Which NT'er donated $150 to feed families in East Africa?! Will you donate too?

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Latest update: Meth has created a new post, directing donations to www.firstgiving.com:

http://niketalk.yuku.com/...-Somalia--s-time--act-NT

Let's work together and donate there!

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Sup everyone. I'm sure most of you have heard the recent news about the drought/famine in East Africa. I'm about to donate a little money to help ongoing efforts, but I wanted to see NT would join in! We've done a lot of good as an online community in helping those in need, and I feel like there are a few of you on here that would be more than willing to help in this scenario. To me, one of the most urgent aspects of this crisis is that many lives can still be saved. The crisis is very complex (as Ban Ki Moon said recently, a "catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought"), but donating even a little bit will go a long way.

Edit: NT for East Africa on Mercy Corps. Some of us have already donated a little, but how about we try for $100 more? I know we can do that!� There are also some links to other organizations we can donate to on the webpage.

http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/nt_1

This is one place to donate (same place we've donated over $20k to Japan!), but I've also added in a few sites to the list that a certain NTer suggested. I wish I had time to really research the best possible option, so if anyone has any suggestions, let us all know!

Come on NT, even 5 bucks helps - that's less than one burrito at Chipotle!
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Remember: if you can't donate $, please just click the sig!




Update - Sorry I haven't been updating this thread recently. I just wanted to share the news that, last week, one of us donated $150 to Mercy Corps. I cannot describe how thankful I am to that person. Definitely proud to be a member of this forum right now. I will be donating a little bit again soon, so please join me!


So far, at least 29,000 children have fallen victim to this situation:
http://english.aljazeera..../201184143013155850.html



I also wanted to share this email I received from Mercy Corps recently:

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[size=-2]Erin Gray/Mercy Corps[/size]

Hibo -- a tiny, chubby-cheeked three year old seemed to take great delight in looking everywhere except my camera as I tried to take her photo. From her mother's hip she giggled, turned away and made faces, to the amusement of allaround.

Hibo is tiny for her age because until recently, she was classed as having "severe acute malnutrition," the most serious of its kind. Hibo's cheeks have grown chubby thanks to one of Mercy Corps' mobile emergency clinics where she was ableto get the food and treatment she needed to recover, put on some weight and get back to being an ordinary, mischievous toddler.

"She had many pains from drinking bad water and not enough food," her mother, Zainab, told me. "She had diarrhea, fever, no appetite. We have only flour and oil to eat and all the pasture has died with no rain, so our animals died too. Ibrought her to the clinic because it is the only place for such help. They gave her special food and medicines, and took us to a center nearby where she stayed and got better. Now she is very well and happy. I bring her here often to makesure she stays healthy."

Mercy Corps' mobile health and nutrition teams travel around remote parts of Ethiopia, checking for and treating malnutrition in pregnant and nursing women, as well as children under five. The mobile clinics, which can each see up to 150people every day, are often the only health facility available to the communities they reach.

After a nine-hour drive on dirt roads from the nearest major town, I met Hibo and Zainab as they waited, along with more than 100 others, for their turn to see the Mercy Corps nurses and nutrition specialists. The land around them, whilenormally among the best in the area, was dry and harsh, with red dust blowing everywhere and camels wandering in the distance.

The team assessed everyone, looking for signs of malnutrition. Those with moderate malnutrition are given food supplies, advice on how to recover, and follow-up check-ins. Those with severe acute malnutrition are given special fortifiedfoods, medicines when needed, and, in some cases like Hibo's, taken to a recovery center. Mercy Corps also trained and supplied two local centers so they can continue giving much-needed support to hungry children and mothers.

Between the mobile clinics and recovery centers it's clear our teams are making a real difference. But the nutrition team told me that the spike in the rates of malnourishment they've seen lately will make meeting the huge and very realneed incredibly challenging, especially as the drought continues and the situation gets much worse.

Later, as I turned to leave the clinic and begin the long drive back to the nearest town, I looked back at Hibo. She was pulling her mother's scarf and gurgling merrily, like a happy child anywhere else in the world.

With your help, we can make sure more toddlers like Hibo and their families can get the clean water, nutritious food and medicines they need to survive this drought.
 
Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

The recent news of drought and famine in East Africa? 

Had a feeling someone was going to cite this.  Droughts don't occur overnight, and in major crises like this, conditions that bring about humanitarian crises can take years.  But it appears that the crisis has escalated to the "tipping point," if you will.  So yes, in that sense, it is recent. 
 
Originally Posted by theconditioner

Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

The recent news of drought and famine in East Africa? 

Had a feeling someone was going to cite this.  Droughts don't occur overnight, and in major crises, they take years.  But it appears that the crisis has escalated to the "tipping point," if you will.  So yes, in that sense, it is recent. 
No offense, dude... but in my three decades of being on this earth I have known parts in Africa to be in a state of famine and drought for at least 25 years. Africa has been at a tipping point for a very long time. Also, I'm always weary to donate to Africa as I presume bandits will take the donation (food, water or otherwise) and leave the needy in dire straits. 
Call me heartless but I'd rather help those children who go to bed hungry every night in the United States of America before I finance a bandit to get his fill of alcohol for the evening in Africa. 
 
Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

No offense, dude... but in my three decades of being on this earth I have known parts in Africa to be in a state of famine and drought for at least 25 years. Africa has been at a tipping point for a very long time. Also, I'm always weary to donate to Africa as I presume bandits will take the donation (food, water or otherwise) and leave the needy in dire straits.


Call me heartless but I'd rather help those children who go to bed hungry every night in the United States of America before I finance a bandit to get his fill of alcohol for the evening. 

