This was written by a teacher named Sam Levenson for his granddaughter upon her birth, but was often attributed to Audrey Hepburn because it was one of her favorites. It is one of mine too. She read it to her family on her last Christmas Eve. 
Photo Credit :Jennifer James
What if I were to tell you that the greatest soccer player ever known started off by kicking a sock filled with newspaper around the streets of Sao Paulo? Or that one of our top American basketball stars bounced around between apartments for the early part of his life while his 16 year old single mother looked for work? Both Pele and LeBron James grew up in poverty, but were able to rise above it through sports. Pele’s father had been a soccer player too, but his son brought his failed dreams of success to fruition a generation later. LeBron was sent to live with an Uncle who introduced him to football, sparking a love of athletics that would take him to the top. There are numerous stories like theirs. Getting involved in sports has the potential to turn kids lives around, and not only for those who become professional athletes. Read the rest of this entry
Photo by Igor Laszlo
Madagascar is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean with a population of around 22 million. When Madagascar is mentioned, a lush landscape of biodiversity and unique wildlife is conjured in the imagination . When I learned I’d be writing about the WaterAid campaign to provide clean water and sanitation to thousands of children there, I called our friends Jim and Annick who had grown up and lived in Madagascar.
They describe the country as a tropical paradise, with unique cultural diversity, and as one of the most beautiful places on earth. While consistent with our perceptions of Madagascar, much of the population also lives in poverty. Jim adds that occasionally something will happen to remind you that this paradise is also one of the poorest places in the world.
This summer, let’s build something incredible… children’s futures! Be part of a unique project transforming the lives of Madagascar’s schoolchildren with taps and toilets.
Photo by Igor Laszlo
In Madagascar, the lack of taps and toilets is a big problem.
Every year, 13,000 children under five die due to water-related diseases. With half the population under 16, young people across the country are affected in many different ways.
This summer, you have an amazing opportunity to transform the lives of 12,000 children. With your help, we can reach 31 schools with over 100 toilets and 150 taps in total.
– www.wateraidamerica.org
Jim also clearly remembered visiting the Morondava area of Madagascar where WaterAid will be working this summer to improve water and sanitation conditions. He remembered well because he became horribly sick after a meal there with one of the worst intestinal illnesses he can remember. As he described the geography of the area, it sits on the West Coast Canal of Mozambique where hurricane season ricochets between the coasts of Mozambique, Tanzania, and Madagascar. The topography of the region is flat, and sits by the ocean, and despite its beauty, the clean water supply becomes tainted each year with the storms, and heavy rains, causing a surge in water related illness around that time. Jim states that “You are in Paradise, but Hell is not too far away”. For a child without access to proper healthcare, an illness like the one Jim experienced can be deadly.
Morondava Beach Photo by Igor Laszlo
Over the next few weeks you can follow the story as children in Madagascar get the water and sanitation they need to keep them healthy enough to build their dreams.
Children like Perlette and Zafera.
Follow their story on Twitter #buildfutures or Donate to help the project reach their goal.
All summer long they will be posting real-time updates on the two girls, the progress of the construction with a celebration on Sept. 19 when kids return to schools with taps and toilets for the first time. Check out the plans!
Please join me on an incredible journey. I’ll be bringing you stories and pictures from Tsimahavaobe school in Morondava, so you too can see the amazing transformation.- Ernest Randriarimalala, WaterAid Madagascar
I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.
Our Motto: Individually we are all-powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.
Photo provided by ONE agit8
International leaders convene today in Northern Ireland for tomorrow’s G8 summit. Together they will craft policy on major decisions about the world we live in. ONE wants us to use our voices to call for commitments toward chronic malnutrition globally as an important step towards the end of extreme poverty, and preventable disease. ONE’s Agit8 campaign highlights the force of change inspired by protest music throughout history. They have compiled an amazing playlist of protest music over the years, and you might be surprised at the meaning behind some of your favorite songs.
Photo provided by ONE agit8
Growing up in Boston. a city that has been one of the most prolific incubator towns in our country for new music, listening to music was a huge part of our lives. Whether at the Boston Symphony Orchestra with my parents as a child, or in a basement club as a young adult, it is what we did. Later working in film production, I had the opportunity to meet and work with great musicians like Aerosmith, and James Taylor. My friend Lisa and I were even able to get our favorite indie band at the time, Chucklehead into a T.V. commercial we were on. The power of music weaves through each of our own personal soundtracks to take us back to specific time periods in our lives. When I think of music to change the world by, forever permeating my consciousness is the ‘We Are The World” track written by Michael Jackson.
