Posted by Stephanie Kinnunen on June 21st 2008 in Events, Volunteers, Organizations
photo | Steve Floyd
Social Venture Partners Minnesota (SVP) recently hosted The Engaged Philanthropy Conference at the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis. The Engaged Philanthropy Conference brought social entrepreneurs together with philanthropists, investors and business leaders. “The social problems that we face will require the collaboration of nonprofits, philanthropy and business to solve – no one of those sectors can do it by themselves,” states Brad Brown, Executive Director of SVP Minnesota. SVP was founded in 1997 by Paul Brainerd in Seattle, Washington in order to build a philanthropic network that invests money and expertise in social entrepreneurial ventures. The members of SVP do much more than write checks, they also offer their time and expertise to the ventures they support. Read Entire Post: Engaged Philanthropy
Posted by NEED Staff on June 9th 2008 in Cross-post
Julia Fenster, Editor-in-Chief of The Lohasian, contributed this article.
Dr. Seyi Oyesola“Hospital in a Box” developed by Dr. Seyi Oyesola, is a portable medical system containing anesthetic and surgical equipment. Light enough to be dropped into inaccessible zones by helicopter and powered by solar panels, the kit is a life and death solution for those most in need. But for millions in Africa the kit is not enough to address a continent-wide challenge of an outdated health care system that fails to properly and safely treat the most basic medical conditions. Read Entire Post: Africa’s Healthcare Plight, Beyond Malaria and AIDS
Posted by NEED Staff on June 2nd 2008 in Organizations
Photographer Alexander Zoltai submitted this article.
Photo | Alexander ZoltaiCoffee production in Guatemala is a timeless process. For the most part, coffee farmers produce coffee the same way their grandfathers did. It is a long, arduous and beautiful process.
The problem associated with coffee production in Guatemala lies in the small amount that farmers receive for a very labor-intensive product. Fewer that six families are responsible for the majority of coffee production in Guatemala, a monopoly on coffee that allows the families to dictate the price of coffee in the country. Read Entire Post: The Coffee Process in Guatemala, a labor of love
Posted by Anthony Wald on May 30th 2008 in Organizations
Roughly 1,600 homeless people live in Ramsey County alone. The magnitude of homelessness is so great that we often accept it because facing the problems and questions that homelessness presents can be overwhelming. Personally, I know I have walked by homeless people and thought, what can I do? Or tried to avoid eye contact because the pain is too real, and the solutions too obscure. How can we solve such a problem? Read Entire Post: Helping One Household at a Time
Posted by Bronson Enriquez on May 29th 2008 in Uncategorized
We all know how easy it can be to forget about the suffering of others–especially when it takes place a half a world away, and the majority of what you do hear is negative and depressing. As the weeks roll by, and we find ourselves removed from these tragedies by time and space, it is important that we do not forget about these disasters and the ongoing relief efforts. It is also important to remember that there are usually more stories of success and hope emerging from these situations than we are likely to hear from traditional news sources.
On that note, we have compiled a short list of success stories from both of these regions, to keep these people in our minds and hearts, and inspire us to get involved personally if we haven’t already done so. Read Entire Post: Update: Success stories from China and Myanmar
Posted by Liz Werner on May 28th 2008 in Events
A new exhibit at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden showcases a myriad of products and practical designs for use in developing countries to address issues and symptoms of poverty. The exhibit is described as reflecting “a growing movement among designers, engineers, architects, and social entrepreneurs to create low-cost solutions for everyday problems faced by the world’s poor.” Read Entire Post: Addressing Issues of Poverty with Design
Posted by NEED Staff on May 27th 2008 in Photo Essays
Brian Carlson submitted this story about his motivations as a photographer.
photo | Brian Carlson
I traveled to the Philippines to do a photo story on families who live in a garbage dump and squatters who live in a cemetery. Being knee-deep in trash and watching children and teenagers pick through garbage is heartbreaking. On arrival I teamed up with an organization called Metro Ministries, whose mission is “to bring hope to urban children through faith based and character education while addressing issues such as hunger, AIDS awareness, and child abuse.” Through them I had the opportunity to interview a woman who had been raped, gave birth to a child from that rape, and was living in the dump. They were providing this woman with food and emotional support through her struggle. I’ve been in some sad situations, the slums in Kenya and war torn Sudan, and this was equally saddening. When she began to cry after recalling what happened, I had to turn away and hold back tears. Nothing can prepare you for that. I’m currently using the interview in a multimedia story that I am producing on the garbage dump. Read Entire Post: Living in a Cemetery
Posted by Bronson Enriquez on May 25th 2008 in NEED Magazine, Organizations
photo | justi grierson
Writer: Liz Werner
Photographer: Candice Towell
Timon Bondo is hard to miss with his bigger-than-life smile, hearty laugh and effervescent spirit. Though lighthearted in most aspects of his life, Timon is serious about helping the children of Rabondo, Kenya, a small subsistence farming community where he grew up. Fraught with AIDS, poverty and a sense of hopelessness for the past decade, Rabondo is experiencing dramatic change because Timon is taking action.
Timon may not be whom you picture when you think of a hero. While his story carries a legacy of heroic proportions, Timon himself is an unlikely superman. Unsure of his actual age due to a lack of accurate birth records, Timon estimates that he is somewhere between 65 and 85 years old. His youth is not the only thing slipping away; he has been losing his eyesight for the past 10 years and now is almost totally blind. So how, then, did an aging and ailing man almost single-handedly restore a sense of hope to a village that is nearly 8,000 miles from where he sits today? Admittedly, Timon acknowledges that he is neither a genius nor a millionaire. Determination, patience and a vision of education were the guiding and abiding lights of Timon’s efforts as his programs continue to strengthen and save Rabondo’s children and community. Read Entire Post: The Rabondo Community Project
Posted by NEED Staff on May 23rd 2008 in Organizations
Timon Bondo.This article was contributed by Timon Bondo, founder of Rabondo Community Project USA, as an update on its progress.
Gifts of time, money and kind thoughts have contributed to the revitalization of the Rabondo Village in ways that I could not have imagined ten years ago. In fact, we have just built two new classrooms earlier this year. Read Entire Post: Education Amid Upheaval
