Blog Action Day – October 15 – Sign Up Now. Subject: Poverty

www.makepovertyhistory.org

This looks like it’s both fun AND a great way to join in a Global Discussion on an Important Issue!  I’m reprinting alot from the page of the website, as I want to make sure you get as much information as possible (and not all of use spend as much time on a site clicking around as I do).  Sign up and make a difference.

What is Blog Action Day?

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. The official website is www.blogactionday.org

How does Blog Action Day work?

From August 15th to October 15th bloggers are asked to register to participate so we can track how many are involved, as well as their approximate audience size. On October 15th the bloggers post on the issue and/or donate their day’s ad revenue to a charity involved in that area. We ask bloggers to try to keep their posting related to their regular blog topic so that posts are individual, suited to the audience and look at the issue in many different lights.

 

Tucson – Community Arts Fundraiser, Free Event, August 2, 2008

Most towns are awash in politics when it comes to revitalizing business and arts.  For the most part, Tucson isn’t much better.  Recently and article in the Arizona Daily Star showed $77 million (that’s million folks) spent on PLANNING to revitalize the downtown.  Okay, they have two nice theaters out of the deal, but really?  $77 million.  Anyway, some folks in the private sector have banded together to form a revitalization all their own.  Fletcher J. McCusker, CEO of Providence Service Corporation (no I don’t know what that is) has thrown his financial support behind a grassroots effort to take arts back downtown without all the back door wrangling that usually goes on.  This Saturday, the whole 6th Avenue block between Congress and Pennington will be shut down for a block party.  That’s right, they managed to get a whole block of the downtown civic area shut down for the evening and it’s not even a holiday!

 

Project Peanut Butter

Mmmm... Peanut Butter!

Buckle up.  This intro is convoluted, but I swear I’ll get to the point.

A friend of mine recently came back to the US from a two year stint in the Peace Corps.  She was based in Namibia, Africa.  She’s a professional photographer and brought back beautiful photos and sad realities.  Within five days she was looking up prices for airfare to return to Namibia.  Everything here was suddenly so loud.  People were moving so fast.  And wasting so much.  Money, potential, time.  She NEEDED to go back to where she could do good.  Fortunately for us, she found a compromise.  She quickly developed some programs here to generate funds for the programs she started in Namibia to keep her projects running.  What does Coco have to do with Project Peanut Butter?  Nothing.  I told you this was convoluted.  So here’s my …. k, I haven’t come up with a smooth segue…  Trust me here, it’ll come around to the point.

Here’s what happened:  I signed up for Twitter yesterday (I know, in web years I’m a dinosaur… a slow moving tiny brained dinosaur) and today I checked in on the webs and blogs of some of the people I selected to “follow”.  Doesn’t this seem like stalking?  Warm fuzzy stalking, but still stalking… different subject for a different day.

Anyhow, I check out 3 or 4 mildly interesting links and I find Sarah. Her blog’s latest article is on the way 2 sisters (Sarah and her sister Bekah) relate to each other now due to their conditioning as children.  Cute, funny, so very true.  Which caused me to scroll down for another post by her. The words “Prisoner of Azkastan Azkaban” sent me into immediate rapid scroll mode (I’ll admit to liking the movies but you can’t make me read a blog post about Harry) when I saw the link for Peanut Butter Project.  Of course I had to click.  I love Peanut Butter!

The Value of a Great Project Name

The name of the link got me there. Peanut Butter Project.  Harmless sounding link.  It didn’t scare me, it didn’t sound like work or responsibility.  It didn’t ask anything of me.  In fact, it replaced my usually click resistant personality with youthful – and munchie craving- curiosity (I still got some youthful left!  Srsly!!)  It worked like a charm.  I hovered over the link, wondering, what will it be?  Will it be recipes or games or a social network?  Here’s the entirety of Sarah’s mention of the project in her post:

1. Purchase one serving of plumpy’nut a week through the American-based group Project Peanut Butter.
2. Contact Project Peanut Butter directly and offer personal assistance.
3. Coordinate a Baked-Goods Buffet at Comedy Central, Sarah’s place of work, with all proceeds going to Project Peanut Butter.

No clues here.  Okay a little clue.  It was something that was going to be helpful to someone.  So I clicked.

I have to admit, the site’s first photo and the headline put me off.  I recoiled. I feel actual physical pain at the thought of all of these people in need.  But I stayed.  The question “why Peanut Butter?” overcame any initial hesitation.  Also, I wondered if this might be something to call to the attention of my friend Coco.  I’m glad I stayed.

What is Project Peanut Butter?

