Help charity: water provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. Their “Born in September” campaign asks people born in September to forgo gifts and ask friends and family to donate to charity: water. For those not born in September, charity: water asks that they donate $33 to the organization in honor of the founder’s 33rd birthday.

Last year, those funds were used to build wells in Kenya. This year, the money will go to building wells in Ethiopia. The goal is to raise $1.5 million to help 300 villages access clean water.

Consider donating…either your gifts or your $33 and let others know. charity: water is a great organization that’s successfully used social media to bring awareness to itself and their mission. To learn more about why their work is important, go here.

Water security, like food security, is an incredibly important issue that we musn’t overlook or take for granted. Some of us use more water in a day than some people are able to use in weeks. Think about that.

I had a conversation with myself the other day that went a little something like this:

“I would like to have this, that and the other.  I would really appreciate that.”

“Would you?”

“Would I?  Ye—no.”

 
No.  As it currently stands, my record is precisely not to appreciate so many aspects of my life.  I’ll be very decisive about something I want, get it, and then complain about it or take it for granted.  Either way, there’s not a lot of actual appreciation.  True appreciation is more than an intellectual concept; it requires action.  It means to value or regard highly; place a high estimate on.

How much in your life do you “appreciate” without truly appreciating?  What can you do to express the importance of the things, people, and situations in your life, even if just to yourself?

Appreciate all the moments in your life; they serve a purpose.  Even if where you are–figuratively or literally–is just downright wack, understand that there is something  you can take away from that situation.  It’s up to you to determine what.  Find the good.

Appreciate the people you love.  Remember that ‘appreciate’ is a verb.  Don’t take any of them for granted.  This life moves fast.  You don’t know how long someone is with you on your journey beforehand, and if you really care, at the end, you’ll wonder where all the time went and how you could’ve utilized it better.  The only moment that ever exists is now.  Love now.  Appreciate now.  Take for granted never.

Hopefully, if someone asks, “are you an ingrate?” you can smile broadly and emphatically respond “not I” with pride.

To everyone I share my life with and have shared my life with, thank you.

Image source: Andi

Embrace is an infant incubator designed to save premature and low birth weight babies. Every year, 20 million infants around the world die because their families cannot geographically or financially access traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000.  To find out more about Embrace and how you can help, visit EmbraceGlobal.org.

After a work out, typically, a ravaging hunger awaits me. Tonight, I came in and ripped open a pack of tuna while I checked my email. I laid the packet of tuna down on my desk only to discover minutes later that all the juice in the packet spilled all over my new magazine.

The lesson: I can’t multitask when I’m hungry.

Apparently, I can’t think either. Read about another hunger snafu.

I’d just come from the gym. Opened the fridge, and pulled out a new carton of large cage-free brown eggs. Poured olive oil in the wok and turned it on. Open the carton of eggs, pulled one out, cracked it and opened the shell, allowing the contents to drop into the wok. Reached into the carton to pull out another egg, except the shell broke, spilling over into an empty compartment. I removed the pieces of the shell, put my hands over as many eggs as I could, knowing I couldn’t cover all of them, but for some reason continuing with the plan of transferring the egg in the carton into the wok. As the cracked egg fell into the wok, an egg that my hand wasn’t covering dropped right out of the carton and onto the carpet. I looked at it and finished cooking. Sprinkled a little salt and a little 21 spice seasoning on them. When they were finished, I put them on my plate, sat down and started eating. After about four bites, I thought, “I guess I should clean that up now.” My very next thought was “why didn’t I turn off the wok and clean up the egg right after it fell?” It never occurred to me. Priority number one was eating.

As I cleaned up the egg, I played back the scenario and came to an interesting conclusion:

While I agree that students at schools in low-income areas don’t necessarily have adequate resources to perform well, I’m convinced that many of them don’t perform well because they can’t think. Because they’re hungry!

