I'm Tired Of...

I think these bracelets are really great! They're $10 and for every bracelet you buy, they donate $5 to a charity relating to the cause you choose. The causes relate to: autism, animal cruelty, breast cancer, global warming, cancer, the economy, world hunger, alzheimer's, child abuse, diabetes and more. Buy one here!!

Top 10 Best Charity Christmas Gifts

Interested in buying someone a camel? Click here for the 10 Best Charity Christmas Gifts! You can sponsor a brain cell, help a student in Africa get a school uniform, provide pineapple plants and more! And I'm completely serious! All of it helps people in need more than you would think!!

Check it out!!

Causes: I am Second

Emily actually posted about this last week.

I am Second is a movement where significance in life is a shared value among people of all kinds. Actors. Musicians. Business leaders. Your next-door neighbor. People just like you. Their authentic stories here on iamsecond provide insight into dealing with typical struggles of everyday living. You’ll meet people who overcame destructive lifestyles. Plus you’ll discover those who’ve tried to go it alone and have failed, yet still found a life full of hope, peace, and fulfillment.

We believe there is a reason why you are here. We all have needs and could use some help. Here you’ll find issues relevant to you as well as answers to challenging life questions. I am Second is designed to help people discover their purpose in life. Have you discovered yours? Visit the full site.

Causes: Blood:Water Mission

Blood:Water Mission

This is their "About Us" statement on their site. You should definitely check out their site and see if there is any way you can help!!


Blood:Water Mission is a non-profit organization founded by the members of the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning band, Jars of Clay, to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.

Blood:Water Mission exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both here in America and in Africa.

We recognize that numbers and statistics are hard to grasp, and that sometimes a step back is necessary to conceptualize the enormity of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Yet we also know that simply standing from a distance with arms thrown in the air is not a solution. We believe in pressing inward, in building relationships and bridges with communities in Africa. We believe in hearing personal stories and walking alongside brothers and sisters who have demonstrated strength and faith in the midst of desperate and tragic situations.

We hold fast to the conviction that we are all responsible for being good stewards of our time, our resources and our compassion in a broken world.

Every person has something to give in return for what has been received.

Please join us on this journey.

Causes: World Vision

World Vision

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

If you want to help, you can sponsor a child or give in several other ways they have listed on their site.

Causes: Children's Miracle Network

Children's Miracle Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for childrens hospitals across North America. Each year the 170 Children's Miracle Network hospitals provide the finest medical care, life-saving research and preventative education to help millions of kids overcome diseases and injuries of every kind.

Causes: 50,000 Shoes

50,000 Shoes

Causes: Compassion

Sponsoring children in need is breaking the cycle of poverty.

Compassion International is an organization that allows you to sponsor a child for $32 per month. Your $32 provides food and clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, important life-skills training, and encouragement in developing a relationship with Christ.

Compassion International

Mocha Club: I need Africa

I posted about this last week! Here is the rest of the info and the link to the site and a video you can watch!!

I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME

When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation. AIDS. Child soldiers. Genocide. Sex slaves. Orphans. From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,” I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.” It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday. There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe. But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in the people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day. [read more]

Mocha Club

I was one of the many bloggers who was emailed and asked to post about Mocha Club today. You'll probably find a lot of blogs today talking about it. Mocha Club is an organization that encourages people to begin thinking about Africa and giving only $7 - the cost of 2 mochas at most coffee places - to help make a difference in Africa. $7 in Africa will feed 1 person for 1 month, educate 2 children for 1 school term, save 1 person's life from malaria, and provide clean water to 7 Africans for 1 year.

Mocha Club uses the phrase, "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." To me, this phrase represents the unity of all of us. We need to recognize that if one person is suffering, we are all suffering. Africa doesn't need our pity, they need our help, our partnership to solve the greater problems. We need to recognize the strength and beauty of Africa and the benefits of partnering with Africa to bringing peace, health and prosperity.

Share your thoughts about Africa, partnership, and what you can do to help. If you have your own blog, please write something about it yourself. Check out Mocha Club's splash site that is up right now and join in the worthwhile cause of recasting the damaging images that force pity over partnership. Come back Dec 1st to see what Mocha Club is doing about reforming that image.

Causes: Water for Christmas

Emily posted about this cause on her blog last week.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

Statistics show that Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year. Experts estimate it would cost 10 billion dollars to give the whole world clean water. This has become a national campaign to see if we can change these statistics. To swing the pendulum from consumerism to compassion. (emphasis mine)
To see what happens when we come together and buy Water for Christmas.

Water for Christmas: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs. With the help of exemplary organizations on the ground and individuals here, we can drill wells and provide people with this basic, essential need.

$20 can provide clean drinking water to 1 person for 20 years.
Please click here to donate.

Causes: Girl Effect

Girl Effect

I fully support what they are doing and I'll be looking into how I can help! You should, too! Watch the video and check out the website!

