Day 190: Tibet Aid

I had a contest last week to raise awareness for my Escalera Expedition fundraiser, the support has been wonderful! Today, I am proud to announce the Tumblr winner is Mucalinda and I am donating to Tibet Aid in their honor, a humanitarian organization working to provide support to Tibetans in Tibet and in exile. Stay tuned for the Twitter winner! 

Tibet Aid was established to provide humanitarian assistance to Tibetans in Tibet and in exile. Their vision is to see that the rich Tibetan religion and culture remains alive and flourishing. Donations to the charity go towards educating, clothing, and feeding Tibetan children in grades K-12, as well as supporting orphans and semi-orphans in the Tibetan Children’s Villages. Tibet Aid also works to educate and feed monks and nuns practicing Buddhism and provides them ways to learn the Tibetan written language so that they may study their religious texts. Every dime donated goes to Tibet to help the people flourish in their lives as refugees and creates opportunities for them to excel.

Amount Donated: $10

To support Tibet Aid, please visit: http://www.tibetaid.org or donate to Andrew’s Crowdrise project: http://www.crowdrise.com/bodhicitta/fundraiser/mucalinda

Day 135: Africa’s Children - Africa’s Future

Today’s give comes on a recommendation from another reader of the blog, Africa’s Children-Africa’s Future is a relatively young organization based in Canada. They are dedicated to investing in the future of the world: children. Their focus is on orphans and children affected by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Through various programs, AF-AC works to provide education, awareness, and training to help these at-risk youth obtain a healthy and promising future and that is a wonderful mission.

AC-AF’s vision is a future in which all children have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. We offer a wide range of programming worldwide that encourages empowerment amongst youth by providing the tools for them to increase and share their awareness of HIV and AIDS.

As a result of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, many parents die of AIDS-related illnesses before their children have reached adulthood, leaving many households to be headed by children. Children in these households are vulnerable to financial, social, emotional and health-related difficulties that contribute to a cycle of poverty. AC-AF’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children Support Programme (OVCSP) is designed to address all of these issues in partnership with local communities in Africa. AC-AF provides micro-credit loans to boys and girls in child-headed households so they can attend school. Youth participating in the programme also receive vocational training in which they learn valuable work skills which will in turn allow the children to secure jobs and financially support themselves and their families, through an apprenticeship programme. AC-AF also offers psychosocial support that will enable youth to become confident, happy and productive members of the community. All of AC-AF’s programming is equally targeted to boys and girls, ensuring gender equality. 

Over half of all new HIV infections occur amongst young people aged 15 to 25. In attempt to reach the demographic now most affected by the virus, AC-AF launched a creative youth empowerment programme called u+me=we in 2007. u+me=we works with youth aged 12-19 from around the world through a series of workshops that create opportunities for youth to engage in creative, skill-building and leadership situations and to explore HIV and AIDS related issues in order to increase both awareness and understanding. This program works with local health care professionals, artists and development specialists and encourages participants to launch a meaningful conversation about the realities of HIV and AIDS in both a local and global context.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Africa’s Children-Africa’s Future, please visit: http://www.ac-af.com

Day 131: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

The support I have received for my journey has been overwhelming and I am inspired by all the messages. I have received some requests for places to donate to, so I am expanding my mission and will be picking a monthly charity to sponsor, and if you feel inclined please feel free to show them your support. As always, there is no obligation and if another charity I feature speaks to you more, please show them your support.

I decided to utilize Crowdrise as the project management tool for this month’s featured charity. Since September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, I wanted to highlight an organization working to improve the lives of children diagnosed with cancer, so I choose Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer is a unique childhood cancer charity for many reasons!
 
Changing Childhood Cancer, One Research Grant at a Time:   They are unique in their approach to providing grants, having donated millions of dollars to support life saving childhood cancer research. With careful consideration and consultation with leading researchers across the country, they have developed our grant program to make the biggest impact possible.   Their smart spending of your donations has translated into innovative breakthroughs, more access to new treatments, and a dramatic change in the landscape of pediatric cancer. All this leads to one very important change for children and their families — hope for new and improved treatments!

ALSF cares about the quality of life for childhood cancer patients and their families:  In addition to funding cutting edge research and making new treatments available to children with cancer, they are one of the only national charities that funds pediatric oncology nursing research and grants, designed to improve the quality of life and care as children battle cancer.
 
ALSF  helps provide resources for families battling cancer immediately: Through the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Travel Fund, funded with support from TD Bank, they provide families with lodging and travel expenses up front, rather than requiring them to apply for reimbursement.  Additionally, theor annual symposium is free and open to all families whose children battle cancer, at all stages of childhood cancer treatment.
 
One simple idea, a world of change: Alex Scott took the “simple” idea of holding a lemonade stand and combined it with the cause of childhood cancer, unknowingly becoming the catalyst for something much larger than she had imagined.
 
Kids helping kids: The concept of “fighting childhood cancer, one cup at a time” has allowed people who would not usually participate in fundraising, especially children, to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer. Lemonade Stands allow children to be a part of the change.
 
