If you feel so inclinded to donate, you can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.

I was just on the RedCross Facebook page and they have recieved $3million in donations as of 750am this morning.

RedCross Links

http://twitter.com/RedCross

RedCross Facebook

RedCross Donation page

In spite of living in one of the richest nations on Earth, as the post “Mommy are we Poverty?” illustrates, poverty still exists here in the USA.

Below is a little video I made for the Blog Action Day post.

How can you help fight poverty?

• Give to the homeless. I don’t mean give money to the panhandlers you see on the street, but give stuff that the homeless need to survive, like blankets, jackets, can openers and even food.
• Sponsor some children. There are lots of charities that allow you to do this, and it doesn’t cost a tremendous amount. For the cost of a cup of coffee in the morning you can sponsor a child in any of the third world countries. I am sure you can also sponsor a needy child in your own country as well. Check out the post I did on WorldVision which is the organization that I use for sponsorship of several kids.
• Use your power as a consumer to influence companies to not contribute to poverty. How often do you buy goods manufactured in a sweatshop?
• Give to Kiva.org, which is an organization that funds entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Well these are just a few suggestions for fighting poverty. As many other people believe, I also believe that poverty is something that we can prevent. With all the knowledge and wealth in this world, people do not need to die of hunger. Everyone deserves to live in a clean, safe environment that allows them to flourish.

So what about you, what do you do to fight poverty?

Check out the Viola’s video below, and if you think you would like to help the Viola’s out, visit the Fromhousestohomes.org site to find out how you can either become part of next years missions trip to build some homes for the poor of Guatemala or how you can make a tax deductible donation to help out this years trip.

Technorati Tags: missions trips,Guatemala

Want to go on the Trip?

Be part of a service team and come to Guatemala to help build a new home for a needy family. No experience necessary. We ask that you donate $500.00 per person plus pay for your own airfare and living expense. We can make arrangements for you to live with a Guatemalan host family or stay at a hotel.
For a donation of $1,500: Build one new home and affix a plaque with your name on the home honoring your donation.

Maybe next year I will be able to go.

How about you, does a missions trip to help out the less fortunate interest you?

UPDATE:

The Violas had a good trip, I will be encouraging them to make another video to share their experience. We had dinner with Kate the other night, and her stories were amazing. Here is the a link to a video I made about our dinner with Kate and her daughter.

Treeless Squirrel says, “Plant trees, please.”

The mission of 41pounds.org is to reduce the amount of paper that is wasted on junk mail, thereby saving trees. When you sign up for their services, a third of the 41 dollars goes to charities that you select. Several of the charities, actually will plant a tree for you if they are selected to receive the donation.

Why not sign up for their services?

Today there was a guest speaker from the congregation who told us about an event that had changed her life. Instead of just doing the minimum to be involved in the church, she decided to step out of her comfort zone and take on a position of leadership in one of the groups. She admits that the only reason she did this was because when the group met, it was her and one other person. Thankfully, she says, she took on the leadership role and it was to become a life changing event for her.

Her Message

On this morning we were to hear about an organization she has become involved with called World Vision, which is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

WorldVision.org is a charitable organization that has an outstanding reputation with lots of trust worthy associations.

WorldVision has a very broad mission, but today at church we were asked to help with a small part of its mission by sponsoring a child from a third world country. The goal for the church was to sponsor 80 children from a village in Africa. For a little more than a dollar a day, $35 a month, a child could be selected to be sponsored.

So is this sponsorship forever?

The WorldVision organization goes into villages in the remote areas and meets the people to include the leaders of the village. The leaders are asked to designate families with children that are in need. Funds are then provided for such things as clothes, food, clean water, shelter, schools..etc..

Children however, do not stay on the list forever, because funds are used to not only provide for essential daily living, but families are also helped to develop skills to become economically independent. Also if children leave the location of the sponsored village, they will be taken off of the sponsorship list.

When this happens, you will be offered the opportunity to sponsor a different child from either the same village, or an entirely different location.

Did We Choose to Sponsor a Child?

Our family chose to sponsor 1 child from Mozambique, because Lizzie and I were asked to sponsor this child by Lizzie’s daughter, who agreed to do extra chores for an extra allowance that would go toward the $35per month sponsorship cost.

We also thought that since Pixelheadonline has a regularly recurring monthly income, we would allow Pixelheadonline to sponsor a child as well. So if you are a member of this community, you have the honor of helping us to sponsor a child from Guatemala.

What is WorldVision’s Goal?

Sponsorship of over 6000 children who lose a parent every day due to aids is just the tip of the iceberg. Visit the site and and see what any number of their goals are, and you too will hopefully want to get involved.

Can Your Blog Sponsor a Child?

Wouldn’t it be cool if every blog was able to sponsor a child. Then all we would have to do is match up children with bloggers. How cool would that be.

Want to get involved or want more information?

Visit the World Vision website for more information and/or if you are ready to sponsor a child or would just like to make a one time donation.

Also, be sure to stop by World Vision’s blog, to read about one of their field opratives, Rory Anderson, and her adventures in the Congo.

What do you think?

Other than sponsoring several children(hopefully more in the future) this site has no other affiliation with WorldVision.org.

Tags: Charity, World Vision, children