Any non-profit, charity or cause is welcome to submit a story that tells us what they are all about. Please try to keep it under 1000 words and family friendly (we understand that the subject matter of some charities may not be suitable for children and that is okay. Just place a warning at the top of the story.) This gives us a chance to share our stories with a wider audience and the winning story (selected by our judges) will be posted as our featured story of the month.
The winner will be selected on December 10th. Please tell your friends and associates about the stories so we get as many readers and stories as possible. Again, any charity or cause can submit their story. If you are unsure what kind of story we are looking for, check out “The story” on twloha or visit the “About” page at invisible children for some good examples.
storiesforimpact 
Thanks so much to Jeff, Rory and Leanna for sharing there stories with us! I hope everyone who is reading checks out these groups and feels free to share their own stories as well.
Meeting Colin, a 10 year old boy who, through his tears, tells you he is hungry and shows you the pallet in the ally where he lives, makes the orphanage crisis real. Discovering the magnitude of this problem makes you say,
“I have to do something about this!”
That is how SPARK Worldwide got its start. SPARK Worldwide began in 2000 when Leanna Brewer traveled,with her husband, pastor Troy Brewer, and a couple of friends to Uganda, East Africa.
Like so many others, Leanna had heard about the children orphaned by the years of war and the AIDS epidemic that has ravaged so many countries around the world. It was on this trip that she met Colin and suddenly, “thinking” about doing something wasn’t enough. She decided to get involved in the crisis.She returned to Texas with a resolve to start a ministry that would have global impact in this horrific crisis.
Those of us that have joined in the mission of SPARK Worldwide have since traveled to many countries and found that the orphan crisis is everywhere. As you visit this site I hope your heart is moved to join us in saying,
“I have to do something about this!”
To date, SPARK Worldwide has ongoing support for orphanages in Mexico, Africa, India and Brazil.
Together we can Serve, Protect, and Raise Kids around the world,we are the SPARK that will bring hope to these children.
http://www.sparkworldwide.org
Movember. A time of raising awareness, raising money, and raising hope.
I’ll be honest, and hopefully speak for the majority of people out there when I say this. We all want to donate, but we never know who to donate to, how to, or more importantly how much. We tend to get caught up in making the perfect choice and sometimes become so overwhelmed that end up not donating anything at all.
Fortunately enough, this was not the problem for me for the month of November. Or should I say, Movember.
“Movember” is a month/charity organization based on raising awareness for Prostate Cancer. In order to partake in this fun filled month, all you have to do is grow your moustache from the 1st to the 30th. Yes ladies, Movember is the reason why your boyfriends and husbands are growing those furry little friends on their upper lips in hopes of looking like the man himself, Tom Selleck.
Now some people grow it for the sake of just raising awareness of Prostate cancer and having fun, while others decide to that AND raise money. In order to raise money all you have to do is sign up at Movember’s official website, http://www.movember.com. Signing up is as easy as pie, as all you have to do is input a team name and your e-mail. From there, you can begin recruiting members to your amazing cause. No credit cards are needed to sign up, as all proceeds are directly donated to the website. You’re the middle man in the process, and are the one that get’s the bragging rights!
So with that said, I’ll explain as to why this fundraiser is so important to me. In the past year both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer which spread to her brain and my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that was treated and cured, but spread to his liver. Currently they’re both being treated with various forms of chemotherapy, and my mothers brain tumour is being treated with radiation. Now I’m sure you’re wondering how their conditions apply to that of Prostate Cancer, and I’ll put it plain and simple. Any cancer is simply cancer. One form of it is not better or worse than the other, it is a horrible disease that effects all of us in the worst way possible and really shows us that nobody is invincible and we’re all the same.
So! With that being said I decided to create a team, as I knew for a fact that a plethora of my friends were going to grow a moustache and we had potential to make a decent amount of money. I created our team, The Movember M.I.L.F’s, (Moustaches I’d Like to Fondle) and began recruiting. Our goal for the month was to raise $300 between the 12 of us. It seemed like a very reasonable goal, as I assumed some of our friends would sign up for the team and not raise much. To my surprise, just 14 days into the month, we passed our goal! This gave our team so much hope and inspiration to raise as much as we could possible. Two days later, we were at $500. What a leap! At this point it seemed like the sky was the limit.
But, like all good things, they must come to an end. By the end of the month our team raised a total of $867. This blew me away. I was personally responsible for raising $867 for an organization/cause that meant so much to me, and had fun with my friends while doing it. As I’m writing this I’m a little emotional – I’m just so proud of myself and amazed at the amount of support I received from family and friends, even from strangers online!
Now as great as our teams success was in raising money for Movember and Prostate Cancer, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Overall, Movember’s Canadian chapter raised an astonishing total of $38,484,214, coming first out of the 14 countries that participated. All in all, the 14 countries that took part in Movember raised a total of $106,909,502. That’s $106,909,502 raised for Prostate Cancer ALONE.
All in all, I’m simply proud and happy with myself at the success of our campaign. I helped raise money for a cause that I hold dear to my heart, and couldn’t have asked for anything more. The feeling of self accomplishment consistently overcomes all of my emotions, and I’m left sitting here with a smile on my face.
