Today’s Simple Compassion post is by Teri Keene. She wanted to share how she makes a difference. Tuesdays we look at simplifying our lives by looking outside ourselves and making a difference. Thanks so much Teri for what you do!
I never wanted a dog. I grew up in a family of cat people. But I married into a family of dog lovers. My husband was the one who wanted a dog. I always figured dogs were too high maintenance. We were already resolute in our decision to not have children. Why would we then go and adopt a high maintenance creature like a dog? But he talked me into it. About 7 years into our marriage, we adopted a shy little mutt named Odie. We have since added 2 bichon frises to our furry family. It’s a houseful to be sure, but we still want to help more animals. We can’t keep adopting! Read the rest of this entry →
I am excited to share with you a guest post from Ellen Renck. She does amazing work with her fingers that makes a difference, and you can get involved too!
Are you involved in a charity or simply helping where you see need that you would like featured? Contact me, I would love to hear about it!
Simplify Your Life and Help Others
Knitting is soothing. Crochet is soothing. In a world of “costly” pursuits, both are inexpensive! How can they simplify your life and help you distress or focus on what matters? How? By making your life more purposeful and gratifying!
Creating baby items soothes the maker. Because selfishness and self-absorption steal peace while sharing and empathy bring tranquility, giving to these babies gives us more than the little ones receive. Sharing joy? Simply priceless!
Premature and critically ill infants all over the country need you to use your hands and heart on their behalf. They lose the majority of body heat through their heads — energy and calories needed to fight infection, to struggle to breathe, or to gain weight. Imagine a warm preemie cap the size of an orange or tangerine! Along with booties and blankets, they comfort these fragile and their families as well as cheer NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) staff. Just imagine any ordinary day in any NICU where parents struggle with fear and anxiety. Imagine the desolation of a NICU on a holiday. Then, imagine the unit’s renewed spirit with cheery holiday caps or bright everyday hats warming these fragile babes.
Why else does it simplify, distress, and focus you? Baby yarn is so soft and gentle that you feel calmer just touching it. And the colors? Let your imagination run wild. Baby clothes patterns also offer an ideal way to practice new techniques and stitches with fast to finish gratification. Simplify your life with “easy to take along” projects that mean no more thumb twiddling waiting for the dentist or for a soccer game end. Plus, a little “knitter’s guilt” at not finishing something big before launching another project is eased by these quickies.
Recalling the unremarkable (thankfully) birth of my children and the dearth of preemies clothes when my preemie niece was born many years ago, I started crafting preemie items in response to a friend’s request for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. As a result, I know the satisfaction and calm I experienced making hundreds of everyday and holiday caps. I know the uplift that the clothing brings parents and staff.
My recently launched blog includes Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville and Baptist South in St Johns, Florida in the donations. Perusal of the Internet will locate NICUs near you needing donations, but I will be thrilled to put your handcrafted donations to good use for you. Please check my blog at http://phrases1.xanga.com for more information about preemie needs and free patterns and more.
Thank you so much to Lorilee Lippincott and Loving Simple Living for the opportunity to share my way to distress and simplify by focusing on those tiny people, the future of our world. I hope my plan becomes an opportunity for some of you too!
Thank-you Ellen for what you are doing and for sharing!
“In 321 Stop — stop running and start living, author Lorilee Lipincott sets out to show how her family simplified their home and life. In her eloquent words, “How can we capture that sense of simple?” She does. And, she shares how anyone can. With simple steps her own family took, this guide is organized so the reader may make the same positive changes—finding greater contentment in a less cluttered home and life. Simply. “ – Heather Word Playhouse - New York Times Best Selling Illustrator
I found this super cool charity on twitter - Origin Coffee. It is a group of amazing intentional people that are committed to making a difference. They have a coffee house in California where they volunteer their time and send all profits overseas to help fight sex trafficking. The whole place is run on volunteer hours! This video brought tears to my eyes:
A while back I talked about how our family sponsors 2 kids through World Vision. I think giving back is a huge part of minimalist simple living. I also wanted to highlight another organization that is very similar – Compassion International. (picture source)
“In a world where more than a billion children live on less than U.S.$2 per day, connecting one child with one sponsor is the most strategic way to end child poverty.