No offense taken.  But I think that if we all held that type of aversion, crises like these would be much worse than they are/were.  And for me personally, nationality or citizenship is irrelevant in times of crisis.
 
Yeah i clicked the link, hope it helps.

Anyways donating is sort of like a gamble i'm willing to participate in. I give money to an organization that may or may not reach out to the people i intended my money to help.

Things don't go always the way we want it, but it's always worth a try.
 
Originally Posted by theconditioner

Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

No offense, dude... but in my three decades of being on this earth I have known parts in Africa to be in a state of famine and drought for at least 25 years. Africa has been at a tipping point for a very long time. Also, I'm always weary to donate to Africa as I presume bandits will take the donation (food, water or otherwise) and leave the needy in dire straits.


Call me heartless but I'd rather help those children who go to bed hungry every night in the United States of America before I finance a bandit to get his fill of alcohol for the evening. 

No offense taken.  But I think that if we all held that type of aversion, crises like these would be much worse than they are/were.  And for me personally, nationality or citizenship is irrelevant in times of crisis.
I feel you, man. Have you thought of contacting the moderators to make this the next charitable organization we donate to? I imagine they would go for it and you'd have a substantially larger financial donation for the organization. Food for thought. 
 
Nice to see this issue finally get attention. Was planning on making this thread myself.
 
Originally Posted by DJ Rashy

Yeah i clicked the link, hope it helps.

Anyways donating is sort of like a gamble i'm willing to participate in. I give money to an organization that may or may not reach out to the people i intended my money to help.

Things don't go always the way we want it, but it's always worth a try.
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I'm sure some of you hold the belief that we should be feeding the hungry in America first.  In that case, here is one suggestion (not sure of its credentials, so any input is welcome):

http://feedingamerica.org/
 
Originally Posted by DJ Rashy

Yeah i clicked the link, hope it helps.

Anyways donating is sort of like a gamble i'm willing to participate in. I give money to an organization that may or may not reach out to the people i intended my money to help.

Things don't go always the way we want it, but it's always worth a try.

I feel the same way, but seriously there has to be some organization that has a rep for actually using the money for it's intended purposes. 
 
Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

I feel you, man. Have you thought of contacting the moderators to make this the next charitable organization we donate to? I imagine they would go for it and you'd have a substantially larger financial donation for the organization. Food for thought. 

Yeah man, I actually did think of that (that's why I mentioned Meth setting up a sticky or something).  Meth can get things done when it comes to donations!
 
Originally Posted by theconditioner

Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

I feel you, man. Have you thought of contacting the moderators to make this the next charitable organization we donate to? I imagine they would go for it and you'd have a substantially larger financial donation for the organization. Food for thought. 

Yeah man, I actually did think of that (that's why I mentioned Meth setting up a sticky or something).  Meth can get things done when it comes to donations!
A PM is a surefire method to get a response. Method Man is exceptionally good at giving a timely response. 
Anyways, I donated 10 to the East African charity and 10 Feeding America. It's not much but any little bit counts.
smile.gif
 

Good luck dude!
 
Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

Originally Posted by theconditioner

Originally Posted by Doctor Demise

I feel you, man. Have you thought of contacting the moderators to make this the next charitable organization we donate to? I imagine they would go for it and you'd have a substantially larger financial donation for the organization. Food for thought. 

Yeah man, I actually did think of that (that's why I mentioned Meth setting up a sticky or something).  Meth can get things done when it comes to donations!
A PM is a surefire method to get a response. Method Man is exceptionally good at giving a timely response. 
Anyways, I donated 10 to the East African charity and 10 Feeding America. It's not much but any little bit counts.
smile.gif
 

Good luck dude!
Already done!  Thanks man! 

NT
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Having grown up in East Africa, you got my respect for this OP.

That being said, the money won't make it to the poor, I say that with near 100% certainty. I won't donate anything and I wouldn't suggest others do either, really. I'd rather spend it flying back over and trying to do what I can.
 
Originally Posted by 2LipsLegit

Having grown up in East Africa, you got my respect for this OP.

That being said, the money won't make it to the poor, I say that with near 100% certainty. I won't donate anything and I wouldn't suggest others do either, really. I'd rather spend it flying back over and trying to do what I can.
Appreciated.  I know how you feel about actually going there and helping, but that is extremely hard to do for most of us (as you know).  But I honestly don't believe that every resource put into these efforts will be diverted.  There's definitely a larger risk versus, say, Japan, but I believe that not doing something will be worse.  In all, I think organizations should listen to the UN's call for aid.
UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on donor countries to immediately come up with $1.6 billion in aid for two regions in Somalia declared famine zones.

"Nearly half of the population -- 3.7 million people -- are now in crisis," said Ban, adding that "this will have an increasingly devastating effect, not only in Somalia but also in neighboring countries."

Somalia, which has been affected by almost uninterrupted conflict for 20 years and has become a by-word for "failed state," is the worst affected nation but parts of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti are also hit.

In declaring its first famine zone since the phrase was formally defined by the UN in 2008, the world body said a total of 12 million people were battling hunger in the worst drought in the area in 60 years.

"We need donor support to address current needs and prevent a further deterioration of the crisis," Ban said. "Humanitarian agencies need urgent funding to save lives.

"If funding is not made available for humanitarian intervention now, the famine is likely to continue and spread," the UN secretary general added.

"The overall requirement is $1.6 billion for Somalia," he said. "Children and adults are dying at an appalling rate. Every day of delay may cause more lives lost."

http://www.google.com/hos...dc6e09198e9891bddf87.661
 
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