ChangeAction.org random header image

Entries from March 31st, 2009

Watch The Lights Go Out For Earth Hour

March 31st, 2009 1 Comment

Fun, fun, fun! Click the photos to watch the lights go out all around the world for Earth Hour 2009.

Tags:   ·

The Trickle-Down for Migrant Workers

March 29th, 2009 No Comments

Nicholas Kristof’s column in today’s New York Times touches on another effect of the global recession: as unemployment rates in the developed world rise, jobless migrant workers are unable to send money to their families back home. The result is growing poverty, homelessness and hunger in the the third world, and enormous strain on organizations trying to meet basic human needs. The Wall Street Journal reports that migrant workers’ remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are down for the first time since 2000. In the Philippines economists expect the flow of remittances from migrant workers to contract by as much as $100 million this year. And, amid fears of massive social instability caused by loss of remissions from migrant workers, the government of Bangladesh is urging the Malaysian government to reverse it’s decision to revoke 55,000 Bangladeshi migrants’ visas.

In fact, the economic crisis is hitting migrants and their families especially hard. Within China, where rural Chinese migrants have fueled the development of major Chinese cities, more than 23 million Chinese migrants are now unemployed. Meanwhile, unemployed migrant workers are facing tough choices: return home, move to other areas to wait out the recession, or remain in foreign countries where they are more and more unwelcome and where conditions are becoming increasingly hostile. And even those choices are more limited now: the global recession is leading some counties to restrict immigration, there are fewer and fewer even relatively healthy economies to migrate to, and returning migrant workers are swelling the numbers of poor and unemployed at home.

Arguing that migrants are “likely to be especially vulnerable to abuse and attacks when jobs become more scarce”, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, is urging governments to include provisions to protect migrant workers in their economic stimulus packages. According to Pillay, a former High Court judge from South Africa, where more than 60 people were killed in a blacklash against foreign workers triggered by high unemployment, “Protection of the rights of migrants in terms of their working and living conditions, and in the event of loss of employment, should be integrated in responses to the crises. Crucially, no efforts should be spared to protect migrants from discrimination and xenophobia.”

Wondering how to help?

  • For the next three days, you can be part of drafting a communique telling the G20 nations what you think their most important priorities for economic recovery should be. Make sure that dignity and safety for migrant workers is part of the program by adding your ideas here.
  • Finally, don’t forget about Free Rice. It’s free, it’ll make you smarter and it helps feed hungry people all at the same time.

Tags:   · · · ·

Tonight, the Earth Goes Dark…

March 28th, 2009 3 Comments

EH_A2_Template_FINAL.indd

Tonight the lights on the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis in Athens, the Empire State Building in New York and in millions of houses around the world will go dark. Why? Because all around the world at 8:30 p.m. local time, it’s Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund organized event urging communities and citizens across the globe to vote for the Earth and against climate change by turning off their lights for one hour. So far nearly four thousand cities spanning the globe as well as millions of individual participants are planning to participate. The results will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year.

Earth hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and grew to an event with over 50 million participants in 2008. This year’s goal is for 1 billion global citizens to participate. If you’d like to join in, visit the Earth Hour website. Make sure you sign-up so you can be counted. You’ll find tools for spreading the word, including a blogger tool kit, as well as ideas for what to do once you turn the lights out (!) on the Take Action page. And here’s the very inspirational Earth Hour 2009 video to help get you motivated.

Updates:

Here’s a nice piece from the Huffington Post highlighting Earth Hour events as they roll around the world, beginning in Australia and New Zealand and including Beijing’s plans to darken the famous Bird’s Nest stadium and Las Vegas’s plans to darken it’s famous strip.

3/29/09 Here’s the AP wrap of the event with some nice before and after photos as the lights were dimmed at some of the world’s most famous landmarks.

3/31/09 Update.

Tags:   · · ·

Gonaïves – Living in a Sea of Mud, and Drowning in Dread

March 24th, 2009 No Comments

Gonaïves Journal – Living in a Sea of Mud, and Drowning in Dread

Sad story here, reported by the New York Times. With rain and hurricane seasons just around the corner, residents in Gonaïves in Haiti have made little progress cleaning up after the devastation of last year’s string of hurricanes and are living in fear of the next big storm. You can see what it looks like here and here and here.