Through monthly gifts, prayer and letter writing, sponsors invest in the lives of children living in extreme poverty. This relationship communicates, “You are an important little person!”
Children attend church-based child development centers where they receive life-changing opportunities that would otherwise be out of their reach. All Compassion-sponsored children have the opportunity to develop their God-given potential and be released from the poverty that has trapped their families for generations.
Sponsor a child today and help break the cycle of poverty! For just $38 a month, your sponsorship helps provide:
It is Valentines Day today, a day all about love. It is a great opportunity to show it to a child in need. For the cost of one meal at a restaurant food and education can be provided to a child all month long.
Welcome to Simple Compassion. Every Tuesday Loving Simple Living features a different charity that is making a difference. Part of a minimalist lifestyle and simple living depends on looking beyond ourselves and helping others. Often times it is so simple to make a big difference.(photo credit)
This week we are on this side of the globe looking at Meals on Wheels. Reader and friend Amy has done it and wanted to share.
I just wanted to respond to you blog posts about different charities/volunteer organizations. I don’t really feel like I can write a post for you, but I’d love to highlight Meals-on-Wheels. I volunteered for them earlier this year (before we moved to Texas) up until I was about 7 months pregnant with my third child. It was really flexible. I could volunteer for just one day a week if I wanted or more or be a substitute. I was able to take my kids along with me which was the main reason I wanted to do it. I wanted them to get in the habit of volunteering. And of course, the elderly people we delivered meals to just lit up at the sight of little ones (3.5 and 1.5 years old). So anyway, I just wanted to highlight that it’s an easy-to-volunteer-for organization that always needs extra help delivering meals. I know in our area they especially needed help in the winter because some of their regular drivers would head South during the winter months.
This is such a great opportunity or families! Find a local program to help. They need help delivering meals, but also need help with lots of other things as well. It is so awesome to realize that something so easy can make such a difference!
Thanks Amy for volunteering and sharing!
Are you involved in a charity that you would like featured? I would love to hear about it. Send me an e-mail and we’ll talk
Kendra, Loving Simple Living reader and a friend of mine, recommended this organization for our Simple Compassion section this week. Thanks Kendra!
What is International Justice Mission:
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that brings rescue to victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to secure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to ensure that public justice systems – police, courts and laws – effectively protect the poor. Source
In general, monetary donations are huge because IJM is lawyers and investigators who work within the laws of each country to bring justice to its citizens. Besides fighting child prostitution, they work to protect the interest of the poor and defenseless. An example is a widow who is tricked into working without pay to keep her home. She doesn’t really owe that much, but being illiterate she may agree.
The story that I can’t forget was about a huge brick factory where families were enslaved. Kids were so cheap to get that it wasn’t worth it to their owners to take care of them. They’d just get as much work out of them as they could before they died. The investigator compared them to paper cups that are cheap and thoughtlessly thrown away. The factory was not easy to penetrate, but IJM managed to free the families and prosecute the owners.
The last thing I love about IJM is that their rehabilitation sets them apart from other non-government programs that do a heroic freeing of girls from a brothel and then offer them so little support that they end up back in their old lives. One gentleman that was freed was rehabilitated and is now holding a government position in his country. Another girl was freed from forced prostitution and while in rehabilitation, she was convinced by a young boy to run away with him, only to be sold again. She’d been sold in a city of millions and officials told IJM they’d never find her. But IJM didn’t give up and miraculously found her, re-rescued her.
The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them. Ex. 3:7,8
Please help today! It is hard sometimes to remember or think of the pain being caused because we don’t see it and it is far away. We are all family here on this ball we call earth, and we need to act like it.
