Tag Archives: World Vision

The World Vision Experience

4 Replies

One of my best friends from high school has the amazing job of touring the country working for World Vision.  He started out traveling with musicians who promote World Vision during their concerts.  His role was to setup the table and help interested people sign up to be child sponsors (World Vision’s main form of assistance goes to support individual children, their families, and villages).  He now travels with the World Vision Experience.

The World Vision Experience is an interactive exhibit that combines stirring audio and captivating photography, transporting you into the heart of Africa.

You’ll see, hear, and experience stories of tragedy and triumph lived out by real children in AIDS-affected communities.

I’ve not been able to go experience – The Experience, simply because it hasn’t made it to a city near me yet.  But I have experienced AIDS-affected communities first-hand during my trip to South Africa.

It is not fun to meet children who have no parents. Or children who are dying because of the mistakes of their parents.

The Facts:

About 2.5 million CHILDREN worldwide are infected with HIV.  15 million children are missing one or both parent’s due to AIDS.  Everyday 6,000 children become orphans as a result of AIDS.  Those number sound huge and daunting.  And they kind of are.  But the good news is that World Vision (and other organizations) have been actively working in Africa and around the world to prevent further spreading of HIV/AIDS while at the same time offering compassion and hope to those who are currently affected by the deadly disease.  Remember the Caregiver Kits I talked about last week?  They are one form of World Vision’s work in this area.

You can help! A donation to World Vision on my behalf can assist their efforts in Africa and around the world to care for those who are suffering.  If you want to take a different step and not spend money you can contact your members of Congress using this easy form.

Finally, you can attend The World Vision Experience if it comes to a town near you.  The fall tour schedule is posted and they are criss-crossing the nation.  They will actually be in the Twin Cities at the end of October.

Here is a trailer about the experience:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ufJo6mOqZM

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

[tags]  World Vision, Team World Vision, AIDS, World Vision Experience [/tags]

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Hurricane Relief: World Vision Style

3 Replies

So far I have written almost exclusively about World Vision‘s work overseas.  Yet, they do a lot of work in the US as well.  It isn’t necessarily what they are known for but they do provide support to families living in poverty in certain parts of the country.  And when disaster strikes they have been seen on the ground pulling their volunteers and staff in to service.

Following the devestation  known as Hurricane Katrina, World Vision “distributed $10.2 million worth of donated goods and $6.1 million in grants to local churches and organizations,” according to this report. As I am writing this Hurricane Gustav is still wreaking its havoc on the southern coast and World Vision was poised beforehand to be able to provide immediate support.

Straight from their website on Aug 29 and Sept 1:

“We’re in full preparation mode here,” said Audrey Black, manager of World Vision’s Storehouse in Picayune, Mississippi, some 50 miles from New Orleans. “We have been seeing long lines at gas stations and stores as people stock up on necessities—but not everyone can afford to stock up. World Vision’s priority is to make sure we’re ready to help the region’s low-income and forgotten populations.”

World Vision, which serves children and families in need both in the U.S. and in some 100 countries worldwide, responded to Hurricane Katrina by distributing $10.2 million worth of donated goods and $6.1 million in grants to local churches and organizations helping struggling and vulnerable families recover and rebuild.

Based on the storm’s path and the need in affected areas, the agency is ready to ship several truckloads of drinking water, bedding, personal hygiene items, children’s and adults’ clothing and toys from its Storehouses in Dallas and Los Angeles, along with cleaning supplies, face mask filters, vinyl gloves, shovels and tools, and building materials for the clean-up and recovery phase. The supplies, donated by World Vision’s corporate partners, including Unilever and Lagasse, would be distributed through partner organizations to families in need.

“We’re hoping and praying that Gustav spares the Gulf Coast—but we know from experience that we have to be ready for a worst-case scenario,” explained Pettit, whose team has been actively coordinating with regional authorities and other members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) in preparation for the storm’s landfall.

Pettit cautioned that low-income families who evacuate could face additional challenges as the school year starts: “We learned from Katrina; too many impoverished communities simply fall through the cracks,” he said, “For example, children will need school supplies and help in enrolling in a new location if their families evacuate for any significant length of time.”

