Harry Styles’ Reminder to “Treat People With Kindness”

Former One Direction band member Harry Styles, currently a solo singer, songwriter and actor, recently finished a nearly year-long tour for his debut album, “Harry Styles.” He toured across the globe, making nearly 90 stops including Paris, Bangkok, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. The tour took close to ten months to finish. At each of his concerts, Styles had a merchandise stand with products that bore his slogan “Treat People With Kindness.” All of the merchandise profits, as well as a portion of the ticket sales, went to various local charities from cities at his tour stops. His tour raised $1.2 million for 62 global charities. By supporting these global charities, Harry Styles sends a reminder to treat people with kindness. Here are several of the 62 global charities that Styles supported on his world tour:

The Munich Refugee Council: Munich, Germany

Styles’ concert in Munich supported the Munich Refugee Council, an organization that has been working for the rights of refugees in Munich and other cities. Their work includes sensitizing the public and politicians to the living situation of refugees and working with others for a more welcoming society. The council also operates a project called Infobus for Refugees, which provides native-language counseling on asylum procedures and prepares refugees for hearings before first admissions.

Help Refugees: London, England

Help Refugees is known as “one of the unsung heroes of the European refugee crisis.” By working with small but effective groups and organizations, Help Refugees responds where the need is greatest by providing food, clothing, shelter or funding. Some of the most needed items that the organization provides include socks, underwear, razors, blankets, kids shoes, rain ponchos and pants.  

The Melbourne City Mission: Melbourne, Australia

Styles also toured in multiple cities in Australia. One of the Australian charities he supported was the Melbourne City Mission, which offers many services to support those in need in Melbourne and Victoria. The mission is Victoria’s largest source of homelessness services for those under the age of 24.

The Hub: Hong Kong, China

The mission of Hong Kong’s The Hub is to “give children in our society who are experiencing difficult circumstances an equal opportunity to become valuable members of the community.” The Hub is a support center that provides educational support, extracurriculars, counseling and health services to those who are most in need. 

The Chile Fund Against Hunger and Poverty: Santiago, Chile

While touring in South America, Styles donated to a number of poverty charities, including The Chile Fund Against Hunger and Poverty in Santiago, Chile. This fund was established by the Government of Chile and the United Nations Development Program to combat hunger and poverty. 

Forgotten Harvest in Detroit, Michigan

Styles toured in nearly 20 cities in North America. While in Detroit, Styles supported Forgotten Harvest, an organization dedicated to relieving hunger in metro-Detroit while preventing food waste. In 2017, approximately 589,000 people faced food insecurity in metro-Detroit. Rather than have food wasted, Forgotten Harvest receives food donations from 800 businesses and 250 emergency food providers. In 2016, this added up to 45.8 million pounds of food donated to those in need instead of ending up in a landfill.

Harry Styles’ merchandise mantra “Treat People With Kindness” has many meanings behind it. Making an extra effort each day to treat others with kindness can make a world of difference, especially for marginalized and impoverished people who rarely experience it. 

After his final tour stop in Los Angeles last month, Harry Styles posted a photo on his Instagram with the caption, “Thank you for coming out to see us, it has been a pleasure playing for you all…Treat people with kindness. Goodbye for now. I love you all. H.”

– Ariane Komyati
Photo: Google

Beyonce, Jay-Z To Headline Global Citizen Mandela 100 Festival

Singer Beyonce and her spouse, rapper Jay-Z, will be among several major artists to perform at Global Citizen’s Mandela 100 Festival in December 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Other artists scheduled to perform are Ed Sheeran, Chris Martin, Pharrell Williams, D’banj, Femi Kuti, Sho Madjozi, Tiwa Savage and Wizkid. This latest concert campaign is said to be Global Citizen’s ”biggest campaign on the Global Goals to end extreme poverty ever.”

According to Global Citizen, the festival is to represent a celebration of Mandela’s legacy as an exemplary leader, his fight against apartheid, and his methods of non-violent protest that shaped the future of South Africa, setting an example worldwide. The Mandela 100 festival will be the first-ever musical event organized by Global Citizen in Africa

 A Global Initiative

As an organization that is composed of members worldwide, Global Citizen is a model example of a successful nongovernmental organization (NGO), a true grassroots movement. The organization has projected some major numbers for 2018: an estimated 2.25 billion people worldwide are expected to receive some form of poverty relief from Global Citizen, ranging from a year of free education for children to clean water for an entire community.

