one laptop per child

A few years ago, I volunteered at a school in Costa Rica for extremely impoverished kids. They'd been working for years at the school to build a computer lab in the hopes that computers would teach the students valuable skills and motivate them by showing them that there exists an entirely different world outside of their shantytown. Through technology and education, they hoped to give these kids a chance. The school in Costa Rica has computers now, I am very happy to report. But millions of children around the world still do not have access to computers or quality education.

You can help put laptops directly into the hands of children around the world by doing something a lot of you may already do every day - buy groceries. Purchase specially-marked packages of Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Gushers and enter the URL code from the box on the Win One Give One website. For every 100 UPC codes entered, Betty Crocker® will donate an XO laptop™from One Laptop Per Child to a child in Africa (up to 1,725 laptops). Apparently, you will also be entered to win a laptop, too...so that's cool.

If, like me, you don't eat Fruit Roll-Ups regularly anymore, I urge you to go and check out One Laptop Per Child and find one of the many other ways you can help. OLPC's mission is to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. Most of the more than one billion children in the emerging world don’t have access to adequate education. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

OLPC's cool little XO laptop is designed and built especially for children in developing countries. It’s about the size of a small textbook, has built-in wireless, and a unique screen that is readable under direct sunlight for children who go to school outdoors. It’s extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, and fun for the kids. Almost everywhere kids have XO laptops, school attendance increases dramatically as the children begin to open their minds and explore their own potential.

You can give a laptop to a child in the developing world with a donation of $199. You can also donate any other amount you wish and when you donate in someone's name, they will receive a card honoring the donation.

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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.

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project night night

1 in 50 American children will face homelessness in his or her lifetime.

That sucks. But there is something we can do to help homeless kids feel a little bit better. Check out Project Night Night. This is such sweet idea, pointed out to me by a college friend of mine (thanks, Stacy!) Project Night Night is a 501(c)(3) organization that helps homeless children have sweeter dreams.

Project Night Night donates over 25,000 Night Night Packages each year, free of charge, to homeless children who need childhood essentials to feel secure, cozy, ready to learn, and significant. Each Night Night Package contains a new security blanket, an age-appropriate children's book, and a stuffed animal -- all nestled inside of a new canvas tote bag. By providing objects of reliable comfort, Project Night Night reduces trauma and advances the emotional and cognitive well-being of the children they serve. Every child who receives a Night Night Packages gets to leave the shelter owning a book which encourages reading and family bonding, a security blanket to cuddle, and a stuffed animal which can become a cherished friend. Project Night Night's mission is to deliver a Night Night Package to every homeless child in the country who needs one.

You can help Project Night Night with a tax-deductible donation. You can donate any amount to help them run their wonderful program. You can also sponsor a Night Night Package with a $20 donation that will underwrite the cost of one Night Night Package to be delivered to a homeless child. This holiday season, you can also make a tribute donation on behalf of someone on your gift list and Project Night Night will send them a card of recognition.

You can also help Project Night Night without spending any money. Yay! Volunteer your time making and delivering Night Night Packages to local shelters or donate items for Night Night Packages (they are quite specific, so please be sure to read carefully the guidelines for donating items). Here's wishing you all a good night!

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heshima kenya

I want to tell you about an amazing organization helping a local community half a world away. NY Times' intrepid reporter and co-author of the incredible book "Half the Sky" (which you'll learn more about in a later post), Nick Kristof, tweeted a story last weekend about Chicagoans selling scarves to support refugee girls in Kenya. You can read the whole story here: "Shop Local, Help the World."

This holiday season, buy someone a gift of one of these gorgeous handmade scarves and help support Heshima Kenya, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter and comprehensive support services for east African refugee girls in Nairobi, Kenya. Girls served by Heshima make the scarves as part of the organization's Maisha Collective, a program that teaches business skills to girls who have completed tailoring and financial literacy training. All profits from the sales of the scarves are returned directly to Collective participants as weekly wages and support of their ongoing engagement in Heshima Kenya's education and shelter programs.

The Maisha Collective, a project of Heshima Kenya, empowers refugee girls and young women from DR Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Burundi with economic opportunities to rebuild their lives with peace and dignity. By managing a business collective that designs and produces a line of unique hand-dyed scarves, participants gain life-long business and marketing skills that develop their confidence and prepare them for future independence. Of the 60 girls currently served by Heshima, 18 participate in the collective and 10 of them are now self-reliant. Excuse me while I editorialize for just a moment, but I think that is amazing.

