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- House Kids' Words! 826 National
Problem Our focus is helping students become better writers. We publish student writing almost every day of the week. This requires lots of paper. We believe that by publishing a student's writing, they will be honored and inspired to keep writing. Help us help kids have the tools they need to learn how to express themselves! The Gift With one case of paper, we’ll be able to print field trip books for 710 kids, or 200 copies of an in-house chapbook —with enough left over to let Veronica print out her essay for class, and allow Osvaldo to have a clean copy of his story about fire trucks for his dad.
$50.00 - Help Students Write 826 National
Problem 826 chapters are packed five days a week with neighborhood students who come in for free one-on-one tutoring after school. We serve students of all skill levels and interests. Trained volunteers, many of whom are professional writers, are available to help students with their individual writing projects and any type of homework. We go through tons of pencils and pens. Keeping our centers stocked with enough supplies gets very expensive. Help us keep our centers equipped to help kids write! \ The Gift For just under ten dollars, you’ll put a bundle of 100 pencils in our pencil cups, every one of them ready to be worked down to a nub in the service of a student’s homework assignment or a creative story. 826 helps students with their writing skills. In an effort to honor the students’ accomplishments, to give them an opportunity to show off their writing work, and to enhance the quality of their school work, 826 publishes a vast amount of student writing. We know that these publications are critical to a student’s engagement in a project—students take pride in creating a professionally finished product. They experience a complete publishing process. We invite students to create in many genres, from journalism to cartooning. We work closely with teachers when designing our projects in order to ensure that we are meeting teachers’ and schools’ larger goals. Our process is designed to help students experience, appreciate, practice, and recognize great writing.
$10.00 - Enable Research Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemBrain cancer remains one of the most extraordinary complex, virulent, and "orphaned" diseases. In addition to the lives of patients, brain cancer has a profound effect on family members, friends and colleagues. All of those touched by this devastating disease share a deep desire to improve the prognosis and treatment options for patients and, ultimately, cure brain cancer. Funding for brain cancer research is needed to quickly make advancements and bring new therapies to patients. The Gift When you purchase lab supplies, you are providing researchers the support and supplies they need to make groundbreaking translational research advancements. Your gift will help facilitate the efforts of hard-working and dedicated researchers.
$10.00 - Develop Leaders Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemWhile one of the most lethal of all cancers (average one-year survival rate is less than 30 percent), brain cancer affects comparatively fewer people than other cancers and attracts less research funding. There is a critical need to foster innovation and fresh thinking to pioneer progress and develop new treatments for patients with brain cancer. The Gift Your investment will help attract the best and brightest researchers to the field of brain cancer. Young Investigator Awards encourage and invest in physician-scientists who are building their careers in translational medicine. The awards provide support for a three-year period in neuro-oncology and address key scientific and medical challenges in the development of effective brain cancer therapies.$15.00 - Make A Difference Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemThis year, more than 200,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor. Brain cancer often strikes individuals at a relatively young age. The disease now ranks seventh for adults and first for children in terms of years of life lost. Additionally, brain tumors are the leading cause of death from childhood cancers among persons up to 19 years of age. New and effective treatments are desperately needed. The Gift Your gift will provide much needed hope to patients with brain cancer. You will move this underserved field forward to make a difference by bringing an innovative approach to finding therapies for this devastating disease.
$18.00 - Drive Innovation Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemThere is an unmet medical need for the development of therapies for brain cancer, a life-threatening disease with few therapeutic options. Development of new therapies is costly, laborious, and time-consuming. Moreover, only a small proportion of compounds that show promise in the laboratory ultimately succeed in the clinic. Thus, few companies invest their research dollars in finding cures for diseases that affect a comparatively small percentage of the population, as does brain cancer. The Gift In an effort to quicken the evaluation of therapeutic candidates for possible advancement to the clinic for brain cancer patients, ABC2 partnered with the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Center at Duke University to form the Preclinical Screening Program. Your gift will support a critical link with the biopharmaceutical industry and academia and help fill a void in the drug development arena by providing a venue for preclinical testing with rapid turnaround time. Funding will allow researchers in academia, corporations, and federal agencies to get their existing, approved therapies that target other types of cancers (e.g., breast, lung, and colon) as well as their experimental compounds tested and evaluated for their potential utility in brain cancer.$25.00 - Break Down Silos Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemThis is an exciting and important time in brain cancer research, with researchers and clinicians exploring novel avenues and making steady progress each day. To continue to move the field forward and bring these advancements to the patients who need them, we must break down the barriers--financial, professional or institutional--that can limit progress, and instead bring together the best ideas and resources from the worlds of medicine, academia, government and business. The Gift You gift will help foster collaboration across institutional lines and hasten a cure for brain cancer. To accelerate the transition of therapies into clinical studies for patients, ABC² has initiated a strategic collaboration, the ABC² Clinical Network. It is composed of four leading neuro-oncology centers and clinical investigators who work together to: provide guidance and counsel to the sponsors of drug therapies (particularly in the early stages of designing clinical trials), assist ABC² in evaluating potential drug therapies or the readiness of promising ones for clinical trials, and conduct trials of these therapies. The ABC² Clinical Network serves as a resource to patients and the scientific and medical communities. It is the vehicle through which ABC² translates successes in the lab into meaningful treament options for patients with brain cancer and their families.
