1 Million Dollars in 365 days…

Here I am, about to run a marathon in just over 2 weeks. My purpose - to raise $10,000 for Stop the Traffik. This is something I feel very passionately about. I rallied for support, and found it difficult to understand why others didn’t share my passion in supporting this amazing organisation that dedicates themselves to bring an end to people trafficking all around the globe.

<<<<<<<<<<To Sponsor me now - please visit www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil >>>>>>>>>>

Then it hit me. The reason I am so passionate about this charity, is because I know what they do, the difference they make. So that’s what I’m going to do right now. I’m going to educate you about Stop the Traffik, and how people trafficking is still alive and kicking in almost every country in the world…So please, take a moment to read this. To understand what we are allowing to happen in our world.

What is STOP THE TRAFFIK?
STOP THE TRAFFIK is a global movement working to combat the fastest growing global crime, people trafficking. Around the world men, women and children are being treated as commodities—something to be bought, sold, and enslaved.

STOP THE TRAFFIK has more than 1000 member organisations in 50 countries & a grass roots following of ordinary activists around the world. Some of us sign petitions, wear symbols of the campaign, spread the message, and some of us show our support through adapting our lifestyles.

They believe that when people act things change. And I do too.

Real Life Trafficking:

“Masud was 12. His parents were persuaded, tricked, to let him be taken from his home in Bangladesh to a new life in England. He was sold - ‘Trafficked’

He left his family home with an unknown man who travelled with him to London then onto the South West where he was abandoned in an Indian restaurant. To survive he worked in the restaurants living in small store rooms, sleeping next to jars of chutney and bags of onions. Sometimes when there was no work he was forced to sleep on the streets. He was not able to go to school and his life was controlled by the restaurant owners.

When he was 28, with the help of STOP THE TRAFFIK he contacted the local police and immigration team who helped him to obtain a passport and identity documents, resulting in him being able to return the Bangladesh to obtain a UK visa and to be reunited with his family.

Masud is now living legally in the UK. He is married and is building a new life away from the restaurants.”

Stories like Masud’s are happening all the time, making People Trafficking the world’s fastest growing illegal trade.

So I thought we were pretty isolated here in little old New Zealand, surely we don’t get this sort of nonsense here? It turns out that I was wrong:

“A graphic US Government report on modern slavery has accused New Zealand of being a “destination country” for the trafficking of women for sex from Malaysia, Hong Kong and China [for some reason Vietnamese women are not mentioned in the report….read the full story“

 Fairfax Media | Thursday, 05 June 2008

“New Zealand immigration officials admit that women could be working undetected as sex slaves in New Zealand, the Weekend Herald reported on Saturday.  The Cabinet will be asked to set up a taskforce involving seven government departments to stop human trafficking in this country…read the full story”

April 04, 2009 The New Zealand Herald

So make a decision right now. Take this knowledge and do something about it. Or do nothing. This is your chance to make a difference. Please help me support this organisation, by sponsoring me for my Marathon in 2 weeks:

<<<<<<<<<<To Sponsor me now - please visit www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil >>>>>>>>>> 

Thank you for your support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ryan Kilfoil

There is an old saying “Charity begins at home”. While I always thought this to be true, I now believe the opposite. Charity begins with Charity. If you wait until you have enough spare cash to give to charity….I think we can all agree that you may be waiting a long time.

“But how can I give money away when I can’t afford to pay all my bills?” Well, there’s really two solutions here:

1. Reduce the number of bills you have to pay!
2. Give something - it doesn’t have to be 50% of your income! Maybe start off with 5%? Chances are that you won’t even notice it’s gone, but I bet you the people that you are helping will surely notice your contribution.

I think this goes back to being grateful for what you have. No matter what is happening in your life right now, I bet you can find people in this world that are a lot worse off than you are. If you are reading this blog, then you should be counting your lucky stars because you obviously have power and Internet access! Some people don’t even know what those things are!

My goal is still to make a Million Dollars in 365 days….and I have some exciting developments that I will share with you over the next couple of days with regards to my progress However, during this journey so far, I have discovered some other opportunities out there - and one of them is to challenge myself.

And that I did, by committing to running a marathon! Not only did I commit to running a marathon, but then I publicly committed to raise $10,000 for the charity - STOP THE TRAFFIK! Do you have any idea how great I feel? Not because I think I’m doing this great thing, but because I have no doubt that I will complete both these tasks - I have to - there are people counting on me!

