Hope from Testimony

Kenyan company Ushahidi is a free, open source or shared platform designed to crowdsource (use a community or large group of people to accomplish particular goals), amass and map crisis information from numerous sources in real time, including via text message, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, media sources and e-mail. Ushahidi can thus track real-time information, but it also puts that information into context by aggregating, categorizing and mapping what has been reported. In Haiti, Ushahidi introduced the 4636 SMS short code so individuals there could send free text messages with their location and need, and to report emergency information. Ushahidi's technology has also helped citizen participation initiatives and monitoring in elections in India, Argentina, Mozambique and Venezuela. But in addition to reporting vote-tampering, it can also be used to report violence, or any event or incident. In Russia in August, for example, it was used to establish a "map of help" to solicit volunteers needed after the wildfires, and it has been used in the USA to track crime in Atlanta. In its own words, "Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories."

Helping AIDS Children Reach Their Full Potential

One of the consequences of the AIDS pandemic is the estimated 15 million or more children worldwide under the age of 18 who have been orphaned as a result of the disease. In response to this huge problem, in 2000 Dr. Sunette Pienaar Steyn founded Heartbeat. Heartbeat is a non-profit organization whose stated missions is: "To empower orphaned and vulnerable children to reach their full potential through quality service provision, development and capacity building." This translates into helping children access water, electricity, housing, schooling and government grants. Since its inception, Heartbeat has cared directly or indirectly for 54,000 orphans and vulnerable children.
Consider making an in-kind donation to Heartbeat in the form of new or used clothing or household goods, toiletries and candy, as well as school supplies as it's back-to-school time. Contact Heartbeat's Karina Swann at karina@heartbeat.org.za regarding in-kind contributions.

Preserving Coral Reefs

A group of six countries in Oceania - Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste - have agreed to develop a roadmap and plan of action, called the Coral Triangle Initiative, to preserve their coral reefs. The area, which covers over 2 million square miles of ocean, encompases more than 50% of the planet's reefs and holds 500 reef-building coral species, about 75% of all known species. Yet the region has among the highest human population density and growth in the world, straining coastal resources with high demands for tuna, shark fin, turtle products and live reef fish. Thus saving the coral triangle is becoming an urgent concern.

Ideas of what you can do to help:

- travel with the WWF to support their conservation work

- go to the WWF's Conservation Action Network to take specific action to save life on Earth

- make a Guardian Gift donation

More information is available from the WWF.

Just for Smiles

A Swiss non-profit, public service Foundation, Just for Smiles (www.just4smiles.ch/) was founded to give polyhandicapped persons a chance to enjoy the outdoors and experience environments and sensations they are unfamiliar with. In the Foundation's words, it was created to offer joy to those whose multiple handicaps confine them all too often to their wheelchairs and to indoor environments. And yet the founders affirm that the Foundation's real gift is that received from the handicapped people themselves, who demonstrate courage and the will to live. Activities proposed include skiing (tandemski and dual ski) and sailing, available free of charge to the residents of Switzerland's 120 institutions for the disabled.

To give the gift of fresh air and smiles, contact Just for Smiles.

Greater Balance and Joy in Education

The good news on the education front is that there is great momentum building among teachers across the United States (and abroad) to bring a more balanced and joyful approach to the education of children. I feel fortunate to work with an organization (the Northeast Foundation for Children) that is making a positive impact in the lives of children and adults. We are a mission-driven foundation that strives to create joyful and challenging schools, where equal emphasis is placed on social and academic curriculum. Our approach to teaching is known as the Responsive Classroom approach, and we believe that children’s (and adults’) best learning occurs in social contexts, and that schools have a responsibility to teach the skills needed for living and learning in community (skills like cooperation, assertion, empathy, self-control and responsibility).

This type of approach is very much needed in the stardards-based and testing-focused educational climate of today. When we work with teachers and schools, it’s as if we are giving them the skills and permission “to teach,” versus “preparing children to take a test.” In a workshop a few years ago, I had the privilege of working with a group of teachers and a parent who had traveled from Israel to Nashville, TN to learn more about Responsive Classroom. During the course of the week, these women shared poignant stories about how Responsive Classroom practices, like daily Morning Meetings that provide opportunities for students to become know and to know others, were helping to plant seeds of hope and compassion among students, families and the larger community. I hear similar stories of hope and inspiration every day from teachers across the country.

Insects to Feed the World?

