Figures just in from the NSPCC charity show that from Christmas Eve 2011 to January 4th 2012 there was a 19% rise in the number of calls made to Childline compared to the previous year. Over this period almost 50,000 calls were made by children looking for support over the festive season, with a quite staggering 50% increase on Christmas Day calls compared to the previous year!

14% of all of those calls were related to family problems, though there was a dramatic 103% increase in depression and mental health related counselling required this year! The one major plus of these number increases is that it shows more and more children feel comfortable contacting the NSPCC, particularly online, where the ChildLine website increased by 57% last year.

Let’s hope this number increase is a sign of more children feeling the freedom to discuss their feelings and problems with people who understand, and truly care.

Help the NSPCC Today

The NSPCC help thousands of children each year, and with your donations they can endeavour to answer more calls from children who struggle to get through on their busy phone lines.

The NSPCC children’s charity are eager to raise £50million to help expand their UK services and recruit nearly two thousand volunteers. By donating to the NSPCC you can help stop atrocities happening to children.

> > Click here to make a donation to the NSPCC

Read our NSPCC review

Action Aid charity officials are still working hard on the front line of the devastating flooding that still effects Thailand and Cambodia 5 months on. The flooding, the worst seen in both countries for decades, has affected nearly seven million residents as people are forced from their homes by overflowing water.

ActionAid officials have provided 36,900 people in Cambodia with -

• Food
• Shelter
• Water purification kits
• Seeds
• Livestock

Whilst in Thailand, the charity has reached over 10,000 with emergency packages. The main focus now is to help people to try and rebuild their lives by ensuring all health and sanitation needs are met. In Cambodia, the ruined rice harvest is causing continued problems through food shortages, malnutrition and of course lack of funds, as these crops were many people’s livelihoods.

ActionAid Head of Emergencies, Bijay Kumar, said -

Although the attention of the world’s media may have moved on, the misery continues, with hundreds of thousands of people still living in appalling conditions. One third of Thailand’s and two-thirds of Cambodia’s provinces have been devastated. The floods have killed hundreds of people, destroyed millions of homes and livelihoods, triggered some serious diseases and ruined the countries’ rice crops. Our work has only just begun. We are moving out of the emergency phase where we have helped people to survive the initial impact of the floods. Our next challenge is helping people rebuild their lives – this will involve long term support that will help people become more resilient to future disasters.

Help ActionAid with a Charity Gift

You can also help raise funds with the ActionAid Gifts in Action scheme, giving you the chance to buy an unusual and thoughtful charity gift whilst also helping poor communities.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

> > Click here to order a gift with Action Aid

Action Aid UK would like to say a big thank you to all the people who have supported their children’s charity in 2011. Thanks to your kind donations, Action Aid have been able to continue their tireless work across the globe to try and -

• fight hunger
• seek justice for women
• give children education
• cope with emergencies

Action Aid work in over 40 countries across the globe fighting poverty and injustice, giving hope to people where there was once none. Thanks to your kind donations, Action Aid can continue to help teachers, build wells, and lobby governments to try and ensure justice and food for everyone on the planet where humanly possible. Thank you so much for your support in 2011, and here’s to further successful campaigning in 2012.

Without your help, all these things would not be possible…

Help ActionAid with a Charity Gift

You can also help raise funds with the ActionAid Gifts in Action scheme, giving you the chance to buy an unusual and thoughtful charity gift whilst also helping poor communities.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

> > Click here to order a Gift in Action

Other top charity gifts

Plan UK has created an amazing new Facebook application called ‘Plan Your Story’, and I know because I just used it! Simply click on the link below to open the application via your Facebook profile and see how the story of your life could have been so different if you were born without a birth certificate -

> > Click here to Plan Your Story

So many people across the world are born without a birth certificate, and it really can play a huge part on what impact you have for the rest of your life. You and I are lucky, these kind of things are just taken for granted.

This great new application has already won Digital Campaign of the Week from leading voluntary and not-for-profit sector magazine Third Sector. Why not find out what all the fuss is about by clicking on the link above, and Plan Out Your Story yourself.

Help Plan by Sponsoring a Child

You can help raise funds for Plan’s ongoing work by sponsoring a child. Currently working in some of the world’s poorest countries, Plan make long term improvements to the lives of children through working in local communities. With each sponsorship comes -

• Welcome pack including information and pictures about your child
• Receive at least one letter, note or drawing from your child
• 2 Editions of World Family Magazine
• The knowledge that you are helping a child to live their life

> > Click here to sponsor a child with Plan

Action Aid UK is asking for your assistance in helping the people of Tanzania who have lost their village due to a British company called Sun Biofuels.

Please help bring justice for the villagers of Kisarawe in Tanzania who now do not have enough food since the company took over the land, nor have they been paid for they work they provided.

Below is a video from the Guardian newspaper which will show you what has happened to these poor people -

Action Aid are looking for just 500 people to sign up to show their support, and at the time of writing this they only need another 66 to reach their target (make that 65 as I’ve just signed myself). So if you have a couple of seconds to spare, click on the link below and leave your message of support to the village people of Kisarawe who are now banned from their own land.

> > Click here sign petition

Help ActionAid with a Charity Gift

You can also help raise funds with the ActionAid Gifts in Action scheme, giving you the chance to buy an unusual and thoughtful charity gift whilst also helping poor communities.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

> > Click here to order a Gift in Action

Other top charity gifts

Action Aid UK ambassador, award winning actress Emma Thompson, and has just returned from Burma. There the anti-poverty campaigner met with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi alongside a wide range of political leaders as the country goes though a number of changes.

