Ever wish you could donate to a cause without worrying about whether or not your money would be used appropriately? And when/if the money gets there, what happens to it?

 

With GlobalGiving, these questions and concerns can be forgotten! Similar to Nabuur (except instead of donating time and skills, you are donating money), GlobalGiving pre-approves thousands of grassroots projects across the globe that are doing wonderful things, but suffer from lack of funding. GlobalGiving checks in frequently with its featured projects, thus enabling donors to receive updates of how their money is being used and how the project is progressing. Even before you donate to a project, you can browse reports, photos, and people involved to help you decide which organization you’d like to be involved with. Even better, GlobalGiving helps organizations achieve their goals by writing tips and strategies for a successful campaign.

 

Watch this video for more of an explanation!

 

 

I first heard about GlobalGiving from a friend of mine who went to school in DC and had a friend who works there. She went on and on about how great of an organization it was and so I decided to check them out…And boy, am I glad I did :)

 

GlobalGiving is perfect for individuals or companies. Check out this global goodness blog post about Eli Lilly & Company's contributions to GlobalGiving and its relevance to the ongoing famine in Somalia.

Being the Mali-lover that I am, I was excited to find 17 projects happening there. I especially liked this one: Help Sustainable Farm Community For Malian Orphans. This project is just a drop in the abundant pool of organizations listed on the site. So go on, get to searching!

 

As an addition to the World Malaria Day post, I wanted to mention another organization that has taken a more local approach to combating malaria and other human rights issues. Project Muso is a wonderful non-profit that partners with women in Yirimadjo, Mali to release them from the cycle of poverty. The organization's full name, Project Muso Ladamunen, means Project Empowered Woman in Bambara. Project Muso oversees three initiatives:

1. The Participatory Education Program--in which each woman in the program teaches the health skills she learned to five other women. These women spread this knowledge to their families.

2. The Springboard Microfinance Program--which, in 2010, benefitted 219 women with a 99.6% repayment rate.

3. The Community-Based Malaria Program--which is based on three principles: employing community health workers, using a Solidarity Fund to offset costs of treatment, and strengthening clinical infrastructure.

They also have community initiatives like the Community Action Committee (CAC) that involve training community members to identify their community's problems and then realize the solutions to those problems. Since 2005 the CAC has (directly from website):

• -coordinated hundreds of community-based medical consultations with free medicines;
• -catalyzed the construction of new clean water infrastructure in the community;
• -distributed bed nets to prevent malaria infections;
• -and mobilized $2,080 for the construction of a bridge connecting the community to a major national thoroughfare and allowing public transportation to enter into the heart of Yirimadjo for the first time.

Project Muso has modeled many of is initiatives after those of Tostan and Partners in Health, two of its partner organizations. Each year, Project Muso ask for Field Volunteers to work for them for 13 months in Yirimadjo. Though their website still says they are looking for volunteers, I think the deadline for this year has passed. If you're interested in volunteering in any capacity, you should definitely email them! They are doing some much-needed work in Mali. They are also looking for an Executive Director in case any of you readers have some expertise in the field :)

(Photos from www.projectmuso.org)

Today, April 25, is World Malaria Day. This year, organizations like Roll Back Malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO), Nothing But Nets, and Population Services International (PSI) have come together to recognize the efforts that have made a big difference in Roll Back Malaria's campaign to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015 (as noted in the UN's Millenium Development Goals).

I saw this video on Mashable today...apparently malaria is a celebrity cause now. Who knew mosquitoes could be so sexy?

This one is interesting too..

I looked at Malaria No More previously because their Malaria Griot campaign caught my attention. A Griot is a West African storyteller/historian of sorts who sings the history of families and groups of people to preserve oral historical tradition. We learned about and met griots when I was in Mali. You have to be born into a griot family in order to be a griot. In the past, a griot family would be assigned to another family to tell their story at momentous occasions. The griot assigned to the king, as in the tale of Sundiata Keita, the Lion King, acts as a trusted advisor to the royal family. The Malaria Griot project is a cool and creative way to engage people with the issue.

On another Malaria-related note, I recently watched an episode of Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet and guess what the "monster" was? That's right, malaria. I couldn't believe that the show referred to malaria as a monster. Having a monster inside of you gives the impression, at least in my opinion, that you, too, are a monster, and having known many people who had malaria in Mali, I couldn't help but be critical of the show. Although, in it's defense, the man profiled on the show did get some weird rare post-malaria side effect that made him talk in code for a little (he was a software developer). He's fine now though.