Global Citizen divides its goals into nine separate categories, each representing a broad set of issues that need to be resolved. They are:

• Girls and Women
• Health
• Finance/Innovation
• Education
• Food and Hunger
• Water and Sanitation
• Environment
• Citizenship

Global Citizen’s goal is to eliminate extreme poverty worldwide by 2030—just 12 years from now. And it seems that the organization may accomplish its goals, having secured a whopping $2.9 billion in funding from government organizations worldwide for 2018 alone.

How Everyone Can Help

But besides relying on funding from government bodies, Global Citizen asks that individuals take action as well, through twitter, email or petition. Global Citizen’s website offers a streamlined way for its constituents to influence representatives not only in their own country but in countries worldwide.

Some of the most recent and significant contributions to Global Citizen have come from the U.K., Norway and the E.U. These nations gave £225 million, Kr.2.07 billion and  €337.5 million to Global Citizen’s Global Partnership for Education project, respectively.

Mandela 100 Festival: A Festival For The People

The Mandela 100 Festival begins on December 2, 2018, and besides the proceeds going toward Global Citizen’s international fight against poverty, the other goal of the festival experience is to ignite a passion in young people to feel empowered to make changes in the world. Global Citizen wants to involve youth, on an international level, in the fight against extreme poverty.

Global Citizen’s website states it wishes to “galvanize young, passionate people across Africa to pressure their leaders to make important strides.” In fact, the motto for the festival is “Be The Generation.” Considering that Global Citizen is expecting to end abject poverty worldwide in little over a decade, millennials may just become the generation to tip the scales in the ongoing fight to elevate all members of our global community.

– Jason Crosby
Photo: Google

Christian Dior Supports Education in Kenya

Pledging to donate up to $250,000, the French fashion brand, Christian Dior, supports education in Kenya behind ‘WE Charity’, a benevolent division of the Canadian association ‘WE Movement’ with the “Dior Love Chain”. Their movement is in support of work for WE Schools in Kenya.

Executing their advocacy with collaborative programs both globally and domestically, WE Charity is a global charity and educational partner based in Canada.

WE Charity partners with communities to implement WE Villages, a holistic, five-pillar international development model designed to achieve sustainable growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Presently providing services in Kenya, rural China, Sierra Leone, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Haiti and India, WE Villages is an advocate for community development in areas where there are excessive amounts of child labor, exploitation of children and a lack of opportunities for the girl child.

Within the five-pillar model they help provide education, installations of clean water sites and health clinics. WE Villages also provides food in school gardens, for families and in schools with help from founding partner PotashCor. Finally, it assists parents, especially moms, by innovating new economic opportunities through leadership sessions, financial literacy workshops and vocational training.

WE Charity’s goal is aimed at providing Kenyan girls with an education. Each post in the Dior Love Chain will offer the opportunity to donate one dollar to WE Charity by the Dior house, Parfums Christian Dior. The Dior Love Chain campaign is using all social media networks as the platform and is up to almost $40,000 worth of uploads.

With a commercial video posted to Twitter, Instagram and Weibo, Dior supports education in Kenya by inviting all social media users to upload their own artistic expression in answering, “And you? What would you do for love?” with a video or photo.

The commercial opens with dialogue exchange as the campaign called to their muses and house friends. Stars featured to advocate the initiative include Rihanna, Carine Roitfeld, Bella Hadid, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Winnie Harlow and Jennifer Lawrence to name a few.

Each post uploaded to the listed platforms and “hashtagged” #DiorLoveChain will be considered for publishing to Dior.com by the campaign and will run up until December 31, 2017.

– Jalil Perry

Photo: Flickr

Nathan Fillion Supports the Sawla Children’s Home

Actor Nathan Fillion spent much of July 17 on Twitter personally thanking donors to the Sawla Children’s Home. In May, he announced the chance to “Win A Shiny Birthday Lunch” through a special Prizeo sweepstakes. Everyone who donated $10 or more was entered to win a ticket to Los Angeles and Facetime with Fillion on his birthday.

With true fundraising prowess, Fillion offered a slew of services to his donors, including thank you videos, voicemail messages, merchandise and personal tweets. Close to 1200 donors left comments on Prizeo thanking Fillion for supporting Sawla Children’s Home.

