Here at the Jolkona Foundation, we empower, we educate, and we offer access to much needed public health services by connecting you with many partner organizations. More importantly, we believe in the impact we can make, especially by supporting development work targeted towards improving the world. Through your support, we are having a real global impact and are working to ensure that the changes we make today have a positive and lasting impact on the future.

March is National Women’s History Month and a celebration of women who struggled to unlock doors so that women today can open the doors and walk through them. The Women’s History Project organizes this month and declares that:

Now, more than ever, the work of this movement needs to continue and expand. Each new generation needs to draw information and inspiration from the last.

As part of our global focus, we’re spending the month of March appreciating the past and looking to the future. We’re highlighting our women-focused projects that are creating lasting change around the world. We’re also honoring the obstacles women have overcome in the past and how those women inspire us to accomplish even greater goals today.

It’s going to be an incredible month, and we hope you’re as excited about this celebration as we are!

What to make a lasting global impact you can see?

Donate to support the work of our women-focused projects today!

How else can you get involved?

• Learn about the National Women’s History Project
• Check out stories and images of women throughout history at the Library of Congress
• And even more articles, videos, pictures and facts at History.com

And we want to hear from YOU! Share your story: How are you celebrating Women’s History Month?

This guest post contributed by Action Against Hunger - one of our partner organizations.

The beginning of the year means many things-New Year’s resolutions, increasingly brighter days, budding flowers and baby animals. But for the Race Against Hunger team, the first of the year means only one thing: the beginning of our educational presentations!

The Race Against Hunger is the largest initiative in Action Against Hunger’s educational portfolio. The annual program, initially launched in Chicago during the 2007/08 school year, is an outreach campaign educating students across the United States about the causes and effects of severe acute malnutrition. The past two years have shown remarkable growth for the Race. Since launching the Race with a pilot group of 4 schools in Chicago, we expanded last year to 40 schools spread across 12 states and Canada. For the 2010 school year, we are planning to expand the Race to 100 schools, and I’m proud to report that we’re well on our way to meeting this ambitious goal. We’ve already recruited nearly 90 schools from New York to Los Angeles, Houston to Chicago-and everywhere in between!

The Race occurs in two parts: an educational section-designed to integrate hunger education into curriculum standards-followed by a fundraising fun-run to support Action Against Hunger’s global programs. Our Race Against Hunger team enhances the classroom component by providing interactive educational presentations to each participating school.

Each presentation empowers students in the fight to end global hunger. This year, we’ve chosen to highlight the importance of community. Often times, students are overwhelmed by the incomprehensible numbers-over 1 billion people around the world suffer from malnutrition, 15,000 die every day from hunger-related causes-and wonder how one individual can make an impact. While it may be difficult for one student to draw attention to this pandemic, an entire class, school, or city can certainly garner interest and support. Through our Race presentations, we are able to show students that by combining energy, enthusiasm, and funds, their community can affect communities in countries around the world.

Our rigorous presentation schedule kicked off with schools in Arizona and Texas last week and heads to California and Chicago next. While our team has already fielded intelligent questions about water contamination, malnutrition treatments, and long-term effects on child health, one question sticks out in my mind. During the presentation, a kindergartener in Austin raised her hand and quietly asked, “It seems like lots of these kids are dying; what can we do to help?” For an inspired community, the possibilities are endless.

	Sponsor US Students Fighting Global Hunger

We are excited to welcome 2010 with a lot of new projects. Here are the newest projects you will find on our website:

We are excited to welcome Ashoka to the Jolkona community. You can now support an Ashoka Youth Venture project right here in Seattle to encourage youth led journalism.

Jolkona Foundation believes that we can not only feature projects around the world, but also feature local projects right here in USA. Action Against Hunger has created the Race Against Hunger program to raise awareness amongst American youth about hunger. You can now show your support by sponsoring a class in the Race Against Hunger

Madre was one of our first partners with few popular projects. Their newest projects will continue that trend. You can support midwives in the troubled West Bank and allows them to provide much needed aid to pregnant mothers who can not get to hospitals. You can also provide assistance to farmers in Nicaragua through affordable donation options.

Last but not the least, we are working with TRIFC to allow our donors to support the blind children of Nepal.

We encourage you to checkout these new projects and give generously to these worthy causes.

	Support Youth Led Journalism in United States

	Sponsor US Students Fighting Global Hunger

	Support Safe Births in Palestine

	Feed a Hungry Family in Nicaragua

	Give Backpacks to Visually-Impaired Nepalese Kids

Imagine something that has been proven to make you happier, healthier and more confident while being environmentally friendly, and having absolutely no adverse side effects. I am not referring to a new miracle drug or infomercial for aroma-therapy candles, but simply the act of giving. People have long known that altruism carries its own rewards. History is filled with references to the fact that in giving there is also receiving, however, there is still some debate as to why.