$35.00 - Build A Team Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemWhile great strides are being made in brain cancer research, we need to work together to accelerate a cure. Progress can be made, but many questions remain, e.g., “How do we stimulate collaboration between institutions?"; “Are we as coordinated as we should be?"; “What is missing?"; “What is needed for infrastructure support;" and “What are our immediate next steps?" These are questions best answered by working together as a team. The Gift Your gift will help pay the way for one researcher to attend the ABC2 Annual Scientific Meeting. Over the years, we have found this annual scientific meeting to be the most effective means by which to draw the field closer together and foster collaboration across institutional lines. The annual meeting emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive climate for scientific and medical research with a focus on accelerating the development of new therapies for patients.
$50.00 - Improve Treatments Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemThere are numerous therapies that hold great promise for treating brain cancer patients, but a key challenge is determining which treatment is most likely to benefit an individual patient. Diagnosis currently relies on the classification and grading of tumors according to what can be seen by a pathologist in a microscope and this provides little insight into the molecular makeup. The Gift There are new technologies through which we are developing an understanding of genes proteins and networks – offering the possibility to shift from a one-size fits all model. Your gift will help accelerate a cure for brain cancer through supporting pioneering innovation and technology to find the right therapy for the right patient at the right time. This approach will redefine the nature of the diagnosis and the treatment of brain cancer.
$75.00 - Fund A Cure Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemEach year approximately 18,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with primary brain cancer – a particularly devastating, virulent disease. Each year, nearly 13,000 people die from brain tumors. Today, researchers have new hope for finding better treatments and, ultimately, a cure for brain cancer. To advance, they must have resources to further their ideas. The Gift Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure brings together researchers, clinicians, the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and government to fund research that translates promising laboratory successes into clinically meaningful improvements for patients. This approach is designed to provide innovative researchers with the support required to make critical translational breakthroughs. Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure fund proposals that will have an immediate impact, and we work actively and partner with investigators to overcome obstacles in achieving the goal of the research. Your support for one hour of a translational researcher's time will help accelerate a cure and bring new hope to patients with brain cancer.$100.00 - Be An Investor Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure
ProblemBrain cancer remains one of the most extraordinarily complex and difficult to treat diseases, and there is a notable shortfall in research funding to support discovery of new treatment therapies. We need to increase investments of all kinds in the fight against brain cancer and bring hope to an often overlooked area of medical research. The Gift Your generous gift will buy one share of the ABC² Angel Investor Fund* (multiple shares are available) to fast-track cutting edge brain cancer research advancements. Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure was formed with the belief that the entrepreneurial model that has enabled so many technological innovations offers the best hope to fill the gap in funding. In the business world venture capitalists, sometimes called "angel investors," fast-track funding for novel ideas that hold promise for extraordinary return. We have established an "Angel Investor Fund" -- our own non-profit version of a venture capital fund. We are committing $250,000 in our first grant to support an innovative translational research project that will move the brain cancer field forward in measurable ways. *Your contribution to the Angel Investor Fund is a tax-deductible charitable contribution. As such, goods and services will not be provided in exchange for your contribution.$250.00 - Buy Laying Hens ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population -- nearly 3 billion people -- live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit -- a loan -- to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift With a loan of $25, a client could buy laying hens for eggs to sell in the market. Then the client can use the profits from selling the eggs to buy more chickens, invest in chicken cages, and feed her family.
