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Olivia Colman – Why I’m choosing love this winter

Olivia Colman – Why I’m choosing love this winter

Olivia Colman – Why I’m choosing love this winter

Across the world, over 122 million people have been displaced, almost half of whom are children.

And if you aren’t one, then luck has been on your side.

Choose Love do incredible work. I wanted to share why I’m choosing love this winter, so I teamed up with Choose Love and  Coldplay to make this video, and let people know how urgent and important it is. Take a look:

Send a vital message: that when the world feels at its darkest and there’s so much in our lives we can’t control… we can still Choose Love.

So, please visit the Choose Love shop to do something amazing today.

Love from Olivia Colman

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All Eyes On Gaza: The Impact Of Your Donations

All Eyes On Gaza: The Impact Of Your Donations

All Eyes On Gaza: The Impact Of Your Donations

The situation in Gaza is unbearable. More than 2 million people, almost half of them children remain trapped, under bombardment with nowhere safe to go. It’s reported that over 20,000 children are missing, with many separated from their family, buried in unmarked graves, or trapped under rubble.

Our incredible partners have been doing everything they can to save lives, distribute food, medical supplies, provide shelter and emergency medical and psychosocial support, working in the hardest and most heartbreaking conditions. 

Together, we have already raised $2 million for our partners. Here are the incredible partners we’ve supported with your help so far. 

Thanks to a generous donor, we have a $1.5 million match fund for our partners in Gaza. That means that all donations up to that amount will be doubled. 

100% of what you donate will go towards providing critical aid for people in Gaza and those forcibly displaced, including food, shelter, water, clothing, support for mothers and babies, medical and psychosocial services. 

Please donate what you can. Every donation makes such a difference.

Our five incredible partners and their work:

Anera

Anera have been working tirelessly to deliver food to communities in Gaza, as well as distributing hygiene kits, running wound management clinics and supporting people with chronic health issues.

INARA

INARA is focussed on supporting the critical medical and mental health needs of children in Gaza. We have granted their work towards helping people access emergency surgeries, stocking medical supplies, providing post-operative care and running mental health projects in the hardest of conditions.

Humanity & Inclusion

Humanity & Inclusion supports people with disabilities and injuries in Gaza. They distribute essential supplies of crutches, wheelchairs, hygiene and first aid kits. They provide rehabilitation and post-operative care to the injured and educational activities to help displaced children.

Doctors of the World

Doctors of the World have been working in Gaza since 2006. They are providing emergency medical services across Gaza to save as many lives as possible, bridging a critical shortage of vital medical services including medicines, primary healthcare appointments, midwifery, nurses and mental health support via makeshift clinics and mobile teams. 

MAP

MAP continues to scale up their emergency response 
in Gaza by distributing urgent aid, including shelter supplies, water and food, and is delivering urgent nutrition support with local partners. Supporting the depleted health service, MAP is sending emergency medical teams to Gaza as well as providing hospitals and health centres with medical supplies and rehabilitating hospitals to function.

Please keep donating what you can. 

Thank you so much



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Choose Love for Refugee Week!

Choose Love for Refugee Week!

Choose Love for Refugee Week!

Refugee Week (17-23 June) is all about community and highlighting the beauty of shared culture, connection and support.

Your very own Choose Love Shop

 

Today, there are more than 114 million displaced people in the world. Half of them are children. As governments near and far create harsher immigration policies and fuel anti-immigration rhetoric, community action and solidarity have never been more important.

That’s why, this June, we’re asking you to get together with friends, family or colleagues and host a pop-up shop: at your local cafe, your office, in your weekly pub quiz or at your summer BBQ – it couldn’t be more easy!  You just register your store online, then you can take payments with your phone or tablet. Everything you sell will go straight to our partners working in 36 countries around the world, providing displaced communities with what they need most: from hot food to life-saving search and rescue. 

 

 

Step 1: Register your shop

1. Create your account, making sure to verify your email.

2. Click ‘start fundraising’ to go on to create your shop.

3. Choose a name for your shop and add your own description. Include your/your company’s name, and keep it simple as you can’t change it later. E.g. ‘Jo’s Choose Love Shop at the Coffee Junction’.

4. Add a picture of yourself and your team if you have one. (this really helps!)

5. Select the Choose Love items you want to sell in your shop. On the platform these are called ‘rewards’ and if you want you can select everything!

Step 2: Plan your shop
  1. Pick a location and time where there will be lots of people around. You’ll need a table or surface (or perhaps you want to hang things from the walls?) and decent wifi or data. Make sure to let people know that you’ll be fundraising beforehand.
  2. Choose a few items you’d like to represent in your pop up. You can use items from around the house or a charity shop. For example, you could bring a blanket to represent Warm Blankets and Sleeping Bags, or a book to represent Adult Learning.
  3. Print your QR code – this can be found in the overview section of your online shop.
  4. We have printable posters and price lists. Pick which ones you’d like and print them (or ask a friend to help out if you don’t have a printer.)
  5. Get arty! Create some of your own eye-catching Choose Love signage to highlight your shop and catch people’s attention!
  6. Send a message to all of your friends and family with the details of where and when your pop up will be happening, and put it up on all of your socials – remember to tag us so we can share.
  7. Let us know where you’re planning to do your pop up so we can encourage others to come!
Step 3 : On the day
  1. Read our Fundraising Guidance document to help create a safe and welcoming environment for all of your guests!
  2. Make sure to take plenty of pics of your pop up!
  3. Post on your socials throughout the day to keep encouraging people to come. Download images and posts that you can use.
  4. Highlight the sales you’re making on the day, and send out the link so people can buy something online if they can’t make it in person.
  5. Tag us in all your posts so we can keep resharing!

