As technology has continued to advance, ways in which people become involved in the causes they care about has also evolved. Thousands upon thousands of people continue to organize and attend rallies, protests, public speaking events and other types of events to raise awareness about something they deeply care about, but technology, social media and blogging have opened up new doors for even more people to get involved. Bloggers Unite is a community of people who care. It is a website that facilitates blogging events that happen across the blogosphere and asks people to write about a particular subject in order to raise awareness and to help make a difference in the world. Bloggers Unite has become one of the best resources for people to create and manage a campaign of their own, regardless of what it is or how big or small it is.
Here is a list of six upcoming blogging events from August to December that you, as a blogger and as a voice, can take part of in order to help make a difference in the world. As we know, the voice of one blogger can soon reach the computer screens of millions.
Women’s Equality Day — August 26, 2010
On August 26th, 1920, the 19th Amendment was signed into the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. However, even after the Amendment was signed, some states refused to officially go on record in favor of the Amendment until as late as 1984. August 26th is a day that gives us the opportunity to recognize the struggle women faced when it came to being given the right to vote, as well as the ways in which women continue to struggle to have their equality recognized all over the world.
» Join the Women’s Equality Day blogging event
International Literary Day — September 8, 2010
September 8th was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17th, 1965 and was first celebrated in 1966. International Literacy Day aims to highlight the importance of literacy to people, communities and to the world. Approximately 774 million adults (1 in 5) lack minimum literacy skills; two-thirds of those people are women. September 8th is a day to remind the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally.
» Join the International Literacy Day blogging event
World Suicide Prevention Day — September 10, 2010
On average, almost 3,000 people commit suicide every day. The International Association for Suicide prevention has been sponsored by the World Health Organizations and others to advocate for the prevention of suicidal behavior, provision of adequate treatment and follow-up care for people who attempted suicide, as well as responsible reporting of suicides in the media. September 10th is a day to raise awareness of what must be done on a global and local level to prevent suicide.
» Join the World Suicide Prevention Day blogging event
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — November 25, 2010
At least 1 in 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime; the abuser is usually someone known to her. Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. It is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all out efforts for development, peace and gender equality in all societies. The UN General Assembly designated November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and on that day governments, international organizations and NGOs are invited to organize activities on the day to raise public awareness of the problem.
» Join the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women blogging event
World AIDS Day — December 1, 2010
HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic for more than 27 years. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published national HIV incidence that showed much higher numbers than previous estimates. Individuals and organizations will recognize World AIDS Day on December 1st and this year’s theme is leadership–from all sectors, including government, but also leaders among individuals and families, communities, non-profits and other organizations.
» Join the World AIDS Day blogging event
Human Rights Day — December 10, 2010
Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted on December 10th, 1948. UDHR set down the basic principles at the very heart of the human rights movement and has enabled remarkable progress in human rights, inspiring international human rights standards, laws and institutions that have improved the lives of many around the world.
» Join the Human Rights Day blogging event
Activism is, and has always been, tremendously important. It is because of people who truly care about what’s going on in their country, state and local communities that really motivates others to help get something positive done. Do Something is one of the largest organizations in the U.S. that inspires and helps young people to get out, speak their minds, volunteer and act. They are helping to create a culture of volunteerism, on track to activate two million teens in the year 2011 and they are well on their way to that goal by helping teens do simple things that make a big difference.
Do Something is currently accepting applications from teens all over the country who are committed to serving with Do Something on their Youth Advisory Council. Do Something is looking for teens who are committed to helping mobilize their peers and provide valuable insight only teens today can provide. If accepted, that teen will remain on the Do Something Youth Advisory Council for a period of two years. In that time, they will connect with other YAC members in annual in-person meetings and monthly conference calls, as well as email correspondence. Teens will have the opportunity to participate in focus groups and having the power to influence the organization’s direction, keeping Do Something updated with what’s hot and what they feel most passionately about.
Just a few examples of the impact that the Youth Advisory Council has are:
Representing the Do Something Advisory Council at meetings, conferences and in the community at large by acting as official youth ambassadors.
Helping with the selection of Do Something grant winners by reading applications for grants and flagging their favorites.
Assisting in the creation of logos, images and campaign concepts.
