Ais's Blog - Posts Tagged "charity"
Please help me bring clean water to people who need it
I've started a fundraising campaign at charity: water to help fund projects to provide safe, clean drinking water to communities in the world that truly need it.
http://mycharitywater.org/for-sergio
100% of your money goes STRAIGHT to the water projects. That's right-- 100%. So every penny you give is truly important.
I set the goal relatively low at $200 in the hopes that the goal can be met by June 17-- but if we can go above the goal, even better!
If you wonder why water is so important-- not only can lives be saved with clean water and proper sanitation, but it also helps give young women and other children the time needed for education that can affect their future options. Clean water can help give opportunities for a safer, healthier life.
For more information, please watch this video: The water crisis
Please help if you can, no matter how small an amount you can donate!
http://mycharitywater.org/for-sergio
100% of your money goes STRAIGHT to the water projects. That's right-- 100%. So every penny you give is truly important.
I set the goal relatively low at $200 in the hopes that the goal can be met by June 17-- but if we can go above the goal, even better!
If you wonder why water is so important-- not only can lives be saved with clean water and proper sanitation, but it also helps give young women and other children the time needed for education that can affect their future options. Clean water can help give opportunities for a safer, healthier life.
For more information, please watch this video: The water crisis
Please help if you can, no matter how small an amount you can donate!
Donation goal met!!
To everyone who donated, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Since I started the campaign about a week ago, we already met the donation goal of $200 for charity: water!
THANK YOU!!!! <33
If you wanted to donate but couldn't yet, as it turns out the campaign is still open through June 17-- and if we exceed the goal, that's even better! But if you can't, I completely understand-- I'm already extremely happy that the goal was met!
If you donated and you gave an email address or way to contact them, when the project is implemented (18 months after the end of the campaign which is June 17) they'll contact you with what/where the project is, pictures, GPS coordinates, etc. If you did not leave an email address because you wished to remain anonymous, I will do my best to post everywhere I'd originally asked for donations with an update :)
You can probably also go straight to the campaign page too:
TO DONATE: http://mycharitywater.org/for-sergio
PROJECT PAGE: http://mycharitywater.org/p/myprojects/?member_id=137317
Thank you thank you thank you again! You have no idea how much I appreciate you.
I don't think I mentioned it over here but the reason I wanted to do this campaign this year is because I'm turning 30, and I thought that since most people consider that to be an Important Birthday, I wanted to do something actually important for it.
And I thought, what was more important than something like this?
THANK YOU!!!! <33
If you wanted to donate but couldn't yet, as it turns out the campaign is still open through June 17-- and if we exceed the goal, that's even better! But if you can't, I completely understand-- I'm already extremely happy that the goal was met!
If you donated and you gave an email address or way to contact them, when the project is implemented (18 months after the end of the campaign which is June 17) they'll contact you with what/where the project is, pictures, GPS coordinates, etc. If you did not leave an email address because you wished to remain anonymous, I will do my best to post everywhere I'd originally asked for donations with an update :)
You can probably also go straight to the campaign page too:
TO DONATE: http://mycharitywater.org/for-sergio
PROJECT PAGE: http://mycharitywater.org/p/myprojects/?member_id=137317
Thank you thank you thank you again! You have no idea how much I appreciate you.
I don't think I mentioned it over here but the reason I wanted to do this campaign this year is because I'm turning 30, and I thought that since most people consider that to be an Important Birthday, I wanted to do something actually important for it.
And I thought, what was more important than something like this?
Does this exist?
So, when I was in college I had an idea for a charity foundation I wanted to create. I didn't have a lot of money. I had student loans paying for 2/3 my tuition and the little bit of spending money I had was gained in short spurts back home or in my work-study.
Still, I really wanted to donate. When I saw a cause that was important to me, I tried to help however I could.
But I was embarrassed if all I could give was $5. All these other people were dropping $25, $30 like it was nothing, but for me even that $5 meant I might not have a full breakfast one morning, or maybe I would wait a little longer to get groceries. Or maybe, if it was the middle of the night and I was tired, I couldn't afford a Sprite from the machine as my small luxury.
