As the 2014 Winter Olympics rolled on, it was easy to focus on the medal counts, media stories and endless hours of event coverage. The competition is fierce and perfection and patriotism motivate many of the athletes. For some, like United States snowboarder Hannah Teter, the drive to succeed also has a humanitarian edge. Teter first won the gold in Turin at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She used this victory as the launching pad to start her charity, Hannah’s Gold maple syrup. The organization uses the profits from her maple syrup sales to benefit the Kenyan village of Kirindon, about 20 miles west of Nairobi. Teter partners with World Vision to support an effort reduce water-borne illness and provide the residents of Kirindon with clean drinking water. Teter’s motivation stems from personal experience, as she has traveled to Kirindon with friends and family. “I got to see the difference between having clean water to drink and having dirty, disease infested water that the kids were drinking…” she recounts on the Hannah’s Gold website. “I cannot express how thankful these community members and children were to have clean water.” Hannah’s Gold has raised more than $20,000 and the World Vision project has benefitted more than 40,000 people in the Kirindon community and beyond. The Olympian’s charitable efforts do not stop there. After a silver-medal victory in 2010 and short break from competition due to injury, Teter needed a fresh source of motivation to get back on track for the 2016 Games. Teter found this inspiration after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti crumbled the Caribbean nation. In response to the devastation, she founded Sweet Cheeks, an underwear line “that transforms style and consumption into help and hope for others in need,” according to the product website. The “Panties with a Purpose” fashion line partners with Children International and promises 40 percent of net profits to help children living in extreme poverty around the world. The partner organization focuses on developing sustainable communities and providing families with a holistic approach to health and nutrition. Children International currently works in more than 11 countries across the globe, bettering the lives of more than 350,000 impoverished children. Teter’s charitable heart goes hand in hand with her motivation to succeed as an athlete. “Since receiving the Gold Medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics,” she explains on Hannah’s Gold, “I now have the opportunity to pursue this dream and encourage others to find out how good it feels to give back.” Hopefully her humanitarian practice inspires athletic perfection at this year’s Winter Games as well. Hannah Teter’s “sweet” products can be purchased at Sweet Cheeks or Hannah’s Gold. – Mallory Thayer Sources: Sweet Cheeks, Hannah’s Gold, US Snowboarding, TIME Photo: Her Campus
The devastating Syrian refugee crisis has brought to the forefront the plight of millions of refugees around the world. It is estimated that today there are 10.5 million refugees globally, nearly half of whom are children. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres has noted that in 2013 alone, over two million refugees were registered, a record number not seen in 20 years.
In response to the dire conditions faced in refugee camps, the Swedish megastore IKEA, most popular for its range of modern and ready-to-assemble furniture and home accessories, recently launched their ‘Brighter Lives for Refugees’ Campaign, where they will donate one euro (roughly $1.38) to UNHCR for each LED light bulb sold in IKEA stores between February 3 and March 29, 2014.
Funds raised through the Brighter Lives for Refugees Campaign will provide a variety of renewable energy technologies to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jordan, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Such technologies include solar streetlights, indoor solar lanterns, and fuel-efficient cooking stoves.
It is estimated that a refugee family will spend, on average, 12 years in a camp. This would make it more like a home rather than a temporary refuge. Life in a camp usually stops when the sun goes down, making even the simplest activities a dangerous endeavor. The goal of providing lighting and renewable energy technologies is to make camp life more humane, where using the toilet, collecting water or working inside the home is no longer an impossible feat.
