The Blog

Antonio Villaraigosa: Giving Thanks By Giving Back

2009-11-26T01:01:01Z

Around this time of the year, many families will sit around the dinner table, give thanks and enjoy a nice warm meal together. However, others won't be so lucky.

Thanksgiving is just one reminder of how important it is, especially for those of us blessed with more, to give and to give generously. There are homeless shelters all over Los Angeles that provide food and shelter to people without a home for the holidays. More than anything, these homeless shelters provide people with a sense of community, a feeling that they belong somewhere and that they are valued and loved. Individually our contribution may be small, but together we can build something greater.

That's why I push my administration everyday to fight to provide opportunities for the less fortunate. Whether it's our commitment to build permanent supportive housing for our homeless or our work to put 100,000 hard working Angelenos into living wage jobs, everyday we are making an effort to give back.

If you want to find a place to volunteer please go to the city's volunteer directory. My prayer is that we give of ourselves, through service, not only during the holidays but year round.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Katherine Gustafson: The Pajama Program Offers Love in a Snuggle

2009-11-25T20:14:30Z

Genevieve Piturro's path from corporate VP to nonprofit pioneer started with a bedtime story. And after that, a bedtime.

A sad and lonely bedtime.

The kids she had been reading to in the emergency shelter did what they could to get comfortable. They curled up on whatever couches and mattresses were available, still dressed in ill-fitting clothes, some of them crying.

Many of these children had just been rescued from abusive and neglectful homes. Some of them hadn’t ever known what it felt like to be loved.

"The kids had nothing with them and they were just abused and abandoned," Piturro later recalled. "And it was heartbreaking to me to see their sleep time."

At a Crossroads

That moment came at a crossroads in Piturro's life, a time when she had began questioning, at age 38, whether the rat race was enough to fulfill her. She had woken up one day, decades after launching a successful career in the entertainment business, and taken stock: no children, no husband, no sense of purpose beyond the corporate ladder. It wasn't enough.

Open to new possibilities, she met and married a man named Demo, who suggested that she read to kids in shelters as a way to find some deeper meaning and be closer to children.

Watching her charges go to bed in loneliness and disarray that first night, she found the purpose she had been searching for. She waited for the shelter's staff to finish getting the kids to sleep and then asked if she could bring the children some pajamas the next week.

That was the moment that changed her life. A simple vow to give a needed gift launched her onto a path that led her to found and run Pajama Program, a nonprofit organization dedicated to donating pajamas and books to children in need.

Her vision crystallized when she brought her first donation of 12 pajamas to the kids in the shelter a week after first reading to them. One little girl looked quizzically at the pajamas Piturro was holding out to her. "What are these?" she asked.

"I had a mom, she tucked me in, tucked my brothers and my sister in," Piturro said. "We wouldn't let her leave our bedside. You know, just what kids are supposed to have at night."

Having pajamas, Piturro can see, is about more than going to bed at night in something other than street clothes.

"It's a hug at night," she said, "something they will take under the covers with them wherever they are, whether it's a couch or a bed and whether they're alone in it or sharing it with three other kids. It's something that makes them know that someone loves them."

A Vision Realized

It quickly became Piturro's mission in life to give that experience of safety, warmth and love to as many children as she could. She started by asking friends and family to give her children's pajamas in lieu of gifts and money for holidays or fundraisers.

As she distributed more and more pajamas and books in shelters and group homes around the New York area, her interest in her corporate career began to subside.

After Parenting Magazine covered the program in 2001, boxes of sleepwear and books started rolling in from people all over the country. Her house was colonized by cardboard boxes: “they were all over like a maze, we ate on them, we sat on them.”

Piturro’s appearance on Oprah in 2007 motivated an avalanche of volunteer support, so that eight years after offering those first PJs, she has grown Pajama Program into a network of 70 chapters in 44 states, which collect and donate supplies to 1,900 organizations. The organization has, as of this writing, donated 433,109 pairs of pajamas and 190,105 new books to children and opened three reading centers in the New York area. She now aims to expand until the program can supply new pajamas and books four times every year.

Comfort in a Cold Season

Kids in crisis situations have particularly acute need for warm pajamas from the start of October through the end of March, what Piturro calls "Danger Season." An army of intrepid volunteers and kind-hearted donors make sure these kids are prepared to face winter temperatures in foster homes or shelters that might not be sufficiently heated or where blankets might be scarce.

While Piturro thrills at all the progress she has made — and the new purpose she has found in life — she realizes there is much more to do, especially during the cold winter months. "It's a mix of joy watching the boxes go out and it's back to hard work and disappointing feelings when I see how many kids are still on the waiting list," she said.

With so much need, more help is badly needed. Donors and volunteers can be confident they are contributing to a true labor of love. "It means the world to me," Piturro told me. "I never had a baby so it's my baby. It brings joy and heartbreaking emotions at the same time."

How You Can Help

Visit the Pajama Program website to find out more about donating or volunteering in your area. This season, Sprout is matching pair-for-pair all the pajamas that donors contribute, so all gifts will go twice as far. Piturro said that there's a particular need for larger sizes; kids who are 8, 9, 10 and older frequently wear adult sizes, which are often neglected or forgotten by donors. Additionally, she seeks volunteers and donated space to open reading centers in Chicago, California and Florida.

Photo courtesy of Pajama Program

Caroline Walker: Eliminate Violence Against Women? Get the Boys on Board

2009-11-25T19:41:24Z

"As many as one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way ... Violence kills and disables as many women between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer. And its toll on women's health surpasses that of traffic accidents and malaria combined."
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Though the need for gender equality extends far beyond the past decade, the momentum over the past 10 years is finally building to a critical point where cultural change may actually become a reality. Ending injustice and eradicating violence against women and girls are prime focal points this year: we're seeing action in new United Nations resolutions, focus on women at the Clinton Global Initiative and we're embracing women's rights as what New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof describes as, "the cause of our time." He often quotes a Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky."

But what about the other half — men — the ones who most often perpetrate violence against the women? Who is reaching out to them?

During this week's 10 year commemoration event at New York's UN headquarters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced the addition of a Network of Men Leaders to the UNite to End Violence Against Women campaign. They're joining the ranks of grassroots organizations and international NGOs who have already recognized that engaging men in the crusade is not just an ideal — it's essential.

More than ever, campaigns to raise awareness about the realities of violence and oppression are sprouting up, organizations are providing services for victims of abuse, and social entrepreneurs are creating financial empowerment programs so that women have economic freedom and independence.

Now, specifically, it's time for guys to step up. And they are.

To point: Men Engage is on the forefront of involving men in the solution, conducting research and shaping programs that educate male populations. Vital Voices, an organization on the receiving end of a $4 million corporate commitment at this year's Clinton Global Initiative, recognizes the importance of involving men in the crusade. In fact, the organization has partnered with the Man Up campaign directed by author/activist/UN Goodwill Ambassador Jimmie Briggs and former Education Director of Amnesty USA, Karen Robinson Cloete. The program is using soccer and hip-hop music to infiltrate youth culture and arm young boys and girls, men and women, with tools and information for creating their own human rights legacies.

