Great NYT article on giving...

Hey all,

I just read a great article the other day and thought I would share it with y'all . Its called "The Gifts of Hope" by Nicholas D. Kristof. And I thought it was a great little rundown on some amazing charities that I haven't heard of before but wish I had so I could have been supporting them...

The author asks "So what would your aunt prefer as a holiday gift — another Mariah Carey CD, or the knowledge that she’s sending a little girl in Haiti to school for a year?" And unless your aunt was in financial trouble and needed more material help or other types of support, I think many people would love being given a gift that positively impacts other lives as these organizations do.

One of the charities is Partners in Health which has done and is continuing to do amazing work in Haiti, so always a good choice to support. My favorite on his list is the Panzi Hospital which "treats victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo, rape capital of the world. It’s run by Dr. Denis Mukwege, who should be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. A $10 donation pays for transport to the hospital for a rape survivor; $100 pays for counseling and literacy and skill training for a survivor for a month"

However, I was also very interested in The Somaly Mam Foundation, which fight sex trafficking and slavery, and the Edna Hospital, a maternity hospital in Somalia which has the highest rates of maternal mortality. All three of these wonderful charities are something that I will make a point of supporting in the upcoming year and I hope you will to. Or donate to them for someones Christmas or Kwanzaa gift, I know I would love that personally.... :-)

Have a great holiday season with family or friends and always remember we can all afford to help others through time of money...

Do you use Google Chrome?

If you do, then you need to download Chrome for a Cause add-on. For a short time, Dec 15 to Dec 19, google is going to donate to a few different charities based on your Internet usage. The five different charities are The Nature Conservancy, charity: water, Doctors Without Borders, Un Techo para mi Pais, and Room to Read. Which are all wonderful organizations, if you aren't familiar with them you should read more about them. Every day you get to decide who to donate to out of the five and I have to say, it would be really hard for me to choose one, but thankfully you can do it everyday as you surf the Internet.

Unfortunately, my comp is one version too old for me to be able to use Chrome... So I cannot do this, which means you have to do it for me. So download Chrome and go about your daily life as usual while getting Google to donate to wonderful charities. It takes absolutely no extra effort on your part, except for the tough choice of who to donate to, I say choose a different one every day, cycle through them all.

According to a TechCrunch article here is "how much you have to browse to donate to the various charities: 10 tabs = 1 tree planted, 10 tabs = 1 book published and donated, 25 tabs = 1 vaccination treatment provided, 100 tabs = 1 square foot of shelter built, 200 tabs = 1 person’s clean water for a year." So like the article says "just browse the web, and donate to charity."

So here is the add-on go and download it now!

Save Darfur Store.

Today I want to talk about an issue which has yet to come up on the blog and that is the devastating war, genocide, and human rights violations occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. This is one of the areas on the globe where life is extremely difficult and as many as hundreds of thousands have been affected by the strife.

There is no simple way to explain the current situation in Darfur quickly, for more info here is the wikipedia article on the Darfur conflict and some background from Save Darfur on the crisis. Here I learned about this conflict many years ago when I started learning about human trafficking and modern day slavery. The United Human Rights council considers it a genocide, which is a monumental accusation but one that many agree with. The president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and for "directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur."

Basically this is a region in extreme upheaval that is very dangerous for those who live their. And helping support those working for them would be a wonderful Christmas present to those affected by this war. One way of this is just through donating to Save Darfur and other organization that do this kind of work.

Another way is to purchase some of your Christmas present through their store. I think I want to purchase the decal that says "Stop the Genocide," because it is important for me to that people use that word and acknowledge the reality of the desperate situation of the people in Sudan.

So think about buy merchandise for people as another way to support your favorite charities while doing your Christmas shopping. Have a wonderful day everyone and remember all the good things in your life.

Work Gift Exchanges

One of our readers shared a way in which they donated to charity with absolutely no effort on there part. I thought I would share it with y'all.

Many offices and workplaces do some sort of a gift exchange. When it happens at your work and people are wondering what is on your wish list, just ask them to donate to your favorite charity in your name. this is a great way to avoid that extra chocolate or sweets that pile up around the holidays and impact a great cause at the same time. And you can choose whatever charity is your favorite; whether you are passionate about human rights, food justice, HIV/AIDS care, access to safe water, women's rights, or any other cause.

