part funds from the event will go towards funding a Midwife on a Motorbike in Timor Leste through Marie Stopes International Australia, an organisation committed to providing vital sexual and reproductive health services and education programs to women and their families in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and international communities. Eve is a Patron of MSIA.
Eve Ash will let you know how to recognise and resolve conflict patterns, gain a positive mindset for meeting people, survive break-ups and develop and maintain healthy relationships for the long term - both business and personal. Eve will provide tips for overcoming negative scripts and stopping ‘self-sabotage'.
The event is at 6pm for 6.30pm on Tuesday 24 June 2008. Tickets are $69 and must be pre-purchased. Includes beer, wine and canapes. Limited numbers. The event venue is:
Melbourne Business School
Suite 52, The Upper Deck
Jones Bay Wharf, 26-32 Pirrama Road
Pyrmont
NSW 2009 Australia
You will also learn more about the work of Marie Stopes International Australia and other ways your can make a positive difference to the planet and people in it through m.a.d.woman.
To read feedback from Eve's Melbourne event in May, click here
To buy your ticket click on the Buy Now button in the right hand column.
Learn, connect and contribute through a Connecting the Community event - register with m.a.d.woman today to hear about upcoming events and other news
Mamma Mia! - Here's a way to support people on Dialysis
Admit it! You're secretly into ABBA - well here's a way to gather a group of friends together for a whole afternoon of ABBA songs...all in the name of a good cause of course!
Join m.a.d.woman at the The Royal Melbourne Hospital Dialysis Support Group fundraising event of Mamma Mia! at 4pm on Sunday 13 July at the Palace Balwyn Cinema in Melbourne (231 Whitehourse Rd, Balwyn).
For more details on this event, click here
Sex and the City benefits Sex in the Community
Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities will benefit fr
om sexual and reproductive health packs thanks to Sex and the City fundraising events
More than 350 people turned out for awesome nights out in Sydney and Melbourne to see Sex and the City. m.a.d.woman partnered with Corporate Chicks for the events to fund Telling it Like it Is packs - an initiative of Marie Stopes International Australia.
Melbourne people - please give the coat Off Your Back
m.a.d.woman is a huge fan of the Melbourne Off Your Back project. We're emptying the wardrobe to help and hope our Melbourne mates can do the same.
It's winter again - and as long as on any given night there are 2,618 children under the age of 12 years with parent/s, 4,663 children aged 12 to 18 years without a parent and 2,401 young people aged 19 to 24 years homeless in Victoria on any given night (Australian Bureau of Statistics) it will remain a winter of discontent for us.
But together we can help make these lives a little bit warmer. Take your old pre-loved coat (adult or children's) out of the wardrobe and take it to one of the drop off points listed (click the link below). In just 48 hours the coat will have been cleaned and distributed by the Salvation Army's St Kilda Crisis Centre and be on to the back of someone who really needs it.
It won't make your winter any less fun and will make someone else's a whole lot better.
The Off Your Back project is run by a small group of like minded individuals who every winter for the last four years have come together not for profit, but to encourage others to get the coat off their backs and make another Victorian's back warmer (over 20,000 coats donated to date).
Join the WINTER COAT DRIVE from June 1 to June 30, 2008
Click this link for a list of the Melbourne drop off points for Off Your Back
Upcoming Singles Volunteers singles events
We already know that every single volunteer can make a difference. We also know that in this day and age it can sometimes be hard to meet like-minded people without going to bars or going online.
With that in mind, m.a.d.woman created the Single Volunteers program and we are planning some exciting new events where every SINGLE volunteer can make a difference, have an opportunity to meet new people - and maybe find something more!
We've got other exciting events planned all around the country. So click on the link below to register your interest and we'll be in touch with what's coming up!
Click here to register for Single Volunteers singles events (in any part of Australia).
A group of Melbourne's singles recently got dirty (well at least their hands!) in the name of their love lives - and managed to make a difference at the same time!
In half a day of Gardening for Good the group cleared and planted two large garden beds in a special educational garden at CERES Community Garden for students with intellectual/physical disabilities and/or social disadvantages.
