Posts Tagged ‘World Vision’

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

16 Dec

Feed Your Spirit

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

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the release of Gone With the Wind. One of Scarlett O’Hara’s more famous quotes, among many, is “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

So what the hell is up with us that we can’t manage to make a proclamation like that for the world? How can we be rounding out the first decade of the 21st century, and people are dying every day from hunger and malnutrition? It isn’t because of actual lack of food—there is enough nutritious food on this planet for every mouth. Some of it may not be conveniently located, but for as much as UPS, FedEx, and the postal service are logging road and air miles and shipping knots, we could  get massive amounts of food to the hungry as easily as we get Wii to the nephews and smelly Yankee Candles to Grandma.

Think about showing some generosity to these or any of the many other charities committed to feeding the hungry. Your support is needed year ’round, but this time of year, especially, it is an awfully good fit to reach out and share the generosity of spirit that is filling the air.

Action Against Hunger-USA (http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/)

Bread for the World (http://www.bread.org/)

Child Fund International (http://www.childfund.org/)

Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest. http://feedingamerica.org/default.aspx?show_shov=1/)

Food for the Hungry (http://www.fh.org/)

Freedom from Hunger (http://www.freedomfromhunger.org/)

The Hunger Project (http://www.thp.org/)

The Hunger Site (http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1)

UNICEF: Fight Hunger (http://www.unicefusa.org/work/nutrition/?gclid=CLLKuNaS254CFaM45Qod5m49Jw)

World Vision End Hunger (http://www.worldvision.org)

This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of possibilities to give. Find one near or far from your home or wherever you’ll spend the holidays. It’s hard, at this time of year, to think of anyone going to bed hungry, sick, and possibly not making it to morning due to lack of food. It should be hard to think about—it is unacceptable.