On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a devastation of tremendous proportions. Ten miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, the worst earthquake in 200 years hit the area. The damage amounts are still being calculated, but are currently at between $7.2 and $13.2 billion.
Losses of people have unfortunately been just as bad, with the current death toll at between 200,000 and 250,000 people. (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
Following a week-long major disaster risk reduction conference this week, 1,800 people from more than 300 organizations and governments came together to ask world leaders to reduce the number of human deaths by natural disasters by 50%. They are requesting that this goal be met by 2015.
Given that last year alone saw 300 natural disasters taking the lives of 236,000 people, the goal is a vital one to be met. (more…)
Though following the Holocaust the world proclaimed “Never again,” while heartfelt, the sentiment has been proven to be untrue. Genocide is far from dead in our world. Rwanda, Congo and Sudan are just three modern-day examples of genocide–the latter two of which are still engaged in destruction this very second.
And now, following the declaration of “peace” that was made in May, Sri Lanka has been added to this list.
When President Obama asked Americans to start giving back–to their country, to their planet–in order to foster a climate of community service, he mentioned the Peace Corps as a viable and effective vehicle for such efforts. And it seems that his words did not fall on deaf ears.
Peace Corps applications are up 40%, and officials are saying it’s because of the “Obama Effect.” Enrollment itself is up 16% as well–7% of which is coming from people over 50, a demographic that typically accounts for only 4% of volunteers. (more…)
Sri Lanka has been at war for nearly thirty years, a conflict that arose between the country’s government and the country’s Tamil minority. This month marks a likely end to the conflict, following what Sri Lanka’s government is calling a victory–the death of the Tamil Tigers leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, and his senior officers. However, the issues of the Tamil people will still need to be addressed–especially the masses of Tamil people who have been displaced from the conflict. (more…)
During the continual onslaught against the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have suffered through displacement and hardship. Since the army commenced the attacks in August 2008, over a million people have been reported homeless.
The country has called out for international aid, and it has not been met with deaf ears. The United Nations sent in 120 tons of supplies on Wednesday, including emergency shelters, portable warehouses and much-needed mosquito nets. (more…)