By Victoria Stone-Meadows
A NARRE Warren businessman is using the profits from his aquarium shop to fund an extraordinary charity he runs by himself.
Paul Furlong owns and operates Lots of Fins Aquarium on Victor Crescent in Narre Warren and also operates the charity Revive the Kids.
Mr Furlong travels to the poorest of countries around the world and rescues slave families, orphaned children and desolate villages from desperate situations.
Mr Furlong started his charity work about six and a half years ago and since then has built 23 orphanages that help with kids’ training and education.
He has also freed over 400 slaves and helped to re-home and educate about 250 orphans in countries such as Africa, Nepal, Pakistan, Burma, India, and the Philippines.
“I have been overseas helping people almost every month for the last six and a half years,” he said.
Mr Furlong started Revive the Kids in a reaction to other charities that he saw as ineffective and bloated by administration and operational costs that stopped money from going where it needed to be.
“I was so frustrated with so many charites out there that had become a lucrative career for people,” he said.
Mr Furlong also provides free concerts as a singer songwriter where some joy is needed while helping people in desperate situations.
“If I see a desperate need, my heart just melts and I can’t leave without doing something,” he said.
“I work with someone I trust and I set up a freehold for families of slaves, help in businesses, build orphanages or schools, I’ve had a few sewing centers and training centers.
“I take kids of the streets and give them training and something to live for.”
The aim of Revive the Kids is to teach orphaned or abandoned children as well as destitute families the skills they need to survive and to improve their communities.
“It doesn’t help to just give out money like some other charities do, it just makes things worse by creating a greedy handout culture which is really sad,” he said.
“Revive the Kids aims to change the culture and make people self-supportive.”
“Revive the Kids sets up villages or families with goats to sell the milk, chickens to sell chooks and eggs, buffalo to sell the milk and so on.
“The goal is that within 12 months, they have a self-supportive team and we can hand over to locals and they take great pride and responsibility in it.”
Mr Furlong says it’s not just the people he saves and their communities who benefit from his work.
“It drives me and gives me a purpose to save lives,” he said.
“It is what I live for, to figure out how I can simplify my own life to raise more funds to rescue more kids.”
To find out more about Revive the Kids, visit http://www.revivethekids.com.au/
