I am crying for you tonight
Apr15
Category Archives: Tween/Teen
Mar22
World Water Day 2013
Feb22
A Healthy Way To Give; Run, Walk or Bike With The Charity Miles App
The Charity Miles App is a great way to combine personal health with your values of giving back to society. Usually as I run with my dog I am reminding him to heal, but these days as we round the corner and head up the hill to our home I am begging him to pull me. The truth is we are both a bit out of shape and equally in need of this exercise, so he looks back at me with those dewy eyes as if to say, “Must I?”. My Charity Miles App is the inspiration to keep going on my run at this point because I set the personal goal not of distance, but to provide one child with a vaccine with my run. O.K., also I will need to post my distance on social media to get the funds to go to the charity I have selected, so yes, my pride is involved as well.
My Charity Miles Running & Walking Partner
I was so excited to learn that the United Nations Foundation, with whom I am a Shot@Life Champion, was teaming up with my favorite iphone app Charity Miles. Read the rest of this entry
Nov10
I am Malala
This past October the world was shocked and saddened by the Taliban assassination attempt on a 14 year old schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai. Malala had been a thorn in their side since the tender age of 11 when she wrote a blog about the oppression under Taliban rule in her town of Mingora, Pakistan. She became an activist fighting for the right of girls to education in Pakistan, something the Taliban stands vehemently against. Instead of killing Malala as they had intended, by shooting her in October, they sparked an education movement that has gone globally viral. Instead of snuffing her one small voice, they have ignited a firestorm of education initiatives that span the globe. The UN has designated November 10th as Malala Day, and United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education Gordon Brown has pledged to help Pakistan formulate a plan to provide education to all of Pakistan’s children by 2015. Malala is on her way to recovery, reading, writing and walking again, and sure to be fighting for her cause again soon. She has unwittingly become an international symbol of girls right to education worldwide. Today I stand with Malala to defend the right of girls everywhere to equal education, and signed the global petition to make my voice count. You can stand with Malala today too.
CLICK ON THE PHOTO OF MALALA TO WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW
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.
Follow along with us here on Tumblr, on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for the latest Global Team of 200 news.
Sep13
More People In The World Have A Mobile Phone Than A Toilet
This is one of the facts that Water.org is working to change. Since 2009 is has helped hundreds of communities in Africa, Asia, and Central America gain access to safe water and sanitation. All of the projects that are supported by Water.org are self-sustaining, with organizational and financial structures in place to allow communities to independently operate and maintain them. Projects have an active water committee governing the operation of the water system, and users paying a water bill to cover the costs of operating and maintaining the water system. I am working with The Mission List on the 10 Days 10 Lives campaign to help raise funds to provide clean water, and awareness about the water crisis. Our collective goal was to raise enough to provide 100 people clean water for life through Water.org programs. We are thrilled to have surpassed our goal, but there is still more work to be done. 884 Million People in the world lack access to clean water. It seems overwhelming, but just think, if we all collectively worked for solutions to the water crisis, many lives of those who die from water related illnesses each year could be saved. If you would like to help you can start your own campaign to keep the progress going.
To see all the good in the world that Water.org is doing, check out the below links to countries where Water.org has active programs.
Photo provided by Water.org
Asia
Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Water.org offers both grant and WaterCredit programs, and is addressing safe water needs in both rural and urban areas. Our urban program focuses on the slums of the capital city, Dhaka. Our rural program is located in Rajshahi and Manikganj Districts.
India. Water.org’s program in India provides safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities to the families living in five states – Andhrah Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu. Water.org offers both grant and WaterCredit programs in India.
Philippines. Water.org’s program in the Philippines began in 2003 with a project in Barangay Villahermosa. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in the Philippines.
Latin America & the Caribbean
El Salvador. Water.org has completed two rural water and sanitation projects serving over 1,200 people in the communities of Caulote and Las Americas. These communities are located in the department of Cuscatlán, located approximately 20 miles northeast of San Salvador. The new water systems in El Salvador are spring-fed pumped systems. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in El Salvador.
Guatemala. Our projects in Guatemala are located in the department of Quiché. Quiché is in the Western highlands of the country. Because of the high prevalence of mountain streams in the Guatemalan highlands, all of our water solutions in Guatemala are spring-fed gravity flow systems. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in Guatemala.
Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest nations on earth. Half of its citizens lack access to clean water and only one in five have a toilet. At the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Water.org announced its commitment to reach 50,000 Haitians with clean water and sanitation over the next three years.
Honduras. Water.org has helped more than 40 Honduran communities build their own safe water systems. Our program in Honduras focuses on the Departments of Lempira and Intibuca, in western Honduras. The once heavily forested Departments now suffer from deforestation. This has led to extreme depletion of the local water tables, forcing women and children to walk long distances to collect water for their families. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in Honduras.
Africa
Ethiopia. Our program in Tigray, Ethiopia is serving 32,000 people in 76 communities and six schools. Tigray is a region in northern Ethiopia that borders on Sudan. Tigray is often one of the regions that is hardest hit by drought and crop failure.
Ghana. Program activities in Ghana take place in the Volta and Upper East regions, located in the southeast and northern parts of the country, respectively. Activities include community-based water, sanitation, and hygiene education programs.
Kenya. Water.org is working in the Kisumu region of Kenya. Located on the equator, Kisumu’s climate is hot all year. Much of Nyanza Province, where Water.org is working, is semi-arid and is subject to severe drought. Most people obtain their drinking water from Lake Victoria, seasonal rivers and streams, and hand-dug wells. All of these sources are contaminated. Women and children walk up to six kilometers each day to haul water, a task that can take three hours. Water is not only contaminated at its source but also from the way it is transported and stored.
Uganda. Water.org’s projects in Uganda are a mixture of grant and WaterCredit projects in urban and semi-rural communities located close to Kampala. More than 40% of people in the greater Kampala area live in unplanned settlements. Of those residents, only 17% have access to piped water. Many people use springs and other surface sources that are highly contaminated due to poor drainage and little regulation of waste disposal.
*All above information provided on Water.org Projects comes from the Water.org website.
