Help from Home

KoodoNation – Microvolunteering Portal

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:03:22 +0000

This scheme is run by an organisation called KoodoNation, based in Canada. What happens is that nonprofits and charities can ask questions or set tasks focussed mainly around media, communication and PR work, where anyone with specialised skills can volunteer to answer them. The tasks / questions are designed to take less than 2 hours to complete and mostly can be wrapped up in under 30 minutes.
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The best part about this is that it is completely free. Too many help companies charge you for their services but not this one. If you feel like microvolunteering, then pop on over to this microvolunteering portal.

http://www.koodonation.com/

Cancer Charter – Young People With Cancer

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:55:23 +0000

This scheme is run by the International Charter of rights for young people with cancer and is based in Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the US. The website lists the rights for young people with cancer and describes how young people are actually affected by cancer. They also have a list of stories from various people who were diagnosed with cancer.
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A person participates by signing the charter to support this organization. It is simple as all you are required to do is enter a bit of basic information about yourself and then you can help to make a difference to young people with cancer in many different places.

http://cancercharter.org/signatories/new

MyBoneYard – Recycling Electronic Gadgets

admin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:46:05 +0000

The firm running this is called MyBoneYard. They allow you to recycle your items for free and even collect a bit of money by doing so, although you may choose to have this donated to a participating charity group.
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A person can take part by sending old electronics away via prepaid envelopes, labels or courier or by starting a recycling fundraising programme. A person selects the item they want to recycle and describes the items condition, then a sum of money may be offered if it is acceptable, although as mentioned above it can be donated to charity. Some of the items sent to MyBoneYard are frequently donated to battered women’s shelters, senior citizens homes, schools and 911 services.
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This service provides safe recycling, guaranteed removal of personal information and an eco-friendly option to throwing away electronics and is only available to U.S. residents.

https://www.myboneyard.com/

One Kind – Raising Animal Awareness

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:46:13 +0000

This scheme is run by a UK based organisation named OneKind. They aim to provide a better life for animals by giving simple, but effective tips. For example, “Never buy any eggs from a cage system.” By people doing this we can ensure the food we eat has come from well treated animals. Furthermore, the website has blogs for people to reply to, surveys to fill in and pre-filled in epetitions to sign . By taking just a few minutes to do so, you will be transforming the lives of animals from your own house.

http://www.onekind.org/take_action/campaigns/

Climate Survey – Discovering Environmental Impact

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:38:16 +0000

The website is run by the UK based ‘Natural History Museum’. It involves taking part in a survey to find out more information on how the environment affects us and how we affect the environment. There are several surveys to choose from that include observing contrails in the sky, blowing bubbles(!) and filling in a survey. A person takes part by following three simple steps.
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Step 1: download the instructions from the website;
Step 2: find a suitable space to carry out the survey and finally
Step 3: submit your results online.
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The more people that participate, the more accurate the research will be and the more they can do to look after the environment.

http://www.opalexplorenature.org/climatesurvey

eCommunities – Blogging About Epilepsy

admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:50:53 +0000

This scheme is co-ordinated by a U.S. based organisation called “Epilepsy Foundation” and is run by volunteers who can make a difference by informing the world of epilepsy from the comfort of their own home. It consists of blogs, communicating through social network tools and posting on message boards. It works by looking for posts and replying back to that person to get involved in their project. There are a few basic skills required such as typing and reading, so it is not hard to be part of the project if you want to.

http://epilepsyfoundation.ning.com/group/virtualvolunteers

Macmillan Cancer Support – E-campaigners

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:49:26 +0000

UK based Macmillan Cancer Support campaigns for a better deal for people affected by cancer. They want everyone with cancer to receive the right level of treatment and support, regardless of who they are and where they live.
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You can actively campaign on their behalf by pledging your support for certain projects or signing petitions on cancer related issues. You can even join their e-campaigner network, where they’ll email you from time to time with ways in which you can support their campaigns.

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/GetInvolved/Campaigns/Campaign%20with%20us.aspx

The Macmillan Online Community – Cancer Support

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:38:54 +0000

UK based Macmillan Cancer Support campaigns for a better deal for people affected by cancer. They want everyone with cancer to receive the right level of treatment and support, regardless of who they are and where they live.
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One of the ways in which you can help people going through a cancer experience is via their online community. It’s a place where people affected by cancer or touched by Macmillan can share their experience, offer advice and meet people in a similar situation. It’s a very active community if you want to lend some support to somebody affected by cancer.

http://community.macmillan.org.uk/

January, 2012 Update

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:04:57 +0000

Now that our website is looking a little more zippier and zappier, we’re getting a lot more interest in our initiative – in fact the number of people visiting the site has more than doubled. We’re up to an average of 8,000 visits per month and growing.

We’ve been busy recruiting volunteers via our ‘Volunteer For Us’ webpage. Currently we have 8 roles up for grabs. As is the norm in the voluntary sector, we get people who have that initial rush of enthusiasm, put their name down for a role, never to be heard from again. OR we get people who do a very little amount and then discover it is not for them. Persistence and patience is the name of the game from us to keep trying to get that volunteer who has passion for the microvolunteering concept combined with the commitment to follow through after their initial enthusiasm waved.

We published a few articles during the previous month:

1. Our yearly review of the previous years happening in the microvolunteering arena.

2. Results from a 6 monthly survey carried out into the whys and wherefores of microvolunteering themselves.

3. ‘Rise of Microvolunteering’ which shows how far microvolunteering has come from the days of 2008, when it wasn’t really on anybody’s radar.

We’ve had some interest from various organisations eg (1) Spots of Time (UK base, offline microvolunteering action) who are going to integrate some of the activities featured on Help From Home into their activity program. (2) North Somerset Council, who are now promoting microvolunteering to their citizens.

There’s been a bit of progress in our Help From School project, where we have recruited a volunteer to help us out in the UK. Not sure how enthusiastic she is, but we’ll see. To enhance the Help From School scheme, we produced a brand new video which is designed to compliement our Teachers Resource Pack. And talking about that Pack, we had Istanbul Sehir University in Turkey asking if they could use it within their program to educate primary school students. We said yes, of course!

Til next time.

Whale FM – Understanding Whale Song

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:00:28 +0000

Did you know that Killer Whales (Orcas, which are actually the largest dolphin species) can talk to each other in quite sophisticated ways? Each family of Killer Whales has its own dialect and closely-related families share calls. The Whale Song Project would like you to help them to categorize their sounds in order to understand what whales are saying.
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What you’re basically be doing is listening to a piece of whale song as represented by a spectogram, ie a visual representation of a snippet of whale conversation. Your job is to match up the main sound from an array of sounds featured below the main spectogram – usually 9 in number. It is about finding the best match available from a group picked out by a computer that thinks they are similar. The human brain will do the final matching, because apparently it’s better than a computer – for the time being!

http://whale.fm/