Anyways, I feel like there are still a lot of misconceptions about malaria, and so I'm glad that these organizations are taking a stand to educate Americans and the world about malaria and how it can be prevented. To get involved, go to any of these websites (some of them have job openings within the organizations too!):

http://www.malarianomore.org/get-involved

http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/index.html

http://www.worldmalariaday.org/home_en.cfm

http://www.saveone.net/

Also take a look at Mandy Moore's article on Huffington Post. Happy World Malaria Day!

Development initiatives are all too often started by outsiders who may or may not know what a community really needs. The Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Media (YETAM) project allows youth to tell their own stories in countries like Haiti, Mali, Senegal, and Cameroon. The project began in 2008 and is sponsored by Nokia, Plan International, and various local partners. YETAM gives youth the opportunity to communicate on local, national, and global levels about the issues they face in their everyday lives. They are trained on how to effectively communicate and on how to use equipment and resources, i.e. using cameras to take photos and videos and using social media.

Here is a video called "And If I could go to school" filmed by a girl in Mali. To add English subtitles, click on the small triangle at the bottom right corner and click cc for English subtitles. Check out YETAM's Youtube channel for more videos.

Additional reading:

The blog "Good Intentions are not enough" calls YETAM a good aid project--and that's saying something coming from a blogger who know a lot about development and all of the ways it can go wrong.

There's also a great post about Haiti's YETAM photography project. "Haiti Through Our Own Eyes" is a photography project by a group of 14-19 year-olds who took pictures of everyday life in Haiti after the earthquake. Watch this video for more information:

If you are interested in reading more about ICT (information and communication technologies) and closing the ICT gap between the developed and developping worlds, then I'd suggest reading Linda Raftree's blog, Wait..What?, which I linked to earlier in this post. You could also check out initiatives like One Laptop Per Child and the One World related projects. 

If you know of other ICT-based initiatives, feel free to comment here as I'd love to hear about them! And Happy Easter (and Passover too)!

When Elizabeth Glaser received a blood transfusion during complications giving birth to her daughter, she didn't know that what saved her life then would also be the thing that took it in the future. Her blood transfusion infected her with the HIV virus, and in the four years it took for her to receive this diagnosis, she had infected her daughter through breast feeding and her son in utero. When her daughter, Ariel, died in 1988 (born in 1981) because of a complete lack of pediatric HIV/AIDS medication, Glaser decided to start a foundation to save her son's life and raise awareness about pediatric AIDS.

Today, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation "seeks to prevent pediatric HIV infection and to eradicate pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs." EGPAF has advocated for government funding to go toward the research of HIV medicaction for children in the US, and now works to prevent mother-to-child transmission in seventeen countries and has provided these services to nearly 11 million women! Take a look at EGPAF's timeline for a more detailed synopsis of their amazing work.

The Foundation's strategy revolves around three core areas:

Research,

Lifesaving Programs, and

Public Policy and Global Advocacy.

Here is a trailer for a documentary called Generation Free, made and narrated by Foudation Ambassador Nigel Barker (ANTM anyone?). EGPAF also has some amazing videos detailing their work in specific countries on their vimeo site.

I first heard of EGPAF from participating in Boston University's Dance Marathon in 2008 and 2009. The money raised from our 18-hours of dancing funded both EGPAF and Camp Heartland, a camp for children affected by HIV/AIDS. This year, Jake Glaser, Elisabeth's Glaser's son who is now a healthy adult, spoke at BUDM. EGPAF also featured all of the schools who held dance marathons for them, and BU's DM was mentioned specifically in "Dance Marathons, from Coast to Coast" on EGPAF's Foundation Blog. Congrats BUDM on raising over $20,000 and being featured on EGPAF's website!

This picture is from BUDM with Jake Glaser on the far right.

There are many opportunities to get involved and some current job openings for young professionals both in Africa and the US!

 

My friend Kelsey, a student at American University and former intern at IJM, put together this podcast about the International Justice Mission for a class on social entrepreneurship. In it she talks about IJM's founder Gary Haugen and his philosophy on modern day slavery. This is a great podcast if you're interested in learning more about Haugen's organization and/or how the issues of justice and slavery intersect. (Please note that this podcast was made for a specific assignment thus, certain parts of the podcast reflect that.)

Gary Haugen started IJM, or the International Justice Mission, in 1997 as a response to the devastating effects of the Rwandan genocide. IJM acts to end human trafficking and other injustices around the world using lawyers investigators, and social workers to fight injustices such as forced labor slavery, sex trafficking, illegal property seizure, illegal detention, and police brutality.

IJM works in several countries in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. While each country has different injustices to tackle, IJM uses four main principles when approaching any injustice:

1. Victim Relief
2. Perpetrator Accountability
3. Victim Aftercare
4. Structural Transformation

I think IJM is making a big difference in these countries by creating systemic change to bring trafficked, abused, and enslaved people to justice.

