Why take money outside australia?  i can introduce you to  dozens of  local kids who live on our streets with no interest in tomorrow

Isn't there enough to go around? Local and overseas?

I really appreciate the opportunity to volunteer for The Salvation Army.  By working with a local organization, I know that I'm helping people who really need it, and I'm working with an organization that doesn't spend anything on frills. 

The experience of volunteering is also very satisfying.  Although it's not true of every last person, most of the people you help will be friendly and thankful for your help.

Since my job basically involves thinking, typing into a computer, and making the occassional phone call, volunteering also gives me the opportunity to do something a lot less abstract.  In the years I've volunteered for the army, I've cooked, driven a truck, and packed grocery bags.  It's a very concrete way to help. 

Working with the local community isn't the only way to help, but if you have the time it can be a very rewarding experience.  I'd be flabbergasted if you walked in to the local Salvation Army corps and they couldn't find something for you to do in the first five minutes.

Ed, perhaps your sports groups could devote some of their lunchtime playtime to helping some of these kids?

I kind of think that anyone in Australia has the opporutnity to do anything with their lives if they set their minds to it. Yes, I say that from a privelidged position, but priviledged doesn't make it always true. It helps. But that says that i's possible from any position.

Key point is sustainability. How do you change the 'system' so that all kids want to live for tomorrow and love life.  

I kind of think that anyone in Australia has the opporutnity to do anything with their lives if they set their minds to it.

Mmm. I see what you are saying but you and I have been brought up with a mindset that allows us to see opportunities. We have also had many more opportunities. Understanding your own potential and the opportunities in the world, as well as having the emotional and vocational toolbox to act on those things is a luxury that not everyone has. 

Even I would not be a trained journalist now if I had not finished my one year Grad Dip in 1997. The year after they introduced up-front fees. I was in no position to afford them. I found that quite unsettling. As someone who had completed the course and saw a pathway to employment, I felt the tenuous nature of that later, when they made it the domain of the rich.