About
The idea
Sweet Charity is a marriage of my two great passions. Traveling and Charity . I am a couchsurfing member and for years I have been hosting travelers in my house for free. One day I came up with this idea of doing it with a bit of a charitable twist. So the deal is simple : You are very welcome to stay in my house for as little as £10 per night. The money is not my profit, but it is going to be donated to a charity.
About me
My name is Weronika and I am originally from Poland. I live in Broadway with my family – my partner Henry and my daughter Iris . I want to believe , we are very open minded and creative people. The Sweet Charity Project is my very first attempt of raising money to help people. In the past I made some donations myself but I always had a feeling that it wasn’t enough.
What to expect
What can you expect in our house for £10 per night ? Since this isn’t quite the same as AirB&B and the price in minimal , we will expect you to understand some limitations of what we can offer.
Still we are going to do our best to make you feel comfortable and Happy ! You are going to be offered a nice and private space in our lounge. Since the idea of Sweet Charity has its origin in a couchsurfing culture, we will offer you our sofa bed. We are taking large and comfortable sofa bed ! You don’t need to bring any sheets or sleeping bags- Everything will be provided.
You will have an access to the kitchen, where you can prepare your meal, or if you choose- we can cook together. The more friendly- the better.
We have a child in the house, but she sleeps upstairs so she won’t bother you during the night. However during the day she will probably come downstairs and spend some time in the lounge.
The other thing you need to be aware of is that you won’t be given any keys to the house. Therefore your arrival and booking has to previously discussed and agreed with us. We need to make sure that we are at home during the days of your stay. Having said that ,I am a stay at home mum , so it is almost guaranteed that we will be available. If you have any question- just send me a message .
Is this place suitable for couple or larger groups ?
Unfortunately at this moment we can only offer a place for two people. So this is really an option for sole travelers and couples. However, if you have a tent during the summer time, and you would like to put in in our garden – this can also we arranged.
Location
Broadway is a well known tourist place in the heart of the Cotswolds. Beautiful landscape , stunning architecture , romantic Tea Rooms and old history. The only thing that this place lacks- in my opinion -is an affordable hostel or any other sort of alternative cheap accommodation. But here is a Sweet Charity for you. Our house is located close to the Main Street of Broadway. We live in a quiet and safe residential area. The best way to get to Broadway is by driving , but you can also use a public transport. There are daily buses arriving here from Cheltenham, Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in -Marsh
Is there an option for staying for free ?
Safety
You can check my references with people . Hopeful people who are going to visit us are going to leave some valuable feedback.
I support Red Cross ( I have direct debit set up with them) and a charity called Kiva. Because I strongly believe what Kiva does, I will encourage you to give your money to them. However if you prefer to invest your money into a different philanthropy project, you are more than welcome. As long as there is option of one off payment done with a paypal button – we can do it.
How is the donation made ?
When you choose a receiver of your donation, we are simply going to use a paypal button or your card. I do not handle money , you won’t give anything to me. You just choose an organization and before leaving my house you make an online transfer. One thing : I want to witness this transaction , so I know for sure that the money was donated. That’s all 
Get in touch with me !
Thank you so much for reading this. Just the fact that someone is curious about this idea means a lot to me. Maybe you would like to give me some suggestion of how to improve this project ? Or maybe you like it so much, you would like to do something similar and we could try to BUILD A WHOLE NETWORK of Sweet Charity places ? Or maybe you like the idea and you are wiling to invite me to your house ( somewhere in Europe) so I CAN DO MY Sweet Charity Holiday !?