Most of the world eats insects - only in North America, Europe and Australia do people not usually include this staple in their diets. Yet insects as food provide quality nutrients (protein, omega-3 fatty acids, minerals and vitamins) and are an excellent environmentally and ecologically beneficial alternative to the production of expensive beef and other animal meats. Currently 70% of agricultural land is used for the production of meat. So were more of that land used to farm certain insects, the amount of food produced would increase. Consider the fact that 10 kilos of feed produce 1 kilo of beef or 9 kilos of locusts, a large grasshopper. So with one-sixth of the world's population considered malnourished, dragonflies, waterbugs, termites, caterpillars and as many as 1,000 different insect species could well supplement the 10 or so animals usually eaten in the West.

But attitudes about eating insects must change in the parts of the world where they are not normally consumed, if they are to contribute widely to the global diet. Yet according to Professor Marcel Dicke at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, even in the West about 500 grams of insects per year are eaten per person. Insect parts can be found in tomato juice, soup or ketchup, in chocolate and in peanut butter - in fact in most processed foods. Thus changing our attitudes should not be too difficult.

Ant or beetle, anyone?

Voluntary Worldwide Efforts to Curb Nuclear Weapons

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), consisting in a group of nuclear supplier nations, aims "to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear related exports." The Guidelines seek "to ensure that nuclear trade for peaceful purposes does not contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices which would hinder international trade and cooperation in the nuclear field. The NSG Guidelines facilitate the development of trade in this area by providing the means whereby obligations to facilitate peaceful nuclear cooperation can be implemented in a manner consistent with international nuclear non-proliferation norms." Current NSG participating governments are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) prohibits shipments of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, as well as missiles and other materials that could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, to terrorists and potential country proliferators. When the initiative was announced in 2003, 10 countries, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, joined the US's effort to define and promote the regime. Today 80 more countries, including Russia, have committed to this voluntary call to action, intercepting items of proliferation concern at sea, on land and in the air before they reach their final destination.

Launched by the US and Russian presidents in 2006, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism fosters wide cooperation in an international partnership against the acquisition, transportation and use of nuclear materials and radioactive substances.

Granted, the results of these and other efforts are difficult to assess, but such voluntary threat-reduction actions show countries can collaborate in an important area traditionally associated with national sovereignty.

In Fast-Growing Asia, New Attention on Quality Over Quantity

Automakers received an unexpected boost in August, when Asian sales surged thanks to variations on the American "cash for clunkers" scheme to encourage consumers to turn in old gas guzzlers and buy new, cleaner models. The US plan, you may recall, was designed in part to help rescue the American auto industry, but ended up doing more to boost sales of Japanese and Korean cars. So Tokyo decided in April to offer consumers rebates if they would also purchase new hybrid cars. And in June, China followed suit, offering even larger subsidies to consumers in five cities that bought more environmentally friendly cars.

More than just a plan to revive domestic auto sales, the moves are part of a broader shift among Asian policy makers from pursuing economic growth at all costs to promoting what is widely known as "green growth." Asian governments used to focus almost exclusively on GDP growth as the barometer of policy success, but as rapid development creates growing environmental and social stresses, more policy makers are focusing on how to make their economies better, and not just bigger. Fast-growing economies in which citizens face crippling pollution and destabilizing disparities in income aren't necessarily healthier economies. So governments are quickly bringing sustainable growth, once a rallying cry for non-governmental organizations, into the policy mainstream.

Some Good News from Pakistan

Edhi Foundation, a reputable non-profit NGO, has been providing social services in Pakistan since 1951, including direct humanitarian assistance. The Foundation is currently delivering basic items of food, water and essentials (blankets, soap, mosquito nets) to the country's flood affected areas. Its typical aid includes sheltering abandoned babies, providing homes for the destitute or mentally ill and safe houses for abused women, offering food, medicine, clothing and other supplies to the needy at Edhi's 300 service centers, administering first aid to accident victims, and maintaining a fleet of ambulances that transports over one million people per year to hospitals, among other services. Edhi also collects blood from volunteer donors which it then gives free of charge to hospitals for heart surgery and other major operations for the poor. In addition to all of this, the Edhi Foundation provides services to refugees from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Burma, Nepal and Uganda, among other countries.

As the Foundation's work is geared towards the masses, donations from religious organizations, governments or relief agencies are not accepted. Instead, it operates on donations from individuals and businesses, and in-kind contributions. Consider a donation through one of Edhi Foundation's offices or contact the NGO at
edhikarachi@hotmail.com