This post was written by Danielle Rind, a member of the Jolkona team.

I was first introduced to Half the Sky by my mother after she attended an event featuring Nicholas Kristof. When I received Kristof’s book I had very recently become involved with the Jolkona Foundation, a non-profit that provides a platform for individuals to donate money to causes and organizations around the world. I quickly learned about Jolkona’s partnering non-profits and the help that these organizations provide. But this was only the beginning of what I was soon to learn regarding the endless needs and human rights violations that exist around world. Kristof’s book helped educate me further…

Each page of Half the Sky was a bigger eye opener than the last. Kristof provides detailed and moving stories of women who have suffered more than I ever dreamed possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

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!

Last month, I gave an interview where I discussed how I came to start Jolkona Foundation. This interview was distributed internally within Microsoft. It is my pleasure to share the article, in its entirety, with our readers.

Once again, I would like to thank my employer - Microsoft Corporation - for being so supportive of Jolkona Foundation’s work.

Trip to Cemetery Creates Life-Changing Moment