It is important to take note of the IKEA campaign because it does not simply seek to provide temporary assistance to refugees. The idea behind providing sustainable lighting is to transform the refugees’ quality of life, thereby allowing them to be active forces, rather than passive receivers, in improving their lives. The Brighter Lives for Refugees Campaign website lists a number of positive effects that access to lighting will have on quality of life for refugees:
- Improving safety by reducing the risk of crime
- Improving results in school by allowing children more time to study after sundown
- Enhancing camaraderie by enabling community gatherings and social activities
- Allowing for the continuation of income-generating activities after sundown
- Allowing refugees to keep their small shops open after sundown and earn a sustainable income
The IKEA Foundation has been partnering with UNHCR since 2010 to address the fundamental needs of children, including shelter, care, and education. While the Foundation has committed 73 million euros ($100.448 million) to support UNHCR activities, it has also supported dozens of other organizations, donating 82 million euros ($112.832 million) in 2012 alone.
– Rifk Ebeid
Sources: IKEA Foundation, UNHCR, IKEA, AbuDhabi Week, IKEA Family Live Magazine
Photo: Humanosphere
Edward Norton has had some intense roles during his career. He garnered an Academy Award nomination for his role as reformed Neo-Nazi Derek Vinyard in 1998’s “American History X.” The following year, Norton starred in the critically acclaimed film version of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. However, Norton may be seen at his most intense when he is fighting to promote global development.
Norton comes from a long line of charitable voices. Norton’s father, Edward Mower Norton, was an environmental lawyer and proponent of conservationism. The elder Edward Norton co-founded Enterprise Community Partners. Enterprise is an organization that seeks to fund and provide housing for low-income communities. The younger Edward Norton is now a key member of Enterprise’s Board of Directors and is responsible for helping the organization invest an eye-popping $9 billion total for affordable housing.
A key tenant of Norton’s advocacy is environmental consciousness. Norton is the president of the American chapter of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. The Trust works to preserve the ecosystems and landscape of East Africa, which in turn provides essential resources for the Maasai people.
To garner larger support for his cause, Norton founded an online fundraising platform called CrowdRise. To date, Norton has raised close to $70,000 for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust while creating an innovative social media site for various charitable causes.
In 2010, the United Nations nominated Norton as a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity. In this capacity, Norton spoke at the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012.
“I think that it really is true that local efforts are critical,” said Norton in an interview with the U.N. News Centre. “At the end of the day, no big national agency, no huge NGO, for all the good they do…they cannot do all the work in a specific community.” Norton’s words and his incredible charitable background are a testament to the power an individual advocate can hold.
– Taylor Diamond
Sources: United Nations, Fast Company, Maasai Wilderness Conservation, Crowdrise
Photo: Hot Secretz
The game of giving is changing. Charity funds and philanthropic organizations are no longer just donating money blindly, but rather are investigating the core causes of poverty and trying to support solutions that make the biggest social impact.
Charities are trying to donate money where it will do the most for the people receiving it rather than filtering it into numerous other accounts that trickle down to the beneficiaries in smaller and smaller amounts.
Foundations are looking beyond block grant funding and coming up with innovative specifications for how their money should be used to maximize its positive effect.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy issued a report stating that the fifty largest donators have given almost eight billion dollars in the past year towards global aid.
GiveWell is an organization that focuses entirely on analyzing data to determine just how useful giving is per dollar amount.
Who does the donation really help? Where does the money go? Who decides what to do with it? What are the tangible benefits of giving? Questions like this and the answers that accompany them are becoming a large part of the solution to global poverty.
Knowing who to give aid to, where the funding goes and how it actually makes a difference in the lives of the people receiving it gives charities and philanthropists a clear direction for their efforts.
GiveWell researches and evaluates different charitable foundations and shares their results with the public to help potential donators choose the best use of their giving power.
They provide links on their website to evidence that backs up their evaluations. Categories like distribution efficiency, funding, pros and cons, track record, and impact studies are all part of GiveWell’s investigations.
The financial situation in the past decade has generated a need to be as financially responsible as possible with funding, and governments in various nations have cut foreign aid spending.
Solving the problem of global poverty requires serious funding, especially when so much money is spent on other, less drastic goals. Creating mutually profitable businesses that cater to those struggling with lack of basic needs as well as giving money to communities that can use it to lift themselves out of financial devastation is key to saving the world’s poor.
