Day 7: A Bicycle to get to School

Today, I found a charity that gives new bicycles to children in Zambia, in order to get to school. It is really hard for children in Zambia to receive a proper education. Families in Zambia have to deal with economic hardship, the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, and an increasing population of orphans. It makes it even more difficult for these children to receive an education when they have to walk three hours to go to school. This three hour walk in a poverty-filled country like Zambia can mean harassment, sexual abuse or exhaustion. According to The Literacy Site (the donation site), "Girls in particular spend more time working to support their families than any other Zambian demographic, collecting fuel, hauling water, caring for siblings, and supporting household businesses. As a result, they often drop out of school altogether. For Zambian girls, being unable to complete secondary education is disastrous — linked to early marriages, early childbearing, extreme poverty, increased infant mortality, and shorter life expectancy." Clearly, life isn't easy in Zambia, and the hardships aren't just limited to girls.

However, there is (sort of) a solution to the transportation problem for the children of Zambia. The following excerpt is a continuation of the same article in which I received the last quote: "A simple solution allows children to travel to school swiftly, safely, and with less fatigue: a bicycle. A typical child's two- to three-hour walk is reduced by a bicycle to a ride of just forty-five to seventy-five minutes, leaving the child less vulnerable to attack en route and also with more time and energy for schoolwork and household chores. The bicycle is also an asset to the family, improving access to markets and healthcare and enhancing the perceived value of the child's education." Even though this is still difficult for the child, a bicycle gives a Zambian family a huge break.

Last year, I went on a class trip to Costa Rica with my school. While we were there, we learned a lot about the agriculture in Costa Rica. We visited a coffee plantation, where we learned how they naturally grind the coffee beans. We were given the privilege of listening to the man's stories. One of his stories was very similar to (what I imagine) a child's story that benefited from this cause (would be like). He said that he had to walk 3-4 hours every day to go to his school. He was given a bike as well, and this allowed him to get to school with ease, and his family benefited/depended on this new way of transportation. Costa Rica is a much more developed country than Zambia, so you could imagine that the people living in a third-world country like Zambia without transportation must be very poor. A bike means a lot to these families, so I'm sure that a donation would be greatly appreciated.

This donation helps fund the purchase, assembly, and delivery of a sturdy new bicycle, and contributes to training and equipping a local bicycle mechanic so that the magic doesn't disappear with the first flat tire. You can either donate $14 to help buy a bicycle, or you can donate $134 to pay for an entire bicycle. Please consider donating. To go the donation website, please click here. Thanks!

Day 6: Protect Five Children in Burma with Immunizations

Today, I decided to look through the "Children's Health and Well-Being" section of GreaterGood.org. I found an interesting and surprising link to a charity that pays for immunizations in Burma. A $10 donation allows you to protect five children in Burma by immunizing them against some of the most devastating childhood diseases. The ethnic minorities along the Thai-Burma border suffer limited health care and a health status among the world's worst. With training from Dr. Cynthia Maung's Mae Tao Clinic, health workers from these minority groups are bringing the rudiments of modern health care, including childhood immunizations that are routine in the Western world, to over 120 remote communities deep in the Burmese rain forest. For the first time, the children in these villages can benefit from immunizations against some of the most devastating childhood diseases. Your donation will pay for 4 vaccinations for 5 children. These vaccinations will save each of these 5 children from tuberculosis, polio and measles. There is also an additional vaccination (named DPT) that covers diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.

This is definitely a worthy cause, and a donation would be greatly appreciated. Personally, I knew that many people don't receive the vaccinations needed, mostly because of the UNICEF video my school watches in assembly every October to promote "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF". More and more, I'm discovering just how sheltered I am from bad things going on in this world. I would've thought that I had seen/knew about a large amount of bad things from visiting the Morrisville Presbyterian Church Food Bank, or going to Costa Rica last year, but I don't; not in the slightest bit. Seeing the bad things that are going on in our world has gotten kind of depressing, and my faith in G_d is becoming more difficult to keep at "healthy" levels. However, I know that this is a good thing to be doing, and I'm going to continue to do this project happily, because I know that it's good to learn about bad things in the world.

Please donate to the cause. You can click here to be taken to the donation page. Thanks for reading!

