The Observer | Comment | How to be a kitchen table heroine

The Observer | Comment | How to be a kitchen table heroine: "The tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, the war in Lebanon. One or all of the recent crises will have prompted many of you to reach for the cheque book. Such instant responses raise millions and puts paid to the lie that we are parochial in our concerns.

But for a tight-knit subculture - an undercover world of virtue and solidarity - wars and catastrophes set in motion entirely different processes of relief work: dispatching vans filled with medicines and clothes, collecting and exporting hospital supplies. These are the 'kitchen table charities' that both Gordon Brown and David Cameron recently praised - tiny, practical units run mainly by women. Their approach is direct and minimalist; there's often no office or logo and only a handful of volunteers who are motivated by anger, grief or shame and who operate with a modesty alien to some of the more self-important NGOs."

Tags: NPFundraising