That said, please support your local food bank. Many of them have the BackPack program that discreetly provides children with backpacks of food for consumption over the weekends and during vacations. It’s a wonderful program. The San Antonio Food Bank also participates in this program. Volunteers are always needed at food banks, as well as, well…food and money. Please be aware that the food bank has greater purchasing power than the average consumer. For instance, $1 is worth $13 if the San Antonio Food Bank purchases the food. Give what you can or do what you can, even if that’s simply spreading awareness.

Let’s feed the children. People can’t think when they’re hungry…at least some of us can’t.

Sometimes, I get all these big, fancy ideas and I’m so broad-thinking that I forget about what’s closest to me. “Help starts at home” comes to mind. For weeks, I’ve been talking about how I’d love to mentor more frequently than I do. I currently give one hour a week to a girl I just met, yet call my brother once every few weeks. Backwards. Ridiculous, really.

Mentoring, for me, is such a valuable relationship that allows me to understand the world of the youth today, the people who will one day be the ones in charge, while sharing the best of what I’ve learned with them. It truly is a mutually rewarding relationship. After I began mentoring, I realized how much I enjoyed it and how much I want to positively impact young people. What I overlooked, though, is that there is someone already in my life who needs my attention. Someone I can impact so much more simply because of the current standing of our relationship. He’s my brother.

I will sing the benefits of mentoring to anyone who’ll listen, which might not be that many people if I actually decide to sing them. Some may complain about not having the time or the availability within the set hours mandated by some program or school district. However, I can’t stress enough how important it is to realize that there is something you can do right now. Single parents are not anomalies. Emotionally unavailable parents are not anomalies. Parents who just need help are not anomalies. I am more than certain that you know someone who fits into one of the three categories. You don’t have to wait for the perfect moment; it will pass you by. You don’t have to wait to find the perfect program. Pick a child that’s already in your life and choose to make an impact in that person’s life. You can start today. Undoubtedly, there is a child who needs you.

Pay it forward with Time Banking, an egalitarian concept where communities offer services to each other in exchange for time dollars, not real dollars. For instance, I build you a basic website, which takes me 6 hours. In exchange, I’m able to use that 6 hour credit in exchange for services some else offers. Perhaps, I need someone to babysit my brother for 3 hours, take me to grocery store for 1 hour, and landscape the front yard for 2 hours.

Time banks draw on a community’s resources by  listing the services every member can offer.  When in need of something, members log-in to the Time Bank’s website to find someone offering those services.  It’s an incredibly easy system that can reduce financial limitations and is inclusive to all members of society that have something to offer.

Given the economic climate, I’m curious to see if we’ll see an increase in Time Banks and other forms of alternative currencies.

To learn more about Time Banking, go to TimeBanks.org.  Below are a few articles recently written about them.

Detroit Free Press – Time banks pay off for community
San Francisco Chronicle – Sweat Equity:In this East Oakland community, time really is money
The Jerusalem Press – There’s no time to lose

Being as rich as he is, Bill Gates can definitely effect great change. He spoke at TED this year on how he’s trying to change the world right now. During his 20 minute talk, he asked how do we stop malaria and how do we improve education.

I truly enjoyed this speech in its entirety, but the highlights were at 5:05 – 5:30 and generally everything after 7:57 when he starts talking about education. He provides some startling statistics at 9:51 – 10:50.

According to the research Gates references, if you’re low income, you have less than a 25% chance of finishing college should you not drop out in high school. Over 30% of students entering high school in this country never finish. In some areas, the drop out rate is over 50%. I think it’s 40% here in Bexar County.

Everyone’s not built to be a teacher, and definitely not a good one. While effective teachers are certainly a large part of the solution, so are tutors and mentors. Get involved however you can. I recently signed up to mentor a high schooler since there’s one right across the street. One hour a week. Such a small commitment that can make a huge difference. Really, I wish I’d thought of it sooner. Yet and still…it’s never too late.

Communities In Schools is a nationwide nonprofit focused on preventing kids from dropping out. Sign up to tutor or mentor an elementary, middle, or high school student. Mentor multiple students…whatever your time permits. Call your nearest school and see how you can get involved to help. Let’s all do our part because none of us are disconnected from this phenomenon. None of us.

