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Have you ever thought about what you’re life would be like if you couldn’t read? How many times a day do you use your literacy skills just to get through day-to-day life? In the United States, books are not always available to children, especially in low-income neighborhoods where the ratio of books to children is as low as 1 book for every 300 children. But access to books and literacy education is not simply a problem in the United States. 

Worldwide, there are more than 770 million illiterate adults, two-thirds of whom are women and girls. In addition, there are over 100 million children not currently enrolled in primary school and millions of others not currently enrolled in secondary school.      

With the ability to read comes the power to improve the conditions around you. Through reading, one can absorb knowledge, a tool necessary to make a difference. In order to eliminate poverty and suffering around the world, we must help every child and adult gain the gift of literacy.

• Want to Get Involved?

1. Organize a book drive at your school or workplace. The books can then be donated to Room to Read (a charity organization that builds schools, computer labs and libraries, donates books, provides scholarships and publishes books) and will be distributed to communities around the world.
2. For $20, you can send two girls in Afghanistan to school. $20 will cover their uniforms and all of their school supplies. 
3. For $40, you can pay a teacher’s salary for an entire month. Teachers are essential to spreading literacy. Teachers who have to go without pay often leave their jobs for a better paying position. 
4. Or, simply Click to Give free books through The Literacy Site. It’s legitimate! You’re click will actually provide free books to those communities in need. See my previous post about the Click to Give network for more details.  

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Founded in 1980, the Make-A-Wish International foundation grants thousands of wishes each year to children with terminal illnesses around the world. While a large part of the Make-A-Wish International Foundation is the wish that is granted to the child, the impact is far-reaching. Children approached by Make-A-Wish are given the power to chose their wish, giving them some control over their lives during a time when they have little and also granting them a distraction that will last weeks as they try to pick their wish.  Jared Brick, from Canada, was approached by Make-A-Wish international while in the hospital receiving treatment for a malignant brain tumor. Four years earlier, Jared’s dad had died. Because Jared had to go to a hospital that was not nearby his house for treatment, his family was split up for the duration of his treatment–which, overall, consisted of 2 brain surgeries, 4 rounds of chemo and 17 rounds of radiation. Jared’s story is the perfect example of the power of a wish:

“I was approached by Make-A-Wish at a time when I was really low. Cancer. Brain Tumour. You can imagine. Then, one day, after a particularly painful procedure, this stranger showed up and told me I could go anywhere, meet anyone, or do anything I wanted. I didn’t believe it at first. This person was very simply offering me total control over some aspect of my life – just when I felt that I had lost control of all. I cannot tell you what that meant to me.“Gradually,” said Jared, “I began focusing, not of the next procedure, but on figuring out what that one magical wish should be. That question occupied all my free time for weeks – during some of the worst treatments. Eventually, I settled on meeting hockey great Wayne Gretzky. 

“Why that wish when I could have had anything? Well, for one thing, being Canadian, I had always played hockey myself before my illness. So that was important. Then, there is Gretzky, who, if you do not know him, is the greatest hockey player of all time. But, I think the real reason was my dad. Watching ice hockey games together and cheering for Gretzky was something we had shared. Choosing to meet Gretzky made me feel close to him. Plus, of course, it was a wish that my mom, my siblings and I could share, which was important, because we had been apart so long. I also looked at my wish as a gift I could give my family, because I felt badly that so much of my family’s time and energy had been spent on me.

“What I had not counted on was this: While I was trying to decide on the perfect wish, everyone around me was getting excited too – my family, the doctors and nurses, the other patients, even all my friends back home in my community and school. Everyone was affected and happy for me – we all shared in planning for my wish.

“In retrospect, I don’t think most people who hear about Make-A-Wish realize just how many people are touched and uplifted by each wish.“Once I selected my wish though, my focus – and my friends and family’s –shifted on planning for the trip. And, of course, getting well enough to go. That is when I think my outlook shifted. Instead of viewing each treatment or procedure as really bad, I began thinking of each as something that brought me closer to my wish. They became a positive.”

