Community activist is spreading kindness across globe
HE’S already well known for doing good locally, but a community activist has spread his goodwill a little further.
Matt Callanan, 42, from Roath, Cardiff, set up the We Make Good Happen movement, which encourages people to do acts of kindness and spread happiness in their community.
Matt set himself a goal of carrying out 403 good deeds.
He left envelopes containing £10 in locations throughout Cardiff – with the finder instructed to spend the money on someone else.
He has also delivered food parcels to families in need, and with his wife Andrea organised various events and helped with providing replacement singers when a band pulled out of a hospice event.
He also organised a star-studded football match featuring Joe Calzaghe and Neville Southall to raise money for victims of the Manchester terrorist attack.
In his latest good deed, Matt was invited out to Uganda and Ghana to film a video for children’s charity Hope For Children with Adam Dickens of Taking Pictures Changing Lives.
As part of the charity’s Head Held High campaign, which featured Matt’s videos and Adam’s photography, the total amount raised was more than £500,000.
Speaking about his time in Africa, Matt said: “Essentially we were telling the stories of those children who have been living in Kampala, the slums in Uganda and telling how Hope for Children has given them hope and education and has taken them away from potentially either being kidnapped or having to collect plastic and rubbish from the massive tips and slums and has basically given them a future and a sense of hope.
“They have taken them off the streets. Quite a few of those kids don’t have parents so it’s given them a secure and calm future.
“It was quite eye opening and really quite sad seeing how these families live. In Kampala there was a community set up by this disused railway track. Three months previously the whole slum had been cleared out by the railway company they came back to rebuild their houses.
“Hope For Children are also big on sanitation so they installed toilets and cleared tonnes of rubbish. It was really touching hearing those stories and quite sad that some of the kids will get kidnapped, raped or get into crime just for survival and it was quite moving but as a filmmaker you know these stories are being told to help the charity raise that sort of money.
“The charity used the video on their fundraising page and they raised £80,000 in one night.
“It’s kind of proven that storytelling through video and photos is key for charities and without these photos and videos they wouldn’t be able to reach so many people and tell these kind of stories.”
As a result of his good deeds, Matt was named in The Sunday Times Alternative Rich List, a list which acknowledges wealth beyond “material wealth”.
On his inclusion in the list, Matt said: “It’s a real honour to be included. The list is a incredible group of people all making a positive difference in the world.
“I was very chuffed by it and hopefully I can use that to get people on board and to do more good stuff for Cardiff and Wales.”