READ

I once worked in a call center that sold and serviced satellite service to rural and urban America. I will never forget one phone call I received with a gentleman who had an error message on his television and could not receive a picture. In order for me to help him, I needed him to read the error message. He spelled the letters that appeared on the television screen, and was very hesitant with each letter. I quickly realized he was unable to read.

I am grateful that I was brought up to learn the power of being able to read. There are parts of the United States where the importance of reading is not emphasized. Fortunately, there is an organization trying to make a difference to rural America.

This great organization is www.readorganization.org. What I like about this organization is if you do not have the money to help support them, donate a book, or volunteer to help. Here is there mission statement:

READ is a nonprofit that focuses on helping people in rural areas acquire education and development. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 80% of the 72 million children worldwide who are not in primary school live in rural areas.  Most rural illiterate people are involved in securing food for themselves and the wider community while lacking access to quality education. Girls living in poverty in rural areas are at the highest risk for dropping out of school.

Educational materials, such as: books, DVDs, computers and internet access are fundamental to educational success.  It is the goal of READ to provide the educational materials necessary so that those who wish to seek knowledge have the resources to do so. As an organization, it is very important to us to be accountable to our donors with the resources they have given us.  To have lasting impact in a community, the projects have to be something the community also sees as needed. READ will only be present in communities that contribute resources to make the projects a reality. All of our projects will be in areas where we have established an ongoing contact. 

Save the Children

I have been thinking a lot about children for the past few days. There are so many ways to help kids it is unbelievable. I always thought it would be nice to sponsor a child. I looked into it at savethechildren.org. It is actually fairly reasonably priced with two plans. You can sponsor a child for $28 or $18 a month. This organization is also assisting with the relief efforts in Japan. Here is the website:

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm?msource=wexgpjef0311

About Us

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world. Recognized for our commitment to accountability, innovation and collaboration, our work takes us into the heart of communities, where we help children and families help themselves. We work with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a variety of local partners while maintaining our own independence without political agenda or religious orientation. When disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives with food, medical care and education and remains to help communities rebuild through long-term recovery programs. As quickly and as effectively as Save the Children responds to tsunamis and civil conflict, it works to resolve the ongoing struggles children face every day — poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease — and replaces them with hope for the future. Watch our brief video about the work and history behind Save the Children. View our Interactive Timeline to see our history of innovation. Our Strategy Grounded in our shared vision of a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation, Save the Children’s new mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Our new global vision, mission, values and strategy are very much a part of Save the Children’s longstanding principles and are consistent with our strategic priorities. Read Our Strategic Plan: Getting to Great for Children Our Values Each and every staff member and volunteer of Save the Children shares the values that, either individually or through teamwork, drive our breakthroughs for children. Accountability: We take personal responsibility for using our resources efficiently, achieving measurable results and being accountable to supporters, partners, and most of all, children. Ambition: We demand the best of ourselves and our colleagues, set high goals and firmly commit to improving the quality of everything we do for children. Collaboration: We respect and value each other, thrive on our diversity and work with partners to leverage our global strength in making a difference for children. Creativity: We are open to new ideas, embrace change and take disciplined risks to develop sustainable solutions for and with children. Integrity: We aspire to live to the highest standards of personal honesty and behavior; we never compromise our reputation and always act in the best interests of children.

Feeding America

 As I posted yesterday, I wanted to find ways to help the community that didn't require a monetary donation. I was inspired today by a church near my home. Each month this church gives out free food one a month for those  in need. The food bank does not open until 12:00 p.m.

At 7:30 this morning, while I was driving to work, I noticed there was already an impressive line waiting. As I drove home for lunch, the line was twice as long. It made me realize the amount of Americans who need help stocking their pantries and feeding their families.

It also inspired myself to purchase extra groceries to donate and contact the church near my house to find out how I can help.

All that being said, I was inspired to find an organization that helps feed America. Here we are, a first world nation, with our citizens hungry. People who cannot afford food, cannot feed their families, and depend on the help of others.

I have chosen Food Bank America as today's non-profit organization. I like this site because it has a search engine that can assist those interested in finding a local food bank to donate. I understand this costs money to purchase food, but macroni and cheese, ramen noodles, hamburger helper are just a few suggestions to donate.

The following link takes you to finding a food bank in your area:

http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx

Here is a little bit about Feeding America in their own words:

HOW WE WORK

Feeding America food bank members help provide low - income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors.

How We Work Together

Feeding America benefits from the unique relationship between our 202 local member food banks at the front lines of hunger relief and the central efforts of our national office.

Securing Food
Local Role: Secure food from local manufacturers, retailers, farmers and government sources.	National Role:  Secure food from large corporate manufacturers and retailers through nationwide initiatives and facilitate the acquisition of government-supplied food.
Raising Funds
Local Role:  Acquire funding from local corporate, foundation and individual donors, and utilize those funds efficiently to maximize service to people in need.	National Role:  Acquire funding from corporate, foundation and individual donors, and provide those funds as seed money to spur local innovation.
Distributing Food
Local Role:  Distribute food received from Feeding America and local sources to people in need, via a local system of agencies.	National Role:  Through a robust logistics system, distribute food donations received nationally to the food banks that need them the most.
Sharing Best Practices
Local Role:  Share wisdom with other network members and uphold the highest standards for food safety, fiscal responsibility and efficiency.	National Role:  Inspire members to implement proven programs and uphold the highest standards for food safety, fiscal responsibility and efficiency.
Advocating and Inspiring
Local Role:  Create a local movement and a sense of compassionate urgency, encouraging better government programs and inspiring individuals to take action.	National Role:  Create a national movement and a sense of compassionate urgency, encouraging better government programs and inspiring individuals to take action.

International Medical Corp.

Here is another way you can help Japan and other's around the world. The International Medical Corp. brings healthcare to those in need. Hey, if you are a medical professional why not donate your time? They could use medically training helping hands. For the rest of us, we can always donate in monetary value:

http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=393

Our Approach

Twenty-five years ago, a simple idea drove International Medical Corps’ first relief mission—give local people the tools and knowledge to help themselves and the investment can sustain development beyond an existing crisis. A quarter of a century later, that once-groundbreaking idea of building the capacity of communities to tend to their own health care needs is accepted as a culturally appropriate, economically efficient, and politically stabilizing way to deliver assistance. It remains the signature component of every International Medical Corps program—even in the world’s toughest environments. 

International Medical Corps focuses on the delivery of community-based primary health care.  We emphasize training and education, and prioritize hiring local staff – in fact, 96% of our field-based staff and health professionals are recruited from the local community. This helps to ensure that skills and knowledge are passed on and remain long after our programs have ended. Through the integration of specialties like emergency medicine, women’s health, nutrition services, water and sanitation, and mental health into the primary health care setting, we ensure that those we serve receive holistic, comprehensive care. The value of International Medical Corps’ integrated approach to community health and well-being and our emphasis on capacity building through training are critical for the long-term growth of conflict and natural disaster-affected communities and fragile states.  

Within the foundation of primary health care delivery, we have developed the following program priorities:

Emergency Response	Health Capacity Building	Women and Children's Health and Well-Being	Mental Health	Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

International Red Cross

 I do not think I need to write much about why donate to the International Red Cross based on recent and tragic events in Japan. So here is the link. Please, donate.

http://www.ifrc.org/en/

Japan: Second disaster looms for elderly survivors

Published: 18 March 2011 16:12 CET

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Ederly people in the high school evacuation centre in Ostuchi. (p-JPN0144) (IFRC)

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by Patrick Fuller

In many respects, the 11 March tsunami on Japan’s north-east is rapidly becoming a disaster affecting the elderly. The three evacuation centres in the shattered town if Otsuchi in the prefecture of Iwate are filled with the old and infirm. Many are too tired or too sick to do little but lie on mattresses on the floor, swathed in blankets.

Takanori Watanabe, a Red Cross doctor from Himeji, in western Japan, arrived in Otsuchi as part of a 12 person mobile medical team which runs daily clinics around the evacuation centres. Today, the team are based in the in the infirmary of Otsuchi high school, where about 700 people fill the floor space of the school’s gymnasium. The infirmary only has two beds, one being used by an elderly woman who is barely conscious and the other by an old man attached to an I/V drip, who is badly dehydrated.

Most of the patients coming to the clinic are elderly and many have lost their regular medication in the disaster.  “There are a lot of people with chronic conditions and today, it’s cold so some people have fallen ill. We’ve had a bad stomach virus going around so a lot of people are getting diarrhoea and becoming dehydrated”, he says. The Red Cross teams have a limited variety of medicine and since supplies are limited patients are getting just three days supply.

Another member of Dr. Watanabe’s team trained in psychological counselling sits in the corner, quietly comforting a teenage girl who is sobbing with her head in her hands . Everyone in Otsuchi has lost someone. A relative, a friend, a neighbour – the entire town has been affected. Helping people to overcome trauma is a major issue and teams of Red Cross counsellors are being deployed to combat the stress related illnesses that are beginning to emerge.

Certainly, life in the evacuation centres isn’t easy for either the young or old. Ayumi Yamazaki (21) sits in the large gymnasium with her older sister, niece, mother and one-and-a-half year-old daughter, Yuwa. Her house was destroyed in the tsunami. She just managed to escape, first to a nearby hill, but when the churning mass of debris brought in by the tsunami caught fire, she was forced to flee further up the mountain. “We get one bowl of soup or one piece of bread to share among three people. It’s cold here, and these two (pointing to her daughter and niece) caught a cold but just now we got some medicine from the Red Cross.”

At the municipal council, Koso Hirano, has a massive job on his hands. By default, he assumed control of the council when the mayor and seven other councillors lost their lives in the tsunami. ‘We always thought we were well prepared. We built six metre barrages and dykes but the wave was ten metres high and people barely had twenty minutes to escape”, says Hirano whose main task now is ensuring that evacuees have sufficient food and water supplies. He is clearly exhausted, “I feel very depressed about the future of the town, many people have left saying they don’t want to return; it will take us at least a decade to rebuild. I told one of my team to go home and check on his family but he said that they were all dead and his home had gone. He had nothing to go back to and just wanted to carry on working.”