As one example of an organization adding men to the mix, it's worth breaking down how they plan to do it — in hopes that we can figure out how to incorporate the messaging into other programs an campaigns. Here's the bottom line: By employing tools and platforms that speak directly to youth culture, Man Up aims to cross borders and gender lines, creating a movement driven specifically by the young people who are building their own legacies.

Talking exclusively to Tonic, Briggs and Robinson explained what the big deal is with using music and sport to carry the message. "I don't know the culture in certain communities, but the young people do," Robinson says. "We know young people can create change. We know that. Let's meet them at a place that is real and authentic." Speaking to young people — boys and girls alike — through elements of culture that shape their attitudes and relationships.

The UNFPA says that domestic violence is "the result of tacit acceptance by [a] society. The way men view themselves as men, and the way they view women, will determine whether they use violence or coercion against women."

Man Up Director of New Media Fred Sullivan told Tonic that his father "beat him around a bit" as a kid, and that while he can have compassion for his shortcomings where expressing emotion is concerned, "Even if motivated by love, if it comes out as an act of violence, you propagate that violence down the generations." Now the father of a young girl, he sees the importance of breaking the cycle.

As Briggs puts it, "We need to redefine what manhood is." Looking at gender roles is nothing new in this country, but globally, we need to reassign and re-frame the way we see a powerful man, one who has the moxy to stand up for his sisters.

Starting today, in sync with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Man Up is enlisting young people in South Africa as organized, long-term partners in the initiative. This campaign -– the 16 Days of Activism -– will run through Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 and establish grassroots commitments from youth activists.

This all leads up to a three-day "global youth summit" in South Africa, synced with the 2010 World Cup and complete with entertainment and other festivities. Sessions and programs will educate and engage attendees, leading up to the design of viable plans of action. It's not just about dreaming abstract dreams; Man Up will provide tools and guidance, seed grants for execution, and networking with like-minded youth and powerful international NGO partners. When partnerships include heavy-hitters like the NoVo Foundation, Vital Voices, V-Day and Witness, that's saying quite a bit.

Still, amidst all of the World Cup excitement, Man Up reminds us, "Gender violence is not a game." It's serious, it's fragmenting and it's catastrophic on a global level.

Jimmie Briggs admitted that it is no small task — that he will not likely see the fruits of his labor in this lifetime — but that like any civil rights movement or any cultural shift, change takes time.

Briggs said, "The most pressing issue? Creating the legacy of our next generations."

You can help. Become a Project Partner or donate through their tax-deductible fiscal sponsor Alliance for Peace Building.

Brian Levin, J.D.: As Clock Ticks: Do You Hold The Key To Cold Case Racial Murders?

2009-11-25T18:53:01Z

The balmy nights can be errily dark and quiet in Vornado, only a couple of miles from where a twisting Mississippi river snakes through thickets of green trees to mark the rural eastern border of Louisiana. But buried behind the gentility and bucolic landscape of this small village of 300 lies a secret brutal past. Almost a half century after a horrific racial killing, the FBI and an assortment of civil rights activists across the nation are redoubling their efforts to solve a mystery and bring some fugitive murderers to justice-and maybe you or someone you know holds the key.

When the Klan declared war in Louisiana, decent upstanding innocent folk were often the first casualty and justice the last. To those whose solemn oath was to white supremacy, those who swore competing oaths to the Constitution were their mortal enemy—especially if they wore uniforms or badges and they were Black. Such was the case on a quiet Spring Wednesday night in June 1965. As Australian troops arrived in Vietnam, AM transistor radios blared the Supremes “Back in My Arms Again” and two astronauts prepped for their Gemini 4 orbital space flight, two rookie Washington Parish sheriffs deputies, Oneal Moore and David Creed Rogers, were on their way to a meal break during an uneventful evening patrol.

After the February assassination of Malcolm X in New York by Nation of Islam gunmen and the March attack on protestors by police outside of Selma, AL things were incrementally starting to look up again for America’s “Negroes” and their allies. Even early in the season San Francisco Giant “Say Hey Kid” Willie Mays was well on his way to becoming the National League’s Most Valuable Player. The Senate just passed the Voting Rights Act the week before and earlier that Spring Nobel Prize winner the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King delivered a rousing sermon entitled “How Long, Not Long: Our God is Marching On” on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery.

There were also hundreds of smaller local victories as well. Deputies Moore and Rogers had just finished marking their own first anniversary as sworn lawmen only one day earlier. Despite, or perhaps because of, Klan violence, threats, and racial tension, they became two of the first African-American sheriffs deputies to serve on the Washington Parish force. This was some coup as the parish was thought to have the highest concentration of Klansmen anywhere. Gun-toting Klansman terrorized Black communities, and the presence of Black deputies was a result of demands from a terrified community.

A Racial Assassination

The two deputies headed home for a meal down a darkened Main Street around 10PM in Vornado on the night of June 2 with Deputy Moore at the wheel. As they crossed the railroad tracks the officers were suddenly ambushed when a black pickup truck with a Confederate battle flag on the front raced along side of their squad car. A barrage of unprovoked gunfire exploded from the bed of the pickup violently shattering the night’s silence. The rifle shots struck both officers, sending the police car veering out of control. The car crashed into one of the old big distinguished trees that dot the landscape.

Inside the wrecked car lay Deputy Rogers, blinded in one eye and the lifeless body of Deputy Moore-killed by a direct shot to the head. On Friday, June 4 the New York Times ran a headline over a small story on page 17: “2 Negro Deputies Shot in Bogalusa; Driver of Sheriff’s Patrol Car Killed—Suspect Held.”

Colfax Massacre

This wasn’t the first time that an apparent Louisiana Klan attack took on Black symbols of authority with impunity. Almost a century prior, in 1873 in perhaps the worst instance of racial slaughter after the Civil War, over 100 African-American militia and freedmen guarding a parish courthouse in Colfax were killed, many after surrendering to their white aggressors. An ad-hoc Army of white supremacists, armed with a cannon set upon them following a disputed gubernatorial election. Only three defendants out of ninety-seven indicted went to trail, and those remaining indictments were overturned by a hostile Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875) That decision eviscerated the application of one of the primary new federal laws enacted to protect newly freed slaves from organized Klan violence.

Justice Denied

Almost one hundred years later a reinvigorated Klan couldn’t have killed a better guy. In Free At Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in The Struggle, Sara-Bullard described the married father of four young girls: “Moore was a 34-year old Army veteran who had distinguished himself as a leader in his church, his local fraternal lodge and the P.T.A.” Despite the swirl of investigation and boiling tension outside the cemetery, Moore’s parents, wife Marvella, and his daughters-who unlike their mother, were all dressed in white- solemnly watched as a full dressed military guard laid their beloved son, husband and father to rest in a flag draped coffin.

