Day 11 - Camfed

To end our week of education a traditional aid organization- Camfed. 

In the endless list of African aid organizations Camfed has weathered the years and developed a model that works. Not only are they helping educate girls, but they are working to support them well beyond school and encouraging them to become leaders in their communities.

It's not such a controversial idea now, but early on Camfed was an organization that realized the impact of targeting girls in the community. They bring together grassroots, government and civil society representatives to tackle the obstacles women face at the individual, school district and national levels.

Since 1993 Camfed has provided education to over 2.4 million children and trained 19,550 alumnae to advocate for and lead change in their communities. By helping a girl all the way through from school to career they are building a network of community leaders that turn around and advocate for the next generation.

The Rundown
I donated $15
their website
click here to donate
Give enabled!

Day 10 - Creating Hope International

There is a category of non profits that I've yet to cover, but we'll be seeing a lot more of- American based organizations that support international grass roots programs. They tend to be a great combination of local connections and passion, with American resources, and Creating Hope International is exactly that.

Creating Hope International finds grass roots programs that are making a difference and connects them with international donors. One of my favorite of their programs is the Afghan Institute of Learning. If you have 17 minutes I suggest you watch this TED talk by the incredible Sakena Yacoobi (and break out the tissues).

If you don't have the time, here's the story:

Growing up, Sakena dreamed of being a doctor. Her father fully supported her education, and she left to go to medical school in America. While she was away the Taliban took over. As soon as she finished her education she brought her family to America, so they would be safe. But she couldn't ignore what was happening in Afghanistan. She chose to go back, and what she found was heart breaking. She went to a camp in Pakistan, there she found 7.5 million refugees, 90 percent were women and children. Women with no where to go, boys trying to fill the holes their fathers had left. In that moment she knew it was education that had saved her, and that it was education that would help her people.

At that time starting a school was risky. Educating girls was forbidden. No one trusted her, she was an outsider from America. But she didn't take no for an answer.

In one year she had 25 schools supporting 15,000 refugee children. They taught women's rights, human rights, democracy, rule of law, reproductive health. Then nine Taliban showed up at her office. She told them they were teaching girls the Koran, teaching them to be good Muslim wives. They bought her lie and left her alone.

Despite repeated death threats she persists. They have numerous projects on Global Giving to help them build the skills of the Afghan people. They support thousands of students, children, adults, men and women. They are an example of exactly why grassroots programs are often the most effective. Operating in taliban help Afghanistan would have been impossible for foreigners, but Sakena Yacoobi continues her work and has reached over 1.1 million Afghans.

I'll leave you with a quote from the Afghan poet Mawlana Rumi, "by having compassion and having love you can conquer the world" and as Sakena Yacoobi says "if we could do it in Afghanistan, I am sure 100 percent that everyone can do it in any part of the world".

The Rundown
I gave $10
their website
click here to donate
Give Enabled!

Day 9 - Bridge International Academies

When Shannon May was in China doing research for her PhD in ecology. While she was there she taught at the local village school- and it was there she saw the incredible importance of education. She, unfortunately, also saw the state of education in rural China. The principal drank at lunch time with the teachers, who would rarely show up for afternoon classes. Most of the teachers were unqualified, and often absent. The only computer was taken home by the principal. This story, sadly, is not an uncommon one.

Shannon and her boyfriend Jay Kimmelman decided to do something. Abandoning her ecology studies, they decided to start their schools to bring high quality education to poor countries. After getting married they took a dream honeymoon- visiting Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria to investigate failures in basic education in poor rural areas.

The designed a for profit model that would be supported by tuition, not the corrupt governments. They target families that earn $2/person a day, and they have created something truly amazing.

Each school is standardized to maintain quality. Content is delivered wirelessly via computer tablets so they can track teacher development and instruction. Teachers are provided lessons so even those without training can still lead a great lesson. Students attend school for 55 hours each week and families are charged an average of $6/month.

Charging even a little has made Bridge sustainable and independent of government slowdowns. And their numbers don't lie, compared to other education available Bridge Students score up to 205% better in reading fluency, 37% better in reading comprehension, 25% better in addition skills, 24% better in subtraction skills and 42% higher in word problems.

Since they are "for profit" donations are not tax deductible, but I know that my money will be well used and I think it's important that we continue to try different approaches to solve old problems.