I assure you that this is not what I did or ever will do.

Time waits for no one…every moment counts. Make it matter, right?

Yeah, I know. I need to keep all of this in mind. The blog entry you’re about to read was supposed to be written several weeks ago, but it was late…then, I was getting up early…and it happened all over again.

No more excuses.

So…dumpster diving. Considering the response I’ve received when I tell people this story, I might want to start with a definition of dumpster diving. A more accurate designation for the concept is called “urban foraging,” a tactic commonly used by freegans and homeless everywhere.

According to Freegan.info, “this technique involves rummaging through the garbage of retailers, residences, offices, and other facilities for useful goods. Despite our society’s sterotypes about garbage, the goods recovered by freegans are safe, useable, clean, and in perfect or near-perfect condition, a symptom of a throwaway culture that encourages us to constantly replace our older goods with newer ones, and where retailers plan high-volume product disposal as part of their economic model.”

One Friday evening, me and my companion VISTAs were enjoying frozen treats at Amy’s Ice Cream when Tina suggested we find a Panera and try dumpster diving. I was all in. Paul was hesitant, but more than willing to observe. We drove around in a circle for ten minutes before we finally found the Panera and started sleuthing around to find their dumpsters. We found a few different sets of dumpsters that, naturally, smelled atrocious and effectively killed the idea of eating, should we actually find anything.

Ready to give up, I suggested we ask where the dumpsters are, already expecting the answer to be no. We decided that Tina, being white, would ask…even if she couldn’t keep a straight face. While we were clean and well-groomed, I’m black, Paul’s Filipino, and we didn’t want to be negatively stereotyped.

We approach the set of front doors, now being wiped down by an employee since it’s past 10 and they’re closed. We motion for her to open the door. She tells us they’re closed. We persist, so she comes to the door. Tina, in her best efforts to be serious, blankly asks, “Yes, we’re wondering where your dumpsters are.” The lady doesn’t speak English very well, so Tina starts speaking in Spanish.

“This is even better!” I tell Paul.

The lady leaves to get the manager and I notice that the bags of bread we’re searching for are in the front of the store. The manager approaches with this confused and slight grin and asks how he can help us.

We explain that we’re AmeriCorps VISTAs and we’re wondering what they do with their bread at the end of the day.

“Well, we normally donate it. The lady who usually does our weekend pickup hasn’t been by in a few weeks. I’m not sure if she’s still on vacation or what, so you’re more than welcome to take what you want.”

Smiles immediately come to our faces.

We walk in and see four huge bags of bread on the floor. The manager disappears for a second and returns with a box of pastries, telling us we can have those too. Considering that they’re going to throw it all away, we agreed to take it all. All four bags and one box that we later guesstimate at about 80 lbs.

Fortunately, Tina was apartment sitting for a former co-worker of ours, so we took the bread to his place to sort out what we wanted and decide what to do with it.

We get to the apartment, wash our hands and open the bags. Bagels galore! Asiago, cinnamon crunch, Dutch apple and raisin, chocolate chip, plain, and sesame. There’s also cake, cookies, sourdough balls and bread bowls, whole grain miche, and loaves of tomato basil and Asiago bread. I could even be forgetting something, there was so much.

After choosing what we wanted, we planned to go under the bridge at 9 am the following morning. If you’re not familiar with San Antonio, “under the bridge” is where a lot of homeless people aggregate to take advantage of the services there: two shelters, a free dining hall, and a church aptly titled Church Under the Bridge.

We got back late and rose early (hence this blog not being written that night at the height of my excitation). The car smelled like Asiago cheese. Interestingly enough, on the way to taking the bread downtown, there was someone at the light asking for food. We tied the bags too tight to open fast enough, so Tina gave the man a few granola bars, a practice of hers she immediately grew to adore. Once we got downtown, we parked the car and went to the St. Vincent DePaul Dining Room to see if they could take the bread. They could and they did. All of it. After we gave it to them and got back in the car, a feeling of dissatisfaction overcame us.

“I wanted to give the bread out,” I said.