Despite the Governor’s intervention, shots fired at an investigator, a $25,0000 reward, and the detention of a suspect just over the border in Mississippi, no one has ever been tried for the murder of Deputy Moore-a killing that left a family and a community without one of its most reliable local leaders.

Rogers retired from the Sheriff’s Department in 1988 with the rank of Captain and passed away peacefully at the age of 85 in the winter of 2007 - the very week the FBI reopened the case for a third time. The prime suspect died in 2003, but his accomplices may still be alive.

Race Against Time

Over the past decade civil rights activists have been desperately fighting a reinvigorated race against the clock for justice as some victims, witnesses, perpetrators and family members perish reated to this and other noteworthy attacks from the civil rights era.

Sparked by Kansas City’s civil rights treasure (and Center Advisory Board member) Alvin Sykes and young New York documentary filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, the Justice Department and FBI are working with activists across the country to find clues to many of the murders from the Civil Rights era that went unsolved. Alvin formed the Emmett Till Justice Campaign with the Emmett’s mother Mamie Till Mobley in January 2003 to shed a renewed spotlight on these “cold cases.” Chicagoan Emmett Till, 14, was brutally lynched in 1955 for whistling at a white woman. Two days after her meeting with Sykes and former Justice Department employee Donald Burgher, Ms. Mobley perished from a sudden heart attack. That didn’t stop Alvin, in his efforts to make good on his promise to her to pass a law in Emmett’s name to devote resources to these cases. A tenacious Sykes, finally saw the The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act signed into law last October by President George Bush.

In July Alvin, Former U.S. Attorney and Klan prosecutor Doug Jones, Keith Beauchamp, Till’s cousin Rev. Wheeler Parker (who witnessed the youth’s kidnapping as a teenager), myself and others conferred with Attorney General Eric Holder in his office along with Justice and FBI officials to discuss hate crimes and the implementation of the Till Act.

Alvin Sykes, Rev and Mrs. Wheeler, and Attorney General Holder

We all scrambled to DC. for the meeting. The meeting had been delayed for awhile as Alvin raised money for months to get himself and victims’ relatives to Washington, DC by selling T-shirts. Jones squeezed in a quick flight from Alabama. Already back East, I hastily commandeered my 80 year old mother’s car in New York, dropped her and my young kids at my brother’s in Philadelphia, and drove to DC, sleeping on an old buddy’s couch during my short economical stay.

One case we discussed was that of Klansman Billy Ray Posey, who escaped state indictment in connection with the “Mississippi Burning” Klan lynchings of three civil rights workers involved in a voting rights project in the South during the “Freedom Summer” of 1964.

Me at the table

The deciding vote against Posey’s Mississippi indictment apparently came from one of his relatives. Less than three weeks after our meeting, before the Feds could charge him, Posey, 73 evaded justice one last time, when he died of natural causes. He was buried in the same town where the slain civil rights pioneers Andrew Goodman, 20; Michael Schwerner, 24; and James Chaney, 21; were martyred 45 years earlier. Posey outlived all the parents of the murdered civil rights heroes.

As the clock continuously ticks, justice suffers. But maybe you hold the key. Over the last week the FBI announced a renewed effort to find families of closed case victims and witnesses in unsolved ones, like Moore’s. As you reconnect with loved ones this Thanksgiving, please see if you have friends or family who may be able to assist the FBI with any information about these cases or lost relatives.

Most Wanted (From CBS News)
The Bureau is asking the public for help finding family members of cold case victims, including:
• Arthur James Hill, who was shot and killed in Villa Rica, Georgia during an altercation with a group of white men in August 1965;
• Clarence Horatious Pickett, who was beaten to death by a police officer in a Columbus, Ga., jail in December 1957;
• Ann Thomas, who was sexually assaulted and shot four times in the head in San Antonio, Texas in April 1969;
• William Lewis Moore, a former U.S. Marine who was shot and killed in April 1963 near Attalla, Ala. - the postal worker was marching to deliver a letter to the Mississippi governor urging integration of the University of Mississippi;
• Izell Henry of Greensburg, La., who on July 28, 1954 was brought to Lallie Kemp Hospital where he was pronounced dead; two individuals claimed to have found him in a ditch.
• Jimmy Powell, 15, who on July 16, 1964 was shot and killed by a police officer in New York City for allegedly charging at the officer with a knife; and
• Ernest Jells, who was shot to death by Clarksville, Miss., police in October 1963 after he allegedly pointed a rifle at officers attempting to arrest him for stealing a banana.

The FBI is also offering a reward for information leading to the indictment, arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for:

• The June 1965 murder of Deputy Sheriff O'Neal Moore and attempted murder of Deputy Sheriff David "Creed" Rogers in Varnado, La.; Moore and Rogers were the first black deputies in Washington Parish.
• The December 1964 murder of Frank Morris, a shoe store owner in Ferriday, Louisiana.

Please help us, make Dr. King’s vision as articulated on those Alabama Capitol steps in March 1965, finally ring true:

“How long will justice be crucified, (Speak) and truth bear it?" (Yes, sir) I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, (Yes, sir) however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, (No sir) because "truth crushed to earth will rise again." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (Yes, sir) because "no lie can live forever." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (All right. How long) because "you shall reap what you sow." (Yes, sir)"

"How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

FBI Contacts: Field Offices-http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm

GroundReport: Robin Hood Foundation Embraces the Web to Feed NYC's Hungry

2009-11-25T14:09:11Z

By Rachel Sterne, GroundReport CEO

Want to give back this Thanksgiving, but can't make it to a soup kitchen?

A fascinating experiment in digital philanthropy is brewing in the headquarters of the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City charity that has raised more than $1 billion for poverty-focused nonprofits.

Over the past two months, a skunkworks team of young internet influencers has met, brainstormed, emailed and twittered -- all in the pursuit of feeding more than 100,000 of the city's hungry.

The challenge? Convince 15,000 people to donate $50 online, providing a holiday meal to 8 people. Contributions are processed by delivery grocer FreshDirect, and the campaign spans Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

Why would Robin Hood, which historically brings in gargantuan donations from the city's financial elite, try such a grassroots approach?

The Robin Hood Foundation is not your typical New York City charity. First, it's relatively young for its size, founded in 1988. Its board is comprised not of descendants of the country's oil and railroad magnates, but of self-made hedge fund managers and media moguls. Above all, it breaks tradition with an approach that's closer to an investment firm than a homeless shelter.

A pioneer in 'venture philanthropy,' a charity model that embraces free-market forces, the foundation looks at the nonprofits it funds as investments, emphasizes accountability, and regularly measures ROI. To those in the internet industry, it might resemble Y Combinator, a successful venture firm that incubates promising startups by providing advice and network connections.

What's more, it's working, with a record fundraising bounty of $72.7 million in one night at the 2009 spring gala. 100 percent of that will go directly to charities, because Robin Hood's board members cover all administrative costs.