Heshima Kenya recently partnered with The Girl Effect on a fundraising campaign, and I think by now you know how I feel about the movement and the awesome potential and importance of empowering girls. If you want to help, but don't want to purchase a scarf, you can make a donation directly to Heshima Kenya and help girls lift up their own lives and the world around them. If you live in the Chicago area, you can also purchase a scarf at Flourish Studios, 3020 N. Lincoln Chicago, Illinois (I am adoring the Flourish Studios website right now, too, by the way. You should check it out.)

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the girl effect

If you've been following along at home, you've heard me talk about The Girl Effect before. If you're new to this blog, hello! Welcome! Here on allison's favorite give-ings, we like to make being charitable easy by telling you about worthy organizations and giving you ideas how to shop and give responsibly so that we can make the world a better place in our every day lives. Today, I am very proud to tell you about a cause that is near to my heart and that will probably end up saving the world...

I strongly believe empowering girls (and women) as a way of improving the lives and living conditions of people all around the world. Chances are good that if you're on the innernets (hi there) you've heard of The Girl Effect and perhaps have even seen one of their clever and poignant videos, like this one:



According to The Girl Effect, “there are 600 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. By giving one of these girls a chance, you start the girl effect. When girls have safe places to meet, education, legal protection, health care, and access to training and job skills, they can thrive. And if they thrive, everyone around them thrives, too." Allow me to reiterate that last part, because that is where this becomes an important concept for all humankind: "if they thrive, everyone around them thrives, too."

Now that you are in love with The Girl Effect and want to help give impoverished girls a chance to change the world, what can you do? First and foremost, my trademark advice is: donate. Choose any of of the life-changing donations available through Global Giving (a charity fundraising website that we've discussed briefly here before). A $10 donation will cover the cost of school materials for an out-of-school girl in Ethiopia for one year. A $25 donation will provide a loan for a girl to raise chickens in Tanzania. A $50 donation will train 10 girls in financial literacy in a Nairobi, Kenya slum.

What can you do if you can't afford to make a donation right now? Learn more. Go and find out more about The Girl Effect and the importance of empowering girls. That's free. There are also more than 500 of us blogging about The Girl Effect this week and you can find all of the touching, witty, and important blogs here. And you know what else is free? Spreading the word. This little ol' message is one that little ol' you can carry on behalf of hundreds of millions of girls. No pressure.

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the great secret santa

I am so excited about this, you guys. (Nerd alert, I'm just sayin'.)  The Great Secret Santa is a gift exchange amongst your group of Facebook friends where instead of giving each other gifts everything goes to charity.

All you have to do is sign up, choose a charity and when matches are made your secret santa will make a donation in your name to the charity you chose.

They've made it even easier by giving you four non-profits to choose from.  They represent four distinct yet important causes: ridding the world of extreme human poverty, defending the planet, preventing animal cruelty and fighting cancer.

I signed up last night on Facebook.  My information's been entered and I'll be matched with someone at random from my list of friends via email on December 22nd with all the information on my match.

FYI - the charity that I chose is Millenium Promise.  Millennium Promise is the leading international non-profit organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015.  Y'all remember that little 18-page baby I delivered to grad school this week?  With a little kiss from kismet, the Millennium Development Goals - randomly - also happened to be the topic of that final research paper.

I love you, Universe.

Do you like Millennium Promise? You don't have to do secret santa to make a direct donation. Your contribution is tax-deductible and will allow Millennium Promise to support some of the poorest communities in Africa with vital services to advance local health, education, infrastructure, agriculture and entrepreneurship.

One more thing.  In another big ol' smooch from the Universe, Millennium Promise has a program called School 2 School that connects classrooms in impoverished communities in Africa to classrooms in the United States. (See why I chose this one now?)  They also sponsor a program called Connect to Learn that I think some of you will like.  Connect To Learn provides scholarships and technology to girls in developing countries so they can improve their lives, and the world around them.  Oh, and Madonna's the spokeswoman.  Told you you'd like it.  Make a donation - it costs us just $2 a day for Connect To Learn to provide tuition, books, supplies and uniforms for each scholarship recipient.


"Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world." — The End of Poverty

Jeffrey D. Sachs, President and Co-Founder, Millennium Promise

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