So I had the idea of creating a charity. The idea was that I would identify small, workable goals all over the world wherever it was needed--whether that was Fiji or Russia or Peru or the US or wherever. And the goal would be to target people who could only donate small amounts. $5 would be the norm there, maybe even a large donation. There would be no time limit on the fundraising; it would go until we could raise the money.
Once the money was raised, (much like Charity: Water does) it would track the progress of the solution from purchasing whatever it is, to sending it, to the implementation. Pictures and stories and other pieces of a portfolio to show that, yes, this thing happened, and yes, you and your $1 were more than a part. You were integral.
The first idea I had for a goal was to get schoolbooks to a particular Muslim school in Fiji that I knew of through my host mom. She'd told me about how the building had a lot of issues and not all kids even had desks, and they didn't have many supplies, but the biggest concern at that time was that almost no one had textbooks. At the time, since she lived there I thought it would be easier for me to get her the supplies and ensure it would make its way to the correct school, and ensure we could get photographic proof we could bring back to the donors.
I thought that after that first project, I could figure out a way to ask around. It was important to me that we ASK what the problem was and (if possible) what the solution was thought to be by the people experiencing the problem, not just having this organization show up with something that wasn't that helpful for the people actually in need. No one on the outside will ever know as well the trials and necessities of someone on the inside.
When I was around 22, I started creating the website for the charity. But the problem was, although I had the idea I had none of the knowledge to back it up. And I definitely had none of the money. So I kept trying to work on it here and there until it went into the background and eventually faded away.
I forgot about it for years because I saw all sorts of other charities out there that were wonderful.
But I started thinking of it again with the current water.org fundraiser John Green is doing. I donated (of course) and noticed the typical variation in amount of donations-- and I was very moved by how this was a fundraiser meant to raise $100,000 over the course of 10 days, and in only a day and a half they had met the goal. Most people didn't go above $30, although of course some did. It was the power of a movement of many smaller pieces making a greater whole, which feels so special to me.
But in scrolling through the donation list, reading comments, I saw a number of $5 donations. My thought was how awesome those people were to donate when they probably didn't have a lot of money-- but when those people did leave comments, their view on it was how mine used to be. They said things like, "I wish I could give more" and one kid even said something like, "I'm a broke college student but I'm doing what I can."
It reminded me of when I'd been in that position, and what I thought people might think of me, and how that made me hesitate to get involved sometimes.
So, that was a long way of getting to my main question:
Does this sort of charity exist now?
It's been 10 years since I first got the idea, so surely someone else has done this by now. I would love to get a link to such a charity so I could make sure I get it on my list of charities to donate to whenever possible.
If it doesn't exist, that's a problem because I think it could be useful to have as an option for students and others with very limited incomes but who still want to help. And if it doesn't exist, I'll have to keep this idea with a hope of still managing a real world implementation sometime in the future.
I don't know how exactly I'd go about it, but at least one thing has changed since college: now I know people who are much more versed on non-profits than I am, so at least I would have some experts to consult.
The best thing would be if a charity like this is already around, though, because surely whoever is in charge of it would do a much better job than I ever would.
**************************
Incidentally, since I'm talking about charities anyway, I never pass up a chance to spread the word about my favorite charities I donate to whenever I can. (And of course I also donate to my alma mater when I can, because grants paid for the other 1/3 of my tuition so I want to help some other student like unknown alumni helped me.)
Best Friends Animal Society: http://bestfriends.org/
This place is incredible-- a 20,000 acre no-kill animal shelter (the largest of its kind which is also the largest shelter for homeless pets in the US). They rehabilitate animals, save animals from death in other shelters, adopt out pets as much as possible but let them live their lives in dignity if they can't be adopted, had a show called Dogtown on the National Geographic channel for a while, saved the Michael Vick dogs, and... well. I can't explain how much I love them.
More information at their FAQ: http://bestfriends.org/Who-We-Are/Fre...