So why rock the boat? It's their free-market approach to evolving charity that has led to Robin Hood's success, and they're looking to evolve further. [Disclosure: I am part of the digital outreach team].

Mark Bezos, Robin Hood's SVP of Development and Communications, said that now the organization is asking, "How does a model like ours, that is very labor-intensive and customized, exist in a Kiva.org world?"

He admitted that the "brave new world" of web-based philanthropy is "all very new to us." By looking to the group, which includes Rachel Sklar of Mediaite, Soraya Darabi of The New York Times, and Serena Torrey from New York Magazine, Bezos said, "we're trying to crowdsource an answer."

The bottom line, according to Bezos? The Robin Hood Foundation is "trying recruit more foot soldiers in the fight against poverty." So far, efforts have raised over $360,000, providing almost 58,000 meals--not bad for a web foray, but still a long way off from the 120,000-meal goal.

Want to help? $50 can feed 8 New Yorkers in need this winter through a donation to the Robin Hood Foundation via FreshDirect.

Learn more about the campaign here. 100% of all donations will go directly to local charitable organizations.

Kathy Eldon: Caught in the Act: Beverly and Dereck Joubert's Life Amongst Big Cats

2009-11-25T00:23:49Z

Can you imagine living among lions and elephants in the Botswana bush? Or, what about photographing these amazing animals for a living, in their natural habitat and not behind the chain link fence of a zoo? That is exactly what partners Dereck and Beverly Joubert get to do every day. Working with National Geographic, the power couple use art and media to capture the wildlife that surrounds them, share its importance, and inspire others to take part in conserving our world and wildlife. Their photographs have influenced policy and people's perception of wildlife for over twenty-five years and epitomize exactly what it means to be a creative activist.

Last week, I attended the Environmental Media Association Awards and was drawn to the Joubert's upon first introductions. Having spent 12 years of my life as a journalist in Kenya, I had to learn more about what they do in the place they call home. I tracked them down a few days later in Santa Monica, California, in the midst of their promotional tour to find out what they are doing, how they do it, and how we can all help. These multiple award-winning filmmakers, photographers, writers, and conservationists took time to tell me all about their new book Eye of the Leopard, the Big Cat Initiative, the awareness they are creating around conservation tourism and the organization they have partnered with, Great Plain Conservation.

To learn more about the Jouberts and the projects they are involved with, visit:

To learn more about creative activists, visit:

Jon Foreman: Compassion vs. Consumption

2009-11-24T23:49:17Z

I feel a strange sense of isolation when I'm on tour. During the part of the day that I spend off-stage and off-air a gloomy detachment begins to set in. I watch the towns fly by on the side of the road. I call home from a new city day after day. I feel lonely and yet I want to be alone for some reason. Sometimes I walk around a bit, find a coffee shop and observe. I watch young couples in love, a man walking his dog, people rushing through the traffic to get somewhere else. And for these brief moments of stillness I become the old man on the park bench watching life from the outside. During these quiet intervals of reflection I often see pieces of myself in the folks around me.

Today I have a day-off in Albuquerque. That's right, the town that never looks like it's spelled quite right. There's a chill in the air today. Allegedly it snowed a bit this morning. Even if the white stuff didn't stick, the styrofoam snowflakes are up in ribbons and bows to decorate the local shopping center near the hotel where our bus is parked. I sit in this caffeinated postmodern watering hole feeling completely disconnected from the yuletide trappings, almost irritated by the decor. Maybe my sentiment stems from my detached life on the road. Or perhaps, I feel this way simply because it's not even Thanksgiving yet and Christmas is more than a month away. Either way, as I sit here bracing myself for the pending shopping season. I read that last sentence and start to feel downright Grinchy. I hate feeling Grinchy...

From where I sit I can see a bearded man on the corner asking for change with his hand-made cardboard sign, "homeless, please help." Other more elaborate cardboard signs inside the coffee shop are also looking for my money -- advertising a warm glass of Christmas cheer for only a few bucks. The line moves briskly inside the coffee shop, full of interesting human specimens, every one of them a story in process. I try to read each one like a novel -- full of intentions, hopes, fears, dreams, and desires. The man outside on the corner has a story too. Where are his parents? Does he have any kids? I can identify with this bearded outcast more than than anyone in the coffee shop, but nobody else seems all too interested.

My mind starts to think about the economics of the situation. Are the coffee shop and my bearded friend outside in direct competition? Does he simply need a better product? Are we declaring his cause to be less valuable than a cup of coffee when tell the barista our choice? These people are lined up to buy coffee for the same reason that I'm here. This is a product that we know. We might complain about how expensive it is, but we prove that the warm beverage is "worth" our hard-earned pay by throwing our money down time and time again. In our free market economy, the man on the corner is offering an alternative use for the scarce resource of our currency. But his "product" is a bit more nebulous than even the most complex soy latte. Still this language of product and consumption just doesn't fit his situation. He's a human soul, and with a few unlucky turns I could easily see myself in his situation. My detached thoughts this morning feel stuck in the traffic, stuck at the corner of Consumption and Compassion.

At a mall during the Christmas Season the line gets pretty blurry between consumption and compassion. On the one hand, we are buying for others, what could be more compassionate!? And in these shaky economic times, we are told that our purchases are crucial. Our consumption helps to create jobs as the "invisible hand" of free economics helps to support the American economy. But what about my bearded friend outside the mall? I can hear Scrooge in my head: "He needs to get a job. He needs to stop freeloading off of the hardworking American Public. His situation is the simple justice of the free market economy." Maybe... but we all know that the story simply isn't that simple.

Even though the statistics only tell part of the story, they can help illuminate the complexities of the situation: One in five people in a soup kitchen line is a child. (America's Second Harvest, Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts). Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces. (Rosenheck, Robert, Homeless Veterans, in Homelessness in America, 1996). According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20-25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness. These are daughters and sons, brothers and sisters. These are stories in need of hope.

We all need grace from time to time. I look back on my own life. I grew up in a stable home environment with a pretty good education and some solid friends. Over the years I have had incredible chances to achieve, to live, to learn. And even with all of this I have made some horrible decisions in my life. To a certain extent, justice means that I'm on the corner looking for change. No, we all need compassion that goes beyond the free market economy. And though it might be high on our wish list this Christmas compassion is not that easy to give away. Maybe Adam Smith, the father of modern economics might be able to shed some light on the line between compassion and justice.

"...we feel ourselves to be under a stricter obligation to act according to justice, than agreeably to friendship, charity, or generosity; that the practice of these last mentioned virtues seems to be left in some measure to our own choice, but that, somehow or other, we feel ourselves to be in a peculiar manner tied, bound, and obliged to the observation of justice." —Smith, A. (1759 The Theory of Moral Sentiments)

So justice and compassion are set into separate piles of thought. Justice becomes imperative, (bringing murderers and thieves to trial) but Scrooges are tolerated. Recent events on Wall Street might even make us question whether justice comes to the Scrooges who break the law... but that's a different story. Like I wrote about a few weeks ago, there are no law to regulate kindness.