In my mind those first startling images that woke up global awareness to the famine crisis in Ethiopia are inextricable from the music that followed. It stirred us to action, starting in London with Bob Geldof’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, and once our eyes were opened, there was no turning away. That sparked the USA to follow suit with We Are The World, and to me suddenly music seemed to become a powerful humanitarian driver. Songs have always inspired changed in the world, as evidenced by the history that ONE has compiled. From the nursery rhyme Ring Around The Rosie, thought to refer to the Plague epidemic in England in the late 1600’s, to Woodie Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land written in response to the blind American patriotism he saw surrounding U.S. involvement in World War II.
The Band Aid/Live Aid initiatives marked the greatest outpouring of collective compassion for a faraway people the world had seen.- ONE.org
When the world came together through music in response to the Ethiopian famine in 1984 the seeds of inspiration, and eventual formulation of the ONE campaign were planted. To see the background of its formation check out the amazing documentary Give Us The Money-Why Poverty about how Bono and Bob Geldof used their celebrity to become agents of change. A global awareness was sparked by those events in the mid eighties, and has since caught fire. Music continues to be a driver of change and solidarity for people, and right now we have the opportunity to use our voices and join the ONE campaign to be heard. If you love music, and it moves you, you can get involved with the Agit8 campaign and let the music speak to you, or for you here.
ONE is joining forces with Spotify and major artists to show the world the power of the protest song.
Listen to exclusive playlists, watch incredible live performances, and enter to win a Spotify Premium account!
Photo provided by ONE agit8
Co-founded by Bono, ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization of more than three million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease… because the facts show extreme poverty has already been cut in half and can be virtually eradicated by 2030.
We’re not asking for your money. We’re asking for your voice.
Find out more at ONE.org
On June 17th and 18th world leaders, including President Obama, will convene in Northern Ireland for the G8 Summit. Based on a newly released report by Save The Children, titled Food For Thought, Global nutrition should be high on the agenda. We have known for a long time that good nutrition is important for kids. What the Food For Thought Report highlights is that it is not just important, it is critical. Good nutrition, it turns out, especially in the first 1,000 days of life when the body and brain is growing rapidly, is more crucial to proper development than we realized.
“A quarter of the world’s children are suffering the effects of chronic malnutrition. Poor nutrition in the early years is driving a literacy and numeracy crisis in developing countries and is also a huge barrier to further progress in tackling child deaths,” said Carolyn Miles, Save the Children CEO and President.
Save the Children’s report also highlights the huge economic cost of chronic malnutrition. Chronic Malnutrition causes stunting of cognitive development that results in the inability to reach full adult potential. That means a quarter of the worlds adults will not be able to fully contribute to their communities in the way they would had they received proper nutrition as a child. Spending on nutrition programs is one of the most cost effective forms of development assistance, yet currently amounts to just 0.3 per cent of global development spending. Any investment now, the report says, would be a down payment on future prosperity.
“Improving the nutritional status of children and women in the crucial 1,000-day window – from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second birthday – could greatly increase a children’s ability to learn and to earn,” said Miles. “World leaders gathering in London on June 8th must commit to concrete actions to tackle malnutrition in those critical 1,000 days, and invest in the future of our children.”
Of course the need for good nutrition does not end there. As a parent I know it is a life long commitment to ensure that my kids eat healthfully. I also know how challenging it can be to make sure to fit in all of the nutrients kids need in their daily meals. That’s why I love easy finger food vegetables for my kids like sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks or Iceberg lettuce wedges.
My favorite easy Gr8 recipe that all my kids love is Edamame:
Steam fresh or frozen Edamame in the pods.
Toss the cooked pods with a bit of kosher salt.
Let the kids pop out the beans and enjoy!
Check out more Gr8 recipes for healthful eating options on twitter #Gr8Recipes .
You can help let President Obama know that nutrition is an important item on the agenda by tweeting @whitehouse with your messages using the hashtags #next1000days and #Nutrition4Growth . A sample tweet may read something like this:
Save the Children is the leading, independent organization that creates lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.
Our Motto: Individually we are all-powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.
