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Holidays 2007: The Charity Part
By
Published: Dec 15, 2007
Category:
Beyond Classification
In my piece on getting over myself and re-learning gratitude, I suggested supplementing gifts with donations to four charities and causes: Kiva.org, The Heifer Project, Share Our Strength, and The World Wildlife Fund. Then I invited you to suggest more.
And, quickly, my in-box started to sound like a slot machine pit in a casino. Among your suggestions:
The Laptop Project: Without computers, the digital divide quickly becomes an unbridgeable chasm. The goal of this cause is to give inexpensive laptops to children around the world who’d otherwise never get to use one.
Trickle Up: For would-be entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for microloans, Trickle Up makes initial grants, checks for progress in the young businesses after three months, and, if results are satisfactory, releases a second installment of the grant money.
The Innocence Project: Want to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing? There are more than you may realize.
TheDonationSite.com: A high school senior created a site that allows you to donate to charity — without spending a dime of your own. You just have to be willing to have the occasional ad pop up on your computer screen.
City At Peace: Can creativity defuse conflict in high school kids? Each year, City at Peace casts write, produce and perform an original musical from their lives and undertake a community project.
The Girl Child Network: It’s hard to be a girl in Zimbabwe. 93% of sexual abuse cases in that country involve girls. And because poverty makes sanitary napkins unaffordable, teen girls who lack them often skip school out of shame.
Cancer Research Fund/VHL Alliance: A friend’s 4-year-old nephew was afflicted with a genetically-linked cancer called Von Hippel Lindau Syndrome (VHL). With massive treatment, he’s 11 and doing well — but there’s no cure yet for this pediatric cancer.
Homeless Shelters: A reader who’s on the board of her local shelter writes to alert us of her concern for the winter: “Our little shelter alone turns away 1 or 2 families A DAY — and this in a county of approximately 20,000. And as federal and state funds for social services shrink shelters must scrape along with less to cover more. Please urge readers to make a donation to a shelter in their area.”
More? Bring it on. And that’s for the outpouring. It matters.