Project Peanut Butter is a therapeutic feeding program for malnourished children in Malawi and Sierra Leone, on the continent of Africa. It was founded by Professor Mark Manary, M.D., a pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatric medicine at Washington University School of Medicine.  For years, malnutrition has been addressed with a milk based formula which gave patients a 25-40% survival rate.  the treatment also required the patients to be hospitalized.  Dr. Manary developed a peanut/dairy/vitamin/mineral food that offers a 95% recovery rate for severely malnourished children and is administered in the home.

So call me a cynic, but I’ve known enough people who were bamboozled by scams that came attached to third world based non-profits that I went into verification mode.  Googling the doctor (yes I did, see the link above to his hospital’s directory listing), the product (RUTF which stands for Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food) and checking it out on Guidestar.org (free to become a member, useful for checking out non-profits before you donate).  Last year, this Missouri based non-profit provided nutrition to over 10,000 people in Africa through direct services and sold 100,000 units to the United Nations AT COST, all on a budget of less than $200,000.  WTF???  Our government programs can’t take a shit in another country for less than a million.

This year their goals are to reach 2/3 of Malawi’s children and launch the program in Sierra Leone, the country with the worst child mortality rate for children under five, at 28%. Their babies have a slightly higher chance of 1 in 4 births resulting in death during childhood. One in four, people!

Road Map

Get your freaking credit card out.  Now. And get ready to email this information to EVERYONE in your email address book with your strong recommendation to donate.  If you do not regularly contribute money to non-profits (and I don’t.  I give lots of time) this is the time to start.  I did.  And if you do, add this one to your list right now.  Seriously.

$15.00 (USD)  – that’s fifteen – will provide all the food ingredients to provide a malnourished child with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for the duration of treatment.  Until the baby is better.  Save a child.  A family.  Fuck, if you can afford it, save a village.

Guidestar, in association with Network for Good, provides a way for you to make a secure donation here.  You choose the amount and whether it is a one time donation or a monthly, quarterly or annual contribution.  You can donate anonymously or you can provide your information (I assume to receive updates or a thank you.)  Either way, you receive a receipt which is good for a 100% tax deduction.  And you can donate in the name of someone else to honor friends or family members.

Oh and here’s something I learned in grade school: George Washington Carver, the son of slaves, developed 285 uses for peanuts, 105 edible.  I think the list of uses just grew.  Good job Dr. Manary.  Good job.

Please pass this information to everyone you know.

 

Green for All… VP Gore’s Challenge for You

If you haven’t heard about Netroots Nation, you’ll want to watch for it next year.  It’s an annual convention of liberal bloggers with speakers from all walks of life, representing and commenting on the year’s topics, where we’ve been and where we’re going and lots of other stuff (okay I didn’t follow it too closely, I’m a busy girl.. you can catch up at a number of sites, but checkout pandagon.net for the views of someone who actually attended – warning: she’s often sarcastic, but it’s hard to tell sometimes).

Anywho, the final speaker of the event was Van Jones. Tomorrow, there will be an interview posted at TPMtv at www.talkingpointsmemo.com that you won’t want to miss.  Today, for you Greenies, I’m posting a link to the headline at Van Jones’ website, Green for All:

Green For All Commends Vice President Gore’s Challenge for 100% Renewable and Clean Energy

Today, in a landmark speech, Vice President Al Gore set forth a challenge to have 100% carbon-free electricity in the United States within a decade. In addition to addressing environmental, economic, and national security concerns, this effort has the potential to lift millions of Americans out of poverty.

Read more…

 

Help Your Favorite NonProfit (And It Won’t Cost You a Dime)

One of the organizations listed at Change.org

I like solutions like this.  I don’t often have “share” money.  The kind you can give to family members, friends, organizations, beggars on the street… just because you want to.  But I have friends who do (and sometimes I have it too).  So something like Change.org is a nice way to simply spend a little time building a page (or finding one that’s already made) and sending it out to your friends – especially the ones that empty their email address book everytime someone forwards them a youtube video – to help local and national causes (which help your family members, friends, organziations, beggars on the street….)

Check them out and spend some time if your don’t have money, and money if you don’t have time.  Oh, and check out the Guidestar link you find with the entries.  You can take a closer look at where your money goes thru this organization.  Do you have a favorite site that lets people affect change?  Send me your links, and if they’re not connected to a hate filled site (sorry Mo, my blood pressure is still up), I’ll profile them here.

(the image above is part of a petition set up at the change.org site (which is another thing it does) at: http://www.change.org/actions?event_id=18600 )