The Philosophy and Motivation Behind THUMB

Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime. It’s Charity vs. Philanthropy.

We all know about charity and, by and large, Australians are very good at putting their hands in their pockets and dropping a few dollars into a tin. But taking larger amounts of money, and cleverly applying it at the root cause of social issues and community problems where that money can have greatest effect, that’s Philanthropy. Australians, by world standards, haven’t embraced this idea.

Most Australians don’t know what Philanthropy is. And why should they? We rarely teach it. We don’t discuss it. If at all, people normally cotton onto it later in life.

Well we say let’s turn that around , let’s teach our kids from an early age that making a difference is something to aspire to, an ideal that could sit alongside mateship and 'a fair go' in the Australian vernacular.

To do this students must first unearth and then build on their own inner strengths. Few would argue the value in this and it's here the paradox exists:

Society cries foul that our children are growing up without values and, like it or not, many argue schools aren't providing children with a moral compass. At the same time our overly litigious society is starving children of the opportunity to experience the life enriching feeling of responsibility.

We're seeing the effects of this on and off the sporting field, in shopping centres and in schools. While the arguments go on over who is to blame, one under resourced group is left with a large part of the job of trying to address the problem. These are our teachers.

We applaud teachers and the work they do. We also see the education dollar doesn't go very far. Our view is the community should be better supporting our teachers for 'it takes a village to raise a child.' THUMB merely provides a service to help teachers deal with the extra burden a growing sector in society has placed upon them; bringing up our children.

Understand that the T.H.U.M.B program is not idealist. It openly encourages our children to aim high. Sure, make handsome profits for shareholders but, along with those privileges, sits a social responsibility to spend a small amount of your energy trying to make a difference, somewhere, somehow.

This is our vision. In about 40 years time if you eavesdropped on a group of business leaders from around the world and heard them comparing what they earned, you’d hear... 200k … 500k … a million…and then it’s the Australian's turn … what do you make they ask … and she answers … What do I make? I make a difference.

But really … what can kids do?

• Look at Ten-year-old Stacey Hillman . She was reading a magazine about Police Dogs needing bullet-proof vests. She thought that someone should start raising money for the Police Dogs. She made collection jugs out of bottles and put these in vet clinics and pet stores. Her Pennies For Police Dogs program captured the public interest and has raised $140,000 and purchased 180 bullet-proof vests.

• And when 7-year-old Welland Burnside heard about how many children in foster care programs were forced to carry their belongings in rubbish bags because they couldn’t afford suitcases - he was shocked. So, Welland and his sister Aubyn founded Suitcases for Kids , dedicating themselves to ensuring that every child in foster care would have a bag of their own. A decade later, they have has collected over 100,000 suitcases, and their charity has chapters in every US state and in 83 foreign countries.

• Annie Wignall is the founder and director of the Care Bags an organization she started when she was eleven years old. Care Bags provides essential, fun, safe, and age appropriate things (games, toothbrushes, books, etc.) to kids during difficult times in their lives. Care bags go to over 800 disadvantaged, abused, and displaced kids every year and are distributed by 20 agencies serving over 80 towns in Iowa as well as going to other states for disaster relief and to needy kids all over the world via Airline Ambassadors. Using the Care Bags Starter Kit, other young people have adopted Annie's program and are implementing it in their own communities.