There are voices in the chorus of the world that are stilled or silent from lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of fair treatment, lack of employment; who struggle to find food and clothing and shelter rather than raising their voices in joy and harmony. You can hear the emptiness if you listen; you can help lift those voices if you take the moment to move outside yourself to think of, and act on behalf of others.
Even a small step can make a difference, especially if many participate and try to make a difference.
Reuse – If you look around your home, you may find that you have many possessions that you haven’t used in years, and are unlikely to use. Consider boxing them up, and bringing them to your local thrift shop or Good Will or Salvation Army, so that they can be used by those who will use them and who need them.
Teach – Many cities, towns, counties, and communities provide free or low cost classes. If you have a specialized skill or knowledge, sharing with others may provide someone with an opportunity to turn an interest into a vocation. Teaching, being a mentor, sharing your knowledge and experiences in places like the Web; these are all ways that we can use to lift a hand out to others, and give them a hand up.
Blog Action Day 2008 is a grass roots effort where bloggers and people who create podcasts and videocasts can help spread awareness and start a conversion on a global scale.
The date for blog action day is October 15th, and the focus is on Poverty. If you have a blog or podcast or videocast, sign up and help spread awareness by sharing your views on poverty, and helping to start a global discussion.
The frequently asked questions page for Blog Action Day has a number of ideas on the kinds of topics that you can post about if you participate, and what I like about their list of ideas is that they want you to post something on topic to what your blog is about. Thinking about a topic here for political diamonds, I see many options.
It’s exciting to see an effort like blog action day, and it shows how many people can work together to have their voices heard. I hope to hear yours…
Added – Hat tip to Adam Shake of Twilight Earth, for the following video:
Educational games that help you learn, while helping others in need?
It sounds like a good idea, and these are sites that are worth exploring, and spending some time at.
Free Rice is a vocabulary game that presents a word, and four multiple choice definitions for that word. Choose the correct definition, and the site will donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.
There is a video on the World Food Program site of the first consignment of rice bought with funds raised through FreeRice, dated January 18, 2008, feeding refugees from Myanmar sheltering in Bangladesh.
Answer4Earth is site hosting a multiple choice trivia game where each time you answer a question correctly, your efforts lead towards the planting of a tree somewhere in the world. The site is partnered with two nonprofit organizations, Trees for the Future and The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation.
On February 14, 2008, the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation traveled to Ziwani Primary School in Kenya to plant 100 fruit tree saplings. A video of the celebration around the visit:
I just ran into BookMooch, which is a community focusing on exchanging used books.
You can register with the site, and put up a list of books that you are willing to send to someone, and books that you are interested in receiving. There’s no cost to join, but you do have to pay to ship the books that you send out.
When you give someone a book, you earn a point, which can be redeemed for any book that you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve finished reading the book, you can keep it, or to put it back up in BookMooch for someone else to read.
You also receive a tenth of a point for every book that you enter into the system. You can’t just list a bunch of books and get points, though – to keep on getting books, you need send at least one book to someone for every three books that you get.
It’s also possible to give your points to a number of charities that are listed on the site, including children’s hospitals and many others.