World Vision has been warning for weeks that its school supply donations are not keeping pace with increased demand this year, as a weak U.S. economy makes back-to-school shopping a luxury for many struggling families.

Your donation today can have an impact on the US as well as for my African friends.

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

[tags]  World Vision, Team World Vision, Hurricane, Relief, Gustav [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

August Highlights

Leave a reply

I can’t believe that it is already September.  The summer has flown by and school is getting ready to start back up.  Yikes! I think I joined with everybody else out there in throwing off my sleep schedule to watch the Olympics – including an amazing marathon performance, lots of new world records, and some great examples of the true Olympic spirit. Watching the Olympics raised the question in my mind, do I have what it takes?  Despite adding on 4 more weeks of marathon training I doubt I’ll run anywhere close to a 2:06, at least not for the full distance anyways.  Weeks 9 10 11 12 are all in the bag.  I’ve now run increased my longest run ever to about 21 miles and I’ve done the distance twice now!

When I wasn’t busy increasing my long runs I threw in some races.  I almost got a 10K PR while running the Hennepin Lakes Classic.  I managed to get a 15K PR two weeks later in the MDRA 15K.  Two weeks and a 20 miler later I set a new PR in the half-marathon distance, by a minute and a half at the Rochester Half Marathon.

I’ve been meeting and getting to know a lot of runners through a tool called Twitter.  It has been a fun way to connect and share about running and other random bit of life.  I even introduced the idea of tagging runs in Twitter so we can see each other’s better.

I am almost a 1/4 of the way to my goal for raising $2,000 to support the great work of World Vision around the world.  This month’s related posts included:

August 2008/2007 Monthly Mileage

Running – 175.5 / 123.26

Biking – 184.1 / 25.3

Swimming – 700 / 0

Last year was an eventful month as well.  I raced a few times, not doing as well as I did this year.  It was also extremely hot last year in Indiana, while my summer here in Minneapolis hasn’t been too bad! So to help deal with the heat I offered some tips to avoid the inferno. I raced a 5K and a 10K. I got a Sansa MP3 player and talked about the other “equipment” I used to run in.  This was pre-Garmin days! In the Olympic build-up year I took a look at an unusual banned substance – Caffeine. Yes, in high enough quantities, caffeine is considered illegal. A fun and popular post that I wrote was titled “Ways to Ruin Your Next Race.”

I hope you had a good August and are looking forward to fall coming!

[tags] Highlights [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Athletes for Darfur

1 Reply

The Olympics are officially over now, so this post may be a little outdated. However, the topic is still worth talking about, at least in my opinion.  China had a long list of reasons why it maybe should not have been the host for the Olympics this year, most surrounding human rights issues.  The one issue that I really know about the most is their support for African governments.

You see China has this desperate need for a substance called OIL. Some African countries are rich with oil resources. Unlike the United States, China has a very hands off approach to getting the natural resources it needs to survive.  China doesn’t really care how you get the oil to them as long as you do.  Exploit children in forced labor setting – that’s fine.  Murder thousands of children because they are a little different than you – here’s some extra money – just make sure we get our oil.

Have you heard of the Darfur region of Sudan? It is ok if you haven’t, despite massive media efforts and national and international campaigns a lot of people still have never heard of the genocide occurring in Darfur.  Groups like Save Darfur, Dream for Darfur, Genocide Intervention Network, Investors Against Genocide, and many more have been working for years to end this horrible conflict.  Some people urged the world to boycott the Olympics all together, while others were saying boycott this or boycott that part.

More recently a group of athletes competing in Beijing, formed an organization called Team Darfur.

The mission of Team Darfur is to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur through the voice of professional and Olympic athletes.

The Team Darfur athletes are speaking out on the Olympic stage, showing incredible courage by advocating for the people of Darfur from the heart of China. Driven by the same determination that made them Olympians, these incredible athletes know that it is our resilience and resolve that will end this genocide.