If I just kept these goals to myself, how easy would it be for me to decide that things were too tough and make a bunch of excuses and then quit? It would be pretty easy. Now, there’s no way I can quit!  I’d be getting emails and phone calls from all over the globe! If that’s not a great form of motivation then I don’t know what is.

I have been training since the 23/01/2009 and just last Sunday I managed to run 15km’s which made me feel like I had accomplished a major feat! It was fantastic! A lot of people asked me how difficult it was to run that far (it’s far for me okay!). My reply was simple, I didn’t find it difficult.

Why not, you ask? Well, like a lot of things, it comes back to perception. What am I comparing this marathon to, or at least this training to? If I’m comparing it to sitting on the couch at home watching TV then hell yeah - it’s painfully difficult!!

I’m not though. I’m comparing this marathon, this training, with an average day for some of the people out there, that are supported for by the charities I am raising money for. STOP THE TRAFFIK does a lot of work to stop people trafficking - can you imagine what it would be like to be sold to someone? When I’m running, I think of what someone else might be going through, how they might feel and what they would do if they were offered the chance to live a day in my life….now those are some powerful perceptions.

Now I’m not doing anything overly special here, I’m simply trying to raise some money for these guys. The question is, can you help? Maybe you don’t want to donate to this cause, maybe you can’t afford it. I’m sure you can come up with more creative excuses than that! However, the point is that this is not the only way you can help.

I challenge others out there to do also take on a marathon, and raise funds for a charity of your choice, get your community behind you, get the world behind you. Do it for yourself, do it for others and do it for the right reasons.

If you’re not in the mood for a marathon, then luckily for you, I have another solution - you can contribute to my Marathon by donating directly to STOP THE TRAFFIK, through my page at www.justgiving.com/ryankilfoil

I have set myself a big goal, and I’m confident that with your help we will be able to achieve it. Whether you can afford $1 or $100, please support this worthy cause right now. I truly appreciate you reading this entire post, and even more so for making a difference for this Charity. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly, especially if you have any other ideas on how to help raise even more funds for these guys.

Thanks again readers, for your amazing support and I look to keeping you updated with my progress. Have a great day and I hope you have gained something positive from this piece.

All the best - The Kiwi Millionaire

As most of you have heard I am running a marathon on May 2nd, 2009. I have started training over the last few weeks and run further than I have ever run in my life! I also chosen to raise $10,000 for my favourite charity. Since I could not decide what charity to donate the funds to, I have given the vote to those visiting my blog.

If you haven’t already voted, please do so now. The votes will be tallied at 4pm on Saturday 28/02/2009 and the winning charity announced.

“There are only 7 days left to vote”

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ryankilfoil/

Thanks for all your support! I cannot believe all the positive comments and emails I have received. And don’t forget to sign up for email alerts (top right of the blog) to keep track of my progress.

Once I chose my four charities, I decided to leave the voting up to the public. I sent an email to each of the four charities to let them know what I was doing. It then up to them to help spread the word.

A special thanks to Lucy from “Save the Children” and Jade from “Child Cancer Foundation” who have both taken it upon themselves to get as many votes for their respective charities as possible.

Currently “Save the Children” are miles ahead with 67% of the total votes - great effort guys! Remember - YOU STILL HAVE TIIME TO VOTE: 17 days in fact - so get voting!

• Remember, the winning charity will receive all the funds we can raise for this event
• Thanks again for your support!!
• Remember to sign up for email alerts (enter your address in the top right of the blog)

I’m running a marathon - that’s 42 Kilometres! It’s the 45th Annual Rotorua Marathon which is held in Rotorua, about 65 km’s from where I live in Tauranga, New Zealand.

The furthest I have ever run was about 5km. So this is certainly quite a goal I have set myself - and like I say, when you challenge yourself, you grow and evolve a lot faster than if you were just cruising through life.

So where do YOU come in? Well, part of the drive behind my desire to do a marathon, was to raise some funds for a charitable organisation. I have narrowed it down to four charities below and I would really appreciate it if you could vote for your favourite charity.

The winning charity will be the charity with the most votes on 28 February 2009. The winning charity will receive all the funds that I have managed to raise on the 4th May 2009. My goal is to raise $10,000.00 for the winning charity, so I appreciate you taking the time to vote today.