While this is a blog aimed at anyone in any developed country, frankly, most of the people I know reading this are American--which means "November" is synonymous with "Thanksgiving," which further translates to "duh. Focus on a food-based organization this month." Fine. I'll be cliche and focus on food.
Food is under appreciated anyway. I say this not in the good old guilty way we're used to hearing (that we have an abundance of it here and starving children halfway across the world would love to take our obesity problem off our waists) but that it's one of the most constant needs in our lives. We will always need it, and we're constrained by our need for it multiple times a day. We can go without proper shelter or bathing or clothing, but those lacks won't typical pain us as fast as a lack of food will.
Nevertheless, it's one of the most enjoyable needs we have! It's immediately satisfying, it comes in almost limitless variety, and it brings people together. If you want to take the wonder of food a bit further, let's consider for a moment how the earth's ecosystems are so perfectly designed so that one creature's digestive system actually supports other creatures on the same food chain (and tangent food chains). It's so complex but works so well! (And on that note, I've always pondered how indebted we are to plants, because this whole system would fall apart if it weren't for photosynthesis).
I love food. If I had enough disposable income, I would be a dedicated foodie (or just hire a private chef, and someone to wash the dishes).
I also love Japan, and cultural exchange, and focused organizations that work to help the underprivileged around the world help themselves. Extra points if said organization is environmentally responsible. These are all things that make the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) cool.
In a nutshell, they bring leaders (50/50 gender ratio) from rural communities around Asia (and Africa and the Pacific!) to the farm in northern Japan for a nine-month training program to prepare them to bring sustainable farming methods back to their respective communities. It is an accredited school, so they do plenty of research in addition to their daily chores to tend the farm, which includes crops and animals. The community lives on the food that they produce together.
Of course, they were affected by the earthquake last March, and perhaps more so affected by the radiation from the Fukushima plant (they're located in Nishinasuno, Tochigi, between Tokyo and Fukushima). While the radiation levels in their soil are higher than normal (still safe, though) and their facilities had some damage, they were still able to welcome this year's participants as planned. Kudos, ARI.
Something else cool about ARI: You can join them for a while! Their volunteering program is fairly flexible and can put people with a variety of talents to work. (Hint hint: this is a good way to go study Japanese, but you don't need to know any Japanese to participate.) You can read more on the Volunteer page.
Hopefully this was a little more surprising than just another giant "feed the children" organization. While I think there will always been some need for handouts--be it in villages in Africa or in our local soup kitchens--there are really too many of those organizations to pick just one. My suggestion is that if you do choose to give to one, make sure that what they're handing out is nutritional (like enriched peanut butter) instead of just a tummy-filler.
Payment Procedures
To give from America and have your gift be tax deductible, visit the partner site and give here. You can scroll down and see what kinds of specific needs the money goes towards.
They do have a $25 minimum donation requirement, as do many other organizations. Frankly, it is more effective to pick a single cause or two and give more to them instead of giving a little to several different organizations, but this blog project is for sampling purposes and only challenges everyone to $10 a month. If $25 is really going to make you uncomfortable, then you can fulfill the challenge by supporting your local soup kitchen. Granted, this is a cliche month to do that and they could use help all year round, but the local underprivileged need and can enjoy food just as much as everyone else.
1.10.11
October's Showcase: Love146
If you're like me, the first thing that comes to mind for October is Halloween. Let's talk about something that is truly scary.
Out of all the causes I have listed in this project, human trafficking is one of the issues that stirs me most. I'll spare you the horror stories and tell you about how I started learning more about this.
Fundraising idea!
About a year ago, I attended a couple monthly dessert houses. A member of the group would host them at their house and 30 or 40 people would come, usually all young adults. Local artists would display their work, local musicians would take turns at the mic, people would talk, and a dozen or so people would volunteer to bring desserts and teas. Each dessert house would have a cause or organization for the theme, and time would be set aside for someone to introduce an organization and what they do. Cash donations were free-will, but $10 was the suggested amount.
Actually, it was after attending one of these dessert houses that I got the idea for this blog! Love146 was presented at the first one I attended, but I found out about a few others at these as well.
Why is it called that?
