I've always tried to help where I can. I've volunteered in a few different places over the years, and I donate to causes I care about whenever I'm able to. But I kept running into the same wall a lot of people do: I couldn't commit to volunteering every week, or for months at a time. Life didn't leave room for it, and I felt bad only turning up now and then, or not at all.
Around the same time, I started seeing it from the other side. So many organisations really need help, but often they don't have the marketing budget to reach people, and they can't build a whole programme around people who can only give a one-off morning. Putting on a single session costs time and money most of them simply don't have, so they end up turning willing people away, and missing out on donations too.
I saw it up close a couple of years ago, when a friend and I somehow ended up fostering six rescue puppies in a tiny Barcelona flat (a story for another day). It was chaos, but it gave me a real window into what shelters here manage with almost nothing, and it stuck with me.
That's where Be Here comes from. You donate to a cause you care about, and get to see exactly where your money goes.
It solves both problems at once: you get to help without the commitment and pressure, and the organisation gets funding and a room full of people who actually chose to show up.
Since then I've met people running shelters who haven't taken a holiday in years. They pour their time, money and energy into looking after others and ask for almost nothing back. They're some of the kindest people I've ever met, and they deserve all the help they can get. Be Here is my way of giving them some.
Thanks for being here. Really.