Do Something relies heavily on their Youth Advisory Council, utilizing the input of the teens involved and essentially giving youth the opportunity, as well as the platform for participate in changing the world.
Activism, changing the world and making it a better place for everyone is important business. We always hear about how important it is to donate to the causes we care about, but actually getting out there and doing something about it is something entirely different. Not only can you make a difference in your community and the entire world without sparing a nickel, by going out there and changing what you feel needs to be changed will also give you a unique sense of accomplishment and you will know that you did good and you made a tremendous difference.
The Do Something Awards focus on social change and honoring the best young world-changers who are 25 years of age and under. The people being honored by Do Something are making the world a better place and Do Something is making sure that they get the credit they, and all of their hard work, deserves.
The Do Something awards aren’t like the awards shows you usually see. There are no violins, no tuxedos and no almost-wedding-like dresses in sight. This awards show is loud and awesome and truly representative of the rock stars that are behind social change.
This year, the Do Something Awards will be hosted by Jane Lynch, who we all know and utterly adore from Glee. They will air live on VH1 on Monday, July 19th at 9PM EST.
This is also a great time to make your voice heard. You can cast your vote for who you think should walk away with a Do Something Award. Choose from categories like the overall ‘Do Something Award’, which will be awarded to a young do-gooder under the age of 25. There are also movie stars, television shows, comedians, charities on Facebook and even a Twitter category (where @BPGlobalPR is nominated and you should vote for them because that Twitter account is hilarious, but in that really very sad kind of way.)
So, do something and cast a vote for your favorite do-gooder and then tune in on Monday, July 19th on VH1 at 9PM EST. to see if who you voted for won.
Walmart has had more than just a few problems in terms of their image and being a corporate blanket that moves into cities and bankrupts local businesses and families. Throughout the past few years they have taken many measures to soften their image and this year the company is focusing on revitalizing small and mid-size farms in the US.
Walmart’s new Heritage Agriculture program [PDF] will build up smaller farms in order to get local produce into stores. That means that not only will Walmart be receiving their produce from local farmers, but they will also be assisting farmers to reach the standards they need to be at in order to be able to distribute at a higher level than they have in the past.
Walmart’s decision to utilize local farms has a definite advantage for everyone involved. Walmart will of course be saving money by doing this because they will be spending less on paying for trucks on produce to be delivered to their locations, the scaling back on delivery trucks will reduce carbon emissions and has a positive reaction on the environment and Walmart and their customers will be supporting local farmers in their communities.
While the Heritage Agriculture program is merely in its beginning stages, this is definitely a step in the right direction, especially for such a heavy-hitter on the corporate food chain. My assumption is that after some tweaking and attention paid to the issue of seasonality, this could be something that more businesses could want to look into.
If there are two immensely wealthy people out there who can really get behind the Robin Hood belief system of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, it’s Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffet, who are launching a campaign to get other American billionaires to donate at least half of their wealth to charity.
The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire investor have approached a handful of the country’s billionaires over the past year to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. They are asking these people to pledge to donate either at some point during their lifetime or at the time of their death. Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad are two of the handful of people who have been approached; they have already announced their pledges to donate.
Former Gates Foundation CEO, Patty Stonesifer spoke to The Associated Press about the campaign, telling them that of the handful of the billionaires approached so far, they have all embraced the campaign to share the wealth and help those less-fortunate than themselves.
This is a really awesome campaign. I can’t wait to see more news break about this and see who the country’s other big givers are.
Back in mid-May a truly horrific and tragic story broke out of Oconee County, Georgia, where two young boys, ages 13 and 7, testified against their mother and stepfather for the brutal child abuse they had withstood throughout the course of a few weeks.
Their mother, Damita Devonna Peak and stepfather, Norris Lazarus Walker had handcuffed the 13-year-old boy to a clothes bar in a small closet while naked, where he was also forced to sleep every night, and use a plastic jug as a toilet. His mother also used pepper spray on his face and his stepfather had shot him with plastic pellets. When the boy was asked by a prosecutor why his parents did those things to him, he replied saying that he had lost his privileges because he “stole” a honey bun out of the kitchen pantry.