Do you have a charity you would like us to feature or something you are doing or involved with that you are excited about? Contact me.
Today’s Simple Compassion is a guest post from minimalist, intentional living, musician Tom Pinit about what he is doing to help KIVA. Enjoy!
Music has been an integral part of my life since the age of four. I vaguely remember my parents asking me one day if I wanted to play an instrument:
Me: “How about drums?”
Them: “No, too loud.”
Me: “Piano?”
Them: “Too big.”
(pause)
Them: “How about violin?” (Read: It’s small, portable, relatively inexpensive, and we know a great teacher.)
Me: “Ummm, ok sure.”
From that moment on, I have always played and loved music. From summer band camps to youth orchestras, college “heavy folk” bands to Brazilian ensembles, it has been a constant in my life. A dozen years ago, I traded in my violin and electric bass for the bandolim, the Brazilian version of the mandolin. And so, my love for Brazilian music, and choro in particular, has grown stronger ever since. I have been in three Brazilian groups over those past 11 years, playing at jam sessions, cafés, wine bars, fundraisers, and weddings. The music is fun, interesting, and challenging, and it’s kept my musical juices flowing…and then some.
Is This All There Is?
Toward the end of last year, I started having what could probably be described as a mid-life crisis. By the way, is it technically a mid-life crisis if you’re in your mid-thirties? (Wikipedia doesn’t think so.) I had a loving wife, two adorable little boys, a house in the suburbs of beautiful Portland, Oregon, and a steady job despite the horrible economy. So what was wrong with me? I felt like something was lacking. I needed to answer that quintessential life question, “Is this all there is?”
Enter Chris Guillebeau and his book The Art of Non-Conformity. I happened to stumble upon a post he had written, which led me down the blog wormhole to AONC. One of the topics Chris wrote about was the microfinance organization Kiva, based in San Francisco. Investors lend small sums of money through Kiva’s website to poor and rural entrepreneurs around the world. Kiva’s borrowers typically do not qualify for traditional bank loans. These small businessmen and women agree to repay their loans to in-country field partners who in turn repay Kiva who then repays the initial investor. (Check out this short informative video to see how Kiva works.)
In essence, the $25 you loan through Kiva can be “permanent” when the original loan is repaid and that money is reinvested in a different person, repaid, reinvested, and so on. Their current repayment rate is close to an astounding 99 percent. It is for these reasons that I love Kiva’s microfinancing model.
The Choro Music Project
I made an initial $25 loan using some of the proceeds from a recent gig I had played. That was a powerful act in and of itself. I was helping a group of women in Paraguay obtain their clothing inventory for the summer season. That $25 would be repaid to me over several months and eventually available to re-loan. I thought, this would be a wonderful way to leave my legacy on this earth for others to follow. And thus, the Choro Music Project was born.
The Choro Music Project [CMP] is a social entrepreneurship that uses the power of music to change world, one grace note at a time. Through Kiva, the CMP invests a portion of profits from gigs, events, CD and merchandise sales, as well as 100% of donations received. The money that is invested in Kiva is eventually repaid to be re-invested or used for business purposes to promote and broaden the impact of the CMP. To date since November 2011, the CMP has invested $240 in 11 loans in 11 different countries. Our goal is to be invested in every country in which Kiva has field partners for a truly global reach. Currently, that total is 61.
The people we’ve helped are in all fields of business, from arts and crafts to bicycle repair to chocolate-making. The latest businessman we’ve helped is Sahil who lives in Azerbaijan (yes, I had to look up where this was on the map). Sahil is using his Kiva loan to purchase musical instruments for his son, help his eldest son start his business, and keep his own dairy and taxi businesses going. As a fellow musician, this was a fantastic opportunity to help a family halfway around the world.
How awesome is this? Playing accordion for the cows!