$25.00 - Buy Bags of Rice ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population - nearly 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit - a loan - to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift With a loan of $50, a client could buy bags of rice and cereal grains to sell in the market. Then the client can use the profits from selling the grains to buy more inventory, improve their home, and to hire an assistant.$50.00 - Buy Fruit in Bulk ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population - nearly 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit - a loan - to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift With a loan of $75, a client could buy fruit and vegetables to sell in the market. Then the client can use the profits from her sales to expand her market stall, enroll in a financial literacy class, and help send her children to school.$75.00 - Buy A Used Fridge ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population - nearly 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit - a loan - to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift With a used refrigerator, a market vendor can store perishable items such as milk, cheese, meat or fish and preserve them for longer availability and plan for future sales. This will help create a sustainable and secure business for the borrower.$160.00 - Buy Repair Equipment ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population - nearly 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit - a loan - to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift Microentrepreneurs need equipment to enable their businesses to succeed. Whether it's a bicycle repair shop, a tire repair business, or a textile manufacturer, owners need to invest in machinery and tools to make their businesses run efficiently and grow.$500.00 - Expand Loans ACCION International
ProblemHalf the world's population - nearly 3 billion people – live on less than $2 a day. For many of these people, all they need is a little credit - a loan - to expand their tiny businesses and work their way out of poverty. The Gift Loan officers are the men and women that go out and make loans to microentrepreneurs. With a motorscooter, a loan officer can visit and help more clients in a day than s/he can on foot, putting money into the hands of people who need it the most in urban and rural areas.$1,000.00 - Provide Access ACCION USA Inc.
ProblemTo build wealth and increase family income, many low-income individuals turn to self-employment as an alternative to welfare or subsistence salaries. There are approximately 20 million microentrepreneurs in the U.S., but less than two percent are currently receiving credit or business assistance. As a leader in the domestic microfinance field, ACCION is dedicated to providing microentrepreneurs and individuals on the economic margin the crucial chance to borrow capital at fair rates of interest. The Gift This gift will help ACCION USA provide critically needed small loans to people who have good business sense, integrity, and a strong desire to succeed. They are individuals who are denied access to traditional forms of business credit because of language barriers, lack of business records, poor credit history, or a loan request that’s too small for most banks. Often, ACCION USA is their only hope. With your help, ACCION USA can create new opportunities for individuals, families and entire communities.
$25.00 - One Day of Idealist Action Without Borders Inc.
ProblemHosting and maintaining a popular website requires Idealist to pay for space in a server farm, along with costs to pay for power, internet connection, and bandwidth. It's an ongoing expense that's critical to the organization, but one that gets more expensive as we become more successful. The Gift This gift will pay for the costs of keeping Idealist.org online for one day.
$60.00 - Stop Hunger ActionAid International USA
ProblemHaiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. More than half the population is unemployed. Farmland is quickly vanishing, and individuals are especially suffering from hunger, scarce water supplies, and other forms of deprivation. The Gift Your kind gift will aid us in working with local Haitian communities so that they may escape the bonds of drought, famine, and malnutrition through improved farming techniques, and income generating projects. These include: a microcredit program that enables poor women to build their farms or buisnesses, and classes that help women to market and sell their goods so that they may escape poverty's grip.
$45.00 - Ensure Water for Life ActionAid International USA
ProblemAfghanistan has a population of some 22 million people. Only 13% of the population has access to clean water sources, and poor rainfall leads to reoccurring drought. \ The Gift Your kind gift will help individuals claim their right to clean water by building sustainable and safe water supplies, encouraging local residents to maintain them, and holding educational campaigns on sanitation and health within some of Afghanistan’s most remote regions.$50.00 - Help Lives in Crisis ActionAid International USA
ProblemDisaster and conflict threaten the very threads of society: forcing the poor into even deeper poverty, while providing opportunities for those with little scruples to infringe on victims’ rights. The Gift Your kind gift will help ActionAid to provide direct assistances to communities so that they may prepare for and recover from tragic events, such as the Asian Tsunami, the South Asian Earthquake, war, and genocide. Special attention will be placed on the needs of the region's poorest and most overlooked people.$65.00 - Help Families Survive ActionAid International USA
ProblemIn Zimbabwe, one person dies every five minutes due to HIV/AIDS, leaving an estimated 761,000 children orphaned. The disease has decimated the workforce, leaving families without food and water. In many instances, the sick can't take their medication due to overwhelming hunger. The Gift Your kind gift will go far towards helping children and their families survive the cruelties of AIDS and hunger through home-based care, agricultural education programs, and community-building activities, such as the one pictured here: an ActionAid-supported vegetable garden for children orphaned by AIDS in Kadoma District, Zimbabwe.$75.00 - Train An Activist Advocacy Project
ProblemFrom Afghanistan to the Congo, Bosnia to Peru, groups of people are taking a stand against injustice. Everyday, these brave groups work to combat human rights abuses and ensure that their world is one where justice will one day prevail. We are proud to call these brave people our partners. We support partners in over 24 countries and we give them the tools to spread the word for themselves. We work with them towards attaining durable solutions to the human rights abuses they face. The Gift Your gift will help provide one day of advocacy tools and online support to one organization. While this might sound unglamorous, please remember that the efficacy and safety of human rights activists is directly related to how well they are able to get their information out.