When the boy’s 7-year-old brother was asked about the abuse, he said that he had seen his mother handcuff his brother inside the closet, and recalled the times when his mother had pepper-sprayed his brother’s face.
The parents are originally from Florida but had relocated to Georgia in 2007. When asked about the relocation, the defense stated that they had moved away from the dangerous Miami slum where the children were born. When asked about the abuse, the attorneys of these parents maintained that their clients weren’t able to make the 13-year-old boy behave and they punished him so “he wouldn’t grow up to be a criminal like his older brother, who has been shot and is in jail, and his biological father, who is in federal prison for drug trafficking and aggravated assault.”
The abuse is said to have begun while the family was living in Clarke County, Georgia, where they are also being charged in.
I had first learned about this devastating story from Delightful Chaos, and felt very compelled to share it with anyone in or around Georgia, specifically in Oconee and Clarke Counties.
Before the children testified, they were intimidated by family members residing in Miami, Florida, to not incriminate their mother and stepfather. Luckily, they chose to testify and their testimony helped Judge Steve Jones dole out 40 years of prison time for each offender in this case.
The children were thankfully not placed with the family members in Miami who had intimidated them before the case went to trial and they have been placed in a local foster home in Georgia. But while the 13-year-old abuse survivor and his younger brother are out of the care of the people who abused this poor boy terribly, there are still hard times in their immediate future.
The foster mother who took in both boys is not being funded by the state of Georgia in any way. Emily Duncan, a University of Georgia graduate, has recently been raising awareness of the boys’ case in an effort to collect clothes, toys, and other goods for the boys. A fund for the boys has been set up at a local bank by the Western Judicial Circuit’s Victim Witness Assistance Program, but the boys were placed in this foster home with nothing but two pairs of clothes to their name–and nothing else.
This past Thursday, the Victim Witness Assistance Program and Oconee County Sheriff’s Office stepped forward to take donations for these boys and if you are in a position to help in any way, or know someone who is, please consider donating clothes, toys, and anything else you think these children may need.
The 6-year-old boy wears size 8 clothes, size 4 shoes. He likes basketball, football, swimming, fishing, water activities, and superheroes. The 13-year-old boy wears a size 28 pants, adult medium size shorts, and has similar interests as his younger brother.
Clothes, toys, and other donations may be brought to the Witness Victim Assistance Program’s office, room 370 at the Clarke County Courthouse, 325 E. Washington St.
You may also drop off donations at the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office at 1140 Experiment Station Road, Watkinsville, Georgia.
If you would like to make a financial contribution to the boys, you may do so by making a donation to the Healing Heart Fund at any branch of Athens First Bank & Trust. Your financial contributions will be used for directly caring for the boys and meeting their needs.
Nearly 17 million children in America struggle with hunger and the weak economy has put millions of previously financially secure families at risk. While there are many programs from the American government and charity foundations that are working to help these families, federal nutrition programs that provide nutritious foods to families are still sadly underutilized.
Share Our Strength is a leading organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America and they are at the forefront of this epidemic, pledging to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. But they can’t do it alone and you can really make a difference–now!
Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale is an initiative to get families across the country invested in helping to end childhood hunger in America. The Great American Bake Sale will mobilize families across the country by getting them to spend more time with their families and children while they plan their bake sale, bake delicious treats, prepare their bake sale space with decorations and help educate their communities about childhood hunger, an issue that is often ignored. It will also help you teach your children the importance of helping those in need and giving back to your communities.
By hosting your own Great American Bake Sale, you will be helping Share Our Strength’s initiative to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. Share Our Strength weaves together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children who are struggling with hunger and provide them with nutritious food that will allow them to live, learn and play. Remember, once you have planned your bake sale, go to GreatAmericanBaleSale.org and sign up to host a bake sale, add your bake sale to the bake sale map and after your event has finished, submit your bake sale proceeds.
Through Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry anti-hunger organization, the funds you raise through your Great American Bake Sale will be used to enroll more eligible kids in school breakfast, after-school snacks and meals and their families in SNAP, the government food stamp program. You will also be helping to bring community gardens and farmers markets to low-income neighborhoods and affordable, fresh fruits and vegetables to urban corner stores. You will be helping local food pantries, food banks and soup kitchens meet the pressing demand for more nutritious foods and teach at-risk families how to plan, shop for and prepare healthy, low-cost meals at home.