The Rundown
I gave $25 for a new uniform
their website
donate here
NOT give enableded

Day 8 - Books for Africa

Consistently at the top of "best run charities" Books for Africa has been doing an incredible job of ending the book famine in Africa.

It is estimated that 40 percent of school age children in Africa do not attend school, a terrifying number for the continent's future. Then for those that do go to school- most have never owned a book. It's common for 10-20 students to share one text book! Books are the foundation of education, especially in a world without access to technology like most of the rural schools.

Books For Africa collects books donated by publishers, schools, libraries individuals and organizations. It costs only 50 cents to send a book from the United States to Africa. Now they are even working to send e readers, each of which can contain thousands of books.

The World Bank released a report in May 2015 emphasizing the urgent need to get books into the hands of sub-Saharan students stating "no other input is likely to be more cost effective than making high quality learning materials available to all students". When it comes down to it- books are one of the most cost effective way to invest in Africa's future.

While numbers are only one way to evaluate a charity- Books for Africa's Charity Navigator score of 99.95 makes it not only the highest rated education charity, but the second highest rated charity in their entire tool!

The Rundown
I gave $50
their website
donate here
Give Enabled

Day 7 - Malala Fund

Chances are you've heard of  Malala Yousafzai, unless you've been living under a rock the last couple years, but I'm going to introduce you to her anyway because she's undeniably amazing.

This is Malala. This year she turned 18. Two years ago she won the Nobel Peace Prize (the youngest to ever win any Nobel prize), the year before that- she was shot in the face by a Taliban gunman.

Why might one of the most powerful terrorist organizations on the planet try to assassinate a 16 year old girl? Because for years she had been BRAVELY advocating for educating girls.

Lucky for us, and unlucky for the Taliban, she survived- and she has been taking the world by storm as an incredible advocate for universal access to education. The results speak for themselves, educated women raise educated sons. Sons who learn to respect women, and see them as more than just property to be hidden away. Sons from educated mothers are far less likely to turn to extremism, and far more likely to educate their own daughters.

In addition to touring the world to speak on behalf of those without a voice Malala and her father started their own foundation that works to bring education to girls in especially difficult places. 

Here's Malala celebrating her 18th birthday by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon

I can't think of many people who would do better things with my money, so I am beyond happy to support Malala, her amazing father Ziauddin and all the brave girls fighting terrorism with education.

Also! Read her book "I Am Malala", not only is it beautifully written and easy to read, but it gives an wonderfully personal account of what it was like to grow up under Taliban rule. If that's not enough Malala for you, the documentary "He Named Me Malala" by Davis Guggenheim (of "An Inconvenient Truth" fame), opens this weekend. 

The Rundown

I gave $20

the website

click here to donate

Give enabled!

Day 6 - Tostan

You've probably never heard of her, but Molly Melching will go down in history as one of the world's most prolific philanthropists.

For decades the world has been working to end the absolutely atrocious act of FGM, Female Genital Mutilation. Despite the overwhelmingly obvious heinousness of this practice, great nations, charities and the UN have all been remarkably unsuccessful in ending the practice. Then came Molly Melching. 

Her incredible story is beautifully documented in one of my favorite books, "However long the night" by Aimee Molloy, but here's a quick run down.

Originally from Illinois she chose to travel to Senegal as part of her study abroad, and she hasn't come back to the US yet. While there she fell in love with the people and the local language, Wolof. Realizing there were few books written in the language she took it upon herself to begin translating some. Her work eventually morphed into a school through Unicef, working to educate the local kids in their native language (as opposed to French, which was imposed upon them by the colonists). 

Realizing that using native languages was a key break through in educating the locals, she took her educational program into the villages. This was the birth of Tostan (Wolof for "breakthrough"). 

Molly set up a series of lessons that local women could deliver to groups of women in their own villages. The women learned how to count, read, farm, how to treat disease. The power of the lessons being delivered in their own language by their own community members was incredible and the program exploded! 

Then one day a particularly active Tostan teacher came to Molly and told her she would like to discuss "the tradition" in class. Molly had never wanted to discuss FGM in the lessons because of the incredibly sensitive nature of the practice. It was considered so private it didn't even have a name, women would never discuss it for fear that it would bring spirits of bad luck upon them and their families.  Molly decided to support the teacher, and begun to integrate information about it's negative effects into the health lesson. Slowly the women began to open up, and share their stories, how it caused infertility, immense pain and sometimes death. Together the women of this first village made a bold decision- they would announce that they would not permit their daughters to be cut.