I suppose there is even a sense of justice to the shopping mall. The consumer is judge and jury. Her money is hers alone. She, the autonomous individual weighs all of the evidence: the marketing dollars, the products reputation, the past experiences are all brought into the courtroom of the consumer. And then in a split moment of decision, the almighty consumer swings her gavel and chooses her verdict. The purchase is made. The exchange marks the karma of consumption, the justice of the free market system.

But the "justice" of this system enslaves millions around the world. The "justice" of industry destroys the weak, ignores the hungry, and disfigures our planet. Our consumption is not sustainable monetarily, ecologically, or spiritually. The illusion of the individual is equally flawed. I, the almighty American consumer did not grow this morning's coffee beans. I did not knit my socks or cut my own hair. In fact, I, the consumer actually know very little about the products that I consume. My entire world is facilitated by others in an ever shrinking global economy.

Wealth is a subjective term that compares one individual with the rest. As such, the concept of wealth is only possible in community. Our affluence is always relative to those around us. The average American is richer than most humans that have ever lived upon the planet. As such, wealth necessitates poverty. Scarcity is necessary for sales. Hunger is necessary for consumption. The consumer is restless- yearning to be satiated. But the consummation of the sale does not gratify our appetite for long.

Where do these desires come from? Certainly there are needs. Food, clothing, shelter, companionship. But we have deeper desires that are harder to explain. We want to be accepted, validated. We want to know that our lives have worth, that this day has meaning and purpose. We are searching for the meaning behind our physical existence. I walk through the hallowed halls of our times. I see good looking models smiling down at me, wearing colorful new sweater-vests and lingerie. I smell the food-court. I feel overwhelmed, like a fish staring at a million hooks. An endless palate of color, size, shape, style, marketing variations in the cathedral of consumption. All of this a few yards from the man on the corner with his simple request for change.

We are the target market, we are the demographic. The purchase adds to a bottom line that will help pay for the overhead of raw goods, rent, and human resources (a telling title), ultimately investing back into the machine of progress. A dog chasing his tail. The endless desire of the consumer, (me) fueling the fires of industry around the world. Our Cathedrals of Consumption are well stocked with the "justice" of the free market economy. And compassionate acts will always be in direct competition with my endless desire for novelty. Do we define our desires or do our desires define us? Do we define our purchases of do our purchases define us?

I am not looking for a redistribution of wealth. No, this would require a significant amount of trust in the political system that, quite frankly I do not have. No, I am not looking for a redistribution of wealth I am looking for a redefining of wealth. A new understanding of fulfillment, of satisfaction, of satiation, of joy that transcends the consuming transaction. A definition of wealth that accounts for more than the individual and looks to the community at large. Maybe this season's celebration, (a commercial season that I can't believe is already here) could be a chance to be more than a consumer, more than an individual. Maybe we could partake in community. Maybe we could befriend the outsider, feed the hungry, and be wealthy in ways we've never known. We could spend time together instead of throwing money at the mall.

I'm not saying to throw money at man on the corner. But I am saying that he is our brother. He is our father. He is our community. There is wealth hidden in his situation. It's not well lit or well advertised. There is wealth in giving him your respect. There is wealth in discovering his story. You might be able to trust him with your compassion. Yes, we are consumers. But we need not be consumed.

Levi Felix: This Is The World We Live In: A New Chapter

2009-11-24T22:55:39Z

It was just two years ago that I met Ryan Scott while on a journalistic adventure through Los Angeles exploring the statement, "Hollywood Goes Green." We began to have what I thought was going to be a simple casual-conversation-card-exchange. Wrong as I was, we soon bonded over our hatred of the ever so popular marketing ploy of "green-washing," though absorbed in the potential of a true green industry. Within moments we found that our mutual interest in the environment ran deeper than green.

"All Causes Are Connected," he said. Our rapid fire conversation grew as we explored the idea. Within two weeks I was unpacking my San Francisco bags in my new LA apartment...I blink and two years have flown by. Staring out of my office today I see the inspiring faces of our team working whole-hearted for their cause and those of others. I realize that I probably have one of the best jobs in the world surrounded by the coolest people.

December 8th brings the beginning of a new chapter. One of adventure, activism, sacrifice, simplicity, collaboration, curiosity, questions, persistence and perspective. On what is the two year anniversary of that first meeting, I am packing my bags again. With my new mobile office in tow, camera and laptop packed tightly next to my trusty travel toothbrush, I wear my new title with pride - CAO, Chief Activism Officer.

We are embarking on a new era of influence as activism begins to show itself in ways we never imagined. From armchair revolutionaries who have formed movements of millions with just a few clicks, to travelers in India making more out of their vacation through volunteer programs, to a child and her cancer fighting lemonade stand...it's apparent that everyone has the ability to make an impact.

For the next 6-9 months I will be traveling around the world with Brooke Dean and other activists capturing these stories of leadership and heroism, learning about communities in need and conflict, and connecting them with the support of those looking to give it.

I will be crossing borders and boundaries; seeing places I've only read about in books, sharing stories from regions rarely covered by our media, hearing to voices heard only through the lips of others who've been, and helping those who may have been overlooked. We will blog, vlog, tweet, widgetize and make sense of all we witness, providing the online tools and ensuring that our efforts remain both sustainable and repeatable. ThisIsTheWorldWeLiveIn.com
will be our hub, powered by Causecast.org

The Goal: Meet as many activists as possible, period; get our hands dirty, period; and come back with the smell of those no longer strangers. Their stories now ours.

We will attempt to answer the questions:
What is effective activism?
What is collaboration, sustainability and understanding?
How will our diverse generation of social change build a true global culture committed to one another? Though our actions unique, our impact is one.

The era of charity is over. Tikkun olam, it's evolving.
The implications and connections of our lives are now impossible to ignore. Though our actions unique, our impact is one.

We walk with high hopes. To understand how we as global citizens can differ so greatly, and still collectively dream beautiful dreams all together new. Connect, learn, give, act and share.

This is our pursuit.
Because, this is the world we live in.

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Levi Felix, Chief Activism Officer at Causecast will be traveling around the world with Brooke Dean and other activists for the next 6-9months capturing stories of leadership and heroism, learning about communities in need and conflict, and connecting them with the support of those looking to give it. Follow their adventure and get involved at ThisIsTheWorldWeLiveIn.com

To see their itinerary please visit: ThisIsTheWorldWeLiveIn.com

If you know of an individual or group that they should meet, organization or movement to volunteer with, in any country on any continent, please email Levi at Levi@Causecast.org.

Sheryl Sandberg: Reaching Women Around the World

2009-11-24T22:15:33Z

It is tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, food, and thanks. Like many families, mine starts the holiday meal by going around the table so everyone can say what they are most thankful for. For me, I am thankful that as a woman, I live in the peace and security of the United States.

