Yesterday marked the passing of Senator Edward “Ted” Moore Kennedy. Only two weeks after the death of his beloved sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he succumbed to the malignant brain tumor he’d been diagnosed with in 2008 in his home.
The third-longest running senator in U.S. history, Kennedy was a man who fostered peace between people of all backgrounds. (more…)
It’s always nice when you hear what philanthropists celebrities are, but when they actually travel to a country in need and help out in person it shows true character.
Take Hillary Duff. Apparently the pretty youth isn’t just a TV, film and pop sensation. She’s also a humanitarian. Duff, 21, recently distributed 3,000 backpacks full of food to poor kids in the Bogota, Columbia school district with the Blessings in a Backpack program.
“We’ve been working for four years feeding children over the weekends. They invited us to come here, and we got our first school in Bogota,” says Duff, who has been a part of the program for over four years.
She has actually helped to start this program, along with USA Harvest founder Stan Curtis. The idea is to distribute the backpacks of food every Friday so the kids can take them home and share them with their families during the weekend.
Hillary was dubbed the “Ambassador for the Youth” by Bogota during her stay. Other supporters of Blessings in a Backpack include rocker Sammy Hagar and football star Will Wolford.
Blessings in a Backpack has helped 26,000 K-5 kids in 106 schools in the U.S. and Canada. A donation of $80 can feed a single child for an entire year. Supplementing the Federal Free and Reduced Meal Program, it often provides weekend meals for children in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida, Michigan, New York, Texas, California and Illinois.
To get involved, you can visit the website and adopt a school, volunteer, or donate backpacks, money or other needs. You can also send checks to:
Blessings in a Backpack
P.O. BOX 1628, LOUISVILLE, KY 40201-1628
Grammy-award winning Colombian singer Juanes is planning on holding his next “Peace Without Borders” concert in Havana, Cuba this fall. While the activist is trying to promote peace, Cuban exiles say that the concert will only serve to support Cuba’s communism.
The singer’s promotion team argues that the concert, scheduled for September 20, will not be condemning nor supporting any political dogma; that said, it is supposed to be held at the very same place where Che Guevara is honored, Revolution Plaza. (more…)
Following weeks of negotiations to orchestrate the release of two American journalists between Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, the United Nations and North Korea, former President Bill Clinton held a rare and “exhaustive” meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to finally bring the reporters home today.
The women, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, had entered the country illegally and were sentenced to hard labor as a result. After talks with Clinton, Kim issued the journalists a pardon–less than 24 hours after Clinton’s visit. (more…)