Paul and Tina echoed my sentiments. I jumped out the car, rang the doorbell, and asked them to give me back a bag of bread. They obliged.

We drove around the building and parked under the bridge, pulled out the bread, and started asking passersby if they wanted some bread. Some were hesitant, but many accepted. I noticed that there were a lot of people looking at us, but they weren’t going to come over and ask for the bread. I understood. Pride. We’ve all got some. I grabbed a loaf of bread out the bag and started going around to people to see if they would like any. No one was rude. One man told me that he didn’t want any, he was just going to stand there waiting on his socks to grow. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I smiled and told him to have a good day and continued down the line.

Eventually, I had three slices of bread left. I approached this woman and asked her if she’d like some bread. She was very appreciative and felt the need to give something to me as well.

“Don’t ever change,” she said. “I may be homeless, but I volunteer too. I work. I clean. Sometimes, I counsel others. There’s always something you can do.”

She spoke to me for a good ten minutes about life and how important it is to give back because everyone needs a helping hand. She thanked me, I thanked her, and that’s what we call a “‘Thank you’ and ‘You’re welcome’ moment.”

The giving high lasted for quite a while…and actually, when I recount this story, I can’t help but to feel good all over again.

Those 12 hours taught me a lot and showed me the importance of the work I do here as a VISTA. Although I definitely don’t feel like I make an impact at my hosting site, there’s more I can do on my own, outside of my prescribed duties, to enhance this experience.

Lessons learned:
- Ask. Why not?
- Bakeries get rid of food daily and may not have organizations to donate to. It’s easy to get the perfectly good food they intend to throw away at the end of the day to give it those who need it.
- Giving is infectious. We immediately planned to return to Panera, and did the very next week. The organization they donated to has resumed weekend pickup, so we’ll be finding another bakery. Whole Foods is taken.
- There’s always something you can do.
- It’s really easy and convenient to keep a bag of granola bars in your car (hello, Dollar General) to give to those who ask for food or money for food.
- I don’t eat much bread anymore. I ate one of the bread bowls and a tiny slice of the miche, but that was it.
- “‘Thank you’ and ‘You’re Welcome’ moments” are phenomenal! (This I knew, but reminders are always nice.)

Also known as Reporters San Fronteires, Reporters Without Borders is a registered French nonprofit organization with consultant status at the UN that advocates for freedom of the press.  They operate in all five continents to investigate and expose cases of media censorship and persecution.  Additionally, RSF supports the media by defending imprisoned and oppressed journalists, providing financial aid to media outlets, journalists, and families of imprisoned journalists, as well as working to improve the safety of journalists.

In order to fund their initiatives, Reporters Without Borders publishes photography albums twice a year and calendars and accepts donations, member dues, public grants and partnerships with private firms.  They also have their own blogging software; it’s overpriced, but goes towards a good cause, if you can change your perspective.

The UN established Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the Millennium Declaration adopted in 189 nations and signed by 147 state and government heads in 2000. Those eight goals are as follows:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

One company that understands the roles of corporate social responsibility and social enterprise is working to address a few of those MDGs. The name is Vestergaard Frandsen and they offer several innovative life-saving and quality-of-life-enhancing products that would make any social entrepreneur or human rights activist proud.

The product I fancy most at the moment is the LifeStraw, available for individual or family use. LifeStraw Personal filters a minimum of 700 liters, while the LifeStraw Family filters a minimum of 15,000 liters of water. It would take 40 faucet-mount Brita filters to treat the amount of water just one LifeStraw Family can. And how much is it? $15, half of the cost of one Brita filter. Awesome.

At any given moment, about half of the world’s poor are suffering from waterborne disease, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.

Today, more than one billion people of the world’s population are without access to safe drinking water, causing lack of safe water supply to rob women and young girls of dignity, literacy and time.

Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions of people. Water filtration tools not only provide safe drinking water but also have a positive health impact on the most vulnerable populations, including young children, pregnant women and those with debilitated immune systems.

Go here if you’d like to help end the safe water shortage by donating a LifeStraw Family. Read more about the LifeStraw here. Discover other portable water systems here.