Philanthropic practices and analytical giving techniques such as those provided at GiveWell can help make a huge difference in eradication of poverty in countries all over the world.
– Kaitlin Sutherby
Sources: Givewell, The New Yorker, The Guardian
Photo:
Many describe author and writer Neil Gaiman as a new age rock star of the literary world. Not only is he married to activist and punk princess Amanda Palmer, but Gaiman is responsible for creating one of the most influential comics books series of all-time, Sandman, and is also the author of two best-selling novels, “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys”, which are currently being adapted into television shows.
There is little that Neil Gaiman hasn’t accomplished and recently, Gaiman used his celebrity status to help raise money for Heifer International through Worldbuilders, a collective power of readers, authors, and fellow book lovers who care about making the world a better place.
Joining forces with founder and fellow fantasy author Pat Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman recorded himself reading a live version of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham in playful voices as a reward for those who helped Worldbuilders raise $500,000 through Heifer International.
“Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear and eggs to eat,” said Rothfuss.
Fellow fantasy authors contributing in raising awareness and donations for Worldbuilders included Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and John Scalzi. Other musicians and actors also supported the cause including Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Amber Benson who will record herself and Rothfuss reading urban fantasy fiction if the charity raises $700,000 by the fundraisers end.
The money received through Worldbuilders will be used to empower families and their communities on a “teach a man how to fish” philosophy which aims at ending poverty through increasing opportunities. Heifer International’s core model, Passing on the Gift, sets out to bring sustainable agriculture and revenue to areas plagued by years of poverty.
By providing animals to communities and teaching their members how to utilize such resources, Heifer International works to help the recipient benefit from the knowledge and products the project and animals produce. After specific techniques are learned, the recipient than becomes the donor and teaches other members of the community the same values they were taught.
After that training is passed on, so is the first female offspring of the original gift, which starts the cycle all over again. Nearly 70 years later, this process is not only a success, but is also creating opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural collaborations, and boosting the local economy.
– Jeffrey Scott Haley
Feature Writer
Sources: Patrick Rothfuss, A.V. Club, World Builders, Heifer International
Photo: Entertainment Weekly
Rap and hip-hop music has a rich and diverse culture with its roots linked all the way back to the era of slavery within United States history. Hip-hop evolved into a music genre in the 1970s when DJs performed at block parties in the boroughs of New York City using the breaks of popular funk, disco and soul music. As the genre progressed, hip-hop became an outlet of artistic expression for the youths growing up in the inner cities.
Hip-hop blessed the world with popular artists such as 2Pac, the Notorious B.I.G., KRS-One and Eminem, among others. The lyrical content gave the rest of the world a lens in which we could try to understand and empathize with the people living in impoverished conditions within the inner city where kids had little to no economic opportunity, faced rampant drug infestations and constant battles with authorities.
As hip-hop music gained popularity, it gave some individuals a chance to make a living while creating work that inspired millions. Since the hip-hop genre is directly infused with the universal struggle of the worlds poor and underprivileged, it is always great to hear about those individuals that were able to escape that life and use their fame and fortune to benefit others. Here are a few prominent members of the hip-hop community that do just that:
- Russell Simmons – the co-founder of the influential hip-hop music label Def Jam, Russell Simmons is involved with over 20 different charities and foundations. He is the founder of the Diamond Empowerment Fund which supports education initiatives in African diamond mining countries. Simmons also created the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation which provides art and educational programming to New York City youth.
- Nas & Damian Marley – These two artists collaborated on an album called Distant Relatives which features themes related to African ancestry and poverty. Proceeds of this album were donated to various projects in Africa including building schools and raising AIDS/HIV awareness.
- Immortal Technique – This underground artist combines gritty hip-hop with politically conscious messages in order to raise awareness of social issues plaguing the inner city and underdeveloped nations. He collaborated with Omeid International to open the Amin Institute in Kabul, Afghanistan, an orphanage, school and medical facility for children.