$50.00 - Sponsor an Orphan African Children's Haven
ProblemIn Western Kenya, an area with one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, we support children affected by the AIDS pandemic. The Gift Just $10 per week provides shelter, food, clothing, medical services and education for a child in need.
$10.00 - Chicks for Orphans African Children's Haven
Problem Poor children lack protein in their diets. Gifting a chick and the feed needed to raise it provides needy kids with a way to produce eggs for the family diet and a way to earn cash that can be used to buy medicine and other basic necessities. The Gift This gift will provide a poor child with a chick to raise and the quality feed it will need to produce eggs. Because the chicks will be produced as part of other African Children Haven projects, the children will also receive basic instructions in how to raise their birds, produce a larger flock and market their eggs for cash income.$3.00 - Educate a Scientist African Children's Haven
ProblemStudies show: educating African girls provides a pathway out of poverty benefits not only their families, but their communities, as well. In many cases, female secondary school graduates go on to fill positions of leadership and have a profound effect on African society. Starting in January 2010, African Children's Haven will initiate a program to address this problem for a small group of girls with superior academic potential, but who lack the resources to pursue high quality education. The Gift This gift will send an African girl with a high aptitude for science and math to an elite secondary school for a week. Your gift includes not only school fees, but also room, board, books and mentoring by some of Africa's leading women scientists.$20.00 - Orphan Athletes African Children's Haven
ProblemSupporting athletics for orphan kids in Ethiopia keeps them off the streets and contributes to their physical and mental health. In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, orphan teenagers are frequently tempted to commit crimes or engage in prostitution to survive. The Mercy Center, a local agency provides food, education and job training. Participation in the Center's athletics program helps build self-esteem and provides an incentive to stick with the program and break out of poverty. The Gift This gift will provide one orphan-athlete with the uniform, shoes and equipment needed to participate in local athletics. It also provides the food needed to maintain a rigorous training program, pay for effective coaching, ensure access to a decent playing field and provide transportation to and from events. Ethiopia is famous for its Olympic runners and athletes. Local kids idolize these champions and want to follow in their footsteps. Supporting an orphan-athlete is unlikely to result in a gold medal, but it will help the kids maintain their grades, a prerequisite for participating in sports, and aid them in developing the teamwork skills and individual character needed to succeed in life and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.$15.00 - Lunch for Slum Kids African Children's Haven
ProblemChildren living in Africa's slums rarely get enough to eat, let alone have access to high quality food that promotes healthy growth. Support for school lunch programs is a proven formula for improving health and development and ensuring better performance in school. This is particularly so for younger children who are especially vulnerable to malnutrition-related diseases. The Gift This gift will provide a needy child in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya with a healthy lunch, five days a week for a month. Younger children will also receive a nutritious mid-morning snack. Food is a precious commodity for Kenya's poor and is especially important to young children who are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. The St. Phillips School lunch program addresses this problem by providing healthy meals at mid-day for more than 100 needy kids. Many of the children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and live with aunts, uncles or grandparents, most of whom are hard pressed to feed their own children. Your gift ensures that a child will receive a healthy lunch each school day for a week.$1.00 - Give a Smile African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemEach year, 10,000 children in East Africa are born with cleft deformities. A cleft lip or palate affects a child's apprearance and ability to hear, to speak, to eat, and to breathe. Often, a child suffers stigma and misunderstanding that the cleft is caused by "evil spirits" or "demons." Because of poverty, distance to health centers, and lack of health staff, fewer than 50% of children who need cleft repairs in East Africa receive them. The Gift What greater gift could you or your loved one receive than to know that you have literally put a smile on a child's face? And, it's so simple! When AMREF surgeons perform the procedure, the child receives a new smile and the chance for a better future. Gone is the stigma, fear and misunderstanding because of the cleft. What is more, AMREF's surgeons use every operation to train a local African surgeon to perform this simple procedure -- so that even more children can benefit from cleft lip and palate repair. Here is truly a gift that keeps on giving!
