Living Philanthropic

LIOTE! [leo-tay] That’s Tzotzil for Hello!

Happy New Year Everyone! I’m excited to back in Chicago, I had an amazing trip to Chiapas, Mexico over Christmas break. It was a truly wonderful experience.

To provide a quick wrap up, we built a 6 classroom school house plus a basketball, and installed 40 wood burning stoves in the homes of those most in need in the village of Nichnamtic. 

I spent most of my time working on the stove project this year, because it allowed me more time to meet with the people of Nichnamtic, to get to know them, to learn about how they live, work, cook, and eat.

The stove project was especially dear to me, my fundraising efforts and some of your donations covered the cost for 18 of the 40 stoves! So, I wanted to make sure they were installed properly, that the women knew how they worked and would put them to good use. 

So, why install stoves? In most of the homes, the cooking is done over an open fire pit which tends to fill the kitchen or living space with smoke and carbon monoxide. This slow carbon monoxide poisoning can have a great effect on the development and health of the families and children in the home. Learning disabilities and respiratory problems can have an adverse effect on student’s abilities to concentrate and learn in school. The hope is that the mother’s will use the new stoves that vent the smoke out of the house or kitchens. 

Will it work? My host family Crescencia (23) and Pedro (24) live on a very small plot of land with a humble living space and separate kitchen. They have 3 children Freddy, Juan David, and Irma. They lived in the States for one year before moving back to their home in Nichnamtic. Pedro’s work consists of migrating to Northern Mexico from March to November to cut calabazas (squash) for 40-50 pesos a day. That’s about $3-4 US dollars a day. The winter months are definitely the hardest, as it is too cold for their small crops, so money and food is tight. When I first arrived, their second oldest Juan David (2) was following his mother around as she would prepare food or coffee. The first thing I noticed was the smoke in the kitchen and Juan David’s pronounced cough, it sounded pretty bad, aggravated by the smoke. 

This is a very common scene across Chiapas, children spend their time with their mother when not in school, gathering wood, watching their mother’s cook, breathing in smoke. My team and I installed our stove, Pedro actually moved their big fire pit that they were using for cooking outside! That was a good sign! We came back later that night after installing more stoves and Pedro was happy to make room for us to sleep on the concrete floor of their house. 

The next morning, I spent some quality time with Pedro learning about his life, his family, his work, his land. Meanwhile, Crescencia used the new stove to make us coffee and handmade tortillas, a good sign that she would continue to use the stove. On the last day, the poignant moment for me was noticing how the new stove was already helping Juan David, as we sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating tortillas, this little guy did not cough once! I knew in that moment, that this project would have a simple, yet profound effect. 

By the end of our expedition, the school was built and all forty stoves were installed and I was extremely proud of the team and work we accomplished together, over 60 volunteers from the US and 40+ volunteers in Chiapas came together for a great cause. 

I want to thank Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Anonymous donor Cyper for their $1,000 donations, and every donor who helped fund this expedition! You are amazing and your contributions made an impact!

If you would like to help fund a stove, please visit: http://crowdrise.com/stoves or if you would like to fund a future school build, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/LP-DEC

For more information about Foundation Escalera, please visit: http://foundationescalera.org/landing.html

For more photos, check out the Living Philanthropic page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/livingphilanthropic

LIVING PHILANTHROPIC’S JANUARY 2012 FEATURED CHARITY is OPERATION RESPECT!

FIRST $1,000 in contributions matched by State Farm’s Go To Bat Program and Anonymous Donor CYPHER!

Operation Respect is a non-profit organization working to assure each child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning where their academic, social and emotional development can take place free of bullying, ridicule and violence. Founded by Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, the organization disseminates educational resources that are designed to establish a climate that reduces the emotional and physical cruelty some children inflict upon each other by behaviors such as ridicule, bullying and-in extreme cases-violence. It is a unique organization that provides a gateway to broad scale adoption of school-based character education as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) programs.

Toward this end, Operation Respect developed the Don’t Laugh at Me (DLAM) programs, one for grades 2-5, another for grades 6-8 and a third for summer camps and after-school programs. All of the programs utilize inspiring music and video along with curriculum guides based on the well-tested, highly regarded conflict resolution curricula developed by the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR). Thanks to the generosity of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Operation Respect disseminates the DLAM programs free of charge. More than 150,000 copies of the program have been distributed to educators since Operation Respect’s inception.