Every man is selfish and dishonest.  Making excuses.
- Roshomon, 1950

I found these to be among the most poignant and succint words in the Japanese film, Roshomon.  At first I didn’t want to beleive them to be true with regard to my own life, but then I found myself in the kitchen contemplating using Drano in the kitchen sink…just to clear up any potential obstructions.  Those words popped into my head. 

Every man is selfish and dishonest.  Making excuses.

Here I was, not exempt.  If I go around talking about the lack of other people’s environmental concerns, it’s assumed that my concerns would be apparent in my actions…otherwise, what exactly am I critiquing?  Yet, for my own immediate concerns, using Drano was still momentarily a possibility.  And if that moment would’ve lingered enough to become an actual action as opposed to a simple possibility, I would’ve made an excuse.  In that moment I realized I can no longer speak for or about everyone unless I truly am including myself.  

We’ve got to stop making excuses.  I’ve certainly got to stop making them.   If we’re aware of current and imment environmental crises, we can’t keep making excuses for our actions and nonactions.  We have to stop being selfish and start being honest and hold ourselves and each other accountable. 

All locations are locally designed and locally funded.  To assist in funding, each chapter has its own unique retail experience…and they do mean experience.  There’s a pirate store in San Francisco, a superhero supply store in Brooklyn, the Boring Store featuring secret agent supplies in Chicago, and the Big Foot Research Institute in Boston.  Each location has a storefront with an off-beat retail idea that piques your curiosity while the mission of the stores makes you want to buy something simply because it’s for a great cause. 

The founder, Dave Eggers, is one of this year’s TED prize winners.  As a TED prize winner, you get $100,000 and the chance to make a wish to change the world.  TED helps to make that wish a reality with funding, collaboration, and by providing the platform for them to speak.  Eggers wish was that everyone at the TED conference directly engages with the public schools in their area.  As the result of that wish, Eggers and TED teamed up with a local website design company to create Once Upon A School, where people can share ideas about engaging with local schools, be inspired by those ideas, and share their stories. 

The 826 projects are such wonderful ideas that have the ability to create so much positive change in our neighborhoods and country.  There should be more than seven of them and, in fact, there are plans to create more in the future.  Currently, though, the organization is dedicating its resources to further developing the centers already instituted, but offer information and ideas as to how you can be of service to the children in your community.  If you happen to live in an area with an 826 location, please consider volunteering. 

What’s your form of service and/or activism?

One Laptop Per Child has created the $100 XO laptop for purchase and distribution by developing countries. They’ll be available for governments to purchase and distribute to the schools.  Multiple charging options are available including a hand crank and accepting DC power from solar panels.

For two weeks starting today, the computer is available for US purchase for $399.  That price includes a laptop for you, one for another child, and funding for the OLPC program.

The computer was presented at the TED conference.  To see Nicholar Negroponte discussing it, watch below.

My question, though, is whether or not this is just a clever cover for a plan to surveil and then censor the poor along with the rest of the middle class?  As much as I’d like to vehemently deny such a devious plan, how can I?

New site, FreeRice.com, gives away ten grains of rice for each vocabulary word that you get right.  But you don’t personally receive the rice.  The advertisers will donate the rice to the United Nations to “assist” in ending hunger.  While on one hand, I think it’s a cool idea, on the other, it just pisses me off.  I was on the site for a good twenty or so minutes getting up to the highest vocab level–50–with the help of Dictionary.com.  At the end of it, I’ve donated 750 grains of rice.  I would’ve continued to 1,000, but I got bored.  How much does 1,000 grains of rice cost?  NOTHING!  The advertisers I remember seeing were ReadersDigest.com, Liz Claiborne, Mac.com, and Radisson Hotels.  Multi-million dollar corporations (on the low end) paying pennies to advertise on a campaign to “end hunger.”  Why the cynical quotation marks?  Because ending hunger is easy, but it doesn’t benefit ruling parties so it won’t happen.

It’s a kind of cool idea, though–getting people to participate in something slightly charitable (at least on the surface) while increasing their vocabularies.