MLK

"Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny.
He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives.
He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy."

-Martin Luther King, Jr., The Measures of Man, 1959.

PS - The Dream speech gets me every time. I mean EVERY TIME. And every stage of life I'm in, it hits me a different way, and every time I have heard it, it has been more powerful.

Tis the Season: ADVENT CONSPIRACY

One of the more beautiful things I've seen in a long time.

http://www.balloonhat.com

Today is World Habitat Day 2009!

After spending a summer in the largest slum in Africa, I have a deep appreciation for the issues of urban planning, which is the theme of this year's World Habitat Day.

"The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat."

- taken from HUD

Check out this website - this is some of the more beautiful work I've ever seen pertaining to urban slums. If you click on Kibera on the map, you can see where I spent my summer.

THE PLACES WE LIVE

happy world habitat day.

The LAUREN Project

This project was set up in memory of Lauren Johnson, a member of my Jerusalem Program team who died of carbon monoxide poisoning just 5 days before we left for Jerusalem.

It turned out that I took her internship placement at Rabbis for Human Rights when my original placement fell through.

Her legacy of integrity and passion for human rights is something that had a large impact on me during my time in Jerusalem, and is something I still think of often.

Her family and supporters are creating a fund to assist people who want to volunteer overseas. They also are working hard to educate about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and are pushing for everyone to have a detector (my roommate just put one in our house last week!).

Check out the link:
http://laurensproject.org/

Gaza Peace Vigil

The day before I left Denver for Jerusalem, I attended a Peace Vigil regarding the conflict in Gaza. It was a very touching event, and my emotions were heightened considering the fact I would be going to Israel within only a couple of days. The coordinators of the vigil were very conscious of keeping the event peaceful and focused on the value of life and an end to conflict, rather than the politics of the situation.

We met at the library, and then walked to the campus greens, stopping 7 times on the way. At each stop, the coordinator briefly talked about what had happened on day one, three, five, and so on, of the conflict, and how many lives had been lost on each day. At that point, over 700 Palestinian lives had been lost due to fighting, as well as around 50 Israeli lives.

The event had 3 speakers. Two of them were university professors, and the third was a Fulbright scholar studying at DU. He is from Gaza, and his family is still there - not allowed to leave. He spoke briefly, but his message tore at my heart. He had lost contact with his family for about 5 days, during which he did not know if they were dead or alive. When he finally re-established contact, he learned of the death of many of his friends and the loss of his home - however, his family was still safe. He spoke about his children, and about how difficult it is to explain to them that not all Israelis, Jewish people and Westerners are not evil or intent on hurting them.

His message is important- the vast majority of people affected by political conflict are just normal citizens. It is women and children. And they don't necessarily understand why someone would want to destroy their homes, their schools, their mosques and churches, and so on. Many such children are losing their families and their lives, and they are growing up in hatred of those responsible for the destruction.

Another generation is growing up full of hatred. Violence breeds more violence. It has to stop.

After the speeches, we placed flags in the lawn for each life that has been lost due to the conflict thus far. The visual effect was sobering.

yes that's right - its World Toilet Day.

I'm not lying - it seriously is World Toilet Day.
So in honor - I am going to post some pictures from the archives - from the summer of 2006.

These pictures were all taken in El Salvador, where we took 10 students and 3 teachers from YES to work with a Peace Corps volunteer for two weeks.

The job: build 7 dual-composting latrines. What this means in English - build outhouses that wouldn't fill up (many of the members of the community either had overfilled pit latrines - yes - imagine it - or no latrines. That's right - nothing. That meant that they... just went.) The picture on the right is of one of our students teaching community members how to use the new latrines.

Brian Walsh from TIME explains the situation well: "Toilets are a privilege that nearly half the world lacks. At least 2.6 billion people around the planet have no access to a toilet -- and that doesn't just mean that they don't have a nice, heated indoor bathroom. It means they have nothing -- not a public toilet, not an outhouse, not even a bucket. They defecate in public, contaminating food and drinking water, and the disease toll due to unsanitized human waste is staggering. ...

But despite the horrific fate of the toiletless masses across much of South America, Africa and Asia, sanitation has never been high on the world's development agenda. NGOs and governments focus on making sure the poor have access to enough clean drinking water, but comparatively little funding goes into sanitation, even though the two are sometimes inextricable: Untreated sewage often ends up poisoning the available clean water in developing nations."

We definitely saw this first hand in El Salvador - and I've seen it across the world in my travels. Things like hunger and clean water are 'sexy' subjects - people seem to be willing to donate time and resources to these issues (and thank God for that - don't get me wrong - that is a beautiful thing that those important issues tug at people's hearts).