Causes: Red Letters

Red Letters Campaign

Watch the video, check out the website for more info or read the book!

Causes: ONE

The ONE Campaign

The ONE Campaign seeks to make poverty history. They work to raise public awareness of the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight these problems.

Read their website for more information!!

Causes: DATA

DATA - debt AIDS trade africa

DATA is an advocacy organization dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa.

Did you know?

• 300,000 people were killed by the tsunami. That many die in Africa every month from poverty and disease.
• 500,000 children received vaccinations in Mozambique thanks to debt relief savings.
• One Million children are killed by Malaria every year which can be prevented by a $6 mosquito net.

Get more information and learn how you can help at their website!

Causes: End Poverty 2015

End Poverty 2015: We are the generation that can end poverty

They have 8 goals to achieve their ultimate purpose of Ending Poverty by 2015.

End Hunger
Universal Education
Gender Equity
Child Health
Maternal Health
Combat HIV/AIDS
Environmental Sustainability
Global Partnership

Check out the site for lots more information on their cause and how you can help!

BahT

We watched this documentary at church on Sunday and I got this information and these links from the church. It's not even my words describing the sites. I just wanted to spread the word about this. I think so many times we get caught up in thinking about ourselves and dealing with American culture and we forget that even on our worst day, we are so blessed and we need to be aware and do what we can to help others.

The Sold Project
a documentary about the child sex industry in Thailand

Born into Brothels
a documentary about child slavery in Calcutta, India, as seen through the eyes of the children who experienced it. Each child is given a camera and taught how to use it and their pictures tell their story.

Invisible Children
a documentary that tells the story of boys in Uganda being hunted and recruited to fight in the country's brutal civil war.

The Price of Sugar
a film that documents the story of child slavery in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic.

Love 146
work toward the abolition of child sex trafficking and exploitation through prevention and aftercare.

Ahava Kids
exists to rescue and care for young victims of child trafficking, enslavement and exploitation in the United States and throughout the world.

TOMS

Emily & Nate each have a pair of these.

Now they've motivated me. I gave up shopping for things I don't REALLY need for Lent, so after Easter I plan on buying a pair!

TOMS shoes donates one pair of shoes to a child in need. So for every pair you buy for yourself, you're buying one for a child! It's a great mission and a great company.

Some people think the shoes are ugly, but I think they're cute. They're a "traditional Argentine shoe." And now they have special hand-painted ones!!

Groceries for Haiti

I've posted things in the past with easy ways to help other people!

Here is one great and VERY easy idea:

Click here to read more about it.

Giving Back

Glamour Magazine this month had an article about giving back. They gave 31 things, I'm going to pick a few to share with you!! For the full list, pick up the December 2007 issue of Glamour!!

• Buy a holiday turkey for a family in Baton Rouge (home to thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees) for $25 at brfoodbank.org
• Support the troops with warm socks, deodorant, Chees-Its. Find their wish lists at anysoldier.com
• Donate new blankets to kids in homeless shelters at projectnightnight.org
• Buy funky gifts at thrift shops that give back, such as Out of the Closet; sales help support the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. For locations, see outofthecloset.org
• Before you shop online, go to goodshop.com. Then buy from participating retailers and the site donates a portion of your purchase to the charity of your choice.
• Help protects half an acre of rain forest in South and Central America with a $25 donation at rainforestalliance.org
• Donate old cell phones to victims of domestic violence for emergencies (go to ncadv.org and click "donate")
• Vaccinate 50 people around the world against deadly diseases such as meningitis, measles or polio with a $50 donation at doctorswithoutborders.org
• Provide a month of care for a woman or child rescued from sexual slavery for just $30 at sharedhope.org
• Get friends involved. To find group volunteer projects, go to thevolunteerfamily.com
• Clean out your closet! Then donate old glasses (neweyesfortheneedy.org), shoes (shareyoursoles.org) and even wedding gowns (makingmemories.org)
• Find projects that help people in your very own zip codes at dosomething.org
• Make a $10 donation to freethechildren.org and a special matching-funds program will turn it into $100 worth of medical supplies for kids around the world.
• Mentor an at-risk teen online at icouldbe.org
• Help an aspiring student pay for college at scholarshipamerica.org
• Send a DVD or video game to hospital-bound kids via childsplaycharity.org
• Staying home for the holidays? Donate frequent-flier miles to injured soldiers' families at heromiles.org
• Tutor a future J.K. Rowling at 826national.org
• Train your pooch to be a therapy dog for nursing homes and hospitals at tdi-dog.org
• Sell gifts you don't need through eBay's Giving Works program (givingworks.ebay.com), which earmarks a percentage of sales for the charities of your choice.
• Give to donorschoose.org; a small donation can help create cozy reading nooks for underfunded classrooms
• Upgrade your laptop; worldcomputerexchange.org will send your old one to a child in one of 61 countries