In his latest op-ed piece Our Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex, and Giving, Nicolas Kristof claims that giving leads individuals to live happier, more fulfilling lives (so far so good). Yet, he goes on to argue that because of this giving is, in fact, a selfish act. He demonstrates that we give not necessarily out of our interest for others, but because we feel good doing so.

While I don’t believe it was Kristof’s intent, he has fed the flames of an old debate, that volunteers and philanthropists aren’t out to help others, but to feel good about themselves. As an economics student I have heard this argument before, that of “Homo Economicus”, or the economic man. The premise of the Homo Economicus model is that human behavior is solely dictated by self-interest, or rather everyone is out for themselves. Under this model firemen wouldn’t run into burning buildings, there would be little volunteerism, and as Kristof asserts, charity would be self-interest in disguise. Yet, firemen do run into burning buildings, we do volunteer a substantial number of hours (over 8 billion hours in 2009), and we give an immense amount to charity ($230 billion in 2008 (see Adnan’s article posted back in June). So what’s wrong with this explanation?

While there is no denying that being altruistic feels good, emerging research tells us it is for a completely different reason then self gain. It turns out we give because we are social creatures. In a recent study participants were asked to either keep a $128 research stipend for themselves, or donate part of their stipend to charity all while being monitored on an MRI. When subjects chose to give (and they often did) their brain activated “reward pathways” as if they were fulfilling a selfish act such as eating; however these pathways were stimulated by regions associated with social, not selfish behavior. The conclusion of course being that we are innately driven to give not out of selfish, but communal interest.

Within the greater context of human interaction such a behavior makes sense. Being group-oriented creatures, what tends to be in the interest of one is in the interest of all. Yet, we must admit that sometimes our selfish desires blind us to what is truly best for our community, and ultimately ourselves. Thus, our innate drive to give is our brain’s way of subconsciously combating our selfish tendencies of “Homo Economicus”, which explains why we give above and beyond what is purely advantageous to us. This research also tells us that giving to communal needs can be just as instinctively rewarding as fulfilling personal needs, such as food or shelter. This finally explains why those of us who give often are found to be much happier than those of us who don’t give at all. And, there is no refuting that happy people lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

So what does this all mean in practice? The next time you are having a down day, happiness may not be found in another latte or a new pair of shoes, but a donation. Intuitively we know that a latte will only make us happy until we reach the bottom of our cup, but giving someone the amazing gift of a healthy child or an education will give us reason to be happy for days, months, and even years to come. When we focus on giving rather than getting we not only help others, but ironically help ourselves, which we know, buried within the depths of our brain, is the gift of giving.

Sources:
Kristof’s article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/opinion/17kristof.html

Research:
Jorge Moll et al., “Human Fronto–Mesolimbic Networks Guide Decisions About Charitable Donation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103 (2006).

Volunteer statistics:
http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/national

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the people and families in Haiti affected by the recent tragic earthquake that has claimed thousands of lives and affected over one third of the population.  We know that there are tons of relief efforts and fundraisers going on right now to help provide assistance, and although we ourselves do not fundraise for natural disasters and relief efforts, we are very committed to helping out in these times of need.  To help direct our users to places providing relief in Haiti, here are some of the options we would recommend:
 
1. BRAC USA.  BRAC USA is one of our existing partners where we provide support to one of their project’s in Bangladesh.  BRAC USA supports the development work of BRAC in Asia and Africa but are now working with two partners on the ground in Haiti to help support on-going relief efforts.  All donations received that are designated for Haiti relief and rehabilitation efforts will go directly to their Hatian Emergency Appeal and work directly on the ground in Haiti.  You can donate here: https://s71165.gridserver.com/donations/view
 
2. Mercycorps.  Although Mercycorps is not a Jolkona Partner, we do have strong connections with some of their staff.  While they do a lot of development work around the world, one of their main focus is on disaster response and emergency and natural disaster relief and are thus very experienced in this area. They deploy their own teams and experts, and have local workers there as well so are well equipt to help out on the ground. You can donate to them here: 
https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm?DonorIntent=Haiti+Earthquake 
 
3. The American Red Cross. The Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters around the world and is currently on the ground and mobilizing resources to assist in Haiti.  You can make a donation to the Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development fund here:  http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton
You can also  Text the word HAITI to 90999 to give a  $10 donation to the Red Cross for Haiti Relief fund that will be charged to your cell phone bill
 
4. Yele Haiti.  Yele is a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment.  It was founded by musician, Wyclef Jean who is now collecting donations to provide relief in Haiti.  You can make a donation to the Yele Haiti Earthquake fund here:  https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=23093
You can also Text the word YELE to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake fund that will be charged to your cell phone bill.

Thank you ALL for your generous support and help to the people of Haiti!