EXAMPLE of the work:

In this photo, quoted from IJM's website: "Miriam (lower right) watches her great-granddaughter sing a song for IJM staff celebrating IJM's help in restoring her family's property after wealthy neighbors attempted to seize it. The legal battle for Miriam's property rights lasted over five years, and her victory made national headlines in Kenya."

(Page 57 from Joni Seager's Atlas of Women in the World: measuring Global Sex Trafficking prosecutions and convictions. Orange is prosecutions, Red is convictions)

Across the world, the number of convictions is much lower than that of prosecutions, which means that many sex trafficking charges go unchecked. This is why the work of IJM is so essential. IJM uses the knowledge of the justice system in the US and internationally to solve cases of injustice that would otherwise go unnoticed. They also make a point to work with local authorities to bring about sustainable change that will go beyond the individual case they are working on. For more information on the work of IJM, check out their website. There are also lots of ways to get involved!

 

So to REcap: Project Repat buys shirts that we (by we I mean organizations like Goodwill and World Vision) send to Africa, brings them back here, and then sells them to raise money for non-profits working in Africa like Small Bean and Newton Tanzania Collaborative (founded by the two founders of Project Repat).

On March 26, Project Repat had an Adventure Day where they got lots of BU students to photograph and be photographed...wearing Project Repat t-shirts. I got to help out that day and wear t-shirts around boston in the balmy 27 degree weather. About 20 models and 5 photographers modeled 110 shirts! Here are some pics from the shoot:

There are a lot more shirts to choose from! Get 'em while they're hot.

Project Repat is also in the midst of their Kickstarter Campaign to raise money for the two founders, Ross Lohr and Sean Hewens, to go to Tanzania this summer and make a documentary about the used t-shirt market there. They quickly reached their $5,000 goal and they're still going! Now they are looking for a BU film student to accompany them and help film the movie. If you're a film student, you should definitely consider this! (You get to go fo' free!) Watch this video to learn more:

 

The used t-shirt market in Africa can be harmful to local clothing markets and artisans in those countries. Overall, it can be harmful for a country's development. PBS showed a documentary called T-Shirt Travels made by Shantha Bloeman about the t-shirt market in Zambia. Take a look at this documentary or read about in on PBS's website.

This is a cool opportunity for people interested in working in Africa for a year! The deadline for this year is closed but next year’s application will be out before we know it (probably February 2012)! Global Health Corps allows young people, or emerging leaders, to spend a year working for a nonprofit in Africa in a health-related field. My favorite part about GHC is that these emerging leaders work alongside a Global Health Fellow from the host country. The overarching goal of GHC is to “build the movement for global health equity” by:

Increasing the impact of great organizations today,

Training and supporting the leaders of tomorrow, and

Building a global community of changemakers.

As a GHC Fellow, you could be placed in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, or the USA with organizations like Village Health Works, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Partners in Health, and Clinton Health Access Initiative among many others!

Barbara Bush, the co-founder and president of GHC, says that when she graduated from college, she was “really interested in health, but [she] hadn’t been a doctor or nurse.” This is perfect for those of us in this position! Graduating with a B.A, in International Relations can seem useless sometimes, and Ms. Bush decided to do something about it.

To all the BU students reading this, one of our very own is currently a GHC fellow in Uganda. Yay for Meg Langley! Also check out this blog called Coffee, Culture, and Community for another post on the GHC.

 

Buy a hat. Change a life.

When I bought this hat, I knew it was benefitting women in Uganda, but I never took the time to look up the organization. Then a friend who spent some time in Uganda last year mentioned people she had met who started a non-profit called Krochet Kids International. The name sounded familiar and so I went home and looked at my hat and there it was! It is pretty unbelievable that in just 3-4 years they have been able to sell their hats in Nordstroms all over the country, and make enough of a profit to expand their product line and organization. That's really hard to do (If you remember my post about Indego Africa--even with their success, only 24% of their total revenue came from sales while the rest came from donations).

My hat was crocheted by Betty. According to my tag, Betty lives in Northern Uganda and with her fair wage from KKI, "she is able to provide for her family, send her kids to school, and begin to plan for her future." Watch this video to learn more about Betty and KKI.

Keep your eyes peeled for jobs/internships at KKI...they take lots of unpaid interns to Uganda and sometimes have real jobs too :) Check out their summer internship opportunity...applications due this Friday!

Also if there are any crochet-ers in da house, KKI is always taking suggestions on new products! Just send pictures of your ideas to pnp@krochetkids.org!  Look at this cool watch someone sent in!

Peace, love, and crocheted hats!