I was recently involved in a workshop where someone complained about the propensity for the wider public to support projects for homeless people that don't actually help. The particular example she singled out was Street Swags , a charity founded in 2005 by young Brisbane woman Jean Madden. Madden invented a weather-proof sleeping bag, and her charity raises funds to manufacture them and distribute them to rough sleepers free of charge so that they can sleep warm and dry in all weathers. Among her many other awards, Madden was named Queensland's Young Australian of the Year in 2010. In the past month or two she has been in the news for less pleasant reasons - sacked, sued and charged in the criminal courts with fraud for stealing money from the charity she founded. This kind of scandal is certainly not the norm in the charitable world, but supporting charities like these is very popular. The 2016 Young Australians of the Year are two Brisbane men by the name of Lucas
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson