A Few Clicks to Save a Life

Did you know that it only takes $.25 to provide a single child with both vitamin A and antiparasitics for one year? You can help save lives by suggesting the VIVAPRIME Facebook page to your friends. For every person that "Likes" VIVAPRIME, they will donate $.25 to Vitamin Angels to help malnourished children in need around the world.  All it takes is a few clicks to make a difference!

Get Going . . . Help Children

Coach Jen is making 2010 a year to give back. She's joined the Beachbody Gives Back program in an effort to raise $100,000 for the Go Campaign to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children throughout the world!

Help Coach Jen meet her fundraising goal of $500.  No amount is too small to give! Really! Here's a small list of what just a small donation of yours can do for orphans and vulnerable children around the world:

$1.00 - provides a nutritious breakfast to for 4 children in Tanzania.
$5.00 - Buys 5 pair of flip-flops so kids don't have to walk barefoot in Malawi.
$10.00 - Can provide blankets & clothing to children in need!
$25.00 -Provides a single mattress for a boarding school student in Tanzania.

100% of your donation goes directly to GO Campaigns programs on the ground – which means that every dollar you give will help a child in need!



Give now.  Your donation will make a difference!

Take Action Tuesday: Eat so They Can

Take Action Tuesday - its all about finding things that you can DO to make a difference. Today, why not organise a Dinner Party and help feed children around the world who are living in poverty?!

Eat So They Can is an international fundraiser that invites citizens of the world to participate in what is collectively one huge dinner party October 17-18, 2009.

People from all over the world will host a meal and ask their friends and family members to make a donation towards ending child poverty. All donations will go towards GVN (Gobal Volunteer Network) Foundation's Global Children's Fund set up to aid children living in poverty. The money will assist with both short term needs and long-term development projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Peru.

Please sign up to host a dinner party here

GVN Foundation is an international charity that is working to end child poverty around the globe and has recently been granted special cunsultative status by the United Nations.

The Future HOPE Project

Being a new Mum is hard work. Being a new Mum in a developing country can be particularly challenging. In Uganda AIDS, hunger, and diseases wreak havoc on new mothers and their babies daily. Statistics show that 76 reported infants out of every 1,000 born alive in Uganda will die before their first birthday and 137 children will die before their 5th birthday.

You can make a difference by helping to provide some basic needs for new Ugandan mothers at the Mugusu S/C Maternity Ward.

The Future HOPE project is working with Hope Aid International to send care packages to Uganda to help babies get off to a bright start. You can help by donating money, or by sending a care package to the Future HOPE Project.

Care Packages should include:

3 cloth diapers
6 diaper pins
2 plastic diaper covers
1 receiving blanket
1 small travel size baby powder
1 pacifier
1 bar of baby soap

Click here for more details of where to send them and how to donate to the Future HOPE Project.

Do You Believe in Zero?

This month 12 for 12k has partnered up with UNICEF to promote their Believe in Zero campaign aimed at bringing the number from 25,000 to 0.

Its terribly cliched, I'm sure, but as a Mum of two gorgeous, bouncy, infuriating, loving, inspiring, precious pre-schoolers, this campaign really speaks to me. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it must be to bring up your babies in a world where life is so precarious. Where, through no fault of your own, you can't provide them with the very basics - nutritious food, safe shelter, clean water.

Having what it takes, doing whatever it takes—this is the essence of UNICEF, the organization that has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world.

UNICEF’s accomplishments are the result of more than 60 years of on-the ground work all around the world, led by experts from a range of disciplines, who have unparalleled influence at the highest levels of government, and the courage, resolve and commitment to get the job done.

More children are alive today because of UNICEF. And yet, impressive as these results are, we have a higher obligation.

UNICEF’s unmatched reach, expertise, access and influence, innovation, efficiency and resolve mandate that we do whatever it takes to put an end to the unnecessary deaths of 25,000 children who die every day from preventable causes. This is where the Believe in Zero campaign aims to make the difference.

That even one child dies from a preventable cause is completely unacceptable—especially when simple, basic and affordable interventions exist to save lives.

What your money can buy:

Water is life. Yet one billion people do not have access to safe water, and 2.6 billion people live without proper sanitation. Water-borne illness is the second highest cause of childhood death in the world. When water is unsafe and sanitation non-existent, water can kill.

$10 can provide 400 children with enough clean drinking water for one day.

Malnutrition plays a role in the majority of the deaths of children under five. Malnourished children are too weak to fight off illness, and they often become physically and mentally stunted. And malnutrition keeps children trapped in the cycle of poverty.

$20 can provide one carton of high energy/protein biscuits containing minerals and vitamins, developed for malnourished children during emergencies.

Every child has the right to an education. Education transforms lives and breaks the cycle of poverty that so many children are caught in. And an educated child will make sure her own children receive an education.

$20 can provide 50 notebooks and pencils to children in schools.

Today, UNICEF provides vaccines to 40 percent of the world’s children and helps saves two million lives a year. But thousands of children still die needlessly every day from diseases like measles, which kills more than 600 children every day.

$40 provides measles vaccines for 150 children.

As you can see, it takes just a little to make a huge difference to so many.

Please join 12for12k in supporting UNICEF this month and help realize the dream of turning 25,000 unnecessary child deaths into zero.

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For the Love of Liz

Liz Logelin died on the 25th of March 2008, leaving behind her husband, Matt, and one day old daughter Madeline.