- Akon – Akon created the Konfidence Foundation to help kids in Senegal and the United States have a chance at an education and healthy life. The foundation assists undeveloped schools in constructing key infrastructure projects so that they can become operational. In Ecole Elementaire P.A.Y. Unite #3, the foundation completed construction on unfinished classrooms, drilled drinking wells, and provided educational materials.
– Sunny Bhatt
Sources: Look to the Stars, Konfidence Foundation, Omeid International, Culture Bully
Photo: DrJays
J.K. Rowling may be most famous for her adventurous and classic tales of witchcraft and wizardry, but the author of the Harry Potter franchise has much more up her sleeve. The Lumos Foundation, Rowling’s charitable organization, has bettered the lives of millions.
A well-known advocate for international human rights, Rowling spent time volunteering for Amnesty International prior to her breakout success. Rowling cites her time with the organization for teaching her about the kind of impact she wishes to have for humanity. In the wake of her celebrity status, Rowling became the 12th richest woman in the world. With her wealth, Rowling decided to donate half of it to charitable causes, taking a pledge alongside other billionaires and initiated by Bill Gates.
The Lumos Foundation
Rowling’s shining charitable achievement, however, is the Lumos Foundation. The Lumos Foundation is an organization committed to providing basic human rights services for over eight million children living in institutions. The organization seeks to provide community-based services such as primary education and healthcare as replacements for institutions that often neglect these basic needs.
While the Lumos Foundation is globally minded, it focuses most specifically on Eastern European nations. Moldova, for example, has one of the highest institutionalization rates among children of any nation. “Most of these vulnerable young people are not orphans and poverty has separated them from their parents,” says Lumos, concerning orphanages in Moldova. Furthermore, many of these children are placed in institutions due to gaps in the education system. Children with disabilities are especially at a disadvantage and have a high chance of being institutionalized.
“Lumos works on every level, with every actor, to transform an outdated and harmful system into one which supports and protects children and enables them to have a positive future.” Founding the Lumos Foundation and supporting the development of the world’s most vulnerable citizens, children, shows how dedicated Rowling is to advocacy (even without Hogwart’s training.)
– Taylor Diamond
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will forever hold a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The immediate need for freedom from racism, discrimination and flat out brutality toward African Americans will forever be King’s message. However, Dr. King also used his platform to shed light on global poverty.
He expressed the need for poverty to be abolished and the need for nations to come together to combat this growing problem. Here are excerpts of Dr. King’s written documents concerning the dire need to end poverty.
Excerpts from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964:
“A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it’s nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist.”
“So it is obvious that if a man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag,’ he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”
“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
“The time has come for an all- out world war against poverty.”
“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'”
Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Let My People Go” speech. Human Rights Day December 10, 1965:
“Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians.
We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention-the large majority of the human race is non-white-yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world.”
An excerpt from “Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community” written in 1967:
Sadly this is Dr. King’s last book before he was tragically assassinated.
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective – the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the guaranteed income.”
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”
Nearly fifty years after these words were breathed, they still reign true; especially since poverty continues to be a problem for millions of people in 2013. Let us not allow Dr. King‘s words to remain in the past. We must give them life again and continue to make this world a better place, as Dr. Martin Luther King did nearly fifty years ago.
– Amy Robinson
Sources: Nobleprize, RFKSA Film, Progress,
Photo: BAR Photography
In recent years, technology and applications have had an increasingly philanthropic purpose. The latest of these technologies is the Share Your Calories application. The app was designed by Catherine Jones, a well-known author of nutrition cookbooks, Elaine Trujillo, a leader in nutrition, and Stop Hunger Now, an international agency aimed to end hunger across the globe.
The app can be used to help people lose weight while simultaneously providing food to people harmed by natural disasters. By adding a philanthropic purpose, the designers of the application aimed to give users another goal as well as more motivation to eat healthier. Studies also show that spending on others makes us happier than spending on ourselves, so the application, in and of itself, allows users to feel lasting happiness.
