The Greater Good

I came across the most amazing website today: The Hunger Site - which is under the umbrella of GreaterGood.org (a company in Seattle).

Also under this umbrella are:

The Breast Cancer Site
The Child Health Site
The Literacy Site
The Rainforest Site
The Animal Rescue Site

(See tabs for these across the top of the main page.)

Woot! Something for everyone!

Although each of these causes are incredibly meaningful, I was immediately drawn to The Hunger Site.

Through this site, you can purchase a sturdy pair of school shoes for a girl in Africa for $14 (SHOES):

In rural areas of Africa, many girls leave school before they have the chance to gain the knowledge and skills they need to turn the tide of poverty. They want to go to school. Their parents want them to go school. But there is no money for school clothing, books and stationery.

Since 1993, the nonprofit organization Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) has been working to enable girls from poor families in Africa to complete school, and now you can help.

$14.00 will outfit one girl with sturdy shoes for school, affecting her life profoundly by giving her an opportunity that so many of us take for granted -- the opportunity to learn and build towards a better life.

In 2005 alone, CAMFED positively affected the lives of almost 250,000 children in some of the poorest regions of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania.

Or - send two Afghan girls to school for one year - including their uniforms and supplies - for $20 (SCHOOL):

In the land-locked, glacier-studded mountainous regions of remote Afghanistan, elementary schools are a recent luxury. In a country where only 12.6% of women are functionally literate (per World Factbook 2000 figures, the most recent available), improving the education of girls is one of the most lasting ways to increase stability, prosperity, and peace. When girls have the opportunity to further their education, their standard of living rises, and their families have a better chance of escaping the crushing cycle of poverty.

$20.00 will outfit two girls with school uniforms and the necessary supplies for a year of school, affecting their lives profoundly by giving them an opportunity that so many of us take for granted -- the opportunity to learn and build towards a better life.


Or - you can pay a teacher's salary in Afghanistan for one year for $40 (TEACH)

Teaching is a vocation, but even the most dedicated teacher can't survive on apples alone. The situation is especially dire in remote regions of rural Afghanistan, where teachers' salaries, when paid at all, are commonly months or years in arrears. To support their families, teachers change to jobs that pay -- leaving their classrooms empty.

$40.00 covers a teacher's salary for one month -- a gift which will have a lasting impact on the lives of the children being taught.


Or - you can buy two goats for a Rwandan family for $59.95 (GOATS):

You can help one of these families, not just for one day or one week, but for years to come, by providing a pair of healthy adult goats to help the family's nutrition and income.

This project, exclusive to The GreaterGood Network, will provide a family in rural Rwanda with two goats (one male and one female) plus instructions and training on goat care. We supply these goats through Gahaya Links, our partner in Rwanda, to weavers, their families, and to associations of genocide widows.

Anyway, if you're still looking for a gift to give a friend or loved-one, or just want to do something very cool for someone in a country that's in even worse shape than ours, you might consider taking a look at this website. There are thousands of inexpensive gift ideas that will can literally make all the difference in the world.

Oh - I almost forgot! I did check it out to make sure it's all on the up and up (it is); here's a 2002 article published in the Puget Sound Business Journal if you're interested in the mechanics of the organization.