If you’d like to help, here are some organizations trying to make a difference:

Fonkoze

UNICEF

Hands On Disaster Response

The World Food Program

Tags:   · · ·

When a Period Ends More Than A Sentence

March 23rd, 2009 No Comments

When a Period Ends More Than A Sentence

Here’s a piece from the Huffington post on another challenge facing women and girls. Globally, the lack of access to safe and affordable sanitary supplies combined with the taboo of menstruation means low-income women and girls are missing days of work and school at rates that have a significant impact on their families’ economic prospects and their countries’ gross domestic product. Since educating women and girls has a major impact on reducing poverty, this problem is a serious obstacle in efforts to raise economic standards in developing countries.

Here are two organizations using unique strategies to help solve the problem:

Sustainable Health Enterprises

Zana Africa

Tags:   · · · · · ·

In Honor of Omidreza Mirsayafi, Stand Up for Press Freedom

March 22nd, 2009 No Comments

The Guardian reports that 29 year-old Omidreza Mirsayafi died in Tehran’s Evin prison on Wednesday, a little over a month after an Iranian judge gave him a two-and-a-half year sentence for posting comments on his blog about Iranian leaders. According to the Guardian,

Details of Mirsayafi’s deterioration in prison were given by Hesam Firoozi, an imprisoned doctor who witnessed his treatment. Firoozi, who has treated some of Iran’s best-known political activists, told Mirsayafi’s lawyer that medical staff had denied him proper care by failing to send him to hospital.

In addition to Iran, during the past year other nations including Egypt, Russia, China and Myanmar have imprisoned bloggers for their writing. In honor of these imprisoned journalists, to advocate for their release, and to keep them from being forgotten, here are some ways to take action:

Tags:   · · · · · · · · ·

Water = Life : World Water Day 2009

March 22nd, 2009 No Comments

150x100banner

Today is World Water Day 2009, and according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, nearly 1 billion of the world’s people live without access to clean water, and about 4 million die each year because of waterborne illnesses. Women and children in Africa walk an average of 3.7 miles each day to collect water for their families. And every 15 seconds a child dies from disease caused by lack of fresh water and the inadequate sanitation that it causes. Diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, are on the rise, especially in Africa. And global warming is making the problem worse because of increased frequency and intensity of flooding and resulting contamination of water supplies.

Meanwhile, the U.N. warns that by 2030, nearly half of the world’s people will be living in areas of acute water shortage caused by increased population, rising living standards, dietary changes and biofuel production. Already, water issues are complicating factors in Darfur and the Arab-Israeli conflict. North Africa and the Middle East have already reached the limits of their water resources, and with world population expected to increase by 2 billion by 2050, the pressure on global water supplies is only going to intensify.

In the U.S., trouble is brewing over drought conditions and water rights in the West, while all over the country activists and communities are fighting the bottled water industry to prevent privatization of water supplies and depletion of local water resources.

But, it’s not all bad news in the world of water. The U.N. says Uganda and Turkey have had success with new water management programs, and that the goal of halving the population that doesn’t have access to clean drinking water by 2015 will be met, except in sub-Saharan Africa. And hardworking organizations around the world are successfully implementing programs and strategies for solving water problems in some of the hardest hit areas.

So, to honor World Water Day, what can you do? Quite a lot, it turns out.

  • Take action right now to protect local and global water resources, and save lives that are endangered from inadequate water supplies:
    • Donate
      • WaterPartners International is a U.S.-based nonprofit that provides safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. Working in partnership with donors and local communities, they develop community-level water supplies, offering traditional, grant-funded programs and micro-finance programs to address the world water crisis.
      • Charity: Water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Your $20 to charity:water can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.
      • Blood: Water Mission began by funding a late stage AIDS hospice and discovered the vital link between living with HIV/AIDS and the need for clean water. As a result, Blood:Water Mission has partnered with more than 600 communities in Africa, providing water and health needs for almost 500,000 people. Along the way the 1000 Wells Project has expanded  to include a variety of clean water solutions and sanitation and hygiene training, as well as funding health clinics, community health workers, and support groups, which help in the prevention, treatment, care and support of communities affected by AIDS.
      • WaterAidAmerica enables the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. They work with local partners and provide them with the skills and support to help communities set up and manage sustainable projects that meet community needs. They also campaign locally and internationally to change policy and practice and ensure water and sanitation’s vital role in reducing poverty is recognized.
  • Connect with other individuals and organizations working for local and global water security:
  • Play, and the world wins!
    • H2Opia is a Facebook game application. Build and maintain a second home in a beautiful underwater utopia. Based on your participation in the H2Opian world, the developers of H2Opia will make monthly donations to support WaterAid’s mission of providing clean water and sanitation to people in need around the world.