So far, we have had great response from people who hear about Kiva and the CMP’s mission. If you would like to get involved, you can donate directly to the project and become part of the movement. (Please note that donations are not tax-deductible as they are invested and repaid.) Or if you’re in the Portland area, come to one of our gigs or hire us to play your next event or fundraiser.
Thanks for reading, and thank you Lorilee for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share my project with your readers.
I’d like to leave you with a quote from one of my favorite musical inspirations Jason Mraz:
Music is the medium I use to recover from life’s often deafening blow. I constantly reawaken thru music. The act of making music is how I tune in and/or tune out to solve life’s puzzles, trying to make the most sense of that which I can’t seem to stop questioning. In life there are problems. In music, if not a direct answer, comes a divine perspective.
Here is a picture my husband shot last week at a state park by us. It was super cold out, but he is hard core like that and got a great shot.
Happy Tuesday!
Every Tuesday I post about a charity and what they are doing to make a difference. I am super excited about the chance to help spread the word as much as I can with my blog. I believe deeply that helping and focusing on others is a huge piece of simple minimalist living.
I am wanting to make the most of this spot so I am opening it up and trying to look for a few people to guest post about what they are involved in and why. I believe in lots of different charities, but I can only be involved in a few at a time. I thought that other people who are involved in other charities would be able to share their experiences even better.
Want to help?
Are you involved in a charity that you would like to share in a post?
Are you involved in community service – nothing as organized as a charity, maybe just something you do on your own or with your kids – that you would like to share? Community service ideas for kids are always great!
Are you involved in a charity or community service that you love and would like me to feature it, but you don’t want to write up a post (I can do it )?
Feel free to e-mail me! We are a little blog family. I love hearing from you and read and respond to every e-mail.
Here are some of the posts I have done up lately that I really liked:
A big part of simple minimalist living is looking beyond ourselves and helping others. The following article is shared with permission from the World Vision Website.
Worst place to be a mother, best place to be a midwife
Afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world for pregnant women. But a rise in the number of community midwives is saving the lives of mothers and their newborn babies.
Story by Rebecca Lyman. Photos by Nila Akbari. Edited by Shawna Templeton.
When Shukria, now 32, gave birth to her first child at age 15, she never dreamt she would become a midwife, or that her daughter would follow in her footsteps.
But Shukria and her daughter are part of a growing mother and child health movement in Afghanistan, the most dangerous place in the world to give birth.
Childbirth is dangerous business
Shukria’s inspiration to pursue midwifery stems from painful memories. Years ago, a close family member died in childbirth when an unskilled traditional birth attendant mistakenly removed her womb instead of her placenta.
Tragically, this story is all too common in Afghanistan. For every 43 births in Ghor and Badghis provinces, a woman dies in pregnancy, labor, or after childbirth.
“So many women die needlessly through lack of any basic care during their pregnancy,” says Dr. Sarah Pickworth, a public health specialist who worked with World Vision in Afghanistan for several years.
“Poor diets and working extremely hard physically in the fields right up to birth leave women in a poor state to go through childbirth, which is often only assisted by an unskilled neighbor or their mother-in-law at home,” explains Pickworth.
Shukria (left, in lilac gown), a trainee midwife, cares for a newborn with Khadija Samet, the clinical supervisor for World Visions community midwife education project in Herat, Afghanistan.
Cultural practices also put pregnant women at risk. “Women still need to get the permission from their husband or mother-in-law before they can go for help,” say Pickworth. “If there is no female health worker, rather than face the shame of seeing a male health worker, her family will not take her to get help.”
These women often bleed to death before they receive healthcare.
Midwives protect mothers
Before World Vision started the community midwife program in Ghor province, there were no midwives among a population of more than 800,000 people. Today, with 38 midwives in Ghor province, 85 percent of health facilities are staffed by a midwife.
In addition to assisting mothers in the birthing process to ensure a safe delivery, midwives educate women about the potential risks to mother and child, and how they can be avoided.