This story I will pass on because it stuck out in my mind. When the people who started the organization were doing an undercover investigation of a child prostitute house by posing as customers, they were able to view the young girls from behind a window to choose which one they wanted, and then pay for different things they could do to them. The girls were all wearing dresses with numbers pinned to them, and they had lifeless expressions. All except the one wearing the number 146, who still looked like she had some fighting spirit left in her. She left such an impression on them that they kept her number, but they never did see her again after that.
There are plenty of horror stories, and human sex trafficking--of grown women, boys and girls who are barely toddlers, both sold knowingly or tricked--is a very widespread problem, but it's very difficult for governments to do anything to stop it. They lack the resources to go after traffickers, track down the victims' families, or even have any place to put the victims. Frequently the victims are too ashamed to return to their families, and after being repeatedly raped and undergoing multiple forced abortions, both physical and mental recoveries are very difficult.
What does Love146 do?
It is not Love146's position to go in and expose the traffickers, but they are able to educate the locals so as to prevent them from unknowingly feeding the system and allowing their loved ones to get hurt, they're able to perform research on the system, and they are able to provide after care for the victims once they are rescued.
At the safe houses, the victims receive medical care, education, professional counseling, and perhaps most importantly, care, comfort and understanding. The purpose is to take them from the depths of darkness to a point where they are able to sustain themselves with new skills and make a new life for themselves. I've read the details of what kind of care they provide, and indeed, this seems like the safest kind of place many of the victims could hope to get to.
Prevent horror stories
Part of the reason I bring this up is not just to support Love146, but also to spread awareness. This is not just a problem in Nepal, it's likely a problem in your own 1st world city.
There are two kinds of trafficking you should be aware: local people being trapped and forced into providing sex or pornography material, and people from abroad being kidnapped and brought to where customers have more money to spend on them.
In both cases, you should be suspicious if someone--like a waitress, dancer, or masseuse--is not allowed to talk to anyone, or if the owners seem especially defensive if anyone asks about them. Part of the way they keep a hold on their victims is to prevent them having the chance to call for help, or to threaten them into silence. This is generally true of both international and local cases.
Please, please take a look at the SlaveryMap to see what kinds of cases have been reported recently in your area. There is also more information on this site about how to report suspicions to the right authorities.
This is definitely the topic of this project that I get most emotional writing about. Besides supporting the work Love146 does, please keep your eyes open and spread awareness about human trafficking.
Payment Procedures
Giving is pretty straightforward: Make a donation here, and also check out their store, Facebook cause, and texting options at the bottom of the page. They're also on GoodSearch, which I'll be using again this month.
Out of all the causes I have listed in this project, human trafficking is one of the issues that stirs me most. I'll spare you the horror stories and tell you about how I started learning more about this.
Fundraising idea!
About a year ago, I attended a couple monthly dessert houses. A member of the group would host them at their house and 30 or 40 people would come, usually all young adults. Local artists would display their work, local musicians would take turns at the mic, people would talk, and a dozen or so people would volunteer to bring desserts and teas. Each dessert house would have a cause or organization for the theme, and time would be set aside for someone to introduce an organization and what they do. Cash donations were free-will, but $10 was the suggested amount.
Actually, it was after attending one of these dessert houses that I got the idea for this blog! Love146 was presented at the first one I attended, but I found out about a few others at these as well.
Why is it called that?
This story I will pass on because it stuck out in my mind. When the people who started the organization were doing an undercover investigation of a child prostitute house by posing as customers, they were able to view the young girls from behind a window to choose which one they wanted, and then pay for different things they could do to them. The girls were all wearing dresses with numbers pinned to them, and they had lifeless expressions. All except the one wearing the number 146, who still looked like she had some fighting spirit left in her. She left such an impression on them that they kept her number, but they never did see her again after that.
There are plenty of horror stories, and human sex trafficking--of grown women, boys and girls who are barely toddlers, both sold knowingly or tricked--is a very widespread problem, but it's very difficult for governments to do anything to stop it. They lack the resources to go after traffickers, track down the victims' families, or even have any place to put the victims. Frequently the victims are too ashamed to return to their families, and after being repeatedly raped and undergoing multiple forced abortions, both physical and mental recoveries are very difficult.
What does Love146 do?