You may have heard about Team Darfur, becasue China revoked the entry visa for the organization’s co-founder and 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist Joey Cheek. While this was very frustrating and disappointing for Cheek, it brought a lot of media attention to the organization and their efforts. You can visit their site and send a note of encouragement to the almost 100 athletes who stepped up and said something must be done to end the senseless killing of innocent women and children.  Here is the most recent news story about Darfur.

Two great stories out of Sudan and this year’s Olympics are the story of Lopez Lamong carrying the US Flag during the opening ceremony and Ismail Ahmed Ismail winning the silver medal in the 800m.  Ismail is a Darfuri who ran for Sudan, winning the country’s first ever Olympic medal.

How does all of this relate to World Vision and my goal of raising $2,000 in honor of my friends in Africa? Well Darfur is located in central Africa and World Vision is doing work with Darfuri refugees in the region.  But more importantly, it is through World Vision that I first learned about the genocide in 2004.

If you have some free time I would encourage you to check out some of the various links listed above.  But if your time is short I would recommend these two actions:

1. Visit Save Darfur and take action.

2. Make a donation to World Vision in support of my goal to raise $2,000 for Africa.

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

[tags]  World Vision, Team World Vision, Africa, Darfur, Team Darfur [/tags]

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Running in Africa

Leave a reply
Mwamanongu Village water source, Tanzania. Image via Wikipedia

My experiences with running in Africa are quite different than those that I have every day here in Minneapolis.  First, the temperature was hot – but there was no air-conditioned room to retreat to post run.  Not a lot of people were running for recreation in the areas of Ghana and South Africa were I was at, especially Americans!! Running in an area always provides a little different perspective than driving around in a car.

South Africa

Since I was part of a team there were a couple of us who went out on several occasions for short jogs.  Here we were fed fairly nutrious meals and were shielded for the most part from some of the nastier aspects of water borne illnesses, etc.  It was also not oppressively hot during the days.  The recollections I have of running there are few, but I know we ran in a group and not for very long or far.  I only recall running during the last week of our stay when we were at a compound that was down the street from another compound of the same ministry. So we ran between the two sites and took a dip in the swimming pool afterwards.

Ghana

This was a much different all-around experience as I was the only American and was living more at a similar level as the regular villager up the street.  Our meals were mostly carbs (a lot of empty carbs) and I often left the table hungry for more.  Water was also an issue as it was harder to get pure “nsu” in large quantities.  I had brought some power bars with me for the trip and ate them on occasion. It was quite hot during the day and the only reprieve was sleeping under the fan at night. I think I ran 2x’s during my 8 week visit.  It was hard to time the nutrition, weather, and quality of sleep for optimum running. The times that I did run were on the dirt roads away from the village and I got some weird looks as I waved at the “neighbors.”

Needless to say running is a sport that everyone takes part in around the world with the same fervor.  I felt while I was running that it was crazy to be “wasting” so many calories when some of the people I was running by were calorie deficient.  Little children are able to run around because for the most part they are little bundles of energy – but what happens after not eating for a week? or two?  Not to mention hydration. I mentioned pure drinking water – it is available most everywhere but costs a little extra then ground water.  I sipped a little ground water once and was quite blessed not to get full-blown diarrhea.  I did get some intestinal discomfort because of my mistake. It was my first week there and I was sweating and exhausted.  We were meeting with the headmaster of a school and he offered water. So I took it. Ooops!

Water that causes diarrhea and calorie deficiency causes thousands of people to die each day.

3,800 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Source: UN World Water Development Report 2, 2006

There is an easy solution to that. World Vision and many other organizations are providing the resources for villages to get safe drinking water.  World Vision is digging wells, educating the community about maintaining the well and the water quality, and providing safe storage containers. Digging a traditional well costs World Vision $5,390 which gets safe drinking water from 60ft underground. In some parts of the world, wells must be dug much deeper or through bad ground conditions.  These deep-water wells can cost $18,000 to dig.  Either of those figures may sound daunting, but your gift to Team World Vision will be joined with other gifts to help tackle problems like safe drinking water.

Please take a second to support my efforts in my first marathon by making a tax-deductible and secure donation to Team World Vision.

Thank You!

Follow-up Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Mv8pauMKc

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

[tags]  World Vision, Team World Vision, Africa [/tags]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]