Showing posts with label fight poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fight poverty. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Wisdom of Mother Teresa on Orphans
Mother Teresa wrote her birthday as August 27 because it was the day of her baptism. It's coming up in a few weeks. What better way to celebrate her life, than by reading about it!
Michelle's family is currently in Kiev adopting a 16-year old girl named Maria. They're been spending the last week with other teens living in Maria's orphanage.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Quotes Mostly on Children, a Pinch on Poverty, a Smidgen on Life
What are some of your favorite quotes? In this season, I'm fixated by these.
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." — Albert Einstein
"To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life."- T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them." --U2 lead singer Bono on poverty
"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows." -- Isaiah 1:17
"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." - G. K Chesteron, Everlasting Man, 1925
"There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood." — Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea." -- Jesus, Matthew 18:2-6 NKJV
"The most interesting information come from children, for they tell all they know and then stop." — Mark Twain
"It is not necessarily those lands which are the most fertile or most favored climate that seem to me the happiest, but those in which a long stroke of adaptation between man and his environment has brought out the best qualities of both."- T. S. Eliot
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." — Albert Einstein
"To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life."- T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them." --U2 lead singer Bono on poverty
"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows." -- Isaiah 1:17
"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." - G. K Chesteron, Everlasting Man, 1925
"There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood." — Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea." -- Jesus, Matthew 18:2-6 NKJV
"The most interesting information come from children, for they tell all they know and then stop." — Mark Twain
"It is not necessarily those lands which are the most fertile or most favored climate that seem to me the happiest, but those in which a long stroke of adaptation between man and his environment has brought out the best qualities of both."- T. S. Eliot
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A Glimmer of Hope -- A Game Changing Strategy
Have you noticed the growing number of creative non-profits changing the face of how we go about helping the poor? As a generation X-er, I am thrilled! In the 80s, we saw western money dumped on Africa and not doing much good, because it slapped band-aides on the deeper problems. I'm ecstatic to see creative thinkers like Philip and Donna Berber think outside the box. The Berbers founded A Glimmer of Hope, and they're showing us a peek into how a game changing strategy can change lives in Ethiopia for the long haul.
Three weeks ago, I started a new job at Glimmer because of its strategy, it's powerhouse team and its work to lift women and children in Ethiopia out of poverty. As a soon-to-be adoptive mom with a child from Ethiopia -- you can see the attraction. With any non-profit, I want to see where my money goes, and with A Glimmer of Hope that's the best surprise! 100% goes to the project! The Berbers cover 100% of the non-profit's overhead expenses, so that donors money goes directly to building school rooms, health clinics, water wells and providing micro-finance loans in rural Ethiopia.
Plus, their projects "partner" with the local leaders in rural Ethiopian villages, instead of telling them what to do. Glimmer's long-term goal to fight poverty in Ethiopia means maintaining the dignity of the people and it's a game changer for the quality of life of women and children. For example, this year Glimmer will provide clean water to thousands by building 900 water wells in rural Ethiopia. Dirty water is the number one killer of children in the world -- about four million children under five die from just one water-borne disease. In 2009, Barron's listed Glimmer founders as the 6th most effective givers in the nation, (The Best 25 Givers, Nov.30, 2009). For adoptive families and donors interested in changes lives in Ethiopia, the Glimmer strategy makes sense when you're looking for the biggest bang for your buck.
Similarly, the ABBA Fund strategy empowers adoptive families to adopt by providing 0% interest loans to adoptive families. International adoption is expensive, but ABBA's interest-free loans is opening opportunities for all of us. These kinds of inventive funding tools and long term strategies are changing the face of the donor world, and I expect will take off like wild fire.
While the poor may always be with us, I hope we'll continue to learn to love them better by treating them like people made in the image of God, instead of the faceless masses. Let hope grow. Let us love better.
Three weeks ago, I started a new job at Glimmer because of its strategy, it's powerhouse team and its work to lift women and children in Ethiopia out of poverty. As a soon-to-be adoptive mom with a child from Ethiopia -- you can see the attraction. With any non-profit, I want to see where my money goes, and with A Glimmer of Hope that's the best surprise! 100% goes to the project! The Berbers cover 100% of the non-profit's overhead expenses, so that donors money goes directly to building school rooms, health clinics, water wells and providing micro-finance loans in rural Ethiopia.
Plus, their projects "partner" with the local leaders in rural Ethiopian villages, instead of telling them what to do. Glimmer's long-term goal to fight poverty in Ethiopia means maintaining the dignity of the people and it's a game changer for the quality of life of women and children. For example, this year Glimmer will provide clean water to thousands by building 900 water wells in rural Ethiopia. Dirty water is the number one killer of children in the world -- about four million children under five die from just one water-borne disease. In 2009, Barron's listed Glimmer founders as the 6th most effective givers in the nation, (The Best 25 Givers, Nov.30, 2009). For adoptive families and donors interested in changes lives in Ethiopia, the Glimmer strategy makes sense when you're looking for the biggest bang for your buck.
Similarly, the ABBA Fund strategy empowers adoptive families to adopt by providing 0% interest loans to adoptive families. International adoption is expensive, but ABBA's interest-free loans is opening opportunities for all of us. These kinds of inventive funding tools and long term strategies are changing the face of the donor world, and I expect will take off like wild fire.
While the poor may always be with us, I hope we'll continue to learn to love them better by treating them like people made in the image of God, instead of the faceless masses. Let hope grow. Let us love better.
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