Red Shield Appeal

Who do you help...when so many need help

Neville who does the salvation army help?Neville’s story


"All I ate each week was one cheese and vegemite sandwich …"

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“… on Fridays. And usually I didn’t even finish that. I was down to 48kgs. I’d been drinking 40 years, and I was a ‘top-up’ drinker. I’d drink to stay drunk.

Physically I was a mess. My exact thought was to drink myself to death. After 40 years, it’s easier to die.

I lost my licence as a taxi-driver, and was living in the long grass in the parklands. I was right on the edge of my limit. I’d tried rehab programs – four times – but always came back to the booze.

The last time, I went to the Salvos program. It’s a 12 week course. I got the shivers, and felt like I was covered with creepycrawlies. I got so bored I went to the monthly African service at The Salvation Army church. I wasn’t looking for God, I was thinking there might be some African people singing and dancing.

But God got me in the end. The Salvos don’t give up on anyone. I saw what they were doing. I respected them. And when I was at rock bottom, I came back.”

Neville no longer touches alcohol. For 7 months he has been coordinator of a Red Shield drop-in centre, and is completing a Certificate IV in drug and alcohol counselling.

Jane who does the salvation army help?Jane’s story


"Asking for help was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do …"

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“I was living with a few ‘friends’ in a share house. Things were tough and they went down to the Salvos for help. They brought back a box of groceries. But by the time they’d finished, all they left me was a box of crackers and a jar of peanut butter.

I lived on that for a week.

I had a few problems mentally, and got really down. I’d hide it though, putting on a fake happy face for people. No one knew how desperate I really was.

When my baby came, I was all alone and couldn’t work. The bills kept coming, and there was no way I could pay them. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, putting my head in my hands and looking at my baby – you never know what you’re capable of when you’re desperate.

A friend suggested I go to the Salvos.

They helped me pay my debts, and got food on the table when otherwise I wouldn’t have had any. I made friends there too. I’ve never been judged or put in a box. I’ve always been accepted. I don’t like to think where I would be if I hadn’t turned to the Salvos.”

Jane and her daughter are now living independently. Jane volunteers at the local Salvos each Friday, helping serve at the ‘$2 for 2 courses’ lunch.

More than a million people like Neville and Jane come to the Salvos for care each year.

That’s why the Red Shield Appeal is so important. It’s when we must raise the money to provide care all year round.

No matter how much time and energy our volunteers freely give, we need you. The donation you give helps pay for meals, beds, clothes, groceries, counselling, training, electricity, fuel – whatever it takes to get people back on their feet again.

Unless people like you help now, we cannot help when people need us. So please, give your generous tax-deductible Red Shield Appeal donation now – before 30 June.

When you give your Red Shield Appeal donation, there’s one important thing you need to know"

The Salvation Army makes no judgments on the people who come to us for help. Whether it’s an innocent young mum who can’t pay her bills, or a hard-drinking hard-living man who’s made bad choices again and again, what matters to us is simply that they need help. Everyone is welcome.

That’s why the answer to the question ‘Who do you help when so many need help?’ is quite simple. You help whoever is standing before you.

There are some who would say we should simply choose who we help.

They’d see Jane as easier to care for, more deserving, and with greater potential. They might even regard someone like Neville as a hopeless case.

That’s something I can guarantee you the Salvos will NEVER do. Because as Salvos we regard EVERY person as precious and worthy of being welcomed.

And if you need ‘proof’ that investment of time and love and money is worth it take a look at the lives of both Jane and Neville now. Jane and her daughter are living independently, and Jane is volunteering for the Salvos – helping serve $2 lunches to those who have nowhere else to go.

What’s even more amazing is Neville. This man who’d been drinking 30 cans of beer a day is now free of alcohol. In fact, he’s studying a drug and alcohol counselling course, and running a Salvos drop-in centre for people who are suffering the way he used to! This is what the Red Shield Appeal is all about. Changing people’s lives.