Heather Taylor : Writer, Filmmaker, & Speaker

Twestival is over for another year but I had the chance to interview Amanda Rose, founder of Twestival when I was at SXSWi in Austin. In this video, she explains a little bit more about this year’s Twitter festival for charity.

Cities around the world took part in this event so if you want to host, take part or just donate to the cause they are supporting next year, go to www.twestival.com to find out more.

Today I awoke with the news of the earthquake in Haiti. Last night an earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, ripped through the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Currently there are reports of an estimated 100,000 people dead and thousands of structures from schools to the UN peacekeeping headquarters reduced to rubble.

As aftershocks continue to ripple through the country, international organisations are teaming together to raise money to help Haiti and the reported 9 million people there who are in need of emergency aid. My worry during this tragedy is to ensure that I am giving to a legitimate charity that can provide the help needed. As I had my credit card stolen last week, I wanted to donate but could only do so with PayPal.

If you want to donate through your PayPal account, Save the Children seems to be one of the top choices. Not only can you use PayPal (amongst other forms of payment) but PayPal themselves are waiving the payment processing fees for donations to Save the Children for the next 30 days.

Other major organisations are arranging donations for Haiti in the US and you can donate directly to them through PayPal on eBay’s Giving Works page. These are all registered charities monitored by Mission Fish and even though they are US based, you can still donate from the UK. I myself used the page to donate to Doctors Without Borders. If you’d prefer to donate to a UK based organisation, you can also use PayPal to donate to:

• the British Red Cross on the UK eBay for Charity page
• Global Giving
• Unicef

For those employees who work for eBay and PayPal around the globe, eBay Foundation will be matching the amount they have donated to the relief effort.

As the rest of the world watches events unfold in Haiti, my thoughts are with those affected by the earthquake as well as those giving their time and effort to help towards the relief effort.

Though many advertisers may not agree, I think it’s a bit early to talk Christmas. But it’s never too early to talk giving. And this year, people around the UK are taking part in Christmas in a Shoebox. This charity gives to children that won’t have a little gift for Christmas and is run by Operation Christmas Child. Running for 19 years, this is the UK’s largest children’s Christmas appeal. Last year 1.2 million shoeboxes were collected packed full of gifts and goodies. These were then distributed to children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

This charity is an easy way for everyone to give at Christmas. Yes…anyone can take part! That includes you. So if you’re interested, all you need to do is:

• Find a shoe box at home
• Wrap it nicely but leave it open
• Fill it with new items such as toys (nothing war related or homemade please!), educational supplies, hygiene items like toothbrushes or soap, or items like gloves, sunglasses, bangles or hats. Also make sure none of the items are fragile, liquid or dangerous.

When you’re done, all that’s left is to take the box to a drop off spot near you and a child somewhere will have a gift this Christmas. You can read more about Operation Christmas Child on their website where you can find out your nearest drop off spot.  The last day of collection is 18 November so get cracking!

Beyond the comfort they gave me, TOMS, more importantly, are made by a company that help children in need. TOMS shoes began after American Blake Mycoskie took a trip to Argentina in 2006. He became friends with the children there who, more often than not, had no shoes. As walking can be a primary form of transportation in developing countries, going barefoot means children can be at risk from cuts and sores from unsafe roads and contaminated soil. These cuts can lead to infections and is the leading cause of disease in developing countries. Also shoes can be a requirement to attend school, so without them, these children can’t get an education.

Mycoskie created TOMS with the idea that still drives the company to this day. Buy a pair of shoes and a pair goes to a child who needs them. SO far over 150,000 pairs have been given away with the goal to give another 300,000 by the end of this year. It’s just that easy to use your purchasing power for good.

If you want to find out more about TOMS and get yourself a pair of shoes, you can visit their website. Now that I’ve been on there, I want to buy the whole shop! Don’t know if I can resist – comfortable, colourful, fun AND helps a good cause? Have to make some more room in my closet.