South Canterbury Donates $6600.00

The South Canterbury Multiple Sclerosis Society is a non-profit organization that provides support education and advocacy for people with MS their family, whanau and all of their support networks including work colleagues. We foster and encourage the creation of opportunities for people with MS to participate as fully as possible in all aspects of life. The Society provides a range of resources about MS including booklets on particular symptoms and treatments, a lending library and a quarterly newsletter, social groups, home visits and support with appointment and other meetings. A lot of time is spent supporting clients with health issues, this could be around specialist appointments or sitting with them while they undergo treatments. There are a number of new treatments provided by Pharmac and we as a society lobby for these treatments to be available, and for the criteria’s to be lowered so more PWMS can be involved. These services are delivered in the south Canterbury region by one field worker to the over 125 clients that she attends to. Our office is in Community House Timaru.

SPCA is New Zealand’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity. Together with our communities, SPCA has been protecting New Zealand’s animals for over 140 years – animals who are sick, injured, neglected, abused or simply abandoned. Our 39 centres across the country cared for over 40,000 animals last year. We protect New Zealand’s animals by preventing cruelty & educating the community (SPCA believes that engaging, educating and building relationships with our communities is key to improving animal welfare in New Zealand); carrying out multiple animal rescues (last year our teams responded to over 15,000 reports of animals in difficulty across New Zealand); rehabilitating them; finding them shelter, rehoming &/or reuniting them; and seeking justice (SPCA is the only charity with the legal powers to help animals in need and bring animal offenders to justice). In a nutshell, we speak for those who cannot speak for. Funding this vital work is a never-ending struggle. Less than 4% of our operating budget comes through government sources ($1.9m of a $49m annual budget) – the rest is raised through the generosity of our wider community who work in partnership with us to ensure our shared values around animal welfare can be achieved.

The ASPECT Trust was formed by a group of likeminded local business people who saw a need to provide funding for the young athletes who were achieving in their respective fields of sport to a NZ and International level but needed considerable support financially to be able to make the most of the opportunities from their selection. They saw the many tangible and intangible benefits that being active and involved in sport developed in terms of ethics and attributes that help form and develop great people within our community. ASPECT has come a long way since then with new Trustees and a very committed strategic approach, however the core values and the fundamental reason for our existence still rings true. Apart from the continual grants available to young athletes through the Trust, we have developed a Scholarship program now that targets the best of the best and allows them the time and space to concentrate on achieving to be the very best that they can be in the sporting discipline. The Aspect Trust has distributed over $100K in the last few years by means of these conduits and continue to look at the mixed model of targeted business funding and general fund raising.