Blog Action Day — Take Action and Help Others Heal From Poverty

Blog Action Day:

Take Action and Help Others Heal From Poverty

The Definition of Poverty is as follows:

“The state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence. Poverty implies a lack of necessities. Poverty denotes serious lack of the means for proper existence.”

I am sure MOST of us have felt poor at some moment(s) in our lives. I certainly remember calling myself a “poor college student” and eating Ramen noodles for days on end but I DID have those noodles to eat. Poverty is a deeper level of poor. Poverty means lacking what you NEED for proper existence. Clothes, food, shelter — even though I have spent times worrying about money I have NEVER had to worry about these things that we tend to take for granted. I always KNEW if things got bad enough that I have a huge support system of friends and family that would be there for me in a heartbeat. What if I didn’t have that security blanket? I honestly cannot even imagine how not KNOWING when the next time I was going to eat or have clothes or shelter would feel. The most uplifting part of all of this is you do not NEED to have tons of resources in order to help people in poverty. In fact, you do NOT need to have ANY money to make a significant difference. Thanks to the internet there are now more ways than ever to give back. I would like to provide you with some ideas to help others in need.

Train For Humanity

I recently wrote a post about Train for Humanity because I strongly believe in their charity and message. They have just picked their first specific goal of raising money for a school in Darfur that was bombed and destroyed killing several school children. Their goal is to raise $5,000 for the Shegegkaro School in Darfur. If you would like to sponsor either Leo Babauta, who is training for the Honolulu Marathon, Dan Clements who is getting ready for the Niagara Falls Half-Marathon, or Mark Hayward as he prepares for his first triathlon, the Miami Man Olympic Distance, then they would truly appreciate your support. ALL of the monies will be going to Darfur Peace & Development. Please visit Train for Humanity to find out how to get involved and to spread their words for their important cause.

Free Rice: Give Rice to the Hungry While Improving Your Vocabulary

(this was taken from a post on my kids computer game blog)

Free Rice is an amazing site. It is a sister site to poverty.com which has a very important message about hunger in the world that follows:

“About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often. Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families. ”

“There are effective programs to break this spiral. For adults, there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and global poverty. ”
Hunger and World Poverty Sources: United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, UNICEF.

There is also their sister site freerice.com where for every correct answer you give to a vocabulary question they will donate 20 grains of rice to hungry people. 5 questions right = 100 grains of rice for the hungry. FreeRice has two goals: To provide English vocabulary to everyone for free and to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on their site.

Please visit freerice.com and increase your vocabulary and give to the hungry at the same time. I don’t know about you but I find it very difficult to be hungry even for a few hours — for many their life consists of being hungry on a daily basis. Please take a minute and help them out and sharpen your vocabulary at the same time. Do it with your kids as a way to educate them about hunger and about helping people in need. The vocabulary varies in difficulty but even if you get some wrong it won’t take away the rice you already have won.

Give to Harvesters Community Food Network or drop off food in your community

One of Alex Blackwell of The Bridgemaker‘s latest posts “What are the Best Things in Your Life?” brought attention to the community food pantries that need help. Following is the last paragraph from his post:

“Lending a helping hand

While my sinking 401k balance and looming student loan payments is a cause of concern, there are many people with a far more serious concern right now – where to find their next meal?

The recent collapse of the stock market has resulted in charitable donations going down. There is an urgent need to fill the shelves of food panties so those in need may continue to eat.

My family has contributed to Harvesters Community Food Network. You may also find barrels outside of the grocery stores in your community where you can drop-off nonperishable food items.

Sometimes the best things in life happen when we hear the call to serve and then answer.”

I agree Alex, there are tons of places that accept food items in my area and I believe every community has these. Thank you for your inspiring post!

Good Search & Good Shop

From the Good Search site:

“GoodSearch is a search engine which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It’s a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it’s powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers — the users and the organizations do not spend a dime!

In 2007, GoodSearch was expanded to include GoodShop, an online shopping mall of world-class merchants dedicated to helping fund worthy causes across the country. Each purchase made via the GoodShop mall results in a donation to the user’s designated charity or school – averaging approximately 3% of the sale, but going up to 20% or even more.”

The above explanations show that you can just use the internet as you would normally but by going through these 2 sites; Good Search and Good Shop you can contribute to causes users choose to help those in poverty.

Your Old Clothes Can Keep Others Warm and Protected

I have two children that are growing fast. I love that as they outgrow their clothes I can donate them to several different places in my community. Real Simple Magazine has an EXCELLENT article on “How to Donate Old Clothes” that offers different possibilities. Do you have stuff in your closet that has been sitting there for over a year? A good rule of thumb is if it’s been there over a year untouched – you don’t NEED it! Why not put a bag together and look up the closest place to you that could benefit from your generosity? By giving you are helping others that do not have the means to get new clothes as well as clearing out your own space.

ONE

If you want to help a wonderful world-wide non profit organization that is working to rid the world of poverty — please look at One. Here is a small statement describing what One’s purpose is:

ONE is Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life – united as ONE – to help make poverty history. We are a campaign of over 2.4 million people and growing from all 50 states and over 100 of America’s most well-known and respected non-profit, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. As ONE, we are raising public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries.

One offers groups in your community, t-shirts to wear, petitions to sign and MANY different ways to help and spread awareness of poverty.

There are so many ways to help people that are living in poverty. If you have the means, yes cash is handy and goes a LONG way when donated to wonderful causes like Train for Humanity or to help One spread awareness. If you do not feel you are in the financial situation to give away ANY money — spread the word about causes or choose to give back in any of the above ways mentioned. You will help save and bring joy and peace of mind to many lives.

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