A simple but powerful lesson: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation believes that every person can make a difference in the world. Alex’s Lemonade Stands have been organized by a diverse group of devoted volunteers including inner city school children, senior centers, pre-school aged children, college students and even sports enthusiasts.

No donation is too small: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has inspired people who would not likely donate to childhood cancer to make donations - no matter the amount.

Bringing Communities together: Lemonade Stands encourage charitable giving to communities and neighborhoods, making donating simple and rewarding for everyone.

Amount Donated: $71

To make a donation on CrowdRise* this month’s featured charity, please visit: http://www.crowdrise.com/LP-SEPT

*using CrowdRise will allow me to better track donations and update the inspired by totals accurately. You can choose to match my $10 donation or more. You might even win some prizes! Donate once or everyday, it’s up to you! Take the September challenge and join the Living Philanthropic team!

Day 122: Feel Your Boobies Foundation

Today’s give might sound a bit cheeky, but the organization’s goal is to raise awareness for breast cancer and to remind young women to check themselves, is an important one. Sometimes an unconventional approach can garner the attention to make a difference, their approach has already been credited with saving some women’s lives and that is an incredible feat. I will be sending this link to all five of my sisters, please tell the important women in your life to…

Feel Your Boobies® was founded in 2004 after the Founder, Leigh Hurst, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33. She found her lump simply by “feeling her boobies”, not through a formal self-breast exam. What originally started as a few fun t-shirts she designed to remind her friends to “feel their boobies” has evolved into non-profit Foundation and international campaign focused on spreading this life saving message to young women using unexpected and unconventional methods.

Why they unexpected and unconventional methods? Well, based on Leigh’s experience, many young women tune out messages about breast cancer because they don’t believe they are at risk or the messages are too clinical. At Boobies Central, they know that research shows that simply “feeling your boobies” (aka “breast awareness) is just as effective at identifying lumps or other breast changes as the traditional step-by-step process of “breast self-exams”. And that’s their mission - to give “a friendly reminder when you least expect it”. So get feeling girls, and remind a friend to do the same.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Feel Your Boobies Foundation, please visit: http://www.feelyourboobies.com

Day 115: Environmental Justice Foundation

Our world is a very precious and fragile place, with all the recent environment catastrophes that have occurred in the past years, from oil spills, to shrinking glaciers, to forest fires, it’s important to acknowledge how we are affecting the environment, wildlife, and people and develop ways to protect it. The Environmental Justice Foundation is one of many great organizations working to empower the people affected by environmental abuses and eventually create long term solutions to everything from child labor, to pirate fishing, and more.

Environmental Justice Foundation is a registered charity established in 2000 to empower people who suffer most from environmental abuses to find peaceful ways of preventing them. EJF makes a direct link between the need for environmental security and the defence of basic human rights

EJF provides film and advocacy training to individuals and grassroots organisations in the global south, enabling them to document, expose and create long term solutions to environmental abuses. EJF campaigns internationally to raise awareness of the issues our grassroots partners are working to solve locally. 

Today EJF has a team of campaigners and film-makers based in London, and works internationally with partners in Brazil, Vietnam, Mali, Sierra Leone, Uzbekistan, Mauritius and Indonesia.

Their campaigns include: 

Climate Refugees
Climate change is set to create millions of environmental refugees. There needs to be a new legally-binding instrument identifying and protecting climate refugees.

Cotton production abuses
Ethical and sustainable cotton production free from forced child labour and deadly pesticides.

Pirate Fishing and Bycatch
An end to illegal fishing, that causes massive damage to the marine environment and livelihoods of coastal communities in developing countries

Impacts of shrimp farming
The protection of coastal regions and communities from the destruction of precious natural habitats caused by shrimp farms.

Deadly chemical pesticides
Governments to ban the use of Endosulfan, one of the world’s most dangerous and pervasive pesticides.

Wildlife
Illegal trafficking of plants and animals is reducing wildlife populations, some to the verge of extinction.

Amount Donated: $5 (U.S.)

To support the Environmental Justice Foundation, please visit: http://www.ejfoundation.org

Day 104: Endometriosis Foundation of America

Endometriosis is a debilitating disease that is curable, but often misdiagnosed. So the Endo Foundation co-founded by Padma Lakshmi is working to bring about awareness and information within the medical community and that is a very admirable mission.

The Endometriosis Foundation of America (EFA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that seeks to provide hope to women suffering from the debilitating effects of Endometriosis and associated diseases. In contrast to the enigmatic picture often painted of Endometriosis as an incurable condition, the EFA firmly believes that every stage of the disease is treatable with the correct surgical techniques. However, early diagnosis and timely intervention are crucial.

The EFA’s mission further addresses societal prejudices and misinformation about Endometriosis in the medical community. Through combining research and education, we are here to help the women who suffer from this disease by spreading awareness and actively working to find a permanent cure.

Amount Donated: $5

To support the Endometriosis Foundation of America, please visit: http://www.endofound.org