This is the place I credit with fixing me when I fled, broken-hearted after my marriage break-up, for a solo soul-searching trip; a month with no plans other than to swim in the ocean, allow the sun to warm my bones and heal my invisible wounds. (You can read my Thailand blog Sam Goes Solo about that trip, should you be interested.) I’ve since been back on multiple occasions, each time collecting precious memories as though gathering seashells from the shore.

So, when I ‘met’ Natasha Whiting via my Facebook group, The Non-Mum Network, and she asked for help in spreading the word about her fundraising event, Jumble is Massive, in aid of her charity Acorn Overseas to help orphaned and abandoned children in Mae Sot, Thailand, I jumped at the chance to finally give something back to a country that’s helped me in so many ways.

I learn that Natasha founded the charity back in 2009, having spent seven years living in Thailand working on various local projects. She initially travelled to the country in 2004, aged 18, to volunteer at an orphanage, and quickly became part of the emergency aid relief following the Boxing Day tsunami. (Her outstanding achievements later earned her the accolade ‘Young Person of the Year’ by her hometown council in Stroud, Gloucestershire.) Such was Natasha’s admiration of the tenacity of the people, and the inspiring solidarity they showed in the face of such tragedy, that she wanted to start something that would give her a connection to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) even when she was not there in person.

She says: “Whilst in Thailand I became disheartened with the way charities, in my eyes, didn’t go to the root of the problem and get more involved. It felt like everything was done from plush hotels, and behind the tinted windows of 4×4’s that rolled through camps, orphanages and disaster zones. I was put into contact with an orphanage that was established to care for the basic needs of “Ghost Children” (Children who have lost their identity due to persecution and abandonment) from Myanmar that was going through some serious difficulties. I attempted to appeal to multiple NGO’s (non government organisations) to help with the orphanage and no one would offer more than a bag of rice a month as the problem wasn’t “big enough”. 

In October 2008, the irregular support they did have from America abandoned them with nothing, so myself and a friend stepped in to provide support for them in every which way we could. So I started the charity in order to support this small home of children who were abandoned and orphaned due to situations you may not even be able to imagine. Since then we grew from 7 to 50 children, we built a home, we were donated a truck to get the children to school, and we dug, as running water is rare.

We have become an education-focused charity, working alongside Burma Border Projects to make sure migrant children receive a proper rounded education, and are taught by qualified teachers from around the world. My plan for the future is to keep raising awareness and money to provide a better standard of education to the migrant children in the area, and to make sure they receive equal opportunities for a brighter future. I hope that in the coming years, people will run the London marathon for us, companies will make us their charity of the year, and we can continue to make a huge difference.”

Inspired by Natasha’s philanthropic work, I’m immediately eager to help. She tells me that she needs support in raising funds and awareness for the charity, which then translates into food, shelter and education for these children. She holds clothing sales and needs donations of clothes and accessories to sell. One bag of donated clothing equates to a month’s supplies and education for a child, so I set about tapping up my family and besties for donations. Of course, they willingly oblige like the legends they are, and we collect 11 sackfuls of clothes between us.

The fundraising event takes place this Saturday 18th August, at Pop Brixton. It’ll be a fun day: a chance to pick up some stylish new threads whilst gettin’ your groove on to the tunes being spun and munching on some tasty food-stall fayre. What more could you want from your Saturday afternoon in London town, eh? Then you can continue your weekend wearing your sassy new garms, safe in the knowledge that you’ve made a difference to the lives of these deserving children.

I will be there, along with my loyal charity sidekick De Mama. (Do you remember our exploits helping children in central America? You can read all about it over on my blog, Costa Rica Chica.) We’ll be using our sartorial skills to marry the chicest clothes to their rightful new owner, so please come on down, meet the inspirational Tash, say hi….and buy!

Jumble is Massive takes place at Pop Brixton this Saturday, 18th August, 11am – 4pm. For more information about Natasha’s charity, Acorn Overseas, or to donate, check out the website here. You can also follow Acorn Overseas on Instagram here, Twitter here and Facebook here.

See ya there!

UPDATE: The event was an overwhelming success, with tons of cold hard cash raised for the charity and many a satisfied customer bopping around to the music wearing their new garments. Yayyy!

A few photos from the day:

And a lovely “thank you” from Natasha, Dan and Sarah:

Sam x

The post Jumble is Massive! appeared first on Life: A Birds Eye View.

Back at the beginning of March, I wrote this post entitled You’re Ovary Acting in aid of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and pledged to hold my own event to raise funds and awareness for gynae cancer charity, The Eve Appeal. Having set the date for my Make Time For Tea charity fundraiser, I figured I’d best tackle two of my all-time personal pet hates: coffee and cooking.

I know most humans are drawn to coffee like cats to catnip, but for me it’s a major turn-off: the aroma, the bitter taste, the tar-like appearance. Just…no. Similarly, the very notion of trying to conjure up a Jamie Oliver creation in 30 short minutes is completely alien to me – I mean why would you even put yourself under that kind of undue pressure? Just thinking about pans bubbling over and utensils clattering is enough to bring me out in hives. The thing with cooking is that there’s just so much effort involved. You do the maths: take a gazillion ingredients, add several different cooking durations and temperature requirements, sprinkle in a few distractions such as Facebook and the telly, then subtract the luxury of enough time…equals so many opportunities for things to go pear-shaped. Far too much admin, if you ask me.