This first announcement was extremely controversial, the women suffered immense backlash from neighboring communities. But they held fast. Soon another village made a similar declaration, then another. To date 7,200 communities have made similar declarations, so many that Senegal believes it can end all practice of FGM this year! 

Thus with the incredible empathy of one women, and the unbelievable bravery of those women who chose to educate themselves, we might see an end of this practice within a single generation. 

It is one of the most beautifully designed, and immensely effective NGOs of all time, and one that I am happy to support in anyway that I can.

The Rundown

I gave $20

their website

click here to donate

Give enabled!

Day 5 - Khan Academy

Started by the fearless Salman Khan, Khan Academy's motto "to provide a free, world- class education for anyone, anywhere" cuts right to the heart of the education issue.

There are more education resources online than ever before, but Khan Academy has always felt like the one with the biggest dream. When Khan could easily focus on the lucrative post graduate adult market, they continue to expand their resources for secondary school, and for international students.

580 million lessons delivered, 1 million registered teachers, and 3.8 billion exercise problems khan has become a prolific tool that covers topics including math, science, arts, computing, economics, humanities and more. They have even addressed a topic often ignored by other educational resources- SAT prep. While it might not seem as important as "math" or "physics", SAT prep is something often only done by kids in the highest income brackets. Making these materials available to everyone is giving kids of an entirely different income level a leg up in college admissions that is sorely needed.

I'll leave you with this quote from their own site:

Most people are held back not by their innate ability, but by their mindset. They think intelligence is fixed, but it isn’t. Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it and struggle, the more it grows.

New research shows we can take control of our ability to learn. We can all become better learners. We just need to build our brains in the right way.

The Rundown

I donated $10

their website

click here to donate

Give enabled! 

Week 1 Theme- Education

My favorite cause is without a doubt- education. Partially because for me education was what changed my life, but beyond my personal feelings time and again research shows that education is the most effective means to accomplish our global goals.

The UN's official Global Goals for 2030

Practically every single one of the goals can be expedited by improving access to education. 

An educated person lives longer, is healthier, has fewer children, has a higher status within their community, makes more money, saves a higher percentage of that money and contributes to their economy in a much greater way. 

Access to education is especially limited in developing countries, and especially for women in developing countries. Here are some awesome stats from this years Gates Letter on why investing in the education of women and girls is so effective.

Women spend 90 percent of their income on things that directly benefit their families. 

The charities I will be highlighting this week are devoted to this idea- that when you educate people they have the tools to better themselves and their communities.

Sometimes education seems an expensive investment, but i'll leave you with that incredible statistic from Malala's amazing campaign #booksnotbullets

Go School! 

Day 4 - NPR

Considering how much they've given to me my donation seems an unfair trade.

I doubt I have to really introduce NPR to anyone. I do my best to diversify my news sources, but NPR will always be my favorite. I know a truly unbiased news source is a silly pipe dream, but at least NPR is still in the business of dreaming. One of the few holdouts in a media landscape that has become more advertising than information I'm glad that there is one news source that my dollars can directly support.

In the Seattle area I choose KPLU 88.5, and I use the NPR News App for iOs. Beyond "morning edition" and "all things considered" I am also addicted to "planet money" and "radio lab", and obviously am counting the days for "serial" season 2 like the rest of you.

The Rundown
I gave $10 to kplu
their website
click here to donate
Give enabled! 

Day 3 - Apopo

Now for a truly stranger than fiction charity- the African Hero Rat.

This is a giant African pouched rat. They are crazy smart, have keen senses of smell, live to be quite old (by rat standards) and weigh only  a couple pounds. This all adds up to make them the perfect landmine detectors!

Every year landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people, most of them children, women and the elderly. Scattered about 78 countries and still in frequent use, they remain dangerous for many many years after first planted. It is estimated that 110 million landmines have been spread through the world since world war II. Long after conflicts these mines remain behind, and can cost between $300 and $1000 per mine to remove- until the hero rats arrived!

