Category poverty

Blog Action Day for Climate Change: just do one thing.

Last year I was lucky enough to participate in Blog Action Day. It’s pretty impressive to see the numbers- 7,883 blogs, from 140 countries with over 11 million readers are reaching out to educate people about Climate Change. Posts are from bloggers like Vincent Abry from France whose un monde du geek I enjoy. Ritsuko’s ゴハンBlog in Japan. (ゴハン = food.) Whose tweets about camping I’ve enjoyed. And, The Gamelian World out of Ghana who recently reported the first iPhone game likely to come out of Africa.

You get the idea- all these folks on the same day reaching out for the same goal. Pretty amazing.

My contribution is a small one. I used to work in the environmental movement and what I noticed is that most people felt guilty about not doing enough. I think they felt that if they couldn’t do something on a grand scale, like have a completely solar home, that their was nothing they could do to contribute to protecting the environment. When, in fact, if you asked them, they did something- turned off the lights after they left a room, conserved water, drove a smaller car, etc. Once they thought about it, they decided they could add one more thing into their lives, such as:

  • Writing to an elected official once a year to let them know their opinion.
  • Figured out how to recycle in their neighborhood.
  • Watered their garden before 8 a.m. (less evaporation)
  • Wore a sweater and turned the heat down. (Thank you President Carter!)
  • Bought grass-fed beef when they could afford it.
  • Supported a local CSA buy purchasing their vegetables through one.
  • Volunteered at community organizations committed to protecting the environment while serving the community. Denver’s Same Cafe is a great example!
  • Giving props to a climate-friendly business on review site tuggl.com.

Again, I am not suggesting you do all of these, just saying maybe you can try out one of these occasionally. Then you can work on getting your home off the grid. jk.

Thanks again to the folks at Blog Action Day for making this happen!

Blog Action Day 2008: Do your part to end poverty.

Today bloggers from around the world – about 9,458 sites with a reach of over 10,000,000 people – are participating to raise awareness about global poverty. Are we asking you to lead the charge? Quit your job and join the Peace Corps? Give up all your worldly possessions and donate the proceeds? No. (But you know you’d get a big star, or two, by your name if you did!)

A simple act like donating a goat for a family can have an extraordinary impact. It did for Beatrice, a Ugandan student at a US college, who was profiled by 60 minutes in 2005. Her family received the gift of goat and was able to sell the milk to make money, then able to send their children to school. Beatrice then won a scholarship to a high school in Kampala, Uganda’s capital and it gets even better from there.

We are all a little overwhelmed with the financial situation at home and abroad, but, if you are reading this, you are probably a lot better off than a lot of other folks. Take a few minutes today to make an impact!

* Spend some time learning about global poverty at One.
* Organize friends and family to start a Kiva micro-finance project.
* Buy a heifer, pig, and/or goat to help feed a family at Heifer International
* Support the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer and his team at Partners In Health

You don’t even have to spend a dime- forward the link to this blog to your friends and family. And direct action to eliminate poverty works. In this video of his TED presentation, Dr. Hans Rosling shows how countries are pulling themselves out of poverty.

Take a shot at it! It’s really pretty simple.

And if I didn’t persuade you, Amber Naslund will in her Blog Action Day post. Beth Harte at The Harte of Marketing has a great post about helping women fight poverty close to home.

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