It is not Love146's position to go in and expose the traffickers, but they are able to educate the locals so as to prevent them from unknowingly feeding the system and allowing their loved ones to get hurt, they're able to perform research on the system, and they are able to provide after care for the victims once they are rescued.
At the safe houses, the victims receive medical care, education, professional counseling, and perhaps most importantly, care, comfort and understanding. The purpose is to take them from the depths of darkness to a point where they are able to sustain themselves with new skills and make a new life for themselves. I've read the details of what kind of care they provide, and indeed, this seems like the safest kind of place many of the victims could hope to get to.
Prevent horror stories
Part of the reason I bring this up is not just to support Love146, but also to spread awareness. This is not just a problem in Nepal, it's likely a problem in your own 1st world city.
There are two kinds of trafficking you should be aware: local people being trapped and forced into providing sex or pornography material, and people from abroad being kidnapped and brought to where customers have more money to spend on them.
In both cases, you should be suspicious if someone--like a waitress, dancer, or masseuse--is not allowed to talk to anyone, or if the owners seem especially defensive if anyone asks about them. Part of the way they keep a hold on their victims is to prevent them having the chance to call for help, or to threaten them into silence. This is generally true of both international and local cases.
Please, please take a look at the SlaveryMap to see what kinds of cases have been reported recently in your area. There is also more information on this site about how to report suspicions to the right authorities.
This is definitely the topic of this project that I get most emotional writing about. Besides supporting the work Love146 does, please keep your eyes open and spread awareness about human trafficking.
Payment Procedures
Giving is pretty straightforward: Make a donation here, and also check out their store, Facebook cause, and texting options at the bottom of the page. They're also on GoodSearch, which I'll be using again this month.
1.9.11
September's Showcase: One Laptop per Child
Well, but this time school has started again in the United States. Kids are strapping back on their backpacks and skipping or trudging to school where they'll be overwhelming with recess dilemmas, school lunches, and an overwhelming amount of information available through computers. No matter how much we argue until we're blue in the face about the quality of the education they get, you have to admit, at least they're getting one, and technology has become an indispensable part of that.
Which brings me back, of course, to economic development and how you have to think about it from many different angles for it to be effective. This month's focus is education.
The more educated a population is, the higher earning potential it has, the better quality of services it can provide, and the lower the child mortality rate. Thus, more widely available education is good.
Issues with getting kids to school and making sure girls are equally educated and providing teachers are entirely different complex issues with a number of solutions already in action around the world, so let's set those aside and just focus on the quality of the education.
We'll switch gears for a moment: globalization and technology. These are also things we can argue ourselves blue in the face about whether they hurt or help societies (especially in developing nations), but we can safely say they exist and they are changing the world, and if the world wants to develop, it must adapt to them.
Therefore: more educated populations need to have applicable skills, which means that they must be able to use technology.
Kids do have a knack for figuring out technology, as Sugata Mitra's experiments reveal. He embedded computers at child height in regions where children probably had never seen computers, and they would gather, play with them, and very quickly figure out how to use them. But computers are expensive and breakable! How can you bring computer and technological communication skills and internet access to kids all over the world, even way out in Micronesia?
One Laptop per Child fixes that. They provide small, highly durable (I cannot stress enough how durable), energy efficient, and education-oriented laptops to underprivileged children all over the world. Yes, even in the United States! They are not cheap, of course, and for that reason they are not handed out like toys. They are tools to help make educated individuals, and from there, educated populations.
Then we can start arguing about brain drain and outsourcing. Well, in any betterment of society, nothing stays simple. At least this organization has a very simple, straightforward function.
Payment Procedures
While the default donation page requests donations of $50-$1000, you still have the option of entering a lower amount of your choosing. For $199, you could also pay for an entire laptop and receive a card crediting you (or whoever you give in the name of) for it. You could also give stock, but that's not my area of expertise. I'm a cheap graduate who can only afford to work with cash.
Which brings me back, of course, to economic development and how you have to think about it from many different angles for it to be effective. This month's focus is education.
The more educated a population is, the higher earning potential it has, the better quality of services it can provide, and the lower the child mortality rate. Thus, more widely available education is good.
Issues with getting kids to school and making sure girls are equally educated and providing teachers are entirely different complex issues with a number of solutions already in action around the world, so let's set those aside and just focus on the quality of the education.
