Gates Ajar: good work

Outreach International is a wonderful organization, and I know numerous people who have worked with them and seen the effective way that they implement sustainable change in communities around the world.

As stated on their website:

We don’t give handouts, or believe in short-term fixes. Our mission is simple: we believe in long-term investments that bring about sustainable solutions and long-lasting change for the better. We call it Sustainable Good.

Outreach International is a humanitarian organization that currently works in 13 impoverished countries around the world, assisting hundreds of thousands of children, women and men to overcome the effects of poverty each year.

Preparing concrete for a new house in Alvarez, Nicaragua /// source

Right now, Chase Community Giving is offering the chance to vote for a favorite charity, and if OI gets enough votes they will receive a substantial amount of money. Not only that, but OI has pledged to put 100% of it directly into the field. All you have to do is go to the page and click one button! Not only that, but you can do it every day! That is such a small amount of effort for an amazing amount of good, right?!

Vote here /// https://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charity/view/ein/43-1164177?ref=d14ab37e43

School for orphans and vulnerable children in Malembeka, Zambia /// source

Check out their website if you'd like more info about their work, and you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Since being away from home, I've been trying to read some online news about once a day just to keep up on happenings back in the US. Lately, as many of you know, it hasn't been pretty. This morning, I scrolled through the distressing headlines on CNN, reading stories here and there, when this headline caught my eye.

Josephine \\ Sudan

The story was about a fairly new nonprofit called 100cameras, which operates under the motto "Give photography. Change a community." The 100cameras staff members go into an area with about five cameras, teach the kids how to shoot aesthetically pleasing photographs, and then set them loose. The kids then upload their photographs, 100cameras sells them, and the money returns to the child's community.

Amiri \\ Cuba

Of course, I'm always slightly skeptical of nonprofits. I feel kind of terrible being so cynical, but I feel it's important to really investigate, find out where your money is going, and decide if that's something you want to support. Upon a quick comb through the 100cameras website, I found an organization with a genuine passion for photography. Photography is not a cheap hobby, as my bank account discovered while renting cameras and buying tons of B+W film for my photography class last semester. However, with digital photography, the cost is almost totally upfront. Once you have the camera and access to a computer to upload the pictures, that's it!

Kiden \\ Sudan

Since I enjoy photography myself, I thought this was just a wonderful idea. It's great to give kids both joy and a technical skill, not only in taking the photographs, but working with computers to upload the pictures. Plus, as co-founder Angela Francine Bullock stated: "If you could give a child a camera, they could tell a reality in a way that a foreigner, or even an adult, could not."

Josephine \\ Sudan

Since the organization is still fairly new, I think it will be interesting to see how they continue. While I understand the need to branch out and reach kids in different communities, I think it would be great if a portion of the profits from each community could be re-invested to buy more cameras for even more local kids. Who knows? Maybe even classes in entrepreneurship or scholarships to local schools to further hone their photography skills could be added. As a journalism major, I could even see the potential for news agencies to hire these kids in the future to be field photojournalists. What better way to report on an event than through the eyes of a witness who knows the area and culture?

Jackson \\ Sudan

Regardless, I love the simplicity of this organization. Sometimes the world's problems seem too scary and insurmountable, but one camera can, if anything, simply bring more joy to a child's life. To me, that's worth it.