Fortunately, my distaste for all things coffee and culinary is countered by a love of tea and eating, so with a little determination I was able to overcome my lazy-girl issues and get cracking with the preparations. Well, it’s all for charidee, mate, after all. As my partner Andy imports coffee for a living, he supplied the good stuff (I’ll take his word for it), then I rolled up my sleeves and got my bake on…

Now I doubt Mary Berry will be fearing for her job anytime soon, but I have to say my lemon drizzle cakes (yes, plural!) came out remarkably well – so much so that a couple of friendly neighbourhood mice (or perhaps it was my parents), scurried in and nibbled one of them and I had to bake another. Weirdly, I didn’t mind at all – having overcome my concerns about the edibility of anything I could create in the kitchen, got past the faff of having to buy all the various cake-making components and worked out how to grate lemon zest without reducing my acrylic-nailed fingertips to bloody stumps, I actually began to relax and enjoy the bake. There may have been a flour cloud above my head and sticky lemon juice on every available surface, but licking the bowl was heavenly and the finished result made up for all the mess.

Whilst I cooked up a storm in the kitchen, my family rallied round to help get my house tea party-ready: mum loaning me the best family china; dad repainting my battered garden furniture that has definitely seen better days. My sister took one sceptical look at my child-unfriendly house full of angular units and breakables and began carrying out a full risk assessment…quickly concluding that a trip to her place to collect enough primary-coloured bits of plastic to open our own branch of Toys R Us was required. (Later, when I clocked her easing grubby little mitts off my travel memorabilia and back towards the toys I was extremely grateful for her contribution).

Zipping round the supermarket for some prefessionally-baked back-ups, I was aware of the judgemental glances of other shoppers; eyes sliding away as I clocked them peering at the cake mountain in my trolley: lemon meringue pie, swirly strawberry cheesecake, scones, red velvet cake, Taste The Difference carrot, morello cherry bake (that one was delicious, by the way) – you name it, I bought it. I looked like some crazed sugar junkie on a bender. I slung in a few bottles of prosecco for good measure and I was good to go.

On the morning of my event I awoke early to prepare the treat-filled feast for my guests. Having performed yet another last-minute supermarket sweep, the spread was looking even more bountiful: baked goods balanced on every surface. Sprinkling heart confetti on the table and adding flowers, I stepped back to admire my handiwork…

My sister, mum and cousins were my first guests to arrive. A special mention must go to my cuzzy Lucy Blake, a cake-baking whizz, whose impressive cupcakes complete with Eve Appeal logos and edible glitter drew gasps of delight from my guests.

Hungry ladies began arriving in their droves and we finally allowed my little nephew Hayden to get stuck into the cake table – something he’d been slyly attempting for the last hour, his mum and I swatting him away until the other guests arrived.

All my nail-biting fears of no-shows, mumbled apologies and texts of regret dissipated as the doorbell chimed; the tea was poured, the cafetière plunged and cakes gratefully eaten. Neighbours popped in, friends dutifully appeared; there were even a few surprise appearances and tears.

A timely collaboration with those lovely folk at TeaTourist meant that as well as my trusty PG Tips, I also had an abundance of interesting herbal tea blends to offer my guests. Available as a one-off purchase, a thoughtful gift or a monthly subscription, the company selects an array of carefully-crafted artisan teas from various respected suppliers and then delivers them to your door in a slimline box that fits easily through the letterbox, so no hanging around for deliveries. The complementary taster box I received included some intriguing flavours such as Chocolate Orange and the cinnamon-tinged Mulled Apple Brandy – although my favourite of them all is Rose and Strawberry. Each taster sachet has enough for four cups and includes information about the tea as well as the company who produce it, along with a discount code if you’d like to repurchase directly. Seeing as there’s a subscription box for just about everything these days, it makes sense to have one for tea too. (Use code FIRST10 for 10% off your first box).

By mid-afternoon the first sitting of tea-guzzlers had thinned out, so there was just time for a quick washing-up session and a replenish of cakes before round two. By this point I was buzzing: partly due to the sugar rush from all the cake-sampling, but even more so upon seeing my strategically-placed collection boxes overflowing with crisp banknotes. Way to go, ladies!

To add to the warm fuzzy feeling that gave me inside, Mother Nature provided a warm fuzzy feeling on the outside: Thursday 30th March turned out to be the hottest March day for five years, enabling us to spend the entire afternoon in the garden eating yet more cake and quaffing prosecco. High five, Sister!

The final guests left at 6pm, so I kicked off my shoes, had a cup of Wilderness Honeybush from my TeaTourist box and totted up the funds raised. The cash on the day totalled £265, with another £298 via my Just Giving account, giving a grand total of £563! Add to that the 25% gift aid and the total raised climbed to £703.75! How cool is that?! A pretty productive day, if I do say so myself…

So on behalf of The Eve Appeal and myself I’d like to say a huge and heartfelt “Thank you!” to everyone who donated to my campaign – either in person or online. Your generous contributions will enable this fabulous charity to continue their great work: protecting women’s health by helping prevent gynae cancers.

The word I’d use to sum up the day? Much like the cakes themselves actually:

“Sweet!”

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