Feb13

When Students #Choose2Matter

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When Students #Choose2Matter

IMG_1183Today I was supposed to go in to my daughter’s school as a community mentor for a program called Choose2Matter.  I’ll be honest that I was intimidated when I saw the list of fellow mentors that included a Congressman, Senator and Aerospace Engineer among them. Not knowing too much about the program, or exactly what my role would be I went to the parent’s meeting last night to find out more. Angela Maiers  impassioned presentation gave me a glimpse of why her TEDx Talk went viral and what inspired this movement to begin with. She shared her ideas on empowering young people by challenging them to use their own personal genius to change the world for the better. To dream big, know that they have the power to make an impact, and to take the reigns of finding solutions to the worlds most pressing challenges. By the end I knew why I would be there. This is what I do everyday, dream big, brainstorm ideas for changing the world, here on Documama and as Social Good Editor on World Moms Blog, we are constantly looking to feature those individuals who are taking on the world to impact change. I believe in the power of One, and more than anything I believe our youth are the ones with the solutions. They are the problem solvers of the future, and everyday I come across amazing opportunities for young people to get involved. We were snowed out today, but I can’t wait to see where all this goes tomorrow. In the meantime here is a list I had compiled to share with students of opportunities and connections just waiting to happen.

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Change Starts With You! Check out these resources to start today!

Global Citizen

http://www.globalcitizen.org

Take Action: Earn Points : See Impact

Girls Who Code

http://girlswhocode.com

To inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities.

VolunTeenNation

http://volunteennation.org

Volunteer opportunities, Community Service, Scholorships & Grants

WorldPulse

http://worldpulse.com/pulsewire/programs/voices-of-our-future

To foster a new generation of empowered women leaders actualizing and vocalizing their visions for change.

GirlUp

http://www.girlup.org

Girl Up envisions a world where all girls, no matter where they live, have the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, counted and positioned to be the next generation of leaders.

Beacause I’m A Girl/Plan International

http://becauseiamagirl.ca

Education/skills & support to move girls out of poverty to Opportunity.

World Leadership School

http://www.worldleadershipschool.com

The mission of World Leadership School is to empower young leaders to find new and innovative approaches to the world’s pressing problems.

Also check out resources on the Choose2Matter site

Feb12

Abraham Lincoln In My Foyer

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Abraham Lincoln In My Foyer

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In the foyer of the house in which I grew up this portrait of President Lincoln hung by our front door.  When we sold the house Abraham Lincoln had been welcoming our visitors for thirty years. It was then that I discovered an inscription written in my deceased father’s hand on the back of the framed photograph that read:

The Pencil Picture

This photograph was taken on April 9th, 1865 just five days before his death.  Mr. Lincoln and his small son Tad had gone for a walk this Sunday morning and stopped in at Gardner’s Gallery in Washington. Mr. Gardner had just persuaded Mr. Lincoln to pose for a portrait, when the little boy Tad had asked for his father to sharpen a pencil which he still had in his hand when Mr. Gardner took the picture.  At the time Mr. Gardner was going to develop this negative he noticed he had not enough bromide in the cellodian so he put it aside in the closet, and apparently forgot all about it. After the death of Mr. Gardner which occurred 29 yrs later, the gallery was purchased by Mr. Porter of Boston Who found this negative.  He immediately made a print and gasped at the excellence of the portrait, the curious admixture of humor and sadness, of gentleness and kindness, and stern purpose, and had it copyrighted in 1894, calling it the Pencil Picture.

 

Feb4

How $5 Saved Two Lives

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How $5 Saved Two Lives

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Here is another story of how the efforts of one person can save lives. I am honored to be part of World Moms Blog where I write and edit with other moms from all around the world. I am continually inspired by them, and as I edit our weekly Social Good or World Voice piece that goes up each Tuesday, I often find myself wiping the tears away during an emotional or beautifully written piece. Kristyn Zalota is one of those writers and the founder of the non-profit CleanBirth.org . CleanBirth.org works to prevent the needless deaths of mothers and babies in Laos, where maternal and infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world.  I am in awe of her, what she has built, and accomplished in less than two years with CleanBirth.org.

Already with a local Lao partner Our Village Association, CleanBirth.org has provided 2,000 AYZH Clean Birth Kits, served 150 villages, trained 15 nurses and 20 Village Volunteers.  The nurses trained about Clean Birth Kits and safe birthing practices, have begun passing their knowledge to women from each remote village.

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This week from February 4-7th, World Moms Blog, Multicultural Kids Blog, and Girls Globe are coming together to support World Moms Blog contributor, Kristyn Zalota’s, organization, CleanBirth.org by kicking off a crowd funding campaign to raise $7,500! These funds will help maximize a visit from Yale Midwifery students scheduled for July 2014 during which 30 nurses will be trained in the World Health Organization’s Essentials of Newborn Care. The Essentials are: clean birth, newborn resuscitation, skin to skin newborn care, basic newborn care and breastfeeding.   This information will then be incorporated into the Village Volunteers training. By providing access to the midwives from Yale, our Lao partners, the local nurses, and Village Volunteers will have more tools to improve care for mothers and infants.  This promotes the CleanBirth.org mission to make birth safer by empowering those on the ground with the training and resources they need.

For just $5 CleanBirth.org provides a mother with all the hygienic birthing supplies she needs to make birth safe. That can save both the life of a mother and a baby.  Funds also go towards training nurses and Village Volunteers to teach mothers in remote areas about safe birthing practices.   You can help by joining the Twitter Party on the 6th, and then the crowd funding campaign,  where for as little as $5 you can help save two lives, and make sure that women like Yai have safe births for both mother and child.

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Feb3

Hearts That Help; Gestures of true Love

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Hearts That Help; Gestures of true Love

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I was a stranger among them, warmly welcomed with offers of soup and tea.   We spoke mostly about matters of the heart.  I was having trouble, but luckily found my new-found friends around the table were more than happy to help. Read the rest of this entry →

Feb2

(RED), U2 & Bank of America Soup Up Super Bowl Sunday

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(RED), U2 & Bank of America Soup Up Super Bowl Sunday

The Super Bowl is all about the commercials for me.

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During this Sunday’s game my favorite was the commercial featuring U2 performing their new song, “Invisible”. You can download that song from iTunes, for free, and in doing so you will be helping out in the fight agains HIV/AIDS.  From 6pm EST Sunday, until 11:59pm EST Monday, every time the track is downloaded, anywhere in the world, Bank of America will donate $1 to the Global Fund to help end mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This Super Bowl Sunday, was an incredible moment in the fight to end AIDS as the new partnership between (RED), U2, and Bank of America launched. Check it out & download the song :

Every single dollar raised will go to the Global Fund to provide life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment, testing and prevention services to tens of millions of people in the world’s poorest countries. Over the next two years the partnership between (RED), U2 and Bank of America will mean more than $10 million for the Global Fund.