Saturday, May 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
now
This is the beginning of a movement. You are not powerless.
Every single minute on this planet...
55,000 (bo) of petroleum are produced
52,000 billion tons of co2 are released
8500 Mcdonald's hamburgers are consumed
4300 tons of cereals are processed
780 people die from malaria
426 tons of garbage are produced in the US
265 people are born
109 people die of starvation
55 women die from lack of prenatal care
26 forests are lost forever
4 children die from the effects of water shortages
3 people are trafficked into slavery or prostitution
1 person makes a choice
If you do just 1 small thing you will make a big difference.
contribute to this blog Post it link it Share it talk about it Choose
What Will You Do?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Letter from a starving child
My name is Lindsey, Juan, Amani, Matu, Guiren , Shanti, Akira, Olathe,
I live in America, Honduras, Iraq, Kenya, China, India, Nepal, Japan, on the Reservation,
I am five, eleven, eight, fifteen, two, seven, thirteen, three years old.
I am hungry.
My mother is a crack addict, a refugee, a widow, dying of AIDS, unable to find work , a prostitute, beaten, hopeless, an alcoholic.
My father is unable to find work, gone, a soldier, an alcoholic, doing the best he can, a drug addict, a farmer, abusive, dead.
I am hungry.
Outside my window I see concrete and dirt, I see trees and scrawny chickens, I see war, I see tin shanties and empty water spigots, I see smog, I see children not much older than me selling themselves, I see dying villages, I see factories, I see dust and trailers.
I am hungry.
But I am just a child so I believe that things will get better. I have hope that someone will help me, will help my family. I do not understand why I am hungry.
Soon I will give up.
Soon I will work in the fields or the streets.
Soon I will get sick.
Soon I will die.
But not yet.
Please help me.
I am just like your child. I cannot help myself.
I am just like your child except…
I am hungry.
Every minute children all over the world are dying of malnutrition and neglect. In just 1 minute you can make a difference that may actually save a child’s life. Not a child on a commercial or in an ad or created by a campaign. A real child just like you were, just like your own…with hopes, and dreams, and small fingers and toes, and eyes that see, and a desire to live longer than just tomorrow.
Take just 1 minute and give just 1 dollar. Together You and I and Heifer International can help them.
Please. It only takes 1.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Can you hear me now?
To end poverty you do not need to give money...you do not need to give a voice to the hungry (they are already crying out)...you need to give a minute to listen. You need to give an ear.
Poverty is an expanding universe, a void in which the empty places between pulsing points of light are getting farther and farther away. Poverty is itself an empty sort of hunger. It is not noble, it does not make the impoverished deeper in spirit, closer to the earth, or more aware. Poverty causes suffering, lack, solitude, and bitterness.
Poverty is a helplessness.
If you are poor it is likely that your voice will never be heard.
Today I feel impotent, angry, voiceless, and alone. Today I feel poor.
I have started a website and a non profit group to bring awareness to these problems racing across the planet. I have tried to tell people that poverty is the greatest cause of environmental pollution, disease, and despair on earth. I have tried to say that the answer lies in saving people and that a very small contribution, a random act of kindness can make a big difference.
I have tweeted, and dugg, and faved, and facebooked, and press released, and blogged, and emailed, and talked. I have marched up and down the strands of the web like a girl with a sandwich board over her shoulders pacing the sidewalks of the city. I have used my voice and I have not been heard.
We need to learn to listen.
We need to learn not to impose our ideas of what should be done and how changes should occur. We need to become aware of the poor in a real organic way that has nothing to do with statistics and green organizations or "doing the right thing".
We need to share our ideas with each other, to reach out across the spaces and try to bridge the gaps together.
We need to find ways to take the needs of the world and translate them into messages that everyday people can understand. Statistics are terrible. It is horrific that every year 2 million children die of starvation...but it is horrific that any child dies from lack of food...ever...anywhere. 1 is more than we should allow if we can help it.
And we can.
We can help.
First by listening, and then doing something, anything at all to change things. Imagine how you would move the heaven and earth to help someone you love.
Take just 1 minute. Do just 1 thing. Give just 1 and make 1 big difference.
Please.
Stand in silence somewhere and hear the world rising up from the ground beneath your feet, hear their voices in the wind, feel them underneath the same warm sun.
First listen. Then speak for those that need an ear.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Brother can you spare 1 buck?
1 has teamed up with Heifer International to raise $100,000 to fight global poverty and hunger.
Click the Heifer donation thermometer to your right and give just 1 dollar.
Or choose Team Page and become part of our team.
Be part of something bigger than yourself.
Change the world. Give Just 1.