The reader who sent me this story asked for her coworker to donate to Heifer International. I've written about them before, they are a great organization in which you "purchase" animals which are donated to families globally which gives those families a livelihood instead of just aid. They really are an amazing organizations which focus on helping entire communities to become self-sufficient. I have loved their work for years.

For twenty dollars you can purchase a flock of chicks, ducks or geese for a family. And $120 purchases a Christmas Basket that will "renew hope and start fresh for a family in need when you give a Christmas Basket. Sheep provide valuable wool and are a vital source of income in impoverished communities. Wool can provide warmth in chilly temperatures and can be sold at market for additional income." And all families that receive a Heifer gift pass on some of their offspring to their community, so a single purchase becomes part of a cycle helping more and more families. 


So choose your favorite charity and know that your Christmas gifts is helping to impact lives.

Salvation Army collect thousands of toys every year to redistribute to children in low socioeconomic groups, which is a wonderful thing. Every kid should get the joy of getting a present on Christmas. I was already a bit wary of the organization because of their extremist anti-gay policies. They are an evangelical organization that will not employ gay people, supports and lobbies against gay protections and rights, and proselytizing to those who they are helping including their anti-gay rhetoric. Even so, I often still gave some change at Christmas time, because it is winter time and people often need extra help during the winter months.

However, the latest story of their far right policies has pushed me over the edge and I do not think I will be supporting them any longer. A volunteer in a warehouse discovered that the organization often trashes, and sometimes gives to other charities, toys from Harry Potter and Twilight as they contradict the organization's christian values.

"But he questioned why the charity would be sifting out Harry Potter and Twilight toys, which involve sorcery and vampire themes, respectively. "I was told to withhold a six-inch Harry Potter figure, but when I picked up a plastic M-16, I was told, 'That's for the 10-year-olds,'" he said. "I was shocked...war-themed toys and toys from TV shows and movies with far more violence than Harry Potter and these were considered appropriate toys?""

This seems a bit ludicrous to me, but it is their policy. The article notes that policy dictates passing these toys on to another charity and not accepting violent weapons. However, that policy was not the same one the volunteer saw in effect at the warehouse he was volunteering at.

As an alternative to Salvation army, I suggest looking for smaller local organizations that organize toy drives. Instead of shopping at the salvation army thrift stores look for a thrift store run by a local charity, I used to shop at one that supported an organization that cared for invalid AIDS patients. And instead of giving them your spare change, make a donation to a local homeless shelter, think about how hard it is to be homeless in the winter and remember to give during the cold winter months.

Charity Promotion Time!

Hey all,

I want everyone to tell me about their favorite charity and why they think I should highlight them/ donate to them. If you make a good case I will feature them in a blog post soon. This is a great chance to promote your favorite charity without doing a lot of work, so please join in!!!

Thanks!

Holiday consumerism...

Hey all,

Its almost Christmas time, so I am sure many of you are frantically running around purchasing presents for your family and friends. Giving gifts is a great way for showing people that you care and that they are important to you. But i think we should extend that a bit and show people around the world in desperate situation that we care about them as well. While we do not know them, our gifts to help others can impact a life much more than the scarf, chocolate, or  that you purchase for a friend. And personally, giving gifts to charity in the name of someone can be a lovely present, especially for that hard to shop for person or the person who can afford whatever they want already.

The gift I am talking about today is the gift of Winter Child Survival Pack from UNICEF USA. This is a great idea as a gift and can help protect a child from many of the dangers of a winter. And judging by the weather in Europe it is going to be a very rough winter for many people. So with some of our Christmas giving, why not help save someones life and purchase a survival pack.

The packs come with "Micronutrient powders that help a child on the brink of malnutrition get the vitamins and minerals that are most essential for them to grow up healthy. Immunizations from measles and polio that will save a child from two of the most common and painful diseases in the developing world. Water purification tablets to filter out dirt and bacteria from water so that children can drink without fear of getting sick. Your pack contains enough tablets to clean 50,000 liters of water!"

Access to safe water is one of the largest humanitarian issues of our decade and these tablets are a way to protect children who lack access to clean water. This alone could save a child's life, but with the micronutrient powder and immunizations it could really make a difference in a child's life.


This Christmas please consider donating as a gift. My family often donates in each others name to Heifer International, Doctors Sans Borders, and other organizations and those gifts often mean more to me than the scarf's and DVDs I get. A DVD is wonderful, but saving someones life is another thing entirely.


Please help others this holiday season and change someone' life! Thanks!