Easily trainable (thanks to their love of bananas) they can sniff out landmines without ever setting one off. They can clear 200 hundred square meters in just 20 minutes, an area that would take humans with metal detectors 5 days to cover! And because they are so light no rat has ever been killed while working in the field.

Resting after an important day of clearing landmines :)

Apopo is an organization that has done an absolutely incredible job of training these little guys and treating them like the heros they are. The hero rats always share kennels with their siblings, they have several outside pens where they can play and be outside and their pens are created to simulate a natural environment with lots of dirt to create tunnels. They work for 6 years and then get to retire and eat all the bananas they want for the remaining few years of their lives.

AND as if that isn't enough- it has been discovered that the rats can actually smell and diagnose tuberculosis! They can evaluate in ten minutes more samples than a lab technician can do in an entire day.

I chose to give a one time donation, but you can choose to "adopt" a rat which comes with the honor of giving your rat a name! Adoption only costs $7 a month. 

The Rundown

I donated $10

their website

click here to donate

Give enabled!

Day 2 - Refugees Welcome

At this point I'm sure everyone is aware of the massive migrant crisis flooding the shores of Europe right now. The stories are overwhelmingly heart breaking, and I'm sure we don't need another sad story.

(it's ok! someone started him an indigogo and now he and his two daughters are safe, and helping their fellow Syrians)

However among all the chaos, fear and racism, the there are some incredible stories of people stepping up to offer everything they have to help strangers find a better life. Ordinary citizens across Europe are bring supplies, words of welcome, and most amazingly opening their homes to refugees, and fluechtlinge-willkommen is one of my favorite organizations doing just that.

A couple of dedicated individuals started simply by welcoming refugees into their own homes, but saw the need to do more. Now they are working to help place refugees in homes with charitable citizens. What started as just a personal gift has grown into a fully fledged program that has already placed 181 refugees in only the past few months. Your donations go not only to directly help refugees, but to support these generous citizens in their support of their new house mates. Who says 1 person can't make a difference?

Now here are some images of the German people welcoming refugees to brighten up you Friday :)

Refugee children arrive in Germany welcomed by new toys donated by German citizens

German citizens bring supplies to welcome their new countrymen

A refugee family makes it safely to Germany!

A German policeman welcomes a little boy to his new home

The Rundown

I gave $20

donate here

their website

Not on Charity Navigator yet

Eligible for Microsoft match yet

 

Day 1 - Women for Women International

For my first charity I am going with one I have supported in years past, Women for Women International.

Started by an incredible woman, Zainab Salbi after she read about the atrocities committed against women during the Yugoslav Wars in the "rape camps" (which are exactly as horrific as they sound). Frustrated by the slow international response she launched a "sister-to-sister" sponsorship program between women in the US and the survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zainab herself fled her native Iraq to escape the abusive power of her father's boss, Saddam Hussein.

Women for Women International now works all over the globe and has landed on one of the most effective forms of aid: supporting women. Working in countries where the status of women is especially awful they provide the women in their program a range of support focused on helping them earn and save money, influence decisions in their local communities and improve the health and education of their entire family. Time and again data has shown how transformative it is for an entire community to empower mothers, and I think Women for Women International has one of the best holistic programs available.

In addition their sponsorship programs is one of the most rewarding ways to give back. For $30 a month you are given a "sister" that your donations are directly supporting. My first sister was a lovely woman named Susan Monday from South Sudan. She had two children and wanted to do anything she could to make sure they got an education. As you can see she is going to graduate this month from her 12 month training program.

AND if you donate before October 15th your money will be matched by a private donor. That means that my donation is going to be tripled between my money, Microsoft and this donor.

The Rundown
I gave $10
Click here to donate
Their website
Charity Navigator Score: 81.62

31 Days of Giving

I spend a lot of time reading about amazing NGOs and the work they do. So much time in fact that sometimes I don't give myself a change to actually step up and put my money where my mouth is. In October I am going to finally take that time to highlight and support some of my favorite causes.

In honor of Microsoft's annual Give Campaign I am going to donate to 31 charities in the month of October, and give a quick write up on why I chose to support them. I know so many people are generous, but it takes an event, a person, a face or something personal to get them to take action. A little can go a long way, especially if you work for a company like Microsoft that matches all donations dollar for dollar. I hope that in my list you find something that inspires you to give, and always remember to get your donations (and volunteer hours) matched if you can :)