More information on their work: http://bestfriends.org/What-We-Do/Our...
Or if you want a video, this is an episode of Dogtown as an example: http://youtu.be/yp8akb974_Q
Partners In Health: http://www.pih.org/
If you have not yet read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, you must read it. I love that book. It's what introduced me to Paul Farmer, a man who since then I have found to be a huge inspiration. Any time I try to explain their work, I do a terrible job. In short, they go to poverty-stricken areas with very poor access to clean, consistent, and safe health facilities, and they build free hospitals with quality medical care, as well as teach the local population (which is often highly rural) how to expand these efforts of safe health beyond the hospital grounds. They started in Haiti in the 1980's and have since started projects in countries around the world.
Again, awful job explaining how incredible they are, so go here to see their work yourself: http://www.pih.org/our-work
Or consider a quote from one of the co-founders:
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.”
—DR. PAUL FARMER
Charity: Water - http://www.charitywater.org/
If you were around for my 30th birthday, you know I donated that birthday to charity: water. One of the reasons I love this charity in particular is that 100% of donations goes straight to the goal and they follow up with you on where exactly your money is going, as well as give you pictures when it's done.
Wondering, why water? Go here and probably cry--but I hope, after that, you'll donate money or your birthday to help this cause: http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/
Find more about donating your birthday here: https://www.charitywater.org/birthdays/
By the way, for once I'm not even going to apologize for a long entry because, if anything deserves a lot of attention being paid to it, charity would be it.
Still, I really wanted to donate. When I saw a cause that was important to me, I tried to help however I could.
But I was embarrassed if all I could give was $5. All these other people were dropping $25, $30 like it was nothing, but for me even that $5 meant I might not have a full breakfast one morning, or maybe I would wait a little longer to get groceries. Or maybe, if it was the middle of the night and I was tired, I couldn't afford a Sprite from the machine as my small luxury.
So I had the idea of creating a charity. The idea was that I would identify small, workable goals all over the world wherever it was needed--whether that was Fiji or Russia or Peru or the US or wherever. And the goal would be to target people who could only donate small amounts. $5 would be the norm there, maybe even a large donation. There would be no time limit on the fundraising; it would go until we could raise the money.
Once the money was raised, (much like Charity: Water does) it would track the progress of the solution from purchasing whatever it is, to sending it, to the implementation. Pictures and stories and other pieces of a portfolio to show that, yes, this thing happened, and yes, you and your $1 were more than a part. You were integral.
The first idea I had for a goal was to get schoolbooks to a particular Muslim school in Fiji that I knew of through my host mom. She'd told me about how the building had a lot of issues and not all kids even had desks, and they didn't have many supplies, but the biggest concern at that time was that almost no one had textbooks. At the time, since she lived there I thought it would be easier for me to get her the supplies and ensure it would make its way to the correct school, and ensure we could get photographic proof we could bring back to the donors.
I thought that after that first project, I could figure out a way to ask around. It was important to me that we ASK what the problem was and (if possible) what the solution was thought to be by the people experiencing the problem, not just having this organization show up with something that wasn't that helpful for the people actually in need. No one on the outside will ever know as well the trials and necessities of someone on the inside.
When I was around 22, I started creating the website for the charity. But the problem was, although I had the idea I had none of the knowledge to back it up. And I definitely had none of the money. So I kept trying to work on it here and there until it went into the background and eventually faded away.
I forgot about it for years because I saw all sorts of other charities out there that were wonderful.
But I started thinking of it again with the current water.org fundraiser John Green is doing. I donated (of course) and noticed the typical variation in amount of donations-- and I was very moved by how this was a fundraiser meant to raise $100,000 over the course of 10 days, and in only a day and a half they had met the goal. Most people didn't go above $30, although of course some did. It was the power of a movement of many smaller pieces making a greater whole, which feels so special to me.
But in scrolling through the donation list, reading comments, I saw a number of $5 donations. My thought was how awesome those people were to donate when they probably didn't have a lot of money-- but when those people did leave comments, their view on it was how mine used to be. They said things like, "I wish I could give more" and one kid even said something like, "I'm a broke college student but I'm doing what I can."