Like my good teammate Jamie said, “you raised over $800 of money for a charitable cause that everyone cares about. Nobody can ever take that away from you.”
Check out our teams final count and updates throughout the month – Movember M.I.L.F’s
Pangeo Coffee began with almost being arrested in the Addis Ababa airport with contraband coffee.
Not exactly. But there’s a story…
We’re dedicated humanitarian aid workers, helping some of the poorest villages of Africa, Asia and the Middle East with sustainable development. We’re also coffee nerds.
We help villages learn how to transform themselves out of severe poverty. We help them learn and apply proven development principles and techniques. That way, they can get for themselves things like clean water, enough food to grow and eat, dramatically reduced disease and death, small businesses they dream up and launch, schools they help build with their own hands, and so on. It’s exciting work.
Now, to the story…
Just like the villages, we need to be sustainable. We each secure our own various means of funding to do this work.
As we prepared to head to Ethiopian villages again in February 2011, a friend and supporter of our work gave us an idea. “You guys will be in the world’s most amazing coffee country,” he said. “Let people pre-order bags of the famous Harrar coffee to fund your airfare, then get the coffee when you’re in Harrar and bring it back.” In fact, he decided to come with us on the volunteer trip.
Being eager to fund our airfare, and not too bright, we jumped on the idea. We put out a quick email, and in record time 200 bags of coffee were spoken for by supporters, friends & family.
So we went to Ethiopia and took our volunteers to help work in our villages near Harrar for the week. We saw great progress and enthusiasm in the villages.
Then we went to one of the reputable local coffee dealers we know, bought 200 bags of roasted Harrar beans, and loaded them into our truck. But then the thought fully hit us, “We have to get 200 bags of coffee HOME!” (That’s TWO HUNDRED half-kilo bags… we looked like drug dealers.)
So we filled SIX massive duffle bags with the coffee, split them between several of us, and said the famous airport-kindness-please prayer.
Amazingly we checked-in trouble-free.
Until just before the airplane boarded.
Over the departure lounge speaker came an official-sounding voice calling one of us: “Mr. Jeff Power, Mr. Jeff Power, please come to the counter.” Who, me? An airport security official then grimly walked me (Jeff) down several floors, through multiple security doors, into the bowels of the airport. Luggage was being whisked by conveyors at high speed in every direction.
He marched me over to a screening station where one of my duffles had been pulled aside. A scowling Baggage-Screening-Woman-Official awaited me.
I thought fast on my feet… I know a little Amharic (the Ethiopian language) so I greeted her in the feminine evening singular. She cracked a tiny smile.
“What’s in the bag?” she demanded.
“Coffee,” I said. “A lot of coffee.” OK, that was stupid. “It’s for the friends and family who support us in our work with poor villages.” OK, yeah, I played the “humanitarian aid worker” card.
“Open it,” she said.
So I did. Yep, there was A LOT OF COFFEE inside. Basically I had put one pair of jeans on top of 40 bags of coffee. Smart.
She scowled again (I think she also grinned a bit) then sent me away with a wave of her hand. Mr Security Man led me back upstairs. “She must like you,” he said. “Why do you say so?” I asked. “Because you’re only allowed to take four bags out of the country,” he replied.
OK, I knew we were probably pushing the limit, but… OH. MY. WORD. We had no idea!
Our flight home was filled with excitement, we cleared US customs fine because we were under the price limit, and we delivered the coffee to the gracious supporters, friends and family who had basically paid for our trip by drinking it.
And the idea for Pangeo Coffee was hatched on the spot.
Oh, and the name? Pan=across, geo=the world. We’re working to help villages across the world.
So… we invite you to deliciously join with us in our village work (and help keep us out of jail) by purchasing Pangeo Coffee through this website. We import (legally) the truly finest coffee beans in the world from where we work in Africa and Asia. Those beautiful beans are fresh-roasted by our premier roaster here in Denver, and instantly shipped to you for your uninterrupted coffee pleasure (every month, if you’d like). And when you drink it, you’ll know you’re directly supporting our village-transformation work in some of the poorest places on earth.
Our BIG thanks to you for buying, and giving, Pangeo Coffee!
http://pangeo.typepad.com/pangeo
http://pangeocoffee.com
In Calcutta India, to be an orphan is to be worthless. There are tens of thousands of streets children just trying to survive. Many have been put on the street by their parents who simply couldn’t afford to feed them anymore.
In Calcutta, India, to be an orphan girl is to be property. The trafficking trade is booming here. Girls are bought and sold and taken to cities like Mumbai to work. Emily is 12 years old. The red light district in Mumbai – one of the largest in the world – is filled with girls her age and many who are much younger. Many of these girls are forced to do awful things for the rest of their lives. Abuse and disease usually shorten that life to 20 or 30 years.
Emily will never live this nightmare. She will be safe and healthy and free to enjoy her life because she was adopted out of Calcutta, India as a baby. Many other little girls just like her are not so lucky. Check out the following organizations who are doing something to help these girls.
http://www.sowerofseeds.org/rescue/
http://www.redlightchildren.org
http://www.ijm.org