Locally in New Zealand we
support the Auckland City Mission and help with projects in and around our
Lodge's. There are many individuals who contribute to this work in their own
way, large or small around the country.
We target our assistance and funds towards areas where the need is greatest and we have local contacts on the ground. All these contacts have been verified before any money is sent and we are very confident that the funds go directly to those in need and to whom the money or help was raised for in the first place.
Our main focus
is on fund raising in creative ways for a variety of projects, mainly
educational. One of our members donates paintings for raffles or sale,
for example. A second produces theosophical bookmarks for us to sell.
Another offered a quilted wall hanging. A produce and second hand book
table in three or four Theosophical Society branches raises a tidy sum of
several hundred dollars each year.
Members annually
donate to the Golden Link School in Manila and sponsor the education of over 20
children in Pakistan and India. In collaboration with the Theosophical
Society in New Zealand, we also underwrite two adult literacy classes in
Karachi. In addition to donations to one off projects overseas we also
try to respond to emergency situations such as the tsunami that hit South East
Asia in 2004. Locally, we support the Auckland City Mission in its work
for the destitute.
Most recently,
Maureen Paterson, a particularly dynamic member, organised the filling of a
container of over 11,000 books which the TOS shipped to Manila, along with sports
equipment, teaching tools, musical instruments, computers and much more.
A generous sum was donated by a member to pay for the construction of shelves
for the books.
During the TOS
International Centennial year of 2008 we undertook a special project in support
of the Golden Link School. A fund was set up to provide a scholarship to
educate a child there. This is an ongoing scholarship, the capital of
which remains inviolate, with the interest income covering the grant. The
name is the Geoffrey Hodson Memorial Scholarship in recognition of an
outstanding former TOS director in New Zealand. A second fund has also
been set up to ensure the availability of Mr. Hodson’s books to the
public. A campaigner on numerous social issues, Mr Hodson wrote and spoke
tirelessly on animal welfare, vegetarianism, world peace, the spiritual
education of children, health, healing and meditation.
If you would like to contribute we would love to hear from you and further details can be found at the bottom of this page. All monies raised for these causes go to the causes. Any administrative overheads (which are not large) are met by individuals, Branches and the Theosophical National Headquarters.
"TOS intouch.on-line" -
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also be read on this website:
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