It reminded me of when I'd been in that position, and what I thought people might think of me, and how that made me hesitate to get involved sometimes.
So, that was a long way of getting to my main question:
Does this sort of charity exist now?
It's been 10 years since I first got the idea, so surely someone else has done this by now. I would love to get a link to such a charity so I could make sure I get it on my list of charities to donate to whenever possible.
If it doesn't exist, that's a problem because I think it could be useful to have as an option for students and others with very limited incomes but who still want to help. And if it doesn't exist, I'll have to keep this idea with a hope of still managing a real world implementation sometime in the future.
I don't know how exactly I'd go about it, but at least one thing has changed since college: now I know people who are much more versed on non-profits than I am, so at least I would have some experts to consult.
The best thing would be if a charity like this is already around, though, because surely whoever is in charge of it would do a much better job than I ever would.
**************************
Incidentally, since I'm talking about charities anyway, I never pass up a chance to spread the word about my favorite charities I donate to whenever I can. (And of course I also donate to my alma mater when I can, because grants paid for the other 1/3 of my tuition so I want to help some other student like unknown alumni helped me.)
Best Friends Animal Society: http://bestfriends.org/
This place is incredible-- a 20,000 acre no-kill animal shelter (the largest of its kind which is also the largest shelter for homeless pets in the US). They rehabilitate animals, save animals from death in other shelters, adopt out pets as much as possible but let them live their lives in dignity if they can't be adopted, had a show called Dogtown on the National Geographic channel for a while, saved the Michael Vick dogs, and... well. I can't explain how much I love them.
More information at their FAQ: http://bestfriends.org/Who-We-Are/Fre...
More information on their work: http://bestfriends.org/What-We-Do/Our...
Or if you want a video, this is an episode of Dogtown as an example: http://youtu.be/yp8akb974_Q
Partners In Health: http://www.pih.org/
If you have not yet read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, you must read it. I love that book. It's what introduced me to Paul Farmer, a man who since then I have found to be a huge inspiration. Any time I try to explain their work, I do a terrible job. In short, they go to poverty-stricken areas with very poor access to clean, consistent, and safe health facilities, and they build free hospitals with quality medical care, as well as teach the local population (which is often highly rural) how to expand these efforts of safe health beyond the hospital grounds. They started in Haiti in the 1980's and have since started projects in countries around the world.
Again, awful job explaining how incredible they are, so go here to see their work yourself: http://www.pih.org/our-work
Or consider a quote from one of the co-founders:
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world.”
—DR. PAUL FARMER
Charity: Water - http://www.charitywater.org/
If you were around for my 30th birthday, you know I donated that birthday to charity: water. One of the reasons I love this charity in particular is that 100% of donations goes straight to the goal and they follow up with you on where exactly your money is going, as well as give you pictures when it's done.
Wondering, why water? Go here and probably cry--but I hope, after that, you'll donate money or your birthday to help this cause: http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/
Find more about donating your birthday here: https://www.charitywater.org/birthdays/
By the way, for once I'm not even going to apologize for a long entry because, if anything deserves a lot of attention being paid to it, charity would be it.
Charity campaign finished! Water installation in Nepal!
Some of you might remember that in 2013, I donated my 30th birthday for mycharity:water to help fund a project that would bring clean water to a village somewhere on the planet that really needed it.
I posted on my blog about it and with all of your help, we went past my goal! $210 was raised for my $200 goal.
mycharity:water has been keeping me up to date as time passed and I've been telling all of you what they say. I just got an email saying the project is complete!
Read about it at the Daduwa Community in Nepal project page! You'll find a bunch of pictures of people using the different gravity-fed taps that were built to bring clean water to the community, as well as a google map pinpointing the location.
Thanks to all of your help, 144 people now have access to clean water.
Thank you so much to anyone who donated to my fundraising campaign! I will likely do more in the future. And if you want to contribute to mycharity: water, they are an awesome campaign. 100% of donated funds go straight to these projects, and they do a fantastic job of keeping you up to date as the project progresses.
