Here at Overells we place great importance on developing a strong sense of community, not only within the office amongst our team and our clients, but also externally.  With this, we regularly donate to charities chosen by our team as a group.

Locally, we provide pro-bono services for “Specialised Programs And Community Endeavours” – a local independent community centre for people with special needs.  We also host an annual “Biggest Morning Tea” and attend ‘fun run’ events that raise funds for charities.  Our staff are also active in personal donations, including ‘working’ for charities, and donating blood.

At our last management meeting we decided to donate to the appeal for East Africa, where across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, 13.3 million people (two thirds of the population of Australia) including over 4.14 million children, are affected by devastating droughts, famine and conflict.

The scale of this crisis is almost incomprehensible to us and serves as a reminder of the privileged position we are all in.  Although devastated by a disaster of the opposite extreme with the recent Brisbane floods, our loss, if any, was limited mostly to material things. In Africa now loss is measured in lives.  Just as many of us extended a helping hand to our local flood victims, we wanted to reach further and offer aid to those in Africa where such local help is non-existent but even more desperately needed.

Sally, one of our cadets here, was the one to put the idea forward to donate to the famine in East Africa, commenting that we too often get carried away with what is going on here when far worse is happening on the other side of the world.

Another one of our cadets, Jess, was also strongly in support of the donation to Africa, having visited Tanzania early last year to volunteer with the medical checks at the School of St Judes, an experience from which she developed a profound admiration and liking for the African people.

In addition to this donation to UNICEF, we continue to support Yeasmin (a girl from Bangaldesh) through World Vision to ensure our community spirit is maintained on a global basis.

Jessica Bell-Allen