It’s for charideee

I’m not normally one for charities.

When I see a chugger dancing towards me (as they invariably do, I think it’s to make the poor unsuspecting public think they’re friendly and genuinely after a chat as opposed to grabbing your money) I walk a little quicker, I put my head down and I mumble. It tends to do the trick.*

I don’t like the fact that I’m giving money into a vast organisation which, inevitably, won’t go to help the people I want to help but will actually pay for the charity’s bubbly at the end of year bash. Or worse, paying some “consultant” to help “rebrand” the charity in order to get “optimized [of course, with a z] output from the consumer base” or some such.

However, sometimes, very rarely, I come across a charity that I can believe in, that I can give money to and that I know will actually make some real sustainable difference.

Nancy Crooks moved to Africa with her husband, Howard, at the age of 27. Newly married, with two small sons, she threw herself into enhancing the life for women and children in Africa. Over the next 53, Nancy ran many different projects, all of which focused around eduction and sustaining the environment. Nancy always enjoyed starting new ventures, getting them operational, and then handing them over to others to perpetuate.

 Her work in Africa spanned over 50 years until, last year, Nancy died of lung cancer, leaving behind a husband, family and many, many friends.

I was lucky enough to know Nancy throughout my childhood in Kenya and so know first hand how dedicated she was to making the world a better place. As you can imagine my delight when I found out that a foundation had been set up in her name: the Nancy Ellen Crooks Foundation.

The foundation is committed to continuing Nancy’s work and emulating her devotion to supporting, implementing and developing self-sustaining projects that hold the possibility of improving the lives of women and children in Africa. Currently, the foundation is focusing on two of Nancy’s pet projects: education and solar cooking.

So what can you do help? Please, spread the word. The foundation is unfunded, is not aligned to any political or religious establishments and relies on donations and grants in order to do its work. In order to get this money, I need to help spread the word. This is something I really believe in, hence me taking a break from the normal banality of this blog and requesting your assistance.

Read the website: www.nancyellencrooksfoundation.org

Become a friend on facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Nancy-Ellen-Crooks-Foundation

Follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/TheNECF

Keep an eye on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/TheNECF

Have a look at our photos: www.flickr.com/photos/nancyellencrooksfoundation/sets/

Make a donation www.nancyellencrooksfoundation.org/contactus.html

*Note: This is a nuttycow endorsed method. No stealing y’all.