To help more families host their own Great American Bake Sales, Domino Sugar has donated a $20 gift card that will be given away to one lucky Woman Tribune reader to help with the cost of ingredients, decorations and materials needed to host your bake sale.
To win the $20 gift card from Domino Sugar, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling us why it is important to you to help Share Our Strength and end childhood hunger. [REQUIRED]
Additional Entries: [Leave a comment for each additional entry.]
If you are already hosting a Great American Bake Sale, leave a comment telling us about your upcoming event!
Tweet about this initiative and giveaway. Feel free to use the following tweet or write your own. [Can be done once per day!]
Host a Great American Bake Sale to end childhood hunger, win $20 gift card from @WomanTribune: http://tinyurl.com/24v3olr ends 5/21
Blog about the Great American Bake Sale and this giveaway with a link to this post and GreatAmericanBakeSale.org [5 entries, leave 5 comments and don't forget to include your blog's link.]
This giveaway ends Friday, May 21st at 11:59PM EST. This giveaway is open to all US residents over the age of 18. The winner will be contacted by email and has 48 hours (2 days) to respond with their mailing address. If I don’t hear back from the winner within that time, another winner will be picked.
Disclosure: I was given the opportunity to spread the word about Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale by Domino Sugar, who also provided the factual information about the Great American Bake Sale and have donated the $20 gift card for this giveaway. All opinions throughout this post at 100% mine.
Happy Earth Day everyone! 40 years ago, when Earth Day was first instated, the “green movement” did not yet exist. It was more of a day that emphasized “ecology” and its goal was to open up people’s minds to things like cleaning up pollution and litter.
Earth Day was thought up by Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat of Wisconsin, who in a speech given in Seattle in September of 1969, called for a nationwide teach-in on the environment, a speech written on airplane napkins after a major oil spill in California.
Unlike today, where thousands of environmental lawyers, advocates, businesses and corporations rushing to advertise new “green” products and why you and your family should buy them, the environmental movement capitalized on the experiences and passion of activists dedicated to organizing anti-war, civil rights and feminist rallies. The green movement was more youth-driven than anything else and it also had a concrete and strong anti-establishment base, which is understandable since companies were not supportive of the cause in the least.
Earth Day initially sparked participation of about 2,000 college campuses and 10,000 elementary high schools, and at that time, Congress adjourned so members could give speeches on ecology and tens of thousands of people filled Fifth Avenue in New York City for the cause. But while Earth Day was considered something to celebration and raise awareness of when it was first making headway, ecology fizzled out later because people felt that it was merely nothing but “a hippie-ish counterculture.”
Luckily, Earth Day is making a comeback and companies including Wells Fargo, UPS and Procter & Gamble are in support and even sponsoring numerous Earth Day events.
I hope everyone has a fun-filled Earth Day while learning more about the Earth and how to help the planet by reducing, reusing, recycling, replenishing and restoring!
In 2004, a woman left her house and her dog (well, not completely, I’m sure she left her dog with other responsible adults that cared for her needs) and went on the road with a small crew to film a documentary across America. She wanted to survey women; to see how we, as a gender, were doing and what we were up to. She met some amazing, inspiring, spectacular, successful, kick ass women and they were all named Angela Shelton. They all had a story, but a great deal of their stories had very similar themes as she moved from one to the next to the next. Their stories were also her stories. Their stories are my stories, and the stories of countless women, girls, men and boys all over the world.
Angela Shelton wanted to survey women in America who all just happened to share her name. She wanted her documentary to be light, airy, fun and hilarious, but it ended up being a documentary about not-so light, airy, fun, and definitely not hilarious issues. Angela found that most of the women she was able to talk to for her documentary had either been raped, beaten, or abused in their lifetime.
I heard about Angela Shelton through a forum I was active on quite a number of years ago. I saw her documentary, Searching for Angela Shelton, during the worst time in my life. I whole-heartedly believe that Angela Shelton, along with the fabulous volunteers for the RAINN hotline, saved my life.
I am a survivor of child abuse, childhood sexual assault and rape. I live with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and major depressive disorder. I wear this shirt when I need to be reminded that I survived. That I am a survivor. And I am never going back.