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times has said that "in the 19th century, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape." There is a growing understanding that "focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism."

But how? How do we help women who live so far away and face atrocities we can't even imagine? How does an individual sitting at a Thanksgiving table in the United States provide any real assistance to a woman who will never have a meal like this in her entire life?

The best program I have found is Women for Women International, an international development and humanitarian organization that helps women survivors of war move from crisis to self-sufficiency. Through the organization's sponsorship program, you can be matched with a woman in need and help her receive financial assistance, job skill training, leadership and rights awareness training and microcredit loans. A monthly contribution of $27 provides your sponsored "sister" with the keys to rebuilding her life after war. By sponsoring a woman, you not only provide her with the financial assistance she needs to get back on her feet, but you can also be a critical source of support by writing letters, which Women for Women International will translate and exchange on your behalf.

Many of the women report that the letters they receive from their sponsors in the United States and around the world provided the kind of confidential emotional support they needed most to fully recover. This year-long experience is a journey that will bring women from victim to survivor to active citizen.

As a board member for Women for Women International, I have witnessed firsthand the direct and personal impact of connecting with a woman who has lost everything in war and yet is able to rebuild her life, her family and her community with my support. So far, Women for Women International has helped over 250,000 women globally and distributed more than $79 million in direct aid, micro credit loans, and other program services. Because women reinvest up to 90% of their resources back into the family, we know that these women are helping rebuild their families and communities in a proven model of economic development. Stronger women build stronger nations.

Women are uniquely vulnerable to violence -- they are the majority of the world's displaced and refugee populations and are subjected time and again to rape and sexualized violence as tools of war. Yet women also represent enormous opportunity to rebuild families and communities. We work with rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, site of the deadliest war since WWII where hundreds of thousands of women have been raped. These same women are now learning to manufacture ceramic tiles that will build, literally and figuratively, the foundation of peace and development after war. In Afghanistan, we help illiterate mothers put their girls and boys through school amidst a conflict that has produced over a million widows, many of whom are uneducated and poverty-stricken. In Sudan, we assist poor women farmers who are then able to double their income through new techniques for commercial markets.

In a time of global financial crisis that is estimated will plunge another 22 million women into poverty, these women are on a precipice. For these women, even $27 a month can change the world and open new opportunities for them and their families to thrive. As I await my turn to give my thanks at the family supper table this Thursday, I know just what I will say.

Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and sits on the board of directors of Women for Women International. For more on Women for Women International, visit womenforwomen.org or contact Lyric Thompson at lthompson@womenforwomen.org.

Payam Zamani: A Visit To Haiti: Could Education Be The Answer?

2009-11-24T21:40:27Z

My wife Gouya and I traveled to Haiti last month with a group of supporters of the Mona Foundation, which included "The Office" actor Rainn Wilson (who plays Dwight Schrute) and his wife Holiday Reinhorn. Although I have also visited poverty-stricken villages in Africa with the foundation, Haiti's poverty is coupled with frequent warnings of violence against visitors, especially ones from the United States. If there is any glimmer of safety, it's because of the overwhelming presence of the UN.

Haiti is an ungoverned country with almost no infrastructure. It lacks many of the basics we are used to. Electricity is spotty, even in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city. As I traveled on Haiti's treacherous (mostly unpaved) and pothole-packed streets, I glimpsed a dichotomous scene: a scenically picturesque, lush landscape marred by crushing poverty.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The top 1 percent of Haitians control 50 percent of its wealth. But despite the widespread poverty, chronic hunger (last year there were food riots in Haiti), and lack of amenities and social services, many of the Haitians I met on my trip remained optimistic about the future of their country.

Haitians are some of the most beautiful people I have ever met. While by any measure Haiti is a poor country, one cannot help but notice the pride people take in their appearance. Every child who attends school in Haiti -- even the poorest of the poor -- wears a bright, clean, and pressed uniform. In this impoverished country, children looked immaculate as they walked and focused on getting to their destination as they bypassed the traffic and devastation they've grown accustomed to.

The Mona-sponsored schools we visited provide their students with a strong foundation in reading and writing, as well as a curriculum that stresses morals, values, leadership, community-building, vocational training, and pride in their heritage. The schools provide their students with the skills they'll need to help heal and build their nation. According to one Mona school director, "These schools have great potential to serve the country by producing graduates who will be agents of change in their community."

While the Mona Foundation sponsors coed institutions, it is primarily focused on educating girls and women. Educating girls is crucial. As mothers, women are the first educators, and studies show that once a girl gets an education, she has the opportunity to raise the standard of living for herself, her family, her community, and her country. According to GirlEffect.org, research in developing countries has shown the children of educated women are healthier, and more likely to be in school themselves. A woman or girl will reinvest 90 percent of her income into her family, while a man will reinvest only 30 to 40 percent. An extra year of primary school raises a girl's lifetime wages by 10 to 20 percent, and an extra year of secondary school raises a girl's lifetime wages by 15 to 25 percent. Focusing money on educating girls is important because for every development dollar spent, girls typically receive less than 2 cents.

Highlights from the trip included visiting the New Horizon School, which is run by Bernard Martinod, a tireless French architect who has built a lovely, renowned school outside of Port au Prince that serves some of the small villages in the area. We also visited the Georges Marcellus School in the rural village of Gureot, where the kindergarteners charmed us with a song: "Hello, my friend. Hello, my friend. How are you?"

On this trip, I had the chance to observe how integral education is to the transformation of this ungoverned and shamelessly neglected country.

The Mona Foundation was named for Mona Mahmudnizhad-- a 16-year-old girl who taught children in orphanages how to read and write and in 1983 was executed by the Iranian government because she was a member of the Baha'i Faith. In her memory, the foundation supports schools and orphanages with a specific focus on those dedicated to education of women and girls. In a speech to the foundation supporters on the trip, Mona Founder and President Mahnaz Javid, said, "As we continue [Mona Mahmudizhad's] unfinished work in her honor, we will continue to do all we can to be the partner to social economic development projects, like this, that will ultimately raise the leaders of this country."

While many of us are not actively engaged in careers that will find the cure to cancer or solve global warming, we can still get involved and do a lot with our resources to make a valuable impact.

Saul Garlick: Chase Giveaway Gets Hot & Facebook Becomes Charity Hub

2009-11-24T20:08:03Z

Chase Community Giving on Facebook is no joke. They are doling out $5 million -- but only to nonprofit organizations that operate on less than $10 million a year. They are doing it in some pretty interesting -- and compelling -- increments: $25,000 goes to every organization that is in the top 100 list for votes received from November 15 until December 11. Another $100,000 will go to the top 5 and $1 million to the organization with the most votes. And they are reserving an extra $1 million for yet another oft-voted charity.

Chase is being very smart and crafty with this idea. Not only have they gotten everyone engaged with their brand, but they are promoting something good for society and using new media in the process. And here I am, publicizing the initiative.