Wednesday 24 October 2018
Donation
Hello hello ! Those of you who saw my previous post know, that last weekend I was visited by Olga and Carlos . And now I am going to reveal what had I actually done with the money we managed to raise. As a reminder : it was £15. So I start with the easy bit : I used £5 as a donation to British Red Cross. It wasn't the first time when I chose this organization , and certainly I am going to do it again. And the remaining money ? This time I did something slightly different. Normally I support those who are in some kind of ' real ' need. People in crisis, people tormented by the war and so on. This time however I decided to support my favorite traveler and her little daughter. I love Somos Dos blog , and I absolutely admire Joanna. I send her some cash now and then not just because I like her writing style or I secretly hope that one day I will hit the road with my little daughter. I love Joanna's blog also because some time ago it helped me to survive a very difficult period in my life. Without going into unimportant details , in the past I found myself in the very strange place. Emotion-wise. I struggled and I cried.Somos Dos seemed to be my only consolation. The story of the passion, the story of the courage. The story of the human's spirit , that can not be broken. I hope that in the future I will be in the position where I can raise some more money for them. The list of the people I would like to help is long. But step by step I am trying to do my job as well as I can :)
Monday 22 October 2018
Weekend with Olga and Carlos
This has been "The Sweet Charity" weekend at its best. I was visited by Olga and Carlos from Spain. This super friendly couple from Madrid decided to visit me in order to see what my project is all about. They both are rather experienced travellers. Olga is also a blogger and her husband is a talented photographer . We made a deal , that they could stay with me for free and in return they were going to write about my idea on their blog. Standard agreement , I should call it. However ...on the top of that they actually had sponsored a number of attractions for me and my daughter. First of all ,they brought us some presents from Spain. Then they took us for a long day ride across the Costwolds. It was the perfect , colorful autumn day. The area covered with yellow and red leaves appeared to me more beautiful then ever. They invited me for lunch and also ( I must say this is my favorite bit) Carlos took some stunning pictures of my daughter . Not to mention , that thanks to them again I managed to pick up some new Spanish words ! Iris just adored them . It was like a love at the first sight. Because they sort of ' sponsored' a whole excited day out for me, I decided to make a donation of £15. In my next post I am going to share all the details about how this money had been used .
Have a great week everyone !
Have a great week everyone !
 |
| Olga, Iris and me |
Wednesday 10 October 2018
Letter from Nina
I met Nina via Couchsurfing. It was the end of August , when she sent me a message. She liked the idea of The Sweet Charity and wanted to visit us in September. Unfortunately that was the time, when we went to Poland so I could not host her. What a shame. But then Nina decided , that she was going to do a bit of fund raising anyway ! With her permission, I would like to show you the letter she sent me few days ago :
"Hi Weronika,
I didn’t get any host in London, I stay in the hostel for 5 days at Palmers Lodge. I initiatively donate USD1.50 everyday during my trip. The donation goes to mosque in Brunei and orphanage organisation. I met a wonderful people in London, a family of Pakistani man whom married a Japanesse woman. They instantly invited me to their house for dinner, they even called me as their daughter. We still keep in touch until today. I feel totally bless. I also met a lady from Iceland in the hostel where I stay. She invited me over dinner at her house in Reykjavik. I never thought I made extended family both in London and Iceland. Through the 3 weeks journey, early dawn as soon as I wake up, I log in to my bank account and make the donation. Everyone I met on the trip was true angels, now that I believe sometimes angels are born without wings. In Iceland, I rent a tent and sleep in the car, did the Ring Road with godsent angel, a France guy from couchsurfing. It was my lifetime trip that I hope I can keep all the people I met on the journey close to heart and pray they are always in God’s love and care. Now that I’m back to Brunei, I start my own fund for surfers that I hosted. I started with $5 this month. The amount of money I plan to use for provide the proper meals, local fares, or whatever the surfers needed during their stay. I learn that the loudest help come from the voice that never ask for help when they actually need it the most. Thank you Weronika for the idea and also I’m glad to hear from you. You are angel that I wish to meet. Please let me know if you visit Borneo."
Thank you for your kind words Nina. I still hope to reach more people with my ' Sweet Charity ' message. It really is so fun and simple to make a positive impact :)
"Hi Weronika,
I didn’t get any host in London, I stay in the hostel for 5 days at Palmers Lodge. I initiatively donate USD1.50 everyday during my trip. The donation goes to mosque in Brunei and orphanage organisation. I met a wonderful people in London, a family of Pakistani man whom married a Japanesse woman. They instantly invited me to their house for dinner, they even called me as their daughter. We still keep in touch until today. I feel totally bless. I also met a lady from Iceland in the hostel where I stay. She invited me over dinner at her house in Reykjavik. I never thought I made extended family both in London and Iceland. Through the 3 weeks journey, early dawn as soon as I wake up, I log in to my bank account and make the donation. Everyone I met on the trip was true angels, now that I believe sometimes angels are born without wings. In Iceland, I rent a tent and sleep in the car, did the Ring Road with godsent angel, a France guy from couchsurfing. It was my lifetime trip that I hope I can keep all the people I met on the journey close to heart and pray they are always in God’s love and care. Now that I’m back to Brunei, I start my own fund for surfers that I hosted. I started with $5 this month. The amount of money I plan to use for provide the proper meals, local fares, or whatever the surfers needed during their stay. I learn that the loudest help come from the voice that never ask for help when they actually need it the most. Thank you Weronika for the idea and also I’m glad to hear from you. You are angel that I wish to meet. Please let me know if you visit Borneo."
Thank you for your kind words Nina. I still hope to reach more people with my ' Sweet Charity ' message. It really is so fun and simple to make a positive impact :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)