Day 5: 2 Years After the Earthquake in Haiti

Today, while I was looking through GreaterGood.org, I realized that are many donation sites for the victims of the earthquake and cholera outbreak in Haiti. Recently, there has been a lot of stories in the news about the 2-year anniversary of the earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12, 2010. A study by the Inter-American Development Bank estimated that the total cost of the disaster was between $8 billion and $14 billion, based on a death toll from 200,000 to 250,000. That number was revised in 2011 by Haiti’s government to 316,000; the government has never explained how it arrived at its death toll figures. An estimated 634,000 people live in displacement camps, according to the International Organization for Migration. International donors promised Haiti $5.3 billion at a March 2010 donor’s conference. But reconstruction involving better buildings and roads has barely begun. Officials’ sole point of pride six months after the earthquake — that disease and violence had been averted — vanished with the outbreak of cholera.

Many members of the 634,00 people in displacement camps, as well as other Haitians who can't live in the structurally unsafe buildings. These people need some form of shelter. You can give these people shelter by providing them tents. Partners in Help are asking for donations to give a large amount of victims shelter, and it costs as low as $10. Please consider donating.

Personally, I don't know how these people haven't been given their proper needs. I hadn't really thought about how bad things aren't limited to places like Darfur. It just seems simple to me that if the relief fund was promised over $5 billion, they should be given their money. I hadn't actually known that everything was so bad in Haiti. I don't live in a state where major reconstruction efforts have been made, which is probably why I didn't think it took this long. I'm astounded that I didn't know about all of these bad things happening to the citizens. When I began this blog project, I had no idea that I was so sheltered from all of the bad things going on in the world.

To donate a tent, please go to this page. The reconstruction process is still a long way away from being finished, and it is critical that the Haitian refugees are given their basic needs. There is an interesting video by CNN that I encourage you watch. You can also read this article surrounding the 2-year anniversary from the New York Times.

Day 4: Liberate Girls from Indentured Servitude

Today, I found a cause that surrounds indentured servitude in Nepal. Girls in Western Nepal are being forced into lives filled only with service. In the Dang District in western Nepal, many indigenous families from the Tharu ethnic group subsist as farm laborers. Unable to make ends meet, they have been forced into a desperate trade -- selling their daughters to work far from home as bonded servants in private homes or as dishwashers in tea houses. Some of these children are as young as six. As you can imagine life is very difficult for these girls, and many are forced into prostitution. However, there is still hope. Working closely with local communities, Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF) and its founder, Olga Murray, provides a creative, humane alternative for these families, by compensating the families for their daughters' lost wages and by supporting the girls as they attend school. Since the start of the program, around 3,000 girls have been saved, and there has been vigorous campaigning to end child bonding. Previously, hundreds of girls have been sent off to lives of service per year; last year, none were sent.

To tell you the truth, I didn't even think there was indentured servitude in the world any more. I knew there was still slavery, but I had no idea that our world still had indentured servants. More and more of my findings have shown me just how sheltered I am to be living in a safe place like Pennsylvania. Nothing can really harm me here that I would be safe from anywhere else. I had never actually thought about the life of a slave, being that slavery hasn't been in the United States for around 150 years. I just don't see how you can own a person. Thinking about this seems elementary in a way, but with this problem still existing, it is apparent that not everyone thinks the way I do.

It takes only $50 to rescue a girl from virtual slavery, bring her home to live with her family, pay her school expenses for six months, and compensate her parents for her lost wages. $100 pays these expenses for a year, while $350 rescues a girl and supports her education for six years, so that she can graduate from the 10th grade and have the necessary tools to support herself. Your donation covers her school uniforms, books, school fees, and a kerosene lamp and kerosene -- highly valuable items in a region lacking electricity.

Please consider donating to this worthy cause; think about the people that you love, and how you would feel if they were taken away from you. To visit the donation site, please click here.

Day 3: Send a Child to School in Darfur

Today, I decided to look into the "Literacy and Children's Education" section of the GreaterGood.org website. While I was visiting this portion, I found a donation link that allows you to give a child in Darfur a years worth of schooling for just $36. In 2009, student enrollment in the Darfur Schools Program increased from 8,300 to 21,112. Girls made up 48% of the total student population and were enrolled in the same classes as boys. Before the Darfur Peace and Development Organization's involvement, teachers living in the refugee camps were volunteering their time to gather and teach children using any resources available. Students received their lessons sitting under trees or in the sun, writing in the sand instead of notebooks. Today, DPDO pays salaries for 160 Darfuri teachers and 56 support staff, provides materials to build classrooms, teacher and student supplies, textbooks, and allowances for school water delivery. DPDO Schools of Peace enroll children from all ethnic groups and encourage the attendance of girls, traditionally excluded from primary education. School enrollment and attendance are free for all students. DPDO is not religiously affiliated and does not promote any religion. The DPDO schools are very effective, and students are very successful. All DPDO schools reported at least 94% of their students passed their high school entrance exams.