I think this is a great model. But in the interest of full disclosure, I am the executive director of a nonprofit called ThinkImpact (formerly Student Movement for Real Change) and we are involved in this competition Vote for us here if you'd like!

There are some features about this campaign that I love, and a few that irritate me. First, I love the amount they are giving and to whom they are giving it. By targeting organizations under $10 million, they are sending help to some innovative, smaller or more community-based organizations that are feeling the pinch of an economy gone south. Additionally, they are giving all Facebook users a whopping 20 votes to pass around. But you can only vote once per charity.

My favorite part is that this contest promotes organizational cooperation. By allowing for 20 votes and 100 different winners at $25K, all the young nonprofits I work with are getting into the game. It’s brilliant. We are promoting each other’s work. We are encouraging folks to support causes we believe in, and we don’t feel that there is any zero sum game involved.

Here are the organizations that have teamed up in this effort:

Student Movement for Real Change (now ThinkImpact)
Atlas Service Corps, Inc.
Manna Project International
National Youth Rights Association
Service for Peace
Arlington Street People' Assistance Network, Inc.
Youth Venture

The irritating part? The contest has no leaderboard. You literally have to click around a lot just to see who is doing well at all. This is okay because then we are all forced to really reach out to folks, but there is simply no way of knowing if we are competitive at any given time. Also, we don’t get a comprehensive list of folks who voted for our causes, so we won’t know who cares about our mission to get them involved in the future.

Overall, I think this contest will bring out hundreds of thousands of voters, create a big stir, and ultimately, help a ton of organizations. Right now, with the holiday season here, and the economy tight, who wouldn’t want to give, without opening their wallet?

Richard Walden: 7 Gifts that Give Back to the World

2009-11-24T19:47:09Z

This holiday season there are a number of ways you can donate to powerful causes in honor of family and friends that they would wholeheartedly endorse in lieu of a gift:

1. Water purification tablets to disaster-prone areas like Cuba, Haiti, The Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Each $125 buys 10,000 tablets delivered by air, each of which purifies over 25 liters of water. Think of the many children whom you'll protect from diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. Recently, Operation USA sent 2 million such tablets to The Philippines after it was struck by several typhoons. Local partner nonprofits distribute the tablets to many of the residents still battling the after-effects of the storms.

2. Why stop there? Drill a water well in East Africa, Central America or South and Southeast Asia. The cost varies but figure $500 if the water table is not too deep. Or, you can dig deeper -- literally -- and allow existing wells to be deepened to reach the water table; that would average $1000.

3. Make a loan to a woman in a rural community so she can launch a small-scale agricultural, animal husbandry or fresh food preparation project. Most of us know how dramatically these loans improve lives by improving livelihoods -- $50 buys 20 chickens; $100 buys 25 chickens, a rooster, materials for a small hen house and some start-up chicken feed; $150 buys a large pig ready to reproduce while an extra $100 provides the pig a cement pig pen linked to a $250 rubber bladder and tubing so the pig's excrement can be processed as biogas to run a stove or heat a small house. The variations of what people use these loans for are endless but most microfinance groups report whole villages being rejuvenated by an infusion of small amounts of capital. The kids get their school fees paid, the family can afford health care and the projects are expanded into real small businesses. Well over 95 percent of the loans are paid back into a small village "credit bank" for relending to others who wish to follow the example of the early borrowers.

4. Vitamin A capsules save a child's sight in many parts of the world where there is a shortage of Vitamin A-rich food. Xeropthalmia is what happens when there is not enough Vitamin A in a child's diet. This not only threatens a child's vision but exacerbates a host of other diseases like malaria and jeopardizes young lives.This gift has astonishing returns on an investment of $45 per thousand Vitamin A capsules, since a child of 5 to 8-years-old only needs 2 capsules taken 6 months apart to provide long-term protection against this insidious condition. You can protect 500 kids for $45, at 9 cents per child! That's the cost of two apple martinis in a trendy club or a movie date with popcorn and parking.

5. You can send a child to school for between $25 to $150. That includes fees, textbooks, school supplies, a uniform and transportation for one child. In rural Vietnam, the average cost is $25 and in rural Nicaragua the costs total $150. For $2000 you can also pay a credentialed teacher in Nicaragua for a year; $1500 in Vietnam; $1200 in Cambodia. Oprah spent $40 million on one school in South Africa, but you can build your own large schoolroom for 50 kids in most parts of Africa, South Asia or Central America for $15,000 to $30,000. In India, poor school hygiene and water are issues in school, in many cases keeping girls from getting a primary education because they do not want to share toilet facilities with the boys. For $5000 you can drill the school water well, install two bathrooms with hygienic toilets for boys and girls, train teachers how to effectively teach hygiene and upgrade the school's food service.

6. A completely outfitted motorized 6 meter-long fishing boat with nets and hooks in post-tsunami and post-war Sri Lanka costs $3500. You know the adage about a man and a fish: The fisherfolk pay back to a village pool of capital for the next fishing family to use.

7. You may be asking by now, what about OUR kids here at home? Awesome Girls in New Orleans provides after school services to at-risk teenage girls at a cost of about $200 per girl per year. in California, nearly 200 nonprofit community health clinics receive medicines, vitamin supplements and clinical supplies donated by many American companies at a shipping cost of $25 for a 30 to 40 pound box; as more people become unemployed and lose their health insurance and access to health care, they use community clinics whose own budgets rarely allow them to pay for more than the rent and a few salaried staff -- They rely on volunteer medical staff and donated supplies to provide the essential social safety net all of us want them to have.

Operation USA, (www.opusa.org) does all of these projects and much more, including health clinics, emergency medical aid to disasters, literacy projects. The best news is that others do this, too. charitynavigator.org a the watchdog group that can lead you to the others. Just be careful of the TV preachers with slick websites who prey (not pray) on the unsuspecting by offering their own catalog of good works!

S. Jacob Scherr: Reviving Rainforests: Your Help is Needed

2009-11-24T19:18:30Z

Protecting and restoring the world's rainforests is critical to preserve biodiversity. Tropical forests are teeming with life -- covering just about 6 percent of the earth's surface they are home to between half and three quarters of all plant and animal species in the world.

Last year, NRDC launched its Revive a Rainforest campaign to restore forests in Costa Rica -- known around the world for its impressive biodiversity. With the help and generosity of our many online supporters, the first stage of our Revive a Rainforest campaign was a true success. This past summer our partner, CATIE, finished planting 30,000 young trees on their land in Costa Rica's lush Central Valley. Following Peter Lehner's trip to plant the first trees, I also visited our new forest in June and -- despite some tropical rain -- was happy to see how the young trees are taking root.