$250.00 - Bring Clean Water African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemMagi is Swahili for water, and in Africa clean water is truly a magical gift. Worldwide, 1.1 billion people do not have clean water. One of the most heartwrenching scenes in Africa is of women and children walking long distances -- hours each day -- to get water, which is often contaminated, and often causes waterborne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, malaria, trachoma and diarrhoea, a leading killer of African children. The Gift A gift of $25 will provide clean water to an African family for one month. Your donation will truly be a "gift of the magi." With your contribution, AMREF will work to reduce the prevalence of water and sanitation related diseases that needlessly kill African families -- and improve their general hygiene. How? We will work with community water committees to build shallow wells, boreholes and water tanks. We will train the water committees to operate and maintain the water sources -- so that the project is sustainable. By assisting AMREF's clean water project, you will also be contributing to poverty reduction. How? Having clean water nearby and available means that children can go to school and women can start income-producing businesses.$25.00 - Train Health Workers African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemCommunity volunteers, often known in East Africa as Community Own Resource Persons, or CORPs, are often the first people in a community to see a sick child, or the first to attend a mother in labor. They need to know not only how to recognize and treat the most common illnesses, but also when a mother or child is in danger and must go to a health facility for treatment or for help in childbirth. The Gift AMREF trains thousands of doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and community health workers (CORPs) every year. Your gift will train a CORP to recognize and treat common illnesses like diarrhea, respiratory infections, and malaria, which are the leading killers of children in Africa, and to know when they must be taken to a health facility for further treatment. CORPs also learn to educate their communities on good health and nutrition practices.$75.00 - Make House Calls African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemFor most African villagers the nearest health facility is 10 kilometers away. People suffering from malaria are often too weak to travel so far, and many children never make it to hospital. Most deaths from severe malaria in childhood could be prevented by prompt administration of effective anti-malarial treatment. The Gift Community Drug Distributors (CDD) are volunteers who have been trained to identify the symptoms of malaria and dispense the proper medication. They also educate the community at weddings, funerals and other gatherings about the proper use of malaria medication and insecticide treated nets. This way the community is empowered to fight malaria. Your gift will provide a bicycle for a CDD, enabling her to cover more territory and treat and educate many more people.$50.00 - Test and Counsel African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemAlmost 26 million Africans are living with HIV. This is more than 60% of all people living with HIV worldwide. In 2005, 2.4 million Africans died from AIDS-related diseases. Most people do not know whether or not they are infected, putting others at risk. The Gift AMREF provides voluntary counseling and testing services to people who wish to know their HIV status. Those who are not infected learn how to protect themselves from the disease. Those who are found to be HIV positive are counseled to take the appropriate medication and avoid infecting their loved ones, and are helped to live positive and productive lives even though they have AIDS. Your gift of $15 will pay for HIV testing and counseling for HIV/AIDS patients, helping them live longer healthier lives and to protect those they care about.$15.00 - Improve Maternal Care African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemIn many African countries, women die in childbirth more than 100 times as often as women in developing countries. When a mother dies, the baby also often dies. The most common causes of death are obstructed labor, hemorrhage, and infection. Too few health workers are trained to handle these complications, and too few facilities have the proper supplies and equipment. The Gift AMREF trains nurses and midwives how to properly manage a woman in labor, how to prevent hemorrhage and infection, and how to recognize when she needs a caesarean section and must be taken to a hospital. They are also trained in proper care of newborns: how to cut and tie the umbilical cord, to warm the baby, and to encourage the mother to breastfeed immediately, all of which help the baby to survive and thrive. AMREF also provides the proper equipment, drugs, and supplies health workers need to care for mothers in childbirth and their infants. Your gift will help to equip a health facility and train its staff to provide essential obstetric and newborn care.$100.00 - Prevent Blindness African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemTrachoma is an infection of the eye that blinds millions of people every year, but it is easy to prevent though improved hygiene, and can be treated with antibiotics. Even in advanced cases, blindness can be prevented with simple surgery. The disease is prevalent in dry dusty areas, like those in which the Maasai people live in Kenya. The Gift With your gift, AMREF will train and equip a volunteer to make visit nearby families, to keep track of who in each family has an infection using colored beads, and to treat the infection with antibiotic ointment. If someone has had repeated infections, the eyelid will begin to turn in, and this will eventually scar the cornea and cause blindness. The trachoma worker will refer anyone with this condition to a nearby health facility, where AMREF has trained the nurse or clinical officer to do the simple surgery that can correct the condition. To prevent repeat infections, volunteer trachoma workers teach the communities how to prevent trachoma through better personal and community hygiene. The Maasai woman in the picture is washing her face at a “leaky tin," which holds a small amount of clean water. This is one important way to prevent trachoma.$100.00 - Send A Specialist African Medical and Research Foundation