Operation Respect also offers assembly programs and professional development workshops designed to provide educators with the tools for effective implementation. To date, over 40,000 educators have participated in workshops throughout the United States.

For more information, please visit: http://operationrespect.org or To donate to team Living Philanthropic, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/lp-jan12

Take the Living Philanthropic Challenge Options:
Donate $1 a day for a week or month.
Give once. Give Everyday.

Thank you for being a living philanthropist!

Want to be a guest blogger on Living Philanthropic?
Join the team and donate on this page & submit your blog post about why you made a contribution here: http://bit.ly/lp-blogger

Living Philanthropic was founded in April 2010 as one man’s mission to give to charity everyday for a year. This mission is built on a belief that you don’t have to be rich in dollars to make a difference; you only need to be rich in spirit. After completing his 365 day mission, the spirit of giving everyday carries on through his friends and in his mission to continue his micro-philanthropy for a second year.

Happy New Year Everyone! 2011 was an amazing year for me and I look forward to what 2012 has in store for us!

I just got back from my expedition in Mexico, I’m working on an update post and will send it out shortly.

I wanted to send out an update about the December Featured Charity AMERICARES, we’ve raised $2,085 for Americares thanks to State Farm’s Go To Bat Program and Anonymous donor CYPHER for their contributions to the cause. If you would like to pledge your support to Americares, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/lp-dec11

They do amazing humanitarian relief all around the world.

Thank you for all your support and contributions to charity in 2011. Here’s to an amazing 2012!

I leave for Mexico in 11 days. In addition to the school we are building in Nichnamtic, Chiapas, we are installing wood burning stoves and water filters in the homes of those who need and request them. Here is the stove we are installing, it will consume 65% less firewood a year and prevent the build up of carbon monoxide inside their homes. The $2,000 donation I received from Ticketmaster & LiveNation will provide 20 homes a wood burning stove this winter. If you would like to pledge your support, please visit: http://crowdrise.com/lp-dec

Just to update on Movember, Team Living Philanthropic is waiting on a pending $1,000 donation, but the grand total will be $3,675 raised for our collective moustaches. That’s awesome work, gentlemen.

Now for December 2011’s featured charity, Living Philanthropic is supporting Americares.

AmeriCares is a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization which provides immediate response to emergency medical needs – and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs – for all people around the world, irrespective of race, creed or political persuasion. http://www.americares.org

The Living Philanthropic team page on Crowdrise has already received $1,000 pledge of support from State Farm’s Go To Bat program! Let’s match their pledge and our anonymous donor CYPHER will match our donations up to the first $1,000! Let’ hit this goal together and help Americares in their humanitarian efforts across the world.

Want to be a guest blogger on Living Philanthropic?
Join the team and donate on this page & submit your blog post about why you made a contribution here: http://bit.ly/lp-blogger

TODAY! November 28th, 2011 is #CyberGivingMonday!

Join the movement!

What charity will you support Cyber Giving Monday?  Make a donation and tweet about it or share on facebook. #CyberGivingMonday

My goal for Cyber Giving Monday is donate $5 to a different charity every hour. That’s 24 charities in 24 hours!

Let’s put the giving back in thanksgiving!

#cybergivingmonday

I was composing a guest blog post for Latinovations yesterday, you can read it here. And I mentioned Cyber Giving Monday, so to expand on that, let’s all take the Cyber Giving Monday Challenge. 

Step 1. Find a organization you love and want to support. (I’m choosing Foundation Escalera.)

Step 2. Make an online contribution, whatever you can afford $1, $5, $1,000 on Monday, November 28th, 2011.

Step 3. Post to Facebook and Twitter about Cyber Giving Monday and the charity you chose to donate to. (Please use hashtag: #cybergivingmonday) 

Step 4: Report your donation to the Living Philanthropic tally: http://bit.ly/lp-tally

Step 5: Invite a friend to do the same. 

Easy like Monday Morning…

Let’s make this Monday, one of the best days of giving. Happy holidays!