Bushfire relief fund, victim support & animal help
** Australian families and wildlife need your help - every little bit counts! **
This campaign will be used to provide support to those families most in need, and care for our precious wildlife.
The 2019/20 Australian bushfires is one of the worst disasters ever faced by our Nation. For context, it is many orders of magnitude larger than any fire we've seen before with over 15 million acres of land burnt, dozens of people killed or still missing, thousands of homes/buildings destroyed and hundreds of millions of helpless animals perished. Frighteningly, the situation is still not under control and those numbers only continue to rise.
This includes an estimated 35,000 koalas that have been killed in the bushfires, with many more injured and requiring special care. These species face real trouble for ongoing survival if we don't intervene.
In the midst of this global tragedy, we are appealing to the wider-community to continue assisting those people and animals in need. It's incredible to see so many people from around the world already coming together in aid of those affected, but there is still a long way to go. Australia needs your help!
We are using this platform to generate a relief fund which will be distributed between:
- people/families most desperately in need (help with purchasing of basic necessities, including temporary shelter, food/water and medical supplies in addition to supply runs down South)
- supporting animal rescue and rehabilitation, through foundations such as WIRES and Wildlife Victoria (particularly koalas, who are facing real problems as a result of the habitat destruction)
- general contributions to the various other groups and charities who provide protection, ongoing support and help rebuild the affected communities.
Considered organisations will include:
- Victoria's Country Fire Authority and NSW's Rural Fire Service,
- Red Cross, Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Society,
- Gippsland Farmer Relief, &
- Wildlife Victoria and Kangaroo Island Funds, WIRES and NSW Koala Medical Centres
No money will remain leftover as this is strictly not-for-profit. Ongoing campaign updates will keep you up-to-date with progress and the distribution of funds.
For those who aren't up-to-date, below is a recent update regarding the state of disaster:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/jan/05/nsw-fires-live-updates-victoria-bushfires-south-australia-fire-sa-bushfire-near-rfs-cfa-latest-news
We are experiencing a catastrophic national emergency that has captured the eye of the world; let's do what we can now before it's too late. Thank you for your generosity!
Info for GoFundMe:
Who we are - Joel Meadows (NSW), Joel Ingram (QLD), Shaun Rigby (NSW), and Jess Harper (NSW). Unable to help with firefighting directly, we are a group of colleagues just looking to do our bit to assist.
Funds - As above, we will be reaching out to the affected areas to determine the best ways to distribute the money once the situation has completed unfolded and assessments have been made. The donated money will be used to purchase necessities while conducting supply runs for affected families and/or deposited directly into the accounts of the community funds/organisations (some listed above) who assist on a larger-scale (with all receipts/transaction records kept for proof). This is also dependent on the level of support we can generate.