ProblemSome parts of Africa are so remote that it would take many days by car to reach the district hospitals. These hospitals often have only one doctor to serve 250,000 people, and no specialists. AMREF flies specialists to remote hospitals in East Africa to treat patients and to train local doctors and nurses. They leave behind not just healthy patients but also local doctors and nurses with more knowledge and skill. The Gift John Wachira is an AMREF surgeon and urologist. He flys across Africa to train doctors and to carry out life-changing operations. He spends more than 40 weeks each year working in isolated rural hospitals. Other specialists, including orthopaedic surgeons, general surgeons, reconstructive surgeons, urologists, anesthetists, and laboratory experts also volunteer with AMREF’s Flying Doctors to visit rural hospitals two or three weeks each year. $1,000 will support a specialist to fly to a remote hospital for a week. During the visit he will treat more than 40 patients, undertake 10 to 20 complicated operations, and train the local health workers and doctors to undertake some of these tasks in the future. About 60 percent of patients are children.$1,000.00 - The gift of Water Africare
ProblemFor many people in Africa finding clean, safe drinking water is a major challenge. For many Africans, particularly women, much of the day is spent traveling long distances to fetch water from lakes and streams that are often contaminated. These limited water sources are not only used for drinking but also for bathing, washing clothes and cooking utensils and in other ways which pollute the water resulting in people becoming sick and at times dying. The Gift Africare works throughout Africa to address the lack of clean, safe water sources by helping communities construct water wells and other water systems. Africare works with communities to design, build and construct various types of water wells. Working together, the community learns how to maintain and take care of the well after Africare staff depart. Africare also discusses with communities strategies for disposing of water after it has been used. This is key because without a plan for proper disposal of polluted water, this water can contaminate the new clean water source. Supporting construction of a well includes more than the well itself. Communities gain access to clean water, develop knowledge of how to maintain the well, gain needed skills to assist other communities in constructing wells and develop an understanding of the importance of properly disposing of used/contaminated water. Your donation of $50 can support a family with clean water for an entire year.
$50.00 - Equip Artisans Aid to Artisans
ProblemOne of the greatest challenges that artisans face is the ability to buy raw materials. Financial resources are often scarce, and raw materials are, of course, essential to creating their craft and building their businesses. When artisans receive an order for a product, they are not paid the full amount up front. Especially for poor artisans, this can limit the amount of orders they can take, thus keeping them in a cycle of poverty. The Gift Your donation will fund 200 pounds of clay - much needed raw material for artisans in developing countries. 200 pounds of clay can be purchased for $100 and used to create several hundred dollars of income for a potter and their family.
$100.00 - Equip Artisans Aid to Artisans
ProblemArtisans throughout the world create beautiful and useful objects to enhance our lives. One of the greatest challenges that artisans face, however, is the ability to buy raw materials. Financial resources are often scarce, and raw materials are, of course, essential to fulfilling the inspiration of their craft and building their businesses. The Gift Your donation will fund 10 pounds of clay – much needed raw material for artisans in developing countries to pursue their craft and build their business.$5.00 - Spread the Fun! Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Shelter provides a safe, stable living and learning environment for homeless young women (ages 16-21) and their children in emergency situations. The Shelter can hold up to 31 women and 14 of their children at one time. The young women staying at the shelter are teens and young adults who enjoy the same entertainment that you enjoyed as a teen – movies and games. Buy a gift that will help our residents feel like teens and young adults and forget their hardships for an evening. The Gift This gift will provide board games and/or DVDs for the young women who live at the AFG shelter. Game nights and movie nights conjure up images of friends gathering together, sharing in the laughter and camaraderie of being among loved ones. Help us create these same feelings for young homeless women who might not have experienced such gatherings. For a $25 gift, you allow us to purchase a board game or DVDs that will be used for fun game nights and movie nights for the shelter residents. These games and DVDs not only provide an opportunity for relaxation and fun but also creates a community among the shelter residents, who need these strong bonds of friendship, like everyone else, to be happy.
