Check out this fascinating discussion on Facebook and join in! I wrote a blog post "When helping the poor isn’t helping" in reaction to a link posted on Facebook by an American friend, Wendi Hammond. She requested people to comment on an article in time.com, "Bad Charity? (All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt!)" Please join the discussion here on my Facebook page: http://bit.ly/bKasyC. The original blog post is here: http://bit.ly/buJSrK Wendi's Facebook page is here: http://bit.ly/9xh8Wh

Only ten days to go before Comrades day! Please follow Minette who is running the 2010 Comrades marathon for Global Relief (GRf) this year. It is her third Comrades and her goal is to raise R5000 for the "Support the GRf volunteers" project. We are looking for monthly donations in order to appoint permanent staff to support our volunteers in the field. Once-off donations are also welcome. GRf has been helping the survivors of major disasters for the past 10 years - all through volunteers. So please follow her and make a donation! Click here for Minette's project [link]

This morning I went for a walk with my wife Cecile, our three daughters Anelia (5), Marisje (2) and Andiswa (16 months) and two dogs, Ebony and Fudgie. It was great family time together, we got a little excercise and the kids loved picking up waste and putting it into plastic bags. We are "training" (really hard training, let me tell you!) for the Discovery 702 Walk the Talk that will take place on 25 July in Johannesburg. Please donate to my project to support the Global Relief volunteers helping the survivors of disasters. Without a support system these great people can't offer their services for free. Cecile took a video clip of our walking this morning and I will upload it soon. Why don't you join us for the Walk on 25 July?

'n Ou skoolvriend van my het vanoggend 'n Global Relief (GRf) lid geword deur 'n maandelikse donasie te registreer. Dankie Daniel Pieterse! Jy stel ons in staat om ons vrywilligers beter te ondersteum. Gaan kyk na [link] vir die GRf membership options.

My sister-in-law, Minette Murray, will be running her third Comrades marathon on 30 May 2010. This year she will be running in support of Global Relief's volunteers. Minette has just registered her profile and project on GivenGain and I have just given her her first donation. Please welcome her by also making a small (or large) donation to her project. Here is the link: [link]

Cecile and I are preparing to do the Discovery 702 Walk the talk on 25 July, walking 5km with our three daughters, Anelia (5), Marisje (2-and-a-half) and Andiswa (16 months). This week we as a family went for a walk only once. Next week I want to motivate my team to do at least two walks. Anelia and Marisje love riding their little bikes while one of us is pushing Andi in her pram. We concluded that it would not be a good idea to let the two older ones ride their bikes on the big day because daddy will end up having to carry the bikes when they get tired of that! Check out the Walk the talk website: http://www.walkthetalk.co.za/

My new walking project, Small steps for volunteers: Yesterday and the day before I walked up 11 flights of stairs at a hospital to visit my mother who was re-admitted to intensive care after successful double bypass surgery two weeks ago. She developed blood clots in her lungs and was re-admitted on Friday morning. She is responding well to treatment and looking very good. As she was lying there I was reminded about the huge contribution she has made over the years, assisting the survivors of major disasters in places such as Turkey, Algeria, Iran, India and Indonesia. In 2005 she spent about 6 months in Indonesia under very difficult circumstances, training local teachers and NGO workers in psychological first aid. It is to enable volunteers like her and many others that I am asking you to make a monthly donation to the GRf engine, the project that takes care of Global Relief's running costs.