For instance, midwives inform mothers about the risks of birthing several children in a short period of time. Shukria explains to mothers that if children are born too close together, the mother is more likely to become anemic, and the risk of death during childbirth increases.
Awareness is also critical. Through the midwife program, community outreach teams comprised of men and women help raise awareness among both mothers and fathers to remove the barriers that prevent women from accessing care. “Early referral for complications and encouraging women to deliver in health facilities saves lives,” explains Pickworth.
Midwives prevent early childhood deaths
Midwifery is not just about a safe delivery for the mother and child, but also guaranteeing healthy first years of life for the child.
This year in Afghanistan alone, more than 300,000 children died before their fifth birthday, with 38 percent not surviving their first four weeks. These deaths are caused by preventable pregnancy-related or neonatal complications, or preventable afflictions, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition.
Shukria and other World Vision-trained midwives help protect newborn babies and young children from preventable health threats. For instance, they teach mothers that breast milk is best for their babies — not oil from a sheep or sugared water, as some mothers have been led to believe. Midwives also train mothers how to clean and cook varieties of vegetables to nourish themselves and their children.
By introducing hygiene practices like hand-washing, separating water used for humans and livestock, and encouraging immunizations, midwives and community health promoters help reduce child mortality.
Shukria, a trainee midwife, cares for a newborn. Midwives help protect both mothers and their newborn children.
A community health chain
The hospital and community-trained midwives in Herat and Ghor provinces are important links in a developing health chain that is quickly gaining the support of community leaders.
In Ghor province, where many communities are cut off from health facilities during the winter months, World Vision is helping set up community growth monitoring groups. Group leaders are taught how to check the growth of children and refer those at risk to midwives or health facilities for further assessment.
Over the past year, with the help of a local aid agency, nearly 300 people have been trained in basic health, monitoring the nutrition of more than 20,000 mothers and children each month. More than 90,000 mothers and fathers currently attend these health groups across five districts.
While there are many more midwives than a decade ago and public awareness in Afghanistan has increased, still more needs to be done to protect mothers and children.
A global movement to protect mothers and children
The challenges that pregnant women and mothers face in Afghanistan are reflective of a worldwide problem. Every day, more than 20,000 children die before their fifth birthdays, mostly from preventable and treatable causes.
World Vision’s Child Health Now campaign aims to ensure that children can grow up healthy with access to basic health services, adequate nutrition, and disease prevention. Through this campaign, we support communities in raising their voices about their right to quality healthcare and press national governments to meet their responsibilities to children, mothers, families, and communities.
World Vision is also part of ABC News’ Million Moms Challenge, an initiative connecting tens of thousands of American moms with moms in developing countries to encourage each other and engage on the critical issues of pregnancy, childbirth, and children’s health.
The campaign wraps up on December 16 with an hour-long primetime special on ABC’s “20/20,” showing the challenges of mothers and their babies around the world, and highlighting those who are searching for solutions.
Learn more
Tune in to your local ABC station on the evening of December 16 for a special edition of “20/20” with Diane Sawyer. ABC will examine why so many women are dying during pregnancy and child birth.
Pray for mothers and children who do not have access to basic healthcare. Pray that countries and communities with the power to act and save lives would do so.
Speak out to stop preventable child deaths. Ask Congress to support the International Affairs Budget and oppose major cuts to this account. There are few places in the U.S. federal budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved.
Simple minimalist and intentional living is benefited by looking beyond ourselves and helping our our world. I wanted to share some video’s from Samaritans Purse about their work in 2011. They are such a great organization and all the stuff they were involved in was amazing. It was a hard year for many people all over the world, but through Samaritans Purse Christ’s love was shown.
Here is a neat movie about Operation Christmas Child Deliveries.
Shukria (left, in lilac gown), a trainee midwife, cares for a newborn with Khadija Samet, the clinical supervisor for World Visions community midwife education project in Herat, Afghanistan.
Shukria, a trainee midwife, cares for a newborn. Midwives help protect both mothers and their newborn children.
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