DLTK’s is a family business that started out as mom’s hobby while on maternity leave with me. So, yep... I’ve been helping out with the site since I was in utero! Now that I am all grown up (a whopping 21 years old!) I am still helping out with site, but I do a lot more than painting paper plates and coloring nowadays.

I recently took a moral philosophy class at university. The whole semester was full of revalations, mind-blowing discussions, and important insights. Near the end of the semester we were reading on the moral importance of helping those in need. As much as I enjoyed the class and discussing practical ethics in an academic setting, the most valuable insight I had actually came from personal reflection. I thought about all the different ways that I was raised to care about my communities and feel empowered to make a difference, even if it was a small one. The combination of the empowering lessons I received as a kid and the insightful lessons I received as a university student inspired me to turn to DLTK's to make a difference--even if it is just a small one

All of that being said, a few weeks ago I approached my parents about donating to an international aid charity through the company. Whenever we do website related things as a family, we try our best to make it very official and also very fun (I suspect mom’s still trying to reinforce life lessons about respecting each others passions and dad’s still trying to teach me how to write a business letter. I like to humour them. Lol). My parents told me to put together a business pitch, so I did heaps of research and brainstorming. They took me out for a business lunch and we all put our company "hats" on. (Side note: these hats are our funny, imaginary way of saying that we will be our company roles for the meeting; my parents as heads of the company and myself as an employee).

Photographed by Charles on Unsplash

After convincing them that DLTK's had the potential to help the wider community (AKA the world!) even just a tiny bit, it became our task to pick a foreign aid charity to donate to. I'd done some research into a few different charities in advance and talked them through all of my favourites. I found quite a few charities that specifically focused on helping children in developing countries, which my parents really appreciated since we are a childrens craft website.

When I shared the last charity I had researched with them, they were over the moon excited! It's called WE Charity and, like the other ones, focuses on the ways it can help children. But the extra special thing about WE Charity is what they call a "social enterprise." It's the idea that they support the growth of children in both developing and developed nations.

Photographed by Brandi Ibrao on Unsplash

It is nice to see that so many charities are looking for ways of sustainable development; meaning they act in supportive roles, allowing the members of the community to direct the growth so that communities can sustain the development on their own as they progress. WE Charity does this when it creates it's WE villages in developing nations. But they also go one AMAZING step further. Rather than just looking at how they can achieve sustainable change in one community at a time, they also look towards the global community and how they can achieve sustainable growth there. The solution: empower children all over the world and show them that they can make a difference.

Photographed by Robert Collins on Unsplash

They do this with the social enterprise called ME to WE. You may have heard of an event that they put on (mainly in the UK, Canada, and the States), called WE day. They invite kids with all sorts of different talents and interests and create a space where they can feel empowered to make a change and help lead the world in social change. They invite well-known figures in media as well as guest speakers, who have, themselves, been empowered to make a difference. This all adds up to a very fun day and also a very enriching day. When I was doing my research, I discovered that this isn't the only thing they do. They set up WE schools that have activities and cirriculum designed to empower children. While at the same time organizing camps, trips, leadership training, and talks with motivational speakers.

When my parents and I were talking about WE charity, we realized that this charity aligns so perfectly for what we want to achieve through the company's donations. When we went to make our first donation, we discovered that they let you specify (if you want) what sort of donation you would like to make. One option was to donate to "Outfit a Classroom." Since one of our favourite things to do on the website is to create content for teachers to use in their classrooms, we felt like that donation would mean even more to us.

As a family we really value the act of giving out of compassion and care and we try to remember that there are a million different ways to give, all of which make a difference. So we thought donating to WE charity was one great way for us to help our global community. At the same time, we thought that sharing our decision and experience with all of you would be another way for us to contribute to our community on the website.

My parents encouraged me to write some blog posts about what led me to this place of compassion and empowerment and (of course) to create some awesome content so that kids can learn a little bit more about what they can do to help their communities. So keep an eye out for more blog posts from me about some of the brilliant lessons I learned from my parents as a child and how they shaped my life today. I'll try my best to include some crafts or worksheets to go along with my blog posts to give you some fun ideas of things to do with your own children (or just by yourself... let's be real, crafting is fun no matter what age you are *giggle*).

Thanks for listening... err, reading* everyone!

How to Make a Paper Strip Globe!

What you need:

• brass fastener ("brass brad")
• hole punch,
• printer,
• paper (heavier paper stock works a bit better but we just used ordinary printer paper),
• scissors,
• glue.

Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice (preferably on slightly heavier paper). I normally prefer to let the kids color in their own black and white templates but for this particular craft I like to use the color template. You could also use a real map if you happen to have an old one laying around (sometimes you can get books full of old ones at used book stores).
• Before we start cutting, decide whether you're going to try to keep your strips in the right order. If you do, your globe will look a bit more like the actual planet. If you don't you may end up with pieces of Europe sitting in the middle of North America. It looks cute either way so don't get too stressed out about it!
• Cut out about 12 identical strips from the map paper (as close to identical as you're able - it's not that big a deal if they're a bit different).  If you're using the template, you can use the longitude lines on the map to act as a guide for cutting.
• Punch a hole in each end of all the paper strips.
• Stack them all one on top of the other.
• Put a brass brad through all of the holes on one end and put another brass brad through all of the holes on the other end.
• Make a "U" shape with all of the paper strips and fan them out to make a globe.

Craft Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template    (color)  or   (B&W)

Disclaimer: As ever, everything said in this post are my own thoughts. I haven't been given any compensation for the ideas or information that I share here.