On 11 April 2011, over 100 stars from London’s top West End musicals stunned Trafalgar Square, in the centre of London with a spectacular Flash Mob in support of Love146, a non-profit organization working to abolish child sex slavery and exploitation.
Those of us who live in the United States often take the basics of daily adult life for granted. In most cases, we have a place to live access to transportation, money and an education that helped prepare us for the adult world.
But what happens if you’re one of the millions of American adults living with a developmental disability? How is your life different? Are the basics covered?
As a leading provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities and other special needs in the United States, Easter Seals knows how challenging life for someone living with a disability – and his/her family – can be.
The Easter Seals Living with Disabilities Study, made possible by MassMutual Financial Group, provides insight into the lives of individuals with disabilities and the everyday challenges their families face.
Susan notes: thanks to AWR fan Shazia Alam for sending me al list of links from which to develop this piece that makes it easy to support the relief efforts in Pakistan.
Here's an August 18 YouTube report courtesy of Associated Press (the list of relief agencies is below):
Pakistan: "Where there is a will there is a way" Some of the worst damage from the floods of 2010 has been to Pakistan's infrastructure. In the rugged Swat Valley, for example, 25 bridges were swept away in the first days of the crisis, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stranded without adequate supplies for up to three weeks and posing a grave challenge to the government and aid agencies attempting to reach the vulnerable... Donate to UNHCR here.
Susan notes: This is a creatively cool campaign, I hope all AWR friends and fans will participate. The Pixel Project has come up with a truly innovative way to:
spread awareness about violence against women,
show that we need men onside to help stop the violence,
raise money for the cause.
This email came to me from Pixel Project Founder Regina Yau...
The Pixel Project is a global 501 c 3 volunteer-led nonprofit organisation working to end violence against women worldwide.
Our first flagship fundraiser is to raise US$1 million in aid of the USA’s National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation.
We aim to do this via an online Pixel Reveal fundraiser in which a 1-million pixel mystery collage of 4 to 6 globally known Celebrity Male Role Models will be unveiled online as donors “buy” each pixel for US$1.00.
Susan notes: this is an email from Women For A Change (WFAC).
Please Help Free Sarah Shourd, Shane and Josh, and support their mothers,
Sarah Shourd is a women's rights activist who, earlier in her career, was volunteers coordinator working to help stop the femicides in Mexico.
In the aftermath of the New Orleans Earthquake, Sarah was part of a team of volunteers helping survivors. She later joined the Iraqi School Project in Syria, where she was teaching refugees. for the last 290 days, she has been in Evin Prison, Iran.
We are campaigning for her release, along with that of her boyfriend Shane, and their friend Josh, who are imprisoned with her.
Posted by Sylvia Petter April 9, 2010 Susan notes: Susan Partovi, Tania Hershman and Nuala Ni Chonchuir are all featured in an audio book containing 20 of the 100 stories from the print version. The audio book will be released by BBC Audio Books America on 15 April, 2010. Read more at the 100 Stories for Haiti blog.
One week after the earthquake struck in Haiti, a young man in Denmark felt that he had to do something. So he sent out a call for writers to donate stories to a book to be sold to raise money for Haiti.
Almost 500 stories poured in and were vetted by volunteer editors; 100 were chosen. On 4 March, just six weeks after Greg McQueen had his idea, 100 Stories for Haiti was published as a paperback and as an eBook! An amazing feat! Both publishers donated their work to the 100 Stories for Haiti Project with proceeds going to the Red Cross.
All of the writers and editors and the two publishers are amazing for having pitched in to support the dream. But I’d like to tell you about women who participated in the project, because two-thirds of the writers were women. All very different, all three are amazing in their own ways.
First, there’s Susan Partovi an American doctor who supervises residents and students at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in California; Susan is also medical director of Homeless Health Care in Los Angeles.
Last year, Susan decided to create a rural international medical rotation scheme for 3rd year students she’d worked with in the Health Care Advocacy Group and set abut learning about Haiti and fundraising. In December Susan and her group worked in Cazale, about 30 kilometres north of Port-au-Prince. Her experience there appears in 100 Stories for Haiti. Susan came home on New Year’s Day. She returned to Haiti two weeks later. Susan’s writing up her Haiti experience, but let her tell you herself:
“I plan on writing a book that compiles my experiences pre- and post earthquake, that looks at my insecurities as a "good doctor" and good teacher because of encountering so many children dying over and over again and not being able to do anything about it. My ego is a bit rejuvenated when I return, but Haiti is the same. Haiti doesn't change. It's as ruthless as ever but the people are hopeful, as ever."
This is a film we made in India last November. It's about a different kind of banker, and what happens when you put people before profit.
"Two-thirds of India’s population of a billion people live in the nation’s 600,000 villages. Despite India’s economic growth, the disparities between wealth and poverty are enormous. Many villagers migrate to the cities in search of work and end up begging on the streets.
South Indian bank manager J S Parthiban set out to do something to help their economic circumstances. He encouraged beggars to open bank accounts in New Delhi, and pioneered micro-loans to villagers in his home state of Tamil Nadu. This is his story—and theirs."
On 11 April 2011, over 100 stars from London’s top West End musicals stunned Trafalgar Square, in the centre of London with a spectacular Flash Mob in support of Love146, a non-profit organization working to abolish child sex slavery and exploitation.
Those of us who live in the United States often take the basics of daily adult life for granted. In most cases, we have a place to live access to transportation, money and an education that helped prepare us for the adult world.
The Pixel Project
One week after the earthquake struck in Haiti, a young man in Denmark felt that he had to do something. So he sent out a call for writers to donate stories to a book to be sold to raise money for Haiti.