The Sweet Charity : June 2019

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 ?

Yes, there is. Every person who has a couchsurfing profile WITH REFERENCES is going to be accepted on ‘ CS terms’. In return I will only ask to spread a good word about this place ( if you like it !) However , I need to make it clear : people who are willing to make a donation are going to be prioritized.

Safety

You can check my references with people . Hopeful people who are going to visit us are going to leave some valuable feedback.

Can I choose the charity I would like to support?

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 !?

Sunday 30 June 2019

Meeting Joel

I love meeting new people. I love listening to their stories and I like learning new things from them. Every guest is special , but some are like old friends who just went on the long journey and then came back to share all the important things they had learned. Joel was one of those ' old friends'. This Argentinian traveler and blogger stayed with us for couple of night. I am trying to learn Spanish so I was waiting for his arrival so impatiently. Normally( and understandably ), my guests come around to enjoy the beauty of the Cotswolds and don't have that much time left for interaction with me. Joel however came with a very different mission. He spent majority of his time with me and Iris, helping me at home and teaching me Spanish. As a blogger he offered to promote my Sweet Charity Project . In my life I had a luck and pleasure to meet many wonderful people, but Joel's kindness and generosity went well beyond any standard. And on the top of all that , another £20 was donated to Antek Wojownik SMA. Few days ago Antek ( my friend's son) was admitted to the hospital again :( He is a very strong boy and with a support of his loving family he is able to move mountains . Things are going to get better soon XX
Happy Sunday everyone ! I am sending my love to all of you, but especially to my friends : Antek and Joel !

Sunday 23 June 2019

Autism support

Hi my wonderful people ! This weekend I had a great pleasure of hosting two Polish girls : Zuza and Maja. Both based in London , desired a little countryside escape and decided, that The Sweet Charity was the way to go :) They chose a perfect time, as the weather was mostly sunny ( and that has been a rare thing recently). The organization they decided to support was The National Autistic Society . That was because one of them ( Maja ), was a special education teacher. I couldn't be more happy with their choice. Some of you perhaps know, that I also studied Special Education and Social Work. Before my daughter was born, for many years I worked with people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health issues. And I loved it !
So my girls ! Zuzia and Maja. Thank you for your visit and thank you for your donation of £30. Thank you for treating me to a delicious breakfast. I had such a good time with you and I truly hope that we are going to meet again. I wish you a good luck with your new life in the UK.

Tuesday 11 June 2019

We are back!

So we are back! It is good to be home, but I must admit, that leaving Poland wasn't easy. We had to leave my family, and that was very sad. We left beautiful sunny weather to be welcomed by the English summer ( 10 degrees and rain) . To make the situation even more stressful, our flight was delayed and we arrived home at 1 am. But when I finally got back home, I found something that put a veeery big smile on my face! Presents from New Zealand:) They came from Bang Vu , who was going to stay with us as a Sweet Charity guest. Sadly his plans have changed slightly, and he decided to visit Broadway few days before his initial plans and we could not meet:( I felt sad about it. We have had few chats to arrange his visit and he did sound like a great person. And he proved to be a wonderful person. Even though he couldn't stay with us, he still brought some gifts all the way from New Zealand. He made an effort to find our house and drop a parcel:) Bang, you don't even know how wonderful you are. I wish I could meet more people like you ! Thank you so much for your generosity. You are always welcome to my home as a friend. Enjoy the rest of your days in the U.K. I hope the weather is going to improve. For all of us.