Water

In many area's of the globe access to clean drinking water is one of the most important issues. Which is why today I am giving to The Water Project.

• "Nearly 1 billion people don't have safe water to drink.
• A child dies every 15 seconds from a lack of clean water.
• 1 in 4 children who die before age 5 worldwide, die of a water related disease.
• Children often walk miles every day to collect dirty water to drink.
• You can change that for only $10 per person!"

Drinking dirty water can be very bad for people's health. It is vitally important in order for a community to thrive that it have access to clean and safe drinking water. I hope you will help.

Children's Smiles

One of the sweetest things in our world is children's laughter and their smile. I know I have spent too much time watching a video of a laughing baby on YouTube. In fact I will share that with you now. :-)



Every time I watch it I can help but smile and giggle along with that little child, especially when he starts laughing before ripping the paper - he knows what is about to happen. It puts me in a better frame of mind every time. Which is why today I today I decided to support Operation Smile, every child deserves to have a beautiful smile and they help with this.

The organizations goal is to help those who are born with a cleft condition that makes it hard for many of them to eat, speak, socialize, or smile. It requires surgery to fix it and in many places the parents can't afford that surgery, which is where Operation Smile comes in, they help these children live a normal life by giving them the ability to smile naturally. "Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided free surgeries to children around the world. As one of the most prominent children’s charities in the world and with a presence in over 50 countries, we are able to heal children’s smiles and bring hope for a better future."

I'm a bit of a sucker for charities that work with and for children, if you hadn't noticed already, and this one really is a great organization and has received many awards in honor of their service around the globe. Because I missed a post, I went ahead and wrote a second post for y'all today...let me know what you think of this organization.

Toys for Children

First off, I apologize for the missing posts, but I was definitely feeling under the weather. Still not feeling 100% but am almost their. :-)

Today, I will be talking about Child's Play Charity. This is a charity whose mission is to donate gaming systems, games, and toys to hospitals and children who are at the hospitals. I remember when my brother was in the hospital when we were younger, he was only allowed one stuffed animal (their fur and stuff attracts germs, not good, and I don't remember them having games like this. I'm sure that having Playstations or Wiis for the children to play with would be wonderful and keep them from being bored and unhappy in the hospital.

While the majority of the hospitals are located in the USA, they also have hospitals in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom, and one in Egypt; they are expanding as they find people willing to help organize with hospitals around the world. "With over 70 partner hospitals and more arriving every year, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play partners everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, so please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own."

You can help wither through donating money to the organization, to a hospital to purchase needed items, or purchasing items from their wishlist and shipping them via Amazon. They try to keep their administrative costs as low as possible, often being only 2-3% of their over all budget, but "there is a slight administrative cost that does get paid for with donations (for example, shipping $200,000 worth of Nintendo DS’ to dozens of hospitals worldwide is not free, sadly)." They do try to keep the costs as low as possible, by not having lots of staff or big offices that they think are unnecessary.

You can also help this charity through Giving Works, a program of Ebay where people can sell items and have the proceeds be donated to a charity. You can also search for sales benefiting charities you like and purchase those items to support your charity. Its a pretty interesting concept, but I haven't used it, If you have or someone you know has let me know what you think. :-)

Well, that is today's post. I like this organization because I think it is important to remember that children need more than just medicine or research on illnesses, if they are sick they need to be entertained and happy which is what Child's Play Charity does for kids in the hospital. :-)

Ugh...

Today's blog post was cancelled due to the fact that halfway through the day I started feeling like crap. My apologies, I will try to make more effort to have post ready to go for days when I feel sick in the future and I will write an extra post tomorrow.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

It's MLK Day and I was trying to think of what I could write that would pay adequate tribute to him. And I realized that his message was and still is so important for our society, so instead of trying and, potentially, failing, I will quote Martin Luther King himself.

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

And include the video Ten OTHER Things Martin Lurther King Said by Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine. Because "at this time of year we always hear the same 2 or 3 MLK clips over and over, but there was much more to the man. So here are ten of my favorite quotes from MLK that aren't heard as often."




Just listen to the wisdom of Martin Luther King and reflect on what we all can do individually and together to create progress for all of us. And consider what you can do to help end racism, classism, and sexism - whether they effect you or not. Being conscious that these issues still exist is not enough if we do nothing to change the status quo. Because, as Dr. Horrible states, "Destroying the status quo because the status is not quo."

Have a great day everyone and remember all that Martin Luther King, Jr. accomplished for our society, as well as remember his dream and continue working towards it.

Sunday Suggestions!

Hello All,

Today is a chance to give suggestions on organization which you think are awesome and do good work. It is also a chance to give any feedback you might have on the blog. Thanks!

P.S. My godmother once quipped, that a blog was not official unless it had cat pictures. So, just for her, here is a picture of my cat playing in some paper. :-)

Help Vs. Charity

This last week, I had an interesting comment on my Prosthetics in India post relating to the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti - a charity who manufactures and provides prostheses for disadvantaged individuals in India. They are one of the most impressive organizations I have seen recently, very impressed by them; if you haven't read the post yet, you should read it or check out the website.

One of the aspects which I appreciated was their philosophy on helping. One aspect of which was: "HELP NOT CHARITY - while the assistance is being given free it is ensured that BMVSS, its donors and its beneficiaries recognize such assistance as help and not Charity. Psychologically it is recognized that assistance given as charity demeans both the giver and the taker. The recipient particularly looses his self-respect. The constant effort of BMVSS is that the support given is treated as one provided to a brethren rather than a charity to a poor person."

 

I got the following comment relating to this point from Maureen "Yes, help not charity! Thanks for putting into words what I had been thinking." My quick reply was "I use the word charity a lot on this blog, but I get so frustrated by that. Because it takes a way a person's autonomy. It implies they could do nothing without our help, but that's not so, the important thing is how much they can do with a bit of assistance. None of us would get anywhere without some help from someone along the way..." 

 

But I keep have been thinking about this a bit more and wondering how this impacts my blog. How do I go about donating money to organizations without supporting organizations who merely give food. Do I emphasize the helping aspect and stay away from the word charity?

I remember when I was younger and learning about the work of Heifer International, the volunteer explained it using the old phrase - Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for life. The idea behind this phrase has always appealed to me. Rather than giving someone food, organizations can help them have a livelihood. Giving them chickens will give their family sustenance from the eggs and they can earn money by selling the extras. Or help someone to become mobile again with protheses and aids so they can work to help support themselves and their family.

Merely giving charity and giving food does not alleviate the problem, it makes them dependent on you. And while it is nice to help someone, wouldn't it be nicer to give someone a chance at self sufficiency? When I think about charities, programs which do this are the ones who truly appeal to me. Ones that work with a community to improve it long term, instead of just bringing aid by now and again.

Maybe we need a different word than charity, one which addresses the idea of helping others, without the connotations of that other person being helpless. If you have suggestions, let me know. And as always, please comment and leave your thoughts.

Thanks all, and while you are enjoying your three day weekend, remember Martin Luther King and all he stood for, as well as how far we still have to go to make his dream fully a reality.