Single Volunteers teams have also taken part in Cooking for a Cause - cooking more than 1100 meals for Melbourne's homeless and hungry in support of One Umbrella.
Improve your garden and save the planet with Earthmaker aerobic compost bins
Australians have a new option to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the arrival of the Earthmaker.
Earthmaker, the world's most aerobic compost bin, is designed to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than any other domestic composter. Greenhouse gas
(carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) creates global warming.
The Earthmaker's unique aerobic process aerates food and garden waste without effort. It uses the same principle as the traditional three-bin method, but stacks the bins on top of each other so gravity does the hard work for you. Independent research has shown the Earthmaker produces twice as much compost as traditional bins over the same period.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australians send more than 21 million tonnes of solid waste to landfill annually. Over 40%, (8.4 million tonnes) is composed of material which includes green organic and food waste. This organic waste is of low density, can take up double the volume of landfill than other waste and creates greenhouse gas emissions.
Landfill volumes and greenhouse gas emissions (methane) could be heavily reduced by householders managing their organic waste on their own properties using the Earthmaker.
Waste buried at landfill produces methane gas - which is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Transporting organic waste also adds to greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional single bin composting also produces methane. Because it's aerobic, not only is Earthmaker composting not smelly, but its aerobic process significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Made from recyclable material, the patented three-chamber system accepts a continuous input of organic material in through the top and provides a continuous source of quality organic compost at the bottom.
The Earthmaker is only available in Australia online at www.earthmaker.com.au Buy now! Get $30 off (with free delivery) by entering the code MUMART-28# on before 11 May 2008.
Campaign to help autistic Jessie communicate
Five-year-old Jessica screamed and thrashed wildly the entire plane journey from the Gold Coast to Melbourne. It took the efforts of both parents to hold her down and a dummy in her mouth to try to quieten her.
In the queue for bags, Jessie's father overheard a woman discussing his daughter. "Clearly she is totally spoiled and a dummy - at her age! - it's a disgrace".
He couldn't help himself. "She's autistic," he said. The woman did not utter another word.
Latest research has shown that autism is a condition that effects up to one in every 160 Australian children. While every autistic child is different, and the severity varies widely, common symptoms are problems with communication, social skills, behaviour, sensory processing and an inability to understand the world around them.
"High anxiety levels are very common and often result in tantrums, social isolation and strange or repetitive play," says Jessie's mother Ellen.
"It's hard work, but when she's happy, Jessica is joy. Her smile lights up her face and her giggle is infectious. She's cheeky, sneaky and wonderful. She is full of energy, and keeps us on our toes. No matter what each day brings, we love and adore both Jessie and our other gorgeous daughter Brooke equally and for what each of them brings to our lives," she says.
In Jessica's case, she is unable to communicate beyond her request-based vocabulary of around 10 words, and even those are hard to understand by anyone other than her parents.
m.a.d.woman and Ellen's business L'il El have launched the Critters with a Cause campaign to raise both awareness of conditions like Jessie's and funds for picture-based systems to enable Jessie and others to communicate more easily.
To read more on this story, click here.
Critters with a cause
While most of us are afraid of finding something creepy crawly in our homes, the creatures of the Critter Collection are the type of critters you'll want to invite into your room.
Not
only will they brighten rooms but part-proceeds of sales of these bright and colourful characters will go toward funding special pictorial-based education programs to help give autistic kids a voice (through a special fund within the m.a.d.woman foundation).
The Critter Collection by Li'l El is designed by Melbourne mother Ellen Naismith whose five-year-old daughter Jessica has autism. You can read more about Jessie's story here.
These cute lightweight wall plaques are supplied with double-sided tape which is suitable for most surfaces. Whether you choose just one favourite character or fill a whole wall, these critters are a quick and easy way to add life, fun and character to any room!
The critters make great new baby presents as their happy faces, bright colours and high contrast provide excellent visual stimulation for infants. They are also perfect for brightening up your own home or as a gift that keeps on giving! Click here to buy now - you will be brightening a room and someone's life!
Printed on recycled paper using soy ink and a waterless process, half the profits go to support social and environmental programs through the m.a.d.woman foundation.