We'll switch gears for a moment: globalization and technology. These are also things we can argue ourselves blue in the face about whether they hurt or help societies (especially in developing nations), but we can safely say they exist and they are changing the world, and if the world wants to develop, it must adapt to them.
Therefore: more educated populations need to have applicable skills, which means that they must be able to use technology.
Kids do have a knack for figuring out technology, as Sugata Mitra's experiments reveal. He embedded computers at child height in regions where children probably had never seen computers, and they would gather, play with them, and very quickly figure out how to use them. But computers are expensive and breakable! How can you bring computer and technological communication skills and internet access to kids all over the world, even way out in Micronesia?
One Laptop per Child fixes that. They provide small, highly durable (I cannot stress enough how durable), energy efficient, and education-oriented laptops to underprivileged children all over the world. Yes, even in the United States! They are not cheap, of course, and for that reason they are not handed out like toys. They are tools to help make educated individuals, and from there, educated populations.
Then we can start arguing about brain drain and outsourcing. Well, in any betterment of society, nothing stays simple. At least this organization has a very simple, straightforward function.
Payment Procedures
While the default donation page requests donations of $50-$1000, you still have the option of entering a lower amount of your choosing. For $199, you could also pay for an entire laptop and receive a card crediting you (or whoever you give in the name of) for it. You could also give stock, but that's not my area of expertise. I'm a cheap graduate who can only afford to work with cash.
1.8.11
August's Showcase: Seeds of Peace
This is likely the charity I have put the most thought and concern into. Considering that this is the month of Ramadan, I wanted a peace-related cause to feature. Choosing Seeds of Peace was difficult for two reasons:
1. Peace is difficult. Peace is really, really difficult and messy, and many well-intentioned peace operations don't have the impact they aim for (or at least the ones that do succeed frequently are given due credit because someone else is always ready to take credit for the successes). Even considering the rise in privatization of peace negotiations, it is hard to find an organization that stands apart from everything that I wish to fund.
Seeds of Peace sticks out to me for a few reasons. First, it is recognized (although not as much recently), and it does active work where it is needed, such as in the Middle East and South Asia. Second, it's not a "feel good" kind of peaceful way of bringing people together and wishing for peace. Rather, it takes youth from conflict-prone areas and provides training and workshops for future leaders in addition to providing friendships from group they previously held prejudices toward. They don't just hand them a diploma and congratulate them on finishing the program and get ready to welcome the next group--they provide a network of support and regular updates to their graduates. The purpose is to build consistent leaders for peace within the affected communities, not to try to bring peace in from outside. This is why I really like them.
2. The second reason this was a difficult decision was because I'm taking a risk on this one and breaking my own rule for only supporting financially sound organizations. Sadly (and startlingly), Seeds of Peace has a zero-star rating on Charity Navigator. I spotted this several months ago, but I have been following the organization since then to see if they would make any changes.
Sure enough, they have. They've hired a new head of development, which is a good sign because one of the major strikes against them was that they hadn't been growing for a few years. I've watched them add new ways to give (which I'll get to) to make sure they stay connected and relevant. They've also posted an official response to the Charity Navigator rating which addressed everything they were rated poorly on, and how it has been addressed and has been improving since that information was collected in a year of restructuring. It was the response I had been waiting for that answered all of my own questions about the course the organization is taking.
Charitable organizations, like any other kind of organization, can make mistakes, hit low points, and find it necessary to restructure themselves. I've seen it happen to companies who still remained good companies at their core, but did take some time to recover. In light of the state of the world economy, it's still happening to plenty right now. I believe enough in the work of Seeds of Peace and the angle it takes to want to support now while it is in need, but shows many signs of taking action to fix its problems.
Payment Procedures
Of course, I'm doing my $10 directly on the Make a Donation page, but this is where it gets interesting!
As you see here, they have arranged five ways for you to shop, set up wedding registries and do general internet searches like you would anywhere else, only using those particular sites will pay the organization of your choice! I highly suggest checking out those links even if Seeds of Peace is not your organization of choice. Though it's hard to break the search engine habits I already have, I am committed to using GoodSearch throughout the month of August for all my personal searching needs.