The application allows users to monitor their daily activities and food intake through a calorie bank determined by bio-data. If they do not consume all the calories in their calorie bank, the user has the option to convert the extra calories into monies. Once they have accumulated $12, the user has the option to donate to Stop Hunger Now.
Each Stop Hunger now high-protein dehydrated meal is equivalent to 250 calories and 25 cents.
The financial contributions from the Share Your Calories App go toward Stop Hunger Now meal packaging events. Each of these meals contains rice, dehydrated soy and vegetables as well as a vitamin-mineral pack. These meals are easy to store and have a shelf-life of 2 years.
These meals are currently distributed through host-organizations, but the funds from this application will also allow smaller groups and businesses to participate.
This application hopes to bring in $95,000 to build an android app, provide basic nutrition information, translate the app into different languages, etc. The Stop Hunger Now effort is supported by the Medical Science Foundation, TruBios Communications, iSO-FORM, The Ohio State University Food Innovation Center and the Experiment.
– Lienna Feleke-Eshete
Sources: IndieGoGo, FoodTank
Photo: Irish Red Cross
Below is a list of four impassioned humanitarian leaders who are fighting to make the world a better place.
1. George Soros
George Soros has given billions of dollars over the years to humanitarian organizations. He is the financier and founder of the Open Society Foundation, an international foundation that promotes the expansion of human rights and democracy throughout the third world.
Founded in 1998, the group funds and has helped institute health and educational programs while also being driven to provide “greater fairness in political, legal and economic systems” throughout the world. The program touts initiatives such as the Burma Project, which promotes freedom of expression, as well as helping suppressed minority and political groups communicate their human right grievances in the political repressive nation of Burma.
The foundations has various programs throughout countless countries promoting freedom of expression and basic human rights.
2. Jon Hunstman
Jon Hunstman Sr. began his humanitarian activities after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993. Founder of the successful Huntsman Corporation, his donations have accounted for billions of dollars. He founded the Hunstman Cancer institute, a non-profit research company that builds hospitals and develops new cancer fighting techniques.
The Hunstman Corporation regularly donates money to education institutions as well.
For example, the foundation donated 26 million dollars to Utah State University to help expand the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. They donated another 2 million dollars to enact the Hunstman Awards for Excellence in Education that reward exceptional school teachers and volunteers.
The foundation believes a strong domestic educational system will help enact significant positive change in America.
3. Tegla Laroupe
Female Kenyan runner Tegla Laroupe came to prominence in 2003 after winning 2 interntional half-marathons, attaining multiple world marathon records, and countless other titles. After retiring from marathon running, she devoted all her time to affect change in devastated communities throughout the world.
In 2003, she established the Tegla Lorupe Peace Foundation, an organization based around helping housing projects and educating children orphaned by political violence. The foundation has built schools throughout Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Southern Sudan.
The organization raises money through various programs, such as the Peace Races. The Moroto-Uganda Peace Race was held in the Moroto district of Uganda and helped raise money for orphaned children in the volatile region plagued by an unstable political situation and “banditry.”
4. Bill Gates
Bill Gates, founder of computer software powerhouse Microsoft, has spent his days of retirement giving back. He founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends most of their efforts fighting poverty and health risks such as malaria. The organization tackles grave crises through 4 major program initiatives.
The Global Development Division deals with food insecurity throughout impoverished communities, as well as sanitation and housing. The Global Health Division, furthermore, promotes technological and scientific studies such as vaccines and medical treatments throughout the developing world.
Their foundation also tackles domestic issues through the United States Division through supporting higher level education and high school.
The Global Policy & Advocacy Division is, in fact, the strategic portion of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to help advance their policies through national and international frameworks.
– Joseph Abay
Sources: Open Society Foundations (OSF), Huntsman Corporation, Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Photo: Channels