Tags:   · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

What You Can Do For Your Country

March 17th, 2009 2 Comments

Congress is preparing to expand service programs in the U.S., more than tripling the number the AmeriCorps positions, and creating other new volunteer opportunities and programs. The bill would provide $5 billion over five years for living expenses and educational stipends for people of all ages to volunteer in the fields of health care, energy, education and the environment. An expanded service program would create work opportunities in the shrinking job market, plug some of the holes in the suffering nonprofit sector, and make a dent in addressing social and environmental challenges in the U.S. And as the largest U.S. commitment to civil service since the New Deal, it would boost the culture of service, creating a large new corps of Americans who are more likely to continue to serve their communities in the future.

You can help to make sure that the U.S. receives this much needed infusion of civic participation by signing on to become a co-sponsor of the legislation, urging your Congressional representatives to pass the bill. ServiceNation makes it easy for you to do that here. If you’re ready to serve, you can explore service opportunities here. And you can keep the momentum going and help ignite America’s civic spirit by spreading the word.


Tags:   · · · · ·

The Crisis Within The Crisis: Homelessness and Hunger

March 14th, 2009 2 Comments

It’s no surprise that the global economic crisis is hitting the word’s poor and economically vulnerable the hardest. As Sonni Efron wrote in Thursday’s LA Times, jobs and income are receding, while food prices are not, leaving people in the poorest parts of the world even hungrier. Public and private resources for feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless are decreasing, while the need for assistance is growing. In the U.S., where homeless shelters are full to overflowing, tent cities have popped up in places like Reno and Sacramento, while the “hidden homeless” live on friends couches, in their cars, or in motel rooms. As families line up to receive food assistance,  soup kitchens struggle to keep up with the demand. Though the U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes funding for homeless prevention and re-housing, a temporary extension of the food stamp program, and other provisions for “protecting the vulnerable”, it will take time for the funding to make its way to communities and to have an impact. And while the federal funds should help, they will still be inadequate to meet the needs of America’s poor. Meanwhile, other governments have done little so far in the way of economic recovery efforts, and developing nations will continue to be unable to take care of their poorest citizens.

So what’s a concerned citizen to do?

But if you’re experiencing your own economic crisis, there are still things you can do to make a difference.

  • Free Rice is a knowledge building game. For each answer that you get right in categories like vocabulary, math, geography or art, Free Rice donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program. So far, donors have contributed more than 61 billion grains of rice. You can get smarter, impress your friends and fight hunger at the same time!
  • At the Hunger Site, just click and sponsors donate staple foods that are distributed by Mercy Corps and Feeding America. For each click, two cups of food are donated. Last year, 8,279,486 pounds of food were distributed as a result of clicks at the Hunger Site.
  • Add this search engine to your IE or Firefox search box and use it whenever you search the web. You can designate the National Alliance to End Homelessness to receive a donation every time you search. Or use this link to access the online shopping portal GoodShop to shop at stores like Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble. Choose the National Alliance to End Homelessness and they’ll earn money for every purchase you make, with no additional cost to you.
  • The Mercy Corps Action Center has links to hunger and poverty fighting actions requiring time commitments of anywhere from one minute to a lifetime. There you can also train for action against hunger and poverty by learning about the problems that cause hunger and strategies for approaching them. And if you live in or are visiting New York, you can visit the Action Center, an interactive public space that “educates and empowers visitors to tackle the challenges posed by hunger and poverty”.
  • Finally, volunteer. Not only will you be helping others who are in need of a hand up, you’ll be doing something good for yourself as well, especially if you’re unemployed or struggling yourself. Search VolunteerMatch, Idealist.org, Volunteer Solutions, or Network For Good using the keyword “hunger”, “food”, “homeless” or “housing” to find soup kitchens, food banks and homeless shelters in your area. You can also find homeless shelters here, food banks here, and soup kitchens by searching for “soup kitchen” here.

Tags:   · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Billion Bag Pledge

March 14th, 2009 No Comments

Last year Americans alone used over 100 billion plastic shopping bags. Blue Avacado has created a campaign to try to make a dent in that (and to save millions of pounds of global warming causing carbon gasses) by getting Americans to take the pledge to “get off the plastic”. Visit their website to learn more about the positive impact of reusable bags, to take the pledge, and even to get help remembering to bring your bags with you when you shop.

Tags:   ·