If you don't have money to donate but still want to help, consider donating your birthday.
I posted on my blog about it and with all of your help, we went past my goal! $210 was raised for my $200 goal.
mycharity:water has been keeping me up to date as time passed and I've been telling all of you what they say. I just got an email saying the project is complete!
Read about it at the Daduwa Community in Nepal project page! You'll find a bunch of pictures of people using the different gravity-fed taps that were built to bring clean water to the community, as well as a google map pinpointing the location.
Thanks to all of your help, 144 people now have access to clean water.
Thank you so much to anyone who donated to my fundraising campaign! I will likely do more in the future. And if you want to contribute to mycharity: water, they are an awesome campaign. 100% of donated funds go straight to these projects, and they do a fantastic job of keeping you up to date as the project progresses.
If you don't have money to donate but still want to help, consider donating your birthday.
Donating 32nd birthday for clean water; please help
I’m donating my 32nd birthday to raise $320 to help build clean water facilities through Charity: Water. Please help if you can, even just by clicking the link to read more information: https://my.charitywater.org/for-lucas. 100% of your donated money goes straight into building clean water facilities, so you know that every penny counts.
As you know if you've read my previous blog entries, 2 years ago I donated my 30th birthday and together we raised $210, which with other campaigns helped build a piped water system- tap stand in the Daduwa community in Nepal, which provided clean water to 144 people.
There’s more information at this year's campaign link (https://my.charitywater.org/for-lucas). I donated $32 to the campaign already to get it started. No matter how small an amount you may be able to donate, if you can donate (or share my campaign with others), will you please help? (If you can’t help me with my campaign, please consider donating your own birthday so that more people can get clean water in the end)
I started this campaign early in honor of World Water Day today.
As you know if you've read my previous blog entries, 2 years ago I donated my 30th birthday and together we raised $210, which with other campaigns helped build a piped water system- tap stand in the Daduwa community in Nepal, which provided clean water to 144 people.
There’s more information at this year's campaign link (https://my.charitywater.org/for-lucas). I donated $32 to the campaign already to get it started. No matter how small an amount you may be able to donate, if you can donate (or share my campaign with others), will you please help? (If you can’t help me with my campaign, please consider donating your own birthday so that more people can get clean water in the end)
I started this campaign early in honor of World Water Day today.
2015 charity: water campaign helped build clean water in Ethiopia :)
If you helped donate to my 2015 birthday fundraiser for charity: water, I wanted to let you know that I just received word that they finished the clean water project in Ethiopia! They built a hand-dug well in the Gereb Shagra community in Ethiopia, serving 200 people clean water they don't have to walk hours to get and they know won't be contaminated and won't make them sick!
I absolutely LOVE charity: water so I highly recommend you check them out if you haven't heard of them. One of the great things about them is you can donate your birthday (like I did in 2013 and 2015 and might do belatedly this year) and/or create your own fundraiser -- and then, charity: water pools fundraisers together to raise enough funds to build a clean water project somewhere in the world that truly needs it. You can also donate directly to charity: water.
More information on my tumblr for the 2015 project: http://ais-n.tumblr.com/post/16078455...
Charity water itself: https://www.charitywater.org/
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who donated in 2015! And to anyone who couldn't or who didn't know about it, please do check out charity: water because they're fan-freaking-tastic.
I absolutely LOVE charity: water so I highly recommend you check them out if you haven't heard of them. One of the great things about them is you can donate your birthday (like I did in 2013 and 2015 and might do belatedly this year) and/or create your own fundraiser -- and then, charity: water pools fundraisers together to raise enough funds to build a clean water project somewhere in the world that truly needs it. You can also donate directly to charity: water.
More information on my tumblr for the 2015 project: http://ais-n.tumblr.com/post/16078455...
Charity water itself: https://www.charitywater.org/
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who donated in 2015! And to anyone who couldn't or who didn't know about it, please do check out charity: water because they're fan-freaking-tastic.