Source: http://www.worldwish.org/News/View.asp?id=122How can you help?Aside from volunteering for Make-A-Wish International (which would require more than ten minutes), you can help the Make-A-Wish International Foundation by sending a donation.

• Donate Online (you will be redirected to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, but you can select the Make-A-Wish International Foundation on the donation form.
• Join the World-Wide-Wishes Club

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Homelessness in the Washington, DC area is a serious issue. More than 12,000 people in the DC area are homeless and many of them are children. The Community of Hope provides several services, one of which is a housing program to homeless families with children. The program provides an environment that is safe for the family and children while offering services to train the family in the life, job and other educational skills needed to help the family end their homelessness and start on a path of independence. Each family is assigned housing, either temporary or transitional, and a case manager that works closely with the family. Children are enrolled in school and signed up for the Community of Hope after school program.

 In addition to its housing services, Community of Hope also provides extensive and much-needed health services, children services and spiritual support services.

Community of Hope has continued to expand its services over the years and hopes to continue to expand in the future. It is in need of both monetary and in-kind donations.

In kind donations of curtains/drapes, furniture (such as bed frames), sheets, towels, baby supplies, children’s videos, gift cards, office software and office supplies help furnish the housing units and support the educational programs. 

Community of Hope asks that anyone interested in making an in-kind donation contact Michele Washington at (202) 232-7356 or via email at mwashington@communityofhopedc.org.

 Or, the Community of Hope accepts donations through their target.com wishlist. Simply add an item from their wishlist to your cart, pay via credit card and it will ship directly to their office. To view their wishlist, click here.

Additionally, monetary donations are accepted online via the Network for Good. To make a donation online, visit their online donation page.

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Every area has a local food bank. To find yours, check the local phone book. Helping out a local food bank takes very little time but makes a world of difference to the people in the community in need of assistance. If you do not want to donate to your local food bank, there are plenty of other food banks in need of donations. For instance, the Capital Area Food Bank is in need of donations:

The Capital Area Food Bank is a nonprofit hunger and nutrition resource that distributes nearly 20 million pounds of food annually to more than 700 agencies across the Washington region. (Washington Post)    

Want to help out the Capital Area Food Bank?
If you would like to donate money, contact Christel Hair at 202-526-5344, Ext. 238, or hairc@cfoodbank.org 
Or, if you would like to donate food, contact Molly McGlinchy at 202-526-5344, Ext. 311, or mcglinchym@cfoodbank.org  

Filed under: World Hunger | No Comments »
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More than one billion people in the world suffer from malnutrition. The Hunger Site, one of the original click-to-give websites, allows you to help eliminate world hunger with the click of a button.

From their website:

The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the world’s hungry. On average, over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the yellow “Click Here to Give - it’s FREE” button. To date, more than 200 million visitors have given more than 300 million cups of staple food.

The staple food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and America’s Second Harvest. 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners. Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? So it must be scam, right? WRONG! The Hunger Site is 100% legit. After you click the button, you are taken to a page with quite a few advertisements on it. Sponsors PAY The Hunger Site for that exposure. While The Hunger Site is no longer a non-profit entity (because it is getting paid by its sponsors), it does donate 100% of its sponsor advertising fees.

Several individuals have confirmed the website’s legitimacy, including David Emery, an About.com writer, who said:

In response to my own inquiries, Anthea Webb of the United Nations’ World Food Program confirmed that the organization indeed receives donations via the Hunger Site and characterized the project as “innovative.” Says Webb, “Cash donations equivalent to more than a million servings of food have been donated since the site opened in June 1999.”

So what are you waiting for? You can make a difference in someone’s life today, just go to The Hunger Site and click on the yellow button!

Filed under: World Hunger | 1 Comment »
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