Personally, I believe that every kid needs a quality education. I don't think that any American child deserves an education more than a Darfurian child. I was shocked to realize that most of the causes on the Literacy and Children's Education page on the GreaterGood website were to benefit children and adults in Darfur. Most of the adults are illiterate in Darfur, so the refugees don't really have any way out of the camps; the only direction left for the education of the refugees to go is upwards. It's important to realize that there is progress in Darfur. My school is closely affiliated with the Darfur Human Rights Organization, and we know a lot about the current situation. It is almost beyond my mental capacity to think about not receiving an education. I realize that I don't at all appreciate the education that I'm given, the supplies that I'm given to help me learn, and the teachers that I'm lucky to have. Please take a good look at this website before you move on to a different post.

To donate, please visit this link. I am personally passionate about this cause, so please think about donating.

Day 2: The Royal (New Year's) Resolution

Today, I was informed that The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Princess Catherine, have become more involved in their favorite British charities as a New Year's resolution. The Duchess has accepted honorary Patron positions for four charities. She has adopted a role as the Patron of Action on Addiction, the Royal Patron of East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Royal Patron of the Art Room, and the Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

I have never thought of charity work as a New Year's resolution, but it actually seems like a great idea; I find that it's more meaningful to help others than it is to help yourself, and usually, one can have an epiphany about their life while helping others. You can learn many things by helping someone else, so it is possible for you to help yourself while you're in the process of helping others. I think this theory is a key reason to why being a philanthropist is so important, as well as why it's a good idea to make your New Year's resolution about others. It's very refreshing to see a resolution of this type; I find it interesting that this resolution is so selfless, while most other resolutions surround making yourself more appealing, usually in a physical way.

I think this story from Britain is very important in promoting a three-dimensional view to charity. It's really nice to see people with so much power giving time out to help these worthy causes.

For a complete story about Princess Catherine's involvement in these charities, please click on this link.

Day 1: The Food Project in Boston

Today, while I was looking on GreaterGood.org, I found a donation link to the Food Project in Boston. It is really difficult for low-income families in large urban areas, like Boston, to find fresh produce, like apples or broccoli. Many low-income neighborhoods in Boston don't have supermarkets,which usually limits the residents to fast food restaurants and convenience stores, and I've never seen a fresh produce section in a Burger King or Wawa. These neighborhoods are called "Food Deserts". In a study of communities suffering from the greatest health disparities in Boston, 60% of residents said that they did not eat vegetables on a daily basis, and 14% reported no home consumption of vegetables at all. These facts prove that the produce shortage in Boston is nothing less than a crisis.

Fortunately, the Food Project is working to put an end to this shortage.The Food Project is transforming abandoned urban lots into verdant, productive farms that make nutritious fresh produce available in former food deserts. Diverse groups of teenagers from urban and suburban communities in the Greater Boston area are employed to help grow 250,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables on these farms each year—using organic methods. This is clearly good for the planet, as well as the community. Not only does TFP help the residents of Boston, but it also unifies a large community in their outreach towards their fellow citizens.

For 2 or 3 years now, I have been (occasionally) working at the Morrisville Presbyterian Church Food Bank I learned about this place when my advisor, Melissa, took my advisory to the food bank on a Wednesday. This bank is only open on Wednesdays, and depending on the amount of people and amount of income per family, residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey are allowed to recieve free food. These people can only go once a month, so it might not be a huge help, but these people are grateful for the help they receive. There is fresh produce there as well, and the people always seem much more happy to be the recipient of fresh vegetables, compared to processed foods. I never really understood this, because they can keep the processed foods for much longer than they can keep a few tomatoes and a couple of carrots. Now, I understand that these people are deprived of a source of fresh produce. This makes me realize that in the area of Bucks County that I live in, people (possibly just me) are naïve about just how lucky we are just to receive an fresh apple for lunch. Next time I go to throw away a barely-eaten apple, I'll think twice.

To donate to the Food Project, please click on this link. Each dollar of your donation will support one square foot of The Food Project's farmland, where young leaders are cultivated, thousands of pounds of fresh produce are grown and distributed to those in need, and urban neighborhoods and backyards produce healthy food for local residents.