$25.00 - Make Kids Healthy Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Prevention Program works with girls and young women (ages 5-18) who are at risk of dropping out of school, abusing drugs or alcohol, engaging in gang activities or becoming involved in abusive relationships. Many of the girls and young women are dealing with obesity due to an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. We’re addressing this issue by making it a priority to provide a nutritious meal and include physical activities in our daily after-school programs. The Gift This gift provides five healthy meals for participants in our after-school programming. An essential component of our programming is to provide a full meal since many of the Prevention participants might not receive an adequate meal at home. In the high school program, the teens cook the meals themselves, so they learn how to cook nutritious meals. Your gift will allow us to buy healthy ingredients to cook nutritious meals for all our young participants. A fulfilling, healthy meal energizes our participants and increases their attentiveness, which makes us more effective in developing their academic skills and interpersonal skills. Please help us continue to promote a healthy lifestyle to the at-risk girls and young women we work with.$30.00 - Fill Up A Life! Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Outreach Team reaches out to the community in two significant ways, of which both require the AFG vans (programs are described in the ‘Gift’ section). In 2007, we made contact with 7,489 youth and women on the streets and in the community. Without our AFG vans, we would not have been able to reach out to these 7,489 girls and women. We would not have been able to provide them with food or blankets. But most importantly, they would not have known there were people who cared about them The Gift Your gift of $100 will help defray the high gas costs and ensure that we can continue providing our services to the women who need our assistance. Through the Peer Education Program, we use the vans to drive our Peer Educators (PEs) to areas that their peers hang out. Our PEs help their peers understand the risks of unsafe activities and help them make positive choices. Through the Safe Choices project, volunteers drive the AFG van on 2 2-hour shifts every weekday evening providing food, clothing, and harm-reduction material to women involved in commercial sex work. These programs rely on the use of our AFG vans – it is how we reach out to youth and women in need. With gas prices increasing everyday, we are finding it more and more difficult to cover these costs. This gift isn’t the most exciting or glamorous gift; however, this gift is essential to what our agency does best – going out in the streets and reaching out to youth and women at their level and in their environment.$100.00 - Protect Our Girls Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe Rise n’ Shine program is a six-week program that is the summer component to Alternatives For Girls (AFG) Prevention services. We served 57 girls through this program last year. Many of the activities take place outdoor and we provide our girls with sunscreen. This camp is partially funded by individual contributions to cover these expenses. Therefore, we are always looking for individual donations to support these minor yet essential costs. The Gift Your $5 gift will allow us to buy at least one bottle of sunscreen for our Prevention participants in the Rise n’ Shine summer camp. Many of the programs participants are considered to be at-risk for negative behaviors such as dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, gang behavior, drugs or alcohol abuse, or becoming involved in abusive relationships. The focus of Rise n’ Shine is to offer young girls the opportunity to be involved with positive activities that enhance their social skills, expand their minds and build self-esteem. We also want to teach them healthy lifestyle habits, like applying sunscreen before playing outside. Your gift will help us keep our girls protected when playing outside.$5.00 - Feel Your Best Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe Outreach Department serves women who live and work on the streets. Through the Safe Choices project, volunteers drive the AFG van on 2 2-hour shifts every weekday evening providing hygiene kits, among other supplies, to at-risk women on the streets. These hygiene kits are made up of travel-sized shampoo, soap, lotion, toothpaste, and other essential hygiene material. The women depend on us to provide these resources since many cannot afford these items. The Gift Your $10 donation will provide 3 hygiene kits. Last year, through the Safe Choices program, we distributed 838 hygiene kits to the women on the streets. However, we depend on the items to be donated for the hygiene kits, and there were many nights where we ran out of hygiene kits to pass out. We also have a walk-in resource room with a shower. For women living on the street, a shower can sometimes be a rarity. When these women come in for a shower, we give them a hygiene kit at that time too. These hygiene kits are very important for the welfare of the women we serve – as in the case for all of us, when we feel clean, we feel stronger, happier, and more confident. Your gift will be a great show of support Alternatives For Girls and for work that we do.