However, sewage.... sewage doesn't seem to inspire people in quite the same way. Unfortunately, it is just as or more important that providing clean water and food.... Ever had a stomach bug? Guess what that's often from? That's right - ingesting bacteria from feces. No matter how much nutritious food and clean water people are able to consume, if they then defecate on their hand or touch someone else's sewage - and either haven't been educated about hygiene or don't have a way to clean... well, I'm sure you can imagine. According to UNICEF, Diarrhea account for 17 per cent of deaths among children under five years of age worldwide, or nearly 2 million child deaths every year - making them the second most common cause of child deaths globally.

Blog Action Day - POVERTY.

Today - apparently - is blog action day, where everyone with a blog is encouraged to post on the same topic in order to hopefully change the conversation that day. This year, the topic is poverty.

Ohhh - poverty. Here's the deal with poverty - it makes me super tired. Yeah? Anyone else feel that way? Its overwhelming. Absolutely overwhelming. I have dozens of horrific stories of things I've seen that have brought me to tears - but really, I don't want to talk about that right now. Instead, I want to talk about some things that are a) not exhausting and b) super exciting.

And that would be-------- what we can do, right now, sitting at our computers.... ready?

One of the best presents I have ever received was from my dear and wonderful friend Ms. Pears, who for my birthday gave me a certificate to Kiva, a microfinance institution. The amazing thing about this present is that I was able to go online, and see dozens of people who wanted loans to start up small businesses to get themselves out of poverty. I then lent them the money that Ms. Pears had given me as a gift, and when they were finished with it - they paid it back. I was then able to lend it to the next person. It is truly one of the most beautiful, fulfilling gifts I could ever imagine receiving.

Another amazing site is Heifer International, where you can buy a cow, a goat, a pig, a bunch of chickens, etc. for a family that lives in poverty. Gifts like this are amazing as they not only provide once, but over and over again as the family is able to use the animals for their milk/eggs/meat/wool/etc. They are also able to breed their animals and create a sustainable source of income and food for themselves. AND, if you can't afford a whole cow, you can buy a share - no donation is too small.

Or what about buying a malaria net for only $10 - Malaria is one of the top killers in the entire world - and is entirely preventable. Just sleeping under a net decreases the chances of contracting malaria exponentially. You buy a kid a malaria net, you can save a life - poof! Just like that, with $10.

And there are tons of other organizations just like those out there. So, there. Writing about those organizations just made me happy. First of all - it is a way to combat poverty, right now - this very second. Second of all - if you are like me and never think more than about 12 hours ahead - they are a GREAT AMAZING BEAUTIFUL present for people. What better gift could you give someone than to tell them that in their name, you just made someone else's life better. All of those sites even have super amazing cards you can print off or email right to whoever's name you make the purchase for. Keep it in mind for stockings over Christmas.

Much love to you all.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Alright ladies - Since one of my great-grandmothers had breast cancer, and in general I am pretty passionate about getting people to know their bodies and be proactive about this kind of thing.... I challenge you to check your boobies this month. The links below provide instructions in how to do a self-exam.




http://www.checkyourboobies.org/
http://www.feelyourboobies.com/

World Malaria Day - April 25th

Thankfully, I am living in a malaria-free area of South Africa. However, there is a good portion of South Africa which is not, nor is the vast majority of Africa. In fact, 90% of malaria cases worldwide occur in Africa. This summer, all of the students and teachers who accompanied me to Ghana had to be on malaria medication, in case we were bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito. I will also take malaria medication when I travel this summer to countries surrounding South Africa.

Malaria is a HUGE, HUGE problem. More than half a BILLION people are infected with malaria each year, and out of those, over a million die. The incredibly frustrating thing is that malaria is completely treatable and preventable. First, there is medication - both in helping to prevent the serious illness caused by malaria (such as the medication I take when travelling to malaria-infected areas), and that can be taken as treatment once one is infected by malaria. Even in areas where medication like I was able to take is unaffordable, there are simple precautionary measures such as bed nets and mosquito repellent or insecticide. It is just a matter of making such preventable measures available to people and setting up community education programs to spread the word about ways to prevent the disease.

This year, World Malaria Day was celebrated for the first time ever, with a call from the Secretary General of the UN to rally around goals to put in the measures to drastically cut down the number of deaths caused by malaria each year. I was so excited to see my inbox flooded with information about World Malaria Day yesterday, and I hope everyone will take a couple of minutes to read up about the monstrosity of a problem it is and what can be done about it. :)

"UN launches drive against malaria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked World Malaria Day Friday by launching a fresh campaign against the disease, which continues to kill more than a million people every year, mostly children. The new drive aims to help provide all African countries with sufficient supplies of mosquito nets or high-quality household sprays by the end of 2010, in addition to more health clinics and special treatment centers for pregnant women." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7366301.stm

Read more about UN efforts to end malaria deaths here, or here.