1. Peace is difficult. Peace is really, really difficult and messy, and many well-intentioned peace operations don't have the impact they aim for (or at least the ones that do succeed frequently are given due credit because someone else is always ready to take credit for the successes). Even considering the rise in privatization of peace negotiations, it is hard to find an organization that stands apart from everything that I wish to fund.
Seeds of Peace sticks out to me for a few reasons. First, it is recognized (although not as much recently), and it does active work where it is needed, such as in the Middle East and South Asia. Second, it's not a "feel good" kind of peaceful way of bringing people together and wishing for peace. Rather, it takes youth from conflict-prone areas and provides training and workshops for future leaders in addition to providing friendships from group they previously held prejudices toward. They don't just hand them a diploma and congratulate them on finishing the program and get ready to welcome the next group--they provide a network of support and regular updates to their graduates. The purpose is to build consistent leaders for peace within the affected communities, not to try to bring peace in from outside. This is why I really like them.
2. The second reason this was a difficult decision was because I'm taking a risk on this one and breaking my own rule for only supporting financially sound organizations. Sadly (and startlingly), Seeds of Peace has a zero-star rating on Charity Navigator. I spotted this several months ago, but I have been following the organization since then to see if they would make any changes.
Sure enough, they have. They've hired a new head of development, which is a good sign because one of the major strikes against them was that they hadn't been growing for a few years. I've watched them add new ways to give (which I'll get to) to make sure they stay connected and relevant. They've also posted an official response to the Charity Navigator rating which addressed everything they were rated poorly on, and how it has been addressed and has been improving since that information was collected in a year of restructuring. It was the response I had been waiting for that answered all of my own questions about the course the organization is taking.
Charitable organizations, like any other kind of organization, can make mistakes, hit low points, and find it necessary to restructure themselves. I've seen it happen to companies who still remained good companies at their core, but did take some time to recover. In light of the state of the world economy, it's still happening to plenty right now. I believe enough in the work of Seeds of Peace and the angle it takes to want to support now while it is in need, but shows many signs of taking action to fix its problems.
Payment Procedures
Of course, I'm doing my $10 directly on the Make a Donation page, but this is where it gets interesting!
As you see here, they have arranged five ways for you to shop, set up wedding registries and do general internet searches like you would anywhere else, only using those particular sites will pay the organization of your choice! I highly suggest checking out those links even if Seeds of Peace is not your organization of choice. Though it's hard to break the search engine habits I already have, I am committed to using GoodSearch throughout the month of August for all my personal searching needs.
1.7.11
July's Showcase: Surfing the Nations
It's the height of summer now, and so what could be better to do that help support a humanitarian cause? Well, surfing, of course. Of the wet variety, not the net variety. Now wouldn't it be great if you could combine surfing and humanitarian causes?
It's already been done in Hawaii, Bangladesh, Israel, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indonesia through Surfing the Nations. Their purpose is not to protect the world's beaches by beating off sharks (I wouldn't advocate an organization that functions at another group's expense!), but to spread a love of surfing to socially serve at-risk youth and families. This organization was started by a couple who loved to surf and do humanitarian work, and it is considerably smaller than many other organizations I've been advocating, but reaching out to someone who is lonely does not require large numbers of people, but passionate people. Sadly, I'm not a surfer, and I don't know I share that level of passion, but I can at least financially support those who do.
Based in Honolulu, they run a soup kitchen there and run programs for at-risk youth in surrounding areas, and when they do their missions abroad, they not only spread the love of surfing but bring along clothing, supplies and toys for their host communities. They've established a satellite center in Indonesia to continue serving the community there by reaching out to the most ostracized of society.
So... that's totally sweet, dude.
Payment Procedures
Donations are handled through Egiving's secure systems, and you can select how you would like your money to support them--building upkeep, community impact, etc--and pay with a credit card here.
They are currently running a capital campaign to renovate their food kitchen and community center, take a look at their plans!
It's already been done in Hawaii, Bangladesh, Israel, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indonesia through Surfing the Nations. Their purpose is not to protect the world's beaches by beating off sharks (I wouldn't advocate an organization that functions at another group's expense!), but to spread a love of surfing to socially serve at-risk youth and families. This organization was started by a couple who loved to surf and do humanitarian work, and it is considerably smaller than many other organizations I've been advocating, but reaching out to someone who is lonely does not require large numbers of people, but passionate people. Sadly, I'm not a surfer, and I don't know I share that level of passion, but I can at least financially support those who do.
