IDEAS
SUSPENDED COFFEE - Make It Happen!
You must have heard of "Shared or Suspended Coffees", right?
It was an initiative that appeared in Naples, Italy, a few years ago, and was called "Caffe Sospeso".
In fact, the Project is very simple, and any generous citizen will be able to pay for a coffee, a sandwich, a meal, so anything to drink or eat in participating establishment, so that someone who cannot pay can ask.
The moment could not unfortunately be more opportune and TEACH How to Fish approach will make it happen in your country but, as always, we need your help!
The posters are ready to print, A4 or A3, as well as a nice sticker to place on the doorsteps of the establishments (easy to print also on self-adhesive paper), plus a small post-it pack.
Then each "coffee or shared food" will correspond to a letter, and just stick it on the poster, and then take it out (and save it for the next ones) as they are donated.
Now it is necessary to request and spread the idea and concept in the cafés in your area and explain the whole process, and then take the poster, sticker and notepad. It's that simple!
If you know the space but have no way to print the material please talk to us!
Kindness generates kindness, and we have reason to believe that it will be a way to help EVERYONE, the establishments and the most needy.
VOLUNTARY TAKE AWAY- Make It Happen!
We don't know how it's happening in your country, but currently some of the Municipalities in Portugal financially support associations for the preparation and distribution of food to the neediest population, homeless and families, with a value per meal / person.
These associations themselves began to have the need to have a physical and equipped space prepared for making food, to purchase packaging and bags (99.9% is still plastic), and to find voluntary labor for all of this.
It seems to us a huge waste of human and financial resources. Why?
At a time when the restoration is on track and needs solutions and support, I suggest that the municipalities in coordination with the parishes deliver ALL the confection to these establishments, even if there were 10 or 20 meals a day in each, and the financial aid was only given to RESTAURANTS.
Then the collection in each establishment would then be the responsibility of the associations, which as non-profit organizations exist to make the coordinated distribution and provide support to the community.
For example: XPTO Restaurant makes 15 meals a day for distribution and each Association collects on the days it has scheduled and coordinated at the municipal level.
"CLAY CUPS" - Make It Happen!
On a trip to India, we were faced with a simple, innovative element, an idea that is part of a huge revolution that this country is doing to clean up its cities, making the country greener and more sustainable.
Disposable BARREL CUPS, which are used to replace ALL plastic cups in all kiosks and cafés.
We shared the conviction that it could help in different aspects:
1 - Employability / Job creation;
2 - In terms of the environment;
3 - Social Innovation
4 - Other local public entities may, in coordination with local Projects and Associations working on the SDGs, train and employ people for their production;
5- Sustainable Business Model that leverages partnerships with coffee brands, for example;
To resume, the training and employability of people in situations of poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, with a concern for sustainability and the environment.
USED & OTHER DONATIONS - Makes It Happen!
It is essential during all work and the way to go for self-support, that the essential goods for health, well-being and to guarantee the ever so compromised dignity are never lacking.
When we detect a need, whether it is shared by an association, a community, or when it comes to us through a friendly person or simply appears in front of us, right at our door, it is our duty to cooperate and find ways to find solutions.
TEACH How to Fish, in addition to work and missions in Cambodia, cooperates in any of the cases or in others that we find useful. From the collection of food, to the collection of clothing and shoes, or allowing a simple haircut and the feeling of a freshly shaved beard, everything is important for those who are deprived of everything.
At the beginning of the pandemic, for example, we suggested a humble and invisible contribution to cooperate with the charities in Lisbon City Council, raising and organizing the volunteer schedules to the shelters created in the city to provide a provisory solution to homeless people, we suggested the collection and washing of clothes in the centers so that they did not continue to throw away clothes every day, and we negotiated with industrial laundries for it to be carried out, among many other things.
We try to support some families, communities and people, directly or through other projects or associations, in order to achieve more because the needs are enormous but the solutions and opportunities ahead are too, and we know that there are no isolated leaders, nor heroes and saviors among those who have the enormous blessing and joy of having and being able to share.
Some of the things that are always needed:
- second-hand clothing (includes belts, socks, summer and winter underwear for adults and summer for children)
- shoes
- hygiene products
- furniture and articles for the home for projects that work the Housing First module or shared accommodation
- school supplies in good condition (backpacks, case, pencils, pens, etc.)
- donations for haircuts/beards or volunteers to do them
- medical support and advice (general practice and dental medicine)
- training and first aid equipment
- support for printing elements that are necessary to expand a new business or communicate a Project
- donations and partnerships to build houses, family toilets or infrastructure improvement
- individual and family water filters (family water filter we always have to buy locally)
- games and sports equipment
- extra-school supplies
- support for training and specialization in areas that enable the acquisition of technical or more specific skills in the most diverse areas
- purchase of materials to start own business
- others