Who says the young can't be accomplished, motivated and driven?
Meet Tim Armoo: an 18 year old A-level student based in South West London. His vision? To raise awareness, through the medium of design for charitable causes via his company Doodlar. Alongside side Tim, the company comprises of four other members, all of whom are aged 21 and under. The fact that this project is being conducted at such a young age with great success really highlights how drive and passion is still alive and fully fledged within the youth of Britain.
This isn't the first venture Tim has been involved in. It is merely another notch on his ever expanding resume. Having started his first tutoring company at the age of 14, which was the product of a bet with a friend, who, said that he would never make 500 customers before the age of 18. This young entrepreneur has had it in him when everyone else was concerned about how to tie their school tie and personalise their blazers.
Doodlar, though young, has big plans. Their aim is to focus on one charity a month; promoting it, creating a buzz for it via social networks and most importantly, heighten the general public's awareness of it. With this, they create a specially designed t-shirt for the charity of the month, whereby each t-shirt is sold for £5 and every penny of this goes to the chosen charity. The idea behind Doodlar is simple yet effective - it creates the everyday person into a walking and talking advertisement for a cause.
The company aim to unravel and answer the question "Who's to blame?". In the blame orientated culture that we live in, it is too easy to pass fault onto someone else and do nothing about it yourself. As Doodlar state, "the problem isn't those who find themselves in unfortunate positions. The problem is with us - the ones in the more fortunate positions: are we ready to let loose and create change or are we just going to change the channel the next time that advert we don't like comes on?".
The inspiration for all of this came into existence from a media report which claimed that charities were slowly but surely losing their funding. This did not sit comfortably with Tim, stating "this didn't make much sense. I believe we are hard wired to do good. I didn't believe and certainly still don't believe that people are heartless. I believe that when people come together, they can create the most beautiful of outcomes". It was this passion and belief which has lead Doodlar to help fund the creation of wells within the developing world, provide care packages to human trafficking victims, and as of late, the t-shirt campaign has aided constructive surgery of children born with cleft.
The biggest outcome which Doodlar wish to achieve is to raise their target goal of £100,000 in a bid to help further their charitable cause and transform the lives of thousands people through their chosen charities each month. Ambitious, yes but not impossible Armoo adds.
"I think we're in a society now which really wants to feel as part of the change and we [Doodlar] facilitate that a lot. From our posters we put out on Facebook to the blog posts interviewing victims of causes".
His plan is to take the company further as he enters the world of University: expand the audience and awareness through a different portal.
Visit http://doodlar.com/ or follow Tim on twitter @TimArmoo