GIVE MORE

I’ve already talked about the fabulous ways you can help South African Kids effected by AIDS and giving donations as holiday gifts. This is a post about doing that and supporting a dream.

In September, fellow blogger and running mate, Jacki of HJ Underway was reading “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book brought her to tears  and instilled in her the desire to make a difference in the world, so she began searching for ideas of what one woman can do to support women and children across the globe, which charities to help and how. The options seemed overwhelming.

Jacki did not give up. She registered for the 2013 Marathon in Tanzania, and carefully selected 13 charities that supported causes worth sweating for. Her dream is to raise $500 for each of the 13 charities: #13for13.

What happened to Jacki happens to a lot of people; not knowing which charities are valuable, which are actually spending their money on those in need, makes donating a daunting prospect. How do I know my money is really going to make a difference? Without answers, many give up. WiIth her research and her creation of 13 for 13 Jacki has done the work for us and her website provides a generous list of charities to choose from.

The charities include Every Mother Counts, The Fisher Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, The Fistula Foundation, and more, each aimed at helping women and children in need.

Now Jacki has some training to do. As she clarifies, “People run marathons all the time… people except me. In September I could barely run one mile…. and I had signed up to run a half marathon?? However thanks to the ever-supportive blogging community in Paris, wonderful people like Finding Noon and Lindsey at Greetings From the American Girl, I’m literally running all over Paris.”

What I think is so cool about this project is that you’ve got an American Mom living in France getting people to talk about what is happening to women in places like Guatemala and Uzbekistan.

So give a gift to stranger. Support 13 for 13 and make a Mom’s dream come as she helps Moms from across the globe, making the world a better place for us all.

TO DONATE…. click on the link to anyone of the charities below (Every Monday Jacki features one of these organizations at HJUnderway. Check in weekly to learn more! AND if you go today, you’ll see a post that features material gifts being sold by her charities. Gifts that friends and family on your list would be happy to receive.)

East Meets West
Ishahayi Beach School Foundation – Support a school in Lagos Nigeria
Born Just Right – Help Jen & Jordan send limb different kids to summer camp
The Fistula Foundation – Make surgery possible for women with child birth injury
Cradles to Crayons
The Fisher House Foundation
Every Mother Counts – EMC is doing amazing work helping reduce maternal mortality
Clean Birth.org
The Kanga Project
Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
National Ovarian Cancer Collition
The Shine Project
The Ronan Thompson Foundation

What charities do you support, and why?