Matt Logelin had been writing a blog to keep friends and family up to date throughout Liz's pregnancy. He continued writing after her death and a supportive community of individuals formed around it. His blog became a place where he could share his joys, frustrations, sorrows and challenges. Where friends and well-wishers could offer support and where other widows and widowers could find friendship and comfort.

The Liz Logelin Foundation sprung from this community and has been created to offer assistance to families who find themselves in the heartbreaking, catastrophic situation of having lost a spouse, life-partner, and parent. The Foundation’s goal is to financially assist these families as they deal with the loss of their loved ones, and struggle to move forward.

You can help the Liz Logelin Foundation by joining their community of donors and donating $7 on the 7th to help families who have lost loved ones.

Pledge to End Child Hunger in America

1 in 6 children in America wonder where there next meal will come from. That's more than 12 million children in America going hungry! Hard to believe that there is that kind of poverty in the midst of such plenty.

I discovered this great way that YOU can help provide 140,000 meals to kids in Austin, Texas through the fantastic Good Concepts blog. Its sponsored by Tyson Foods & Kimball Office and is in support of the wonderful non-profit organisation Share Our Strength.

All you need to do it is visit PledgeToEndHunger.com and pledge to spread the word, volunteer or donate - and you will help Share Our Strength reach their goal of 1000 pledges. Your pledge will provide 140 meals - when the 1000th pledge is made Tyson Foods will donate enough food to feed 140,000 children in Austin, Texas.

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Echoage Empowers Children to Make a Difference, One Birthday at a Time

Image via Wikipedia

The First of its Kind, ECHOage Parties Inspire Children to Celebrate Giving, While Reducing Their Environmental Footprint

TORONTO, February 26, 2008 – Want to make your child’s birthday party more meaningful? Looking to cut back on all the plastic you-know-what in the house? Now – with a new concept in gift giving for children’s birthday parties – both can be achieved! ECHOage (www.echoage.com) is an innovative online party planning website that provides a unique opportunity for children and parents to support those in need, help protect the environment and inspire others to follow in their footsteps, all while helping parents save precious time and money.

According to ECHOage’s co-founder, Alison Smith, “ECHOage is convenience and conscience wrapped up in a big green ribbon!”

Regardless of the party theme, location or size, ECHOage adds a meaningful component of charity giving – not just receiving -- to traditional birthday celebrations, giving children a practical, hands-on way to make a difference at the time of their birthdays. With ‘One Gift, One Cause’ as the company’s mantra, the site pools gifts of money from guests so that a portion goes towards one special gift for the birthday child, and a portion goes to a single charitable cause of the birthday child’s choice --making it easier than ever for parents and children to give and receive.
How it Works
It’s easy to ECHOage any birthday party, no matter where or when it will be held. Parents and children planning a party begin by choosing from a variety of creative and fun online invitations through echoage.com. Next, they sit down with the birthday child to choose from a selection of charitable causes that ECHOage has screened and selected based on a demonstrated track record of hands-on, practical and results-focused work that improves the lives of children and benefits the environment. To date, participating charities include Nourish America, EarthCorps, International Child Art Foundation and Girls Inc, and in Canada, Evergreen, Camp Oochigeas and Second Harvest, with more planned.

Invitations are sent via email and instead of bringing a wrapped gift, guests are asked to make a secure online donation of $10 to $30 dollars. After deducting a small administration fee to sustain the cost of the service, ECHOage sends half of the party proceeds to the child’s chosen charity, and remits the other half to the party’s host towards the purchase of one really special and more meaningful gift for the child, from all of his or her party guests. The child receives his or her dream gift while learning valuable lessons about giving and quality versus quantity. The host even receives a tax receipt for the portion donated to charity.

The ECHOage Tracker easily allows party hosts to send invites, track RSVPs, and send thank you notes and reminders. The ECHOage Tracker even gathers important parent contact details and critical allergy information about guests, underscoring the site's commitment to helping children and parents be worry-free at birthday parties.

Key ECHOage Benefits:

• Time saving and convenient – Easy-to-use website saves time and money for hosts and guests. NO MORE SHOPPING, WRAPPING OR RETURNING GIFTS!
• Cause-Oriented – With a selection of charities to choose from, the birthday child and family together select which one to support – it’s a great opportunity to open a dialog with your child about giving.
• Environmentally sound–Electronic invitations and thank you notes save trees, and guests avoid driving to buy gifts and wrapping paper to wrap them – plus, one meaningful gift instead of many gifts that end up unused or re-gifted.
• Educational – Using ECHOage together with your child provides a fun yet impactful way to teach kids about giving, charity and protecting the environment.
  

“Children are full of creative solutions to environmental and social issues and the impact they can make on this world is extraordinary,” said Debbie Zinman, co-founder of ECHOage. “Our dream is that ECHOage parties will help members of our youngest generation recognize that they can make meaningful choices that have a positive impact on others.”

About ECHOage
ECHOage was founded and created by two mothers – Alison Smith and Debbie Zinman -- who believe that children can improve the world, one birthday at a time. Based in Toronto, Canada, ECHOage is an innovative online party planning website that provides a unique opportunity for children and parents to support those in need, help protect the environment and inspire others to follow in their footsteps while also helping save precious time and money. For more information about ECHOage, go to http://www.echoage.com.

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Charity begins at Home

Its never to early to get your children involved in your family's charitable giving. Children should be taught that philanthropy isn't just for the grown-ups or the well-off, but something that anyone can do. It is, after all, not about what you give or how much you donate, but about helping those in need.Kiwimeg, How to Make a Difference: Charity begins at Home, Jul 2008

Read the whole article at How to Make a Difference.