It was announced in mid-January that the nation’s largest credit card networks–Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, would waive fees for some contributions that were being made to aid Haiti relief efforts, after taking a heap of criticism for charging up to 3% of charitable donations for transaction fees. This is only the second time that credit card companies have waived fees made from charitable contributions, which companies rake in as much as $250 million dollars annually from; the first time they waived these fees was after the tsunami in 2004.
Now that the major credit card companies have waived their (in my humble opinion, devastating and ill-willed) fees aimed at charitable contributions, many companies have also set up processes in which cardholders can redeem their rewards points to make donations to aid Haiti relief efforts.
American Express has set up a website, GivingExpress Online, which lists a number of great charities and allows cardholders already enrolled in their Membership Rewards program to donate to any of the charities listed on the website by using their Membership Rewards points. American Express has also announced a donation of $250,000 to assist several different charities dedicated to the relief efforts in Haiti, including the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee and the United Nations’ Friends of the World Food Program. They are also matching employee donations for relief efforts.
Capital One launched their No Hassle Giving Site in 2008. This website allows cardholders to donate rewards to more than 1.2 million United States charities. Since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti in early January, the No Hassle Giving Site has listed about a handful of worthwhile charities dedicated to Haitian relief efforts. Cardholders have the option to set up charitable donations online as either a one-time only donation or a reoccuring donation; cardholders will also earn rewards on their donation transaction. A Capital One spokeswoman has also declared that donations made to the relief efforts in Haiti are tax deductible and donors could obtain a detailed donation history and summary of taxable donations for their records.
Chase cardholders who hold either Chase Freedom, Sapphire and/or Ink can redeem and donate their Ultimate Rewards points to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund. Donations can be made starting at $25 for 2,500 points and then in $25 increments beyond that. There is no limit to the amount of points you can redeem to donate to Haiti, as long as it is up to your points balance.
Citibank has enabled cardholders to redeem their ThankYou Network loyalty points to make donations to the American Red Cross and the ARC Disaster Relief Fund before the earthquake hit Haiti. Since the earthquake, donations have been reported to increase to 20 times the normal number they will pulling in. On January 20th Citibank added a Haiti-specific donation option which benefits the American Red Cross International Response Fund and since then, there has been a nearly 100 times increase in the daily redemption rate of loyalty points. You may redeem your ThankYou Network loyalty points in denominations of $50 and $100 to benefit the American Red Cross International Response Fund. You can also call the ThankYou Network service center to redeem your points for a donation by calling 800-842-6596.
Woman Tribune has been reporting on the relief efforts, current conditions, ways to donate and how people around the world are uniting to help Haiti in a time of serious and desperate need. We will continue reporting as information becomes available, so please consider following our reporting on Haiti to stay up to date on what is happening there.
Sexuality is something to be celebrated and explored and we hope to help you do just that with the articles and reviews we publish in our love and sex category.
As technology has continued to advance, ways in which people become involved in the causes they care about has also evolved. Thousands upon thousands of people continue to organize and attend rallies, protests, public speaking events and other types of events to raise awareness about something they deeply care about, but technology, social media and blogging have opened up new doors for even more people to get involved. Bloggers Unite is a community of people who care. It is a website that facilitates blogging events that happen across the blogosphere and asks people to write about a particular subject in order to raise awareness and to help make a difference in the world. Bloggers Unite has become one of the best resources for people to create and manage a campaign of their own, regardless of what it is or how big or small it is.
Activism is, and has always been, tremendously important. It is because of people who truly care about what’s going on in their country, state and local communities that really motivates others to help get something positive done. 
Activism, 
If there are two immensely wealthy people out there who can really get behind the Robin Hood belief system of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, it’s Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffet, who are 
Back in mid-May a truly horrific and tragic story broke out of Oconee County, Georgia, where two young boys, ages 13 and 7, testified against their mother and stepfather for the 
Nearly 17 million children in America struggle with hunger and the weak economy has put millions of previously financially secure families at risk. While there are many programs from the American government and charity foundations that are working to help these families, federal nutrition programs that provide nutritious foods to families are still sadly underutilized.
For the third year in a row, 
Happy 