Based in Honolulu, they run a soup kitchen there and run programs for at-risk youth in surrounding areas, and when they do their missions abroad, they not only spread the love of surfing but bring along clothing, supplies and toys for their host communities. They've established a satellite center in Indonesia to continue serving the community there by reaching out to the most ostracized of society.
So... that's totally sweet, dude.
Payment Procedures
Donations are handled through Egiving's secure systems, and you can select how you would like your money to support them--building upkeep, community impact, etc--and pay with a credit card here.
They are currently running a capital campaign to renovate their food kitchen and community center, take a look at their plans!
1.6.11
June's Showcase: Water for People
With summer and gardening coming up fast, many of us here in the US have a common problem: the price of water is increasing, so it leaves us with little choice but to turn to xeriscaping and to take shorter showers, or just gripe and pay the extra costs. At least many of us have that option to ensure that we'll still have clean water.
This is the part where we feel guilty, because millions of people don't have such easy access to clean water, regardless of how much we might have to pay for it. Compared to how much more it's going to cost us to use as much water as usual, or considering how much money we'll save by letting our grassy lawns die, $10 to help less fortunate people around the world have a better shot at access to clean water isn't that difficult.
Out of all the water charities out there, I think Water for People is one of the best developed, accountable, innovative and most able to make an impact. They are a 4 (out of 4) star rated charity on Charity Navigator, and they oversee a number of different kinds of water projects in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, including the project that first caught my attention, the PlayPump. In a nutshell: kids play on merry-go-round at local elementary school, this powers a pump to access clean ground water, the water goes up into a storage tank which has income-generating advertising space on the outside, and people pump clean water out through a tap, and the village has clean water. Ta da! See more about the business model for this project here.
Of course, as creative as many water projects sound, just like any development project, they don't run quite as planned in the original business model. That's why Water for People measures their success in terms how many people their projects at serving not only at the start of a project's completion, but 3, 6, and 10 years afterward to make sure that it's not only meeting original targets, but growing.
Payment Procedures
Go to the DONATE page, and fill in your contact and credit card information as usual. They ask for $25 amounts, but have the option to type in your own $10 amount if you so choose.
If you aren't comfortable giving on a credit card, you can also give with stock or by mail according to the instructions on the web site.
Happy giving, and here's a toast of H2O to you all.
This is the part where we feel guilty, because millions of people don't have such easy access to clean water, regardless of how much we might have to pay for it. Compared to how much more it's going to cost us to use as much water as usual, or considering how much money we'll save by letting our grassy lawns die, $10 to help less fortunate people around the world have a better shot at access to clean water isn't that difficult.
Out of all the water charities out there, I think Water for People is one of the best developed, accountable, innovative and most able to make an impact. They are a 4 (out of 4) star rated charity on Charity Navigator, and they oversee a number of different kinds of water projects in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, including the project that first caught my attention, the PlayPump. In a nutshell: kids play on merry-go-round at local elementary school, this powers a pump to access clean ground water, the water goes up into a storage tank which has income-generating advertising space on the outside, and people pump clean water out through a tap, and the village has clean water. Ta da! See more about the business model for this project here.
Of course, as creative as many water projects sound, just like any development project, they don't run quite as planned in the original business model. That's why Water for People measures their success in terms how many people their projects at serving not only at the start of a project's completion, but 3, 6, and 10 years afterward to make sure that it's not only meeting original targets, but growing.
Payment Procedures
Go to the DONATE page, and fill in your contact and credit card information as usual. They ask for $25 amounts, but have the option to type in your own $10 amount if you so choose.
If you aren't comfortable giving on a credit card, you can also give with stock or by mail according to the instructions on the web site.
Happy giving, and here's a toast of H2O to you all.
1.5.11
May's Showcase: ORBIS
Imagine yourself at that dinner party where you really could care less about the bake sale at some kid's school or the marathon fundraisers you don't have the time or effort for. The conversation comes to you. Sure, you might be out-done, but at least you'll sound interesting when you answers, "Who, me? Well, I give to a flying optometry hospital."