The International Assistance Program
The Sawla Children’s Home is one of the six main projects of the International Assistance Program, also known as iAssist. iAssist is a faith-based nonprofit which seeks to meet the needs of impoverished communities. In addition to the Children’s Home in Ghana, they sponsor a school for indigenous Guatemalans, a loan agency in Ethiopia, family services in Costa Rica and international sustainable water solutions.

Problems Facing Children’s Homes in Ghana
According to a report by the Department of Social Welfare, child care across Ghana suffers from institutional failures. Many children’s homes are unauthorized by the government, under-trained and use unreliable sources of income. They also have unreliable strategies for transitioning residents out of foster care. This is partly because Ghana lacks quality training programs and the government has an overall lack of political will to institute changes. As a result, the local communities are disinterested in supporting children’s homes. The DSW also reports cases of neglect within existing facilities.

Sawla Children’s Sustainable Practices
The Sawla Children’s Home began in 2007. Ten years later, they report well-fed, healthy residents who are excelling in school and impacting their local community. As a successful facility, the Sawla Children’s Home models unique strategies that help to overcome the institutional failures common in Ghana.

This success is largely due to its sustainability initiatives. Three main projects support the Children’s Home: farming, a tractor business and a van business.

• Van business: The Sawla Children’s Home owns a 15-passenger van. The van becomes a sort of taxi for local points of interest. In particular, the van regularly takes tourists to the region’s national parks.
• Tractor business: In addition to selling surplus crops at the local market, Sawla Children’s Home contributes to food security in the region by leasing their tractor. When it is not in use, the tractor travels to local farms as a method of generating revenue. The secondary consequence is that all farms in the region are able to produce more crops.
• Farming: The Sawla Children’s Home uses a 20-acre farm to grow maize, yams, cashews and mangoes. They use these crops to feed residents and sell the surplus. This also teaches residences basic agricultural principles that can be used when they exit the program.

How Sustainability Overcomes Institutional Failures
These sustainable initiatives are an important tactic for overcoming institutional failures common throughout Ghana. First, they provide reliable sources of income. Second, they teach residents practical life skills like farming and business. Third, they foster respect for the local community.

In turn, this means that the Sawla Children’s Home can afford trained staff members. Access to quality nutrition gives students an advantage in school. That advantage, along with the skills they learn from these initiatives, aides in transitioning into the community. Finally, as residents leave the Children’s Home successfully, they will place a higher value on their experiences. This means that when they become community members, they are more likely to promote the interests of the foster care sector and overcome stigmas preventing the community from caring for its orphans.

– Brandon J. White

Photo: Flickr

Rihanna Raises Five Million Dollars at Annual Diamond Ball

Robyn Fenty, popularly known as Rihanna, hosted the Diamond Ball with the help of Dave Chappelle on September 14th, 2017. The event occurred at Cipriani Wall Street, and this was her first time hosting the ball in New York City. The charity event raised over five million dollars for the health and education initiatives of the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) for the Caribbean Islands and Malawi. The CLF promotes innovative education, health and emergency response programs around the world.

The CLF actively participates in global advocacy with the goal of improving the quality of life for young people everywhere. The CLF’s current agendas are involved with the Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program, the Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados and the Barbados Micro Grants Program.

The director of the Clara Lionel Foundation, Justine Lucas, mentioned at the event that they were one of the first few organizations to aid Hurricane Harvey victims. They are also planning to invest in Irma recovery.

While the charity event was by invitation only, Rihanna’s family and many notable celebrities attended in support of the pop singer’s philanthropic efforts. Young Thug, Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx supported Rihanna’s cause. Even President Barack Obama sent in a video message where he thanked Rihanna for her work with her foundation. “You’ve become a powerful force in helping people find hope and dignity,” said a delighted Obama.

Through Dave Chappelle’s charisma and Rihanna’s ploy to get her guests influenced by alcohol (and their own compassion), the Diamond Ball raised over $5 million for health and education initiatives. “I hope that as you hear about what we are doing and what we plan to do, you too will be inspired to join our mission. The more you drink, the more inspired you’ll be to donate money … and help kids around the world,” Rihanna slyly encouraged her guests.

– Jalil Perry

Photo: Flickr