The butterfly and the Rain Cloud

The butterfly and the rain cloud

One glorious sunrise many moons ago, in the depths of the bountiful jade and emerald forest the only butterfly ever was born.

Her colours irridedescent again the morning rays, caused sparkling wonder upon every reflection. The arrival was greeted amongst all the other species as a true beauty born to them.

For many happy years, the butterfly flutted her wings in the lush tropical forest with all creatures of amazing vibrant colours. Her life was idyllic, but she did not feel whole.

She was in paradise, but one day she flutters her way to the tallest tree and could see the vistas of yonder. The sky was always blue as was all the primary boldness of all she accounted; however on the horizon she saw something. It was a grey rain cloud.

The butterfly had never seen a rain cloud, although the colours did not match her utopia, she felt pity and feared for its loneliness.

The cloud never moved and for days, weeks, months she climbed to the highest point on the roof the forest and watched the rain cloud.

A decision was made to seek out this rain cloud and to convince it to come with her back to her paradise.

So one morning she set off in the direction of the cloud, every so often in her journey she would have to rise above the canopy to check her course.

The forest was dense and grey, no signs of life or colours, this was not like her paradise.

The closer she got to the rain cloud, the light darkened and rain fell upon her wings. The weight of the rain caused problems for her to fly. It then quickly came to her that the rain cloud did not want her there.

It was at that moment that she decided to turn back, the journey and return to paradise was a welcome one and she scolded herself for wanting better as she truly did not want to leave ever again.

Some more days passed and the rain cloud drifted away, the morning sun penetrated the dense canopy where the cloud once was. The forest floor began to rumble and almost arriving with trumpets the stalks of tropical flowers burst through the sodden earth. These flowers bloomed with glorious colours.

The leaves of luscious green returned to the trees, after one more day these leaves were gone, consumed by thousands upon thousands of caterpillars.

Almost in unison they all formed cocoons and when the time was right they all was reborn, the fluttering of all their wings brought a crescendo wave that swept the forest.

The butterfly in her paradise heard this noise, and thought to herself that if the rain cloud came, she would move in the opposite direction.    

A blog about a hidden Scandal

Fellow humans, welcome to my weekly blog.

A provocative title indeed, but let me tell you a story.

There once was CEO on a six figure salary who had an army of PA's all on £40k+, he had modern multi million pound offices, he commissioned art, he worked a 24 hour week, he had expense accounts, he had celebrity endorsements (all expenses paid), he had street teams raising capital on £14 per hour + commission.

Are we talking a finely tuned financial institution? No we are talking charities!

I will not rant on this subject as I am about to digress, but did you know that the majority of charities only actually donate £0.32 in the £1.00 raised? Or 68% operating costs.

There are operating costs, but this does seem maybe ...... Excessive?

The scandal for which I speak, is actually the misuse of funds raised. The example which is to be used are the purchasing of special needs toys.

We buy our Son all of his toys, as I am in a position to do so, however there are families and special needs nurseries / schools who do not have the funds available and need help.

Now, you would think that these would be made available with a small mark up but with VAT removed (as its a charity) the prices would be reasonable? wrong.

A great example was a simple red crab toy, it helps aid crawling, you wind it up and it stimulates the observer to chase it. Well this breakthrough in special needs toys was available for £40.00. If it had the desired effect then price is no object, right?

However, there was something about this toy that did not make sense, and it was not until I saw the same toy, and I mean the same in Tesco's priced at £5.00 then the scandal was obvious.

This is how it works, a special needs toy supplier sells it's wares to charities at the high price, this is auditable. The charity then supplies councils and school's, but mostly schools or playgroups. The charity then as a middle man would receive a rebate from the supplier. This of course will be marked down as a donation.

Thus the cycle starts again, the supplier could go direct but how much more business would they get if they partnered with a charity?

Then there is the council, who via a large grant from a charity will give a family, use of a wheelchair or walking frame? They purchase from a supplier, then place a large mark up for a charity to part buy. In the majority of cases the family has had to fund raise to buy the other half with donations matched?

Does the child get a wheelchair, well yes, but is this ethical? when half of the funds raised would of more than matched the actual cost of the wheelchair if the family had access to the supplier.

A very modern scandal indeed as our donations are wasted, our council tax is squandered, our special needs nurseries and play groups ripped off, parents forced to wait as they struggle to raise funds that would more than pay for the item if they knew the supplier.

So the next time you donate to charity, find out how many pence to the pound is actually being used to help people. You may get a shock!

Or just take used (and cleaned) toys along to playgroups and schools, they could sure use the help.

We had lots of used frames, baths, walking aids but would they take them back to help other families? Hmmm ..... Eventually but we had to ask them, maybe more than once.

No charities were named for legal reasons, but would more than happily tell you who they are in an unrecorded private conversation.

You could spend ten's of thousands of pounds for my son to have sensory toys, but a 99p foil hand held windmill from the seaside would bring equal joy.

I hope the special needs toy suppliers do not read this, as seaside foil windmills will increase in price 20 fold, so shushhhhhh...............


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