The trees are restoring degraded land that was used as cattle pastures and will help bring back some of Costa Rica's unique wildlife. During my visit I met one of CATIE's scientists, who explained how as the trees grow, we'll be able to see bird-life increase and change, until the site is once more a habitat for colorful forest species. Our members' forest will help connect other forested areas on CATIE's land and as the trees mature we hope that small cats like ocelots will also increase their habitats by passing through our forest.

Recently, NRDC identified yet another area in Costa Rica in need of protection and restoration. The Osa Peninsula, the most biodiverse region in the country, is home to half of Cost Rica's approximately 500,000 plant and animal species. Unfortunately, the Osa's incredible wildlife is under pressure from expanding development.

In partnership with Friends of the Osa, another local group committed to preserving Costa Rica's natural resources, NRDC is moving forward with a new reforestation project. With the continued help of our members and online supporters we plan to plant 25,000 native trees to revive land in the Osa that was degraded as cattle pasture and exotic species plantations. The land is owned by our partners and forms a critical part of a conservation corridor and buffer zone connected to Corcovado's National Park. This new reforestation project will recreate habitat for the Osa's endangered wildlife, including howler monkeys, scarlett macaws and jaguars. The project will also help renew the water supply for downstream communities.

Like our first reforestation project with CATIE, this project will also help fight global warming by sequestering carbon emissions. Tropical forests play a key role in fighting global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide. NRDC has been working with Costa Rica to help it achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2021. The trees our supporters help us plant will play a role in reducing Costa Rica's overall emissions in a manner that also enhances biodiversity.

You can learn more about our new project on the NRDC site and about how you too can help Revive a Rainforest.

Photos by Jacob Scherr

This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog.

Scott Case: The Scariest Bite (Hint: It's Not from a Vampire)

2009-11-23T23:50:19Z

Like so many parents of middle school-aged girls across the country, my house was filled with excitement this weekend as the newest movie in the Twilight Saga series, "New Moon", hit theaters. As the anticipation was building to a fever pitch, I took refuge at the office -- but found that my work has more to do with vampires than I realized.

Let me clarify: no, I do not do battle with vampires. Rather, I take on a different kind of "creature of the night" -- the anopheles mosquito, which treacherously transmits the malaria parasite from person to person. So as it turns out, mosquitoes and vampires have a lot in common. They both come out at night, they're both bloodsuckers and they can both kill their victims. But there's one important difference: vampires aren't real. Malaria is.

Malaria kills nearly 3,000 children in Africa every single day, but it doesn't have to be this way. We've all heard that garlic and holy water ward off vampires, yet families can likewise defend themselves against malaria with simple tools. Malaria is preventable and treatable, and the world is working to provide access to tools like mosquito nets, safe indoor spraying and effective medicine to help every family in Africa protect themselves from the bite of a malaria-carrying mosquito.

Twilight has helped to make vampires a cultural phenomenon, infecting fans with incredible storytelling and blockbuster films and sweeping the country up in a frenzy of fanged worship. In terms of awareness, vampires definitely have malaria beat. Malaria isn't trendy, it isn't sexy, and it isn't on the cover of every magazine at the newsstand this week. But, in comparison with even the most villainous vampire in the "Twilight Saga", malaria wins one contest: it's definitely scarier.

Malaria No More is working to make malaria deaths as much a part of ancient folklore as tales of the bloodsucking vampire. We're working with our partners around the world to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. It's an ambitious goal, but it's achievable when enough people stand together against the disease and refuse to accept a single death from a mosquito bite.

I wish Bella, Edward and their vampire friends the best of luck in all of their Twilight adventures. But the anopheles mosquito should know that we're on the hunt. And we're armed with more than garlic.

To find out more about malaria and Malaria No More, or to donate a $10 mosquito net, please visit MalariaNoMore.org.

Ronald Ricker: The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Guilty

2009-11-23T19:12:27Z

Picture: November 21 and 22, 2009. Los Angeles. Linden Center, the Program that I direct, has had a tremendous amount of difficulty caring for a 14 year old girl -- let's call her Mary. She, unfortunately, is a Manic-Depressive Psychotic. She had run away a total of 5 days in the last 6, and amongst other problems, missed approximately one half of her medications, which accounts for her erratic and dangerous behavior. She returned to the residential facility the night of the 30th, in a relatively calm mood. We had decided that when we next saw her that we would hospitalize her. That was the 30th. So we called the police, the usual procedure. Initially two officers arrived, assessed the situation, and were of the opinion that she should be hospitalized, but that they needed to consult with a representative of the Police Department's "Smart Team." Two "Smart Team" representatives arrived. Based on the fact that Mary was 'calm,' in spite of her history, recent actions, missed medications, diagnosis, depression, the "Smart Team" deemed that she required nothing, let alone an evaluation by a local hospital mental health staff. How these men deserved the term "Smart Team" is utterly beyond me. I can think of many other, vastly more correct designations.

I then called the police division with which we always deal and spoke with the Watch Commander. I made it clear who I was and wanted to see the reports written by his officers. He said that was fine and that his officers would soon return and that then I would get the reports. "When might that be?" "Whenever I feel like it," he said (a real charmer). I also asked for the reports written by the "Smart Team." The watch commander said he would give me a phone number that I could use to call the "smart team' and discuss those reports. The number he gave me was the number of a real estate agency. (Concern for my well-being, he probably wanted to be sure I had adequate housing). I had nowhere to go with the LAPD that night.

The story gets better. In the morning I had one of my staff call this same division to complete her records with the names of the two officers who had come to the house, the "smart team." Believe it or not, no one answered the phone of that division, a major division of LAPD. Many, many rings. We tried calling again and again no one answered. Many, many rings. So we tried a cell phone, one with a different return number. They answered immediately. They quite obviously didn't want to talk with us.

I finally did receive a call from a very nice woman at DMH. She explained many ins and outs of the system, many of which were new to me, including the fact that the "Smart Team" was part of LAPD. However, she said, DMH was unable to locate Mary or Linden Center in their system, a totally inconceivable fact. Should those records be needed for the treatment of Mary, emergency or not, good luck to Mary. She doesn't exist. Her records don't exist. For that matter, neither do I. The DMH woman Googled me and found many references to me and the Linden Center. Not good enough. I guess she thought I was lying. Interestingly, there is no way any caregiver could prove they were who they said they were. No matter. Neither we, nor Mary, nor her records exist. Nothing plus nothing equals nothing.

Thus, in the space of 24 hours, a girl, Mary, taken care of by the best the system has to offer (Linden Center) doesn't exist in the records of DMH (very important medical records), is dealt with by a so-called mental health "smart team," a watch commander who lies, gives out bogus phone numbers, and a large precinct of LAPD who just don't answer their phone (unless one uses a cell phone) etc. Oh yeah, Mary also needed a special education school, a residential program, and treatment for her disease. And her adoptive mother was very recently diagnosed with cancer. Mary was adopted because Mary's mother is an alcoholic and drug addict.

Can you imagine being a 14-year-old Manic Depressive Psychotic, Mary, trying to navigate your way through this morass. Not a chance.