$10.00 - Get In The Game Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Prevention Program works with girls and young women (ages 5-18) who are at risk of dropping out of school, abusing drugs or alcohol, engaging in gang activities or becoming involved in abusive relationships. Last year, we served 171 girls. The essence of our program is to combine fun activities with educational sessions. However, since this program is free, we struggle to find funding for the fun activities. And one activity the girls would love is a day at the ballpark. The Gift Your gift of $15 will allow us to purchase one Tigers baseball ticket to see a game in August. We want to take 15 girls in our high school Prevention Program. We believe that a baseball game is a great American pastime that we want our girls to enjoy as well. Plus, it is an opportunity to bond with the other girls and find support in one another as the school starts. Finally, we want this fun outing to be an exciting kickoff for the start of a new school year and the start of the Prevention program in September. Your gift will make a significant impact on our program, since we depend on the generosity of individuals for donations to support our programming. The girls would be thrilled to be able to go to a ballgame with all their friends. We need you to help make this happen.$15.00 - Help AFG babies Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Shelter provides a safe, stable living and learning environment for homeless young women (ages 16-21) and their children in emergency situations. The Shelter can hold up to 31 women and 14 of their children at one time. We want to provide the AFG mother with all baby care items so as not to worry about necessities for her baby and instead focus on getting her education, finding a job, or finding a permanent place to live. The Gift Your gift of $10 will allow us to purchase a baby item for one of the 14 children living in our shelter. The children range from newborn up to 5 years and we would buy an item that is necessary and suitable for that baby or child. Some examples of items would be baby blankets, pacifiers, clothing, diapers, baby hygiene items, toys, and books. We want to teach the motherz at AFG proper baby care while they have the support of a knowledgeable and caring staff. We want the mothers to be fully equipped with baby items when they move out on their own, since we know how expensive diapers and baby food can be with a limited income. We need the support of donors like yourself to help us with purchases like these which can add up to a large expense with so many children. Your gift would help keep these babies (and their mothers) happy and healthy!$10.00 - Shoes For Women Alternatives for Girls
ProblemAt AFG, we provide a free shower, food, clothes, shoes, counseling and resources to women who walk in off the street. The clothes and shoes are donated, which limits the variety we can offer. The one item that many women need and request is shoes. However, shoes are the most difficult items to get donated, especially comfortable footwear, which if donated are usually pretty worn down. That's why we need your help to provide this basic necessity to girls and women. The Gift Your $20 gift will allow us to purchase one pair of footwear for the girls and women in any of our programs. The option of purchasing shoes instead of relying on donations allows us to purchase the kind of shoes we know most of the women need here. We are always in need of bigger sized walking shoes. With this gift, we can buy a pair of brand new shoes that will last much longer for these women. We all know the affect a shoe that does fit versus a shoe that doesn’t fit can have on you physically. For these women, that physical discomfort is compounded each day since many do not own a car and walking is their main form of transportation. Therefore, a good pair of shoes is very important for their survival. Buy this gift to help ease the physical pain of these young girls and women.$20.00 - Wake Up AFG! Alternatives for Girls
ProblemThe AFG Shelter provides a safe, stable living and learning environment for homeless young women (ages 16-21) and their children in emergency situations. The Shelter can hold up to 31 women and 14 of their children at one time. In 2007, we provided 6,995 nights of care to 134 homeless young women and their children. We found a major obstacle to getting up for class or work was an alarm clock. The Gift Your $10 gift will provide an AFG Shelter resident an alarm clock to keep with her even when she leaves the shelter. An alarm clock is a simple yet often overlooked accessory that is essential to being successful. For the women who arrive at our shelter, an alarm clock is one of the tools we like to provide in helping them succeed in their lives. We hope you join us in this initiative to make sure every resident that comes through our shelter leaves with an alarm clock and a chance for a much more successful future.$10.00 - AFG Rock The Vote!! Alternatives for Girls
ProblemWe passionately believe that voting empowers individuals, and the people we serve more than anyone else needs to know the importance of their voice and their vote. Part of AFG's mission is to provide our participants resources and opportunities to grow strong and make positive choices in their lives. We want to empower our participants to see themselves as citizens whose opinion matters and whose vote will make a difference. The Gift Your gift of $50 will help us to hold our Voter Registration Drive at AFG on August 8th from 11am - 3pm. We are not promoting one party or another; we are just educating our community on the importance of voting and providing them the opportunity to register that day. We are working hard to publicize this event not only to our AFG participants but to all community members in Southwest Detroit. We have a full program planned, along with the registration drive. We will have a presentation from the Detroit Department of Elections on voter rights and the new voting machines. We will have music, poetry readings, and performances all related to the importance of voting. We will have free food for everyone and prizes and give-a-ways for those who register to vote. Your gift will allow us to buy the food, gift cards, and prizes. Your help is crucial for our registration drive because a successful drive means more individuals who realize his or her voice matters. We greatly appreciate your support on this important project!$50.00