CARE

I read this news story a few months ago and cried. My heart absolutely breaks for the people suffering in East Africa. (Uplifting way to kick off a post, eh?) Earlier this year, the United Nations declared famine in six regions in the Horn of Africa. More than 13 million people are in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Women and children in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have been particularly hit hard and humanitarian agencies like CARE are working around the clock to respond to the crises and save lives.

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. They have been rapidly scaling up their response in the Horn of Africa,  and their emergency interventions have already directly reached over a million people across the region. CARE is working alongside partners to provide food, water, health, education, protection, livelihoods, and prevention of gender-based violence in the Dadaab refugee camps.

CARE not only feeds the hungry, they also help tackle underlying causes of poverty so that people can become self-sufficient. Recognizing that women and children suffer disproportionately from poverty, CARE places special emphasis on working with women to create permanent social change. CARE also provides people in need assistance with water/sanitation/hygiene, food, education, gender-based violence, psychosocial support, and psychological counseling. In 2010, CARE worked in 87 countries around the world, supporting 905 poverty-fighting projects to reach more than 82 million people, over half of whom are women. You can learn more about what they do or search their project database.

If you make one donation this year, consider supporting a humanitarian organization like CARE. They are literally saving lives every day. Make a general donation to CARE between now and December 31 and your donation will automatically be doubled. Over 90% of funds go to help people directly through CARE programs. Make a donation for someone else and send them a CARE holiday e-card.

You can also donate by building and sending a CARE Package. This is actually really cool. You drag and drop customized gifts of empowerment into a virtual CAREpackage that will go to help poor girls and women access the resources they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Or, you can send a care package to someone else and let them choose the items they want to donate. You can also invite your friends, family, and colleagues to add items to your group CAREpackage. $12 can add a lifesaving mosquito net. $60 can provide one family with Unimix, an enriched corn and bean flour to fight malnutrition, for a month.

There are other ways you can help. Donate your cell phone through the CollectiveGood program. It’s designed to capture idle mobile phones in North America and redeploy them, solving an environmental problem, raising funds for CARE, and bridging the digital divide. Send your used mobile phone(s) with the extra batteries, charging unit, automobile power plug, case, etc. All phones will be recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner and you will receive an acknowledgement letter from CARE for your donation.

Read More

food banks

It's Christmas Eve and I'm here! Better late than never. There were presents to open and tickle fights to have. Still...this is important and I haven't missed a day yet. So, today, I am talking about what is most important to all of us at this time of year...food.

One of my most talented musician friends, Katie Thompson, (speaking of great gifts, go and buy this girl's CDs cuz she is seriously fierce) wrote this hilarious song "I love Christmas for the food," and she's not wrong. We ALL love Christmas for the food. But, recently I read these news stories that report a 50% jump in use of food banks since 2006 (up 90% this year! Hello, recession!) but that nearly 60% of the food kitchens and pantries in the city don't have enough food. I am terrible at math, and I even I know that that does not add up.

So help your local food bank this Christmas. People will go there to get their Christmas meal tomorrow, and they need food. They need support. They need volunteers. They need money. They need you. I am going to give you a brief list of the few that I have supported over the years in a second, but the most important thing is to find one in your community and get out and actually do something to help this year. Tonight, tomorrow, or any day of the year. I can not express how important it is that we all do something to help the people around us that need the most basic things - like food. And now, the list:

Detroit peeps - check out Gleaner's Community Food Bank. Last year, Gleaners distributed more than 36 million pounds of emergency food to over 484 partner soup kitchens, shelters and pantries in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties. Of every dollar donated, Gleaners uses 96 cents for food and food programs. One dollar provides three meals for a hungry neighbor.

NYC - this organization actually takes their trucks out into the streets of NYC and rescues food that is still good to help fight hunger in NYC. City Harvest is the world's first food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city's hungry men, women, and children.  Donate food or money. Whatevs...it all helps.

Everywhere in America - FeedingAmerica can guide you to a local food bank and tell you ways you can help.

                               

Cheers, everyone. And peace on this Christmas.

Read More