Emma travelled to Burma with her son and also ActionAid’s International Chief Executive Joanna Kerr, to check out the latest development work within the country.

Since 1962 Myanmar has had a military government, but a new president and recent elections has seen economic reforms alongside the easing of censorship

Emma, said -

I was in Burma to listen to the opinions of a very wide selection of people representing all sections of society. They were all giving me the same message which was that the story coming out of Burma had been very black and white and for good reason, but that over the last few months control has begun to relax, that the Burmese story is changing. There are difficulties and a large number of challenges, A tiny percentage of government spending has been spent on health and education for example. There are also ethnic divisions that exacerbate problems. I saw deep, wrenching poverty but felt that there is a genuine dialogue beginning to start between the people and the government. The trip left me feeling hopeful.

ActionAid has been working in Burma for eleven years, helping local governments with new schools, health services and trying to heal the peace process.

Thanks to the latest political changes, there is now new hope in Burma.

Help ActionAid with a Charity Gift

You can also help raise funds with the ActionAid Gifts in Action scheme, giving you the chance to buy an unusual and thoughtful charity gift whilst also helping poor communities.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

> > Click here to order a Gift in Action

Other top charity gifts

Due to hunger, malnutrition, and a lack of basic medicine, millions of children will ‘Never Never’ grow old either. Many will never even see their 5th birthday due to diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, all of which are easy to treat with the right care. Support World Vision’s ground breaking work on the front line of the world’s poorest countries, and help millions of children reach their full potential both physically and mentally.

> > Click here for When I Grow Up Campaign

Help World Vision by sponsoring a child

The World Vision Sponsor a Child programme is a great way to give a needy child a real chance of escaping poverty. As part of a long-term program, your continued support enables World Vision to use your donations to build sustainable communities in partnership with the people who live there.

You can provide a child with a better future for just 60p a day – giving them a real chance of escaping poverty. You get to see and feel the difference your support makes directly, through the eyes of your sponsored child and their regular letters and photographs.

> > Click here to sponsor a child with World Vision UK

World Vision UK is asking for your help and support their latest campaign, ‘When I Grow Up’. With up 3.5 million children dying from under nutrition every year, children across the globe deserve a chance sow something more in their lives.

Children in developed countries have the chance to dream about a real future when they grow up, whether it is to be a doctor, a footballer, or even an astronaut! Yet many children in poverty stricken countries never get the chance to live their dreams. In South Sudan, a 15 year old girl has a higher chance of dying in child birth than completing school, so the chances of reaching their full potential is bleak.

Simply click on the link below to add your name to ask the British government how they plan to reduce malnutrition and give all children across the globe a better chance in life. Let them have a chance to dream of what they can be when they grow up…

> > Click here to sign World Vision petition

Help World Vision by sponsoring a child

The World Vision Sponsor a Child programme is a great way to give a needy child a real chance of escaping poverty. As part of a long-term program, your continued support enables World Vision to use your donations to build sustainable communities in partnership with the people who live there.

You can provide a child with a better future for just 60p a day – giving them a real chance of escaping poverty. You get to see and feel the difference your support makes directly, through the eyes of your sponsored child and their regular letters and photographs.

> > Click here to sponsor a child with World Vision UK

With the situation deteriorating further still, children are being forced to forget about school in favour of searching for food and water. With millions still at risk to disease and malnutrition, Action Aid are asking you to lend a helping hand to these people who are in desperate need of hope.

As you can see, the difference your kind donations are already making a massive difference to babies at an ActionAid health clinic. Yet some of the worst affected people may not see a single rain drop for another 3 months. With your help, Action Aid will be doing everything they can in this drought covered region to help children and the most vulnerable to their basic human rights…

your donations save lives.

Help ActionAid with a Charity Gift

You can also help raise funds with the ActionAid Gifts in Action scheme, giving you the chance to buy an unusual and thoughtful charity gift whilst also helping poor communities.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving…

> > Click here to order a Gift in Action

Other top charity gifts

Last Saturday, 9th July 2011, Sudan, became two nations. One of Africa’s biggest countries now split into two, South Sudan desperately needs help in it’s quest to make a fresh start. With internal instability and serious poverty, the return of thousands of south Sudanese from the North is causing a great deal of stress on the new economy.

South Sudan is now one of the world’s poorest countries, and its people are badly in need of the basics that we take for granted -

• Education
• Healthcare
• Clean Water
• Food

With less than half of South Sudan’s children attending school, the future looks bleak for the new countries long term stability and survival. Plus with a possible food crisis looming, the people of South Sudan are badly in need of our support.

World Vision UK’s Director of Policy and Programmes, David Thomson, said -

From more than 20 years of working with and talking with children in this country, we know that their hopes and fears reflect the needs of the nation.

You can help World Vision UK ensure that there is continual support for this new country by clicking on the link below and adding your name to the email to Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, and help the South Sudanese people into their brave new world.

> > Click here to sign letter to Minister for Africa

Help World Vision by sponsoring a child

The World Vision Sponsor a Child programme is a great way to give a needy child a real chance of escaping poverty. As part of a long-term program, your continued support enables World Vision to use your donations to build sustainable communities in partnership with the people who live there.

You can provide a child with a better future for just 60p a day – giving them a real chance of escaping poverty. You get to see and feel the difference your support makes directly, through the eyes of your sponsored child and their regular letters and photographs.

> > Click here to sponsor a child with World Vision UK