Posts Tagged ‘SOS Children’s Villages’

16 Jan

First Angelina Jolie Legal Fellow

Posted by Andrew Mersmann in Inspiration, volunteer. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Jolie (L) and Nozile (R), Chris Polk/Getty Images, PR Newswire

Nathalie Nozile was, when she was younger and living in Haiti, and long before she got her law degree from University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, a resident of SOS Children’s Villages, a global organization dedicated to providing family-based services for children without parental care. In two SOS Village sin Haiti, there are about 700 children being given a nurturing home life, and another 14,000 Haitians receiving emergency food each day.

Coming from being an orphan in Haiti, and with a commitment to return and make the nation a better place for all, post-earthquake, Nathalie was just named the first Jolie Legal Fellow. This is an honored position, sponsored by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and named for Angelina Jolie, to support the Haitian government’s work toward strengthening the judicial system and protecting the nation’s most vulnerable children. She is devoted to protecting the kids like those with whom she grew up, and the Foundation recognized her incredible potential for changing the world.

“I am thrilled that Nathalie Nozile will be our first legal fellow in Haiti – where the need to enhance child protection is so great,” said Angelina Jolie. “Nathalie has a heartfelt commitment to improve conditions in her homeland, and brings to her work the unique perspective of growing up in an SOS Village. There, she learned firsthand the importance to a childhood of a stable and nurturing environment. Now, as a promising attorney, she will draw on her personal experience as she returns to help strengthen the Haitian judicial system. Nathalie will be working to help ensure equal access to justice and the protection of children’s rights in Haiti.”

Nozile made it a priority to volunteer in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake–just one of many ways she has shown her commitment to Haiti. “It is a great privilege and honor to become the first Jolie Legal Fellow,” she said. “I made a decision to obtain a law degree long ago so that I could return to Haiti to serve my country, now in such a critical state. I hope my commitment will inspire more young professionals to return to Haiti, because Haiti needs us all.”

Ms. Jolie concluded: “Nathalie is a force … just wait and see. She will be doing many great things. She represents the best of Haiti. She is an extraordinary example. I am proud to know her and extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work with her.”

Speaking of extraordinary commitments to community and making your home region a better place, what are your plans for tomorrow, Martin Luther King Day, and America’s Day of Service? HERE is a place to find volunteer opportunities convenient to you.

18 Apr

S.O.S. Children’s Villages

Posted by Andrew Mersmann in Support, volunteer. Tagged: , , , .

There are 132 countries where the work, and volunteers, of S.O.S. Children’s Villages are providing long-term care to orphaned and abandoned children. There are S.O.S. villages in the United States that depend upon the hard work of volunteers if you’d like to get involved. Children up to the age of 10 (siblings can be older) are eligible for admission to one of the villages around the world where kids are brought up with other children, raised in the religion in which they were first introduced by family or the predominant spirituality of the culture, and the village rearing philosophy is based on using S.O.S. mothers, women who are hired to parent households of, usually, six to ten children (more developed nations tend to have smaller households in this particular system). Each village and country has it’s own volunteer needs, and the US programs don’t have international volunteer placements to other programs, but the main US villages in Chicago, Illinois, Lockport, Illinois, and Coconut Creek, Florida all welcome help.

Ways to be involved in the lives and livelihood of these kids, can be found here.

1 Mar

Chilean Aid

Posted by Andrew Mersmann in One click helping, Support. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This weekend’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile was 500 times more powerful than the one in Haiti, but thanks to the epicenter being further below ground, as well as the randomness of tectonic plates and building codes in Chile, it has resulted in fewer deaths (and we’re still talking about 700+ casualties with that number expected to rise).Villages and towns have been devastated, and resulting tsunami waves also took out some small coastal villages.

Where to donate our dollars can be daunting–we heard about so much fraud surrounding Haitian relief efforts. Google, in all it’s worldwide ubiquity (except, perhaps, in China with it’s censorship practices) very quickly established a Google Crisis Response page, and a newer feature that I fervently hope works as well as is intended: their Person Finder helps family and friends around the world get information about their loved ones in the disaster zone by wiki methods of user-generated information.

Additionally on the page are direct links to vetted aid organizations. A list of links (there are other direct donation methods made available on the Google Crisis page):  AmeriCares, Oxfam, Save the Children, World Vision (English), World Vision (Spanish), Un techo para Chile, the Chilean Red Cross, KSAR Chile, SOS Children’s Villages, Global Giving, ShelterBox, Habitat for Humanity, Operation USA.

Donor fatigue can set in with all the help needed around the world, but if you can help, please do