You don't even have to bluff. Won't you look smart when you can tell people about ORBIS? As part of their mission to save sight on three continents, they do indeed have a flying eye hospital, equip with sterile operating room and recovery room, laser treatment room, and classroom space to educate local people about how to save sight. This traveling hospital is staffed by volunteer doctors and primarily provides surgeries to children, people blind in both eyes, and people who otherwise would not be able to afford a surgery.
The ORBIS mission to save sight for the world isn't limited to their flying hospital. They have six regional offices around the world, and they fly doctors out to educate local optometrists, health officials and NGOs. Usually, their training programs will last three years, during which time they instruct them on method for diagnosing eye problems, treating them, and performing surgeries. This is part of their capacity building strategy, which maximizes their impact by letting local people take over and help themselves with the tools and training they are given. This is probably a large part of the reason why they have a 4 out of 4 star rating on Charity Navigator!
Here is what else they say about their capacity building program:
In the past 26 years, they've already provided over 900 of these programs! You can read some of their success stories here.
As you can see, they've assisted people losing their sight to cataracts, injuries, and a number of different causes, and yeah, it's great that they can see. It's something we all tend to take for granted until it's gone. Consider how one change--restoring someone's sight--can allow them to support themselves in the future. Poverty alleviation requires removing things standing between people and the ability to help themselves, and blindness is one of those things that can be treated.
Payment Procedures:
Go to the DONATE NOW page, and make your credit card payment from there. Or, if you're not from the United States, you can select from one of their other regional sites listed on that page.
You also have the option of donating frequent flier miles! I'm doing money for now, but I might see about doing something with my United Mileage Plus miles. Hmmmmm.
For those of you cool enough to be ophthalmology professionals and airplane pilots, you can also volunteer your services for ORBIS! The rest of us can still do fundraising and advocacy.
You don't even have to bluff. Won't you look smart when you can tell people about ORBIS? As part of their mission to save sight on three continents, they do indeed have a flying eye hospital, equip with sterile operating room and recovery room, laser treatment room, and classroom space to educate local people about how to save sight. This traveling hospital is staffed by volunteer doctors and primarily provides surgeries to children, people blind in both eyes, and people who otherwise would not be able to afford a surgery.
The ORBIS mission to save sight for the world isn't limited to their flying hospital. They have six regional offices around the world, and they fly doctors out to educate local optometrists, health officials and NGOs. Usually, their training programs will last three years, during which time they instruct them on method for diagnosing eye problems, treating them, and performing surgeries. This is part of their capacity building strategy, which maximizes their impact by letting local people take over and help themselves with the tools and training they are given. This is probably a large part of the reason why they have a 4 out of 4 star rating on Charity Navigator!
Here is what else they say about their capacity building program:
* Training eye care professionals in the prevention and treatment of eye diseases prevalent in their region and ensuring that these skills are effectively put into practice
* Strengthening the different types of eye care institutions, such as hospitals, medical schools and eye banks, so that they have the tools in place to continually deliver urgently needed eye care services
* Introducing health care financing systems, such as tiered payment plans, so that even the poorest of the poor can access sight-saving surgery
* Providing ophthalmic equipment, such as digital retinal cameras, indirect ophthalmoscopes and operating microscopes, and training staff to properly use and maintain this equipment
* Advocating on behalf of legislation promoting and supporting eye health on the national health care agenda
* Generating public awareness that some forms of blindness can be prevented or treated and don’t have to be accepted as fate
In the past 26 years, they've already provided over 900 of these programs! You can read some of their success stories here.
As you can see, they've assisted people losing their sight to cataracts, injuries, and a number of different causes, and yeah, it's great that they can see. It's something we all tend to take for granted until it's gone. Consider how one change--restoring someone's sight--can allow them to support themselves in the future. Poverty alleviation requires removing things standing between people and the ability to help themselves, and blindness is one of those things that can be treated.
Payment Procedures:
Go to the DONATE NOW page, and make your credit card payment from there. Or, if you're not from the United States, you can select from one of their other regional sites listed on that page.
You also have the option of donating frequent flier miles! I'm doing money for now, but I might see about doing something with my United Mileage Plus miles. Hmmmmm.
For those of you cool enough to be ophthalmology professionals and airplane pilots, you can also volunteer your services for ORBIS! The rest of us can still do fundraising and advocacy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)