For more information about issues facing displaced people and the projects we fund, follow us on instagram.

If you need help setting up your shop, please email our wonderful team at community@choose.love

Thank you for choosing love, always.

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Time to take on a challenge for Choose Love?

Time to take on a challenge for Choose Love?

Time to take on a challenge for Choose Love?

Were you inspired by the London Marathon this weekend? After watching hundreds of thousands of people take on an incredible feat, and raise millions for charity, are you itching to take on a challenge? We’d LOVE for you to do it in support of Choose Love. We’ll even send you an exclusive Choose Love running vest for you to run in!

We’ve compiled a list of amazing races below that you can register for, then all you need to do is create a fundraising page on our bespoke Choose Love platform – and we’ll get your money to displaced people as soon as possible.

And if you’re more of a cake baker or etsy creator, that’s great too! You can create a page for anything you’d like to do to raise money, or ask people to sponsor you in a challenge you’ve invented. You can even raise money in honour of a wedding or birthday.

Half marathons

Southampton Half Marathon https://www.southamptonmarathon.co.uk
Belfast Half Marathon https://belfastcitymarathon.com/
Great North Run https://www.greatrun.org/events/great-north-run/
Milton Keynes Half Marathon https://mkmarathon.com
Richmond Half Marathon https://run-fest.com/events/richmond-marathon/
Great Scottish Run https://www.greatrun.org/events/great-scottish-run/
Bournemouth Half Marathon https://www.runbournemouth.com/
Great Birmingham Run https://www.greatrun.org/events/great-birmingham-run/
London Landmarks Half Marathon https://llhm.co.uk/
Hackney Half Marathon https://www.hackneymoves.com/

Shorter runs

Brighton 10k https://www.brightonmarathonweekend.co.uk/
Southampton 10k https://www.southamptonmarathon.co.uk
Battersea Park 5ks & 10ks https://www.runthrough.co.uk/battersea-park/
Olympic Park 5ks & 10ks https://www.runthrough.co.uk/olympic-park/
Great Scottish Run https://www.greatrun.org/events/great-scottish-run/
Bournemouth 10k https://www.runbournemouth.com/
Great Birmingham Run https://www.greatrun.org/events/great-birmingham-run/
Southampton 5k https://www.southamptonmarathon.co.uk
Milton Keynes 5k https://mkmarathon.com

Other Challenges

Swim Serpentine https://www.swimserpentine.co.uk/
Cycling Find a cycling race near you – https://findarace.com/cycling#results
Tough Mudder UK https://toughmudder.co.uk
The Three Peaks Challenge https://www.threepeakschallenge.uk
Iron Man UK https://www.ironman.com/im-uk

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Host your own Choose Love shop

Host your own Choose Love shop

Host your own Choose Love shop

We’re excited to announce that for the first time, you can host your very own Choose Love Shop!

Each winter, we receive lovely requests from many of you, wanting to host a Choose Love Shop in your community. And now you can make that happen!

You can now launch your very own store, online and in person, perfect for sharing with friends, family, and colleagues during the festive season.

All you need to do is start fundraising through our partner platform Tiltify and then download our toolkit of tips for organising your shop, and you’re good to go!

The essence of the Choose Love shop is simple but powerful: shoppers can purchase crucial supplies and support services that refugees and displaced people globally rely on during the harsh winter months. 

Everything bought from your shop directly benefits someone in need.

From cosy children’s jackets to hearty meals and urgently needed medical care, this is your opportunity to rally your community and ensure that as many people as possible receive the warmth and safety they deserve this winter.

While we can’t promise a surprise visit from Benedict Cumberbatch to your shop, we can assure you that your contribution this season will make a significant difference where it’s most needed.

If you need help setting up your shop, please email our wonderful team at  communityfundraising@choose.love

Thank you for choosing love, always.

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Supporting communities affected by climate change

Supporting communities affected by climate change

Supporting communities affected by climate change

Choose Love is delighted to be partnering with Students Rebuild again this year to work with our incredible partners supporting communities affected by climate displacement.

It is predicted that a staggering 1.2 billion people globally could be displaced by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters. Climate is a threat multiplier for conflict, hunger and the forced movement of people. As ever, children bear the greatest burden of this emergency – placing the most basic rights at risk and threatening their futures.

The crises Choose Love are responding to in multiple contexts cannot be disentangled from a rapidly changing climate. Whether it is emergency distributions of firewood, fuel and winter clothing for unpredicted snow storms in Lebanon or critical hygenie infrastructure in refugee camps across Greece during heat waves, the impact of the climate crisis does not affect everyone equally. People displaced as a result of environmental disaster do not have the privilege of waiting for global frameworks and funding agreements painfully debated over at COP conferences. Reparations arrive too late or not at all. 

Choose Love’s movement – people helping people – is essential to saving lives. As ever, grassroots responses are the immediate solution. Until the world is ready to take bold and decisive action, we need to consider how to meet on the ground human needs.

We are supporting people on their journeys to safety; addressing issues in Bangladesh, Brazil and Kenya (countries facing the worst impacts of climate change); funding innovative humanitarian solutions to those facing internal displacement as a result of extreme weather in the Middle East; investing in refugee-led work throughout Europe focusing on a circular economy; and funding radical education programs along the route. Thoroughout all of this we are keeping chilren’s futures at the forefront of our minds. We are so excited to be expanding this work thanks to the Extraordinary Earth Project and imagining new, brighter and more welcoming futures for children around the world. 

Students Rebuild are inviting students from around the world to join us in learning about our environment, and the things we can do to protect our earth. Learn more about how to support this year’s challenge and our incredible partners now. 

Picture credit: SAWA for Development and Aid (Jeremy Snell)

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