Moving to Teen Ink magazine's Global Issues Blog

The Teens with a Vision blog has moved to Teen Ink magazine's official Global Issues blog.

Read it here at http://global.teenink.com/blogs/

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Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief

Hurricane Ike hit Haiti and now Texas, where the estimated tens of thousands of residents who did not evacuate now face flooding, a lack of power, and fires. The American Red Cross is providing blankets, food, shelter, and health assistance to those facing this disaster in both Haiti and Texas. You can help by donating at redcross.org or 1-800-RED-CROSS or by organizing a Red Cross fundraiser.

Hurricane Havoc: How to Help Haiti and the Hands and Feet Project

THE NEED: Hurricane Hanna slammed into Haiti Thursday and Friday, leaving 529 dead, according to the latest reports. Senator Yuri Latortue told the Agence France-Presse that about 200,000 people in Gonaives, Haiti - the now-flooded city he represents - haven't eaten in three days. To add to the destruction of three hurricanes in the past few weeks, Category 3 Hurricane Ike is estimated to hit Haiti this Sunday.

Aid organizations like the U.N. World Food Program are rushing to feed Haitians who've lost everything to the storms. Meanwhile, Hurricane Gustav buried the Hands and Feet Project's Children's Village in four to five feet of mountain rock and destroyed their supplies, including the food, clothes, and diapers that allow them to provide for Haitian orphans. The Hands and Feet Project put up this video of Hurricane Gustav.

THE STORY: When Tropical Storm Noel flooded Haiti last November, the Hands and Feet Project, an organization started by the band Audio Adrenaline to help Haitian orphans, reached out to their online supporters for help.

“Immediately everybody around the world knows about it," said Joel Griffith, director of the Hands and Feet Project, over the phone. "We put up a post and there’s a response. Some say MySpace and Facebook are impersonal, but it gives kids a personal touch to bigger organizations, because they can contribute and someone is going to respond to them. It’s a tangible thing.”

The Hands and Feet Project wrote on their web site that the current destruction is worse than Noel. But once again, they're tapping in to online supporters for help, stressing that every dollar makes a difference.

MEETING THE NEED:

Mark Stuart from the Hands and Feet Project and the band Audio Adrenaline talks about the hurricane havoc - and how you can help.

Hold a fundraiser for hurricane and send your funds to the Hands and Feet Project, or donate online below. You can also raise money for the U.N. World Food Program by improving your vocabulary on freerice.com.

Relaunching

The Teens with a Vision blog will be relaunching with new content and a new format within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Helping Hurting Kids

Originally published on IgniteYourFaith.com.

"That's me," my little sister Jessica said between bites of a chocolate chip cookie. She pointed to a photo on the refrigerator.

My mom put down the gallon of milk she'd been pouring into Jessica's glass and glanced at the refrigerator. "The girl in the pink shirt?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"That's not you, honey. That's a picture that came in the mail."

Confused, my 8-year-old sister left her chair and walked up to the refrigerator. Looking more closely, she saw that the picture wasn't her at all. She furrowed her eyebrows, and I could almost see the thought running through her head: Who was that girl?

The photo had come with a letter from a child sponsorship organization, asking me to sponsor one of the many impoverished kids like her. This little girl lived in Guatemala.

And Jessica was right: The girl in the photo did look a lot like a younger version of my little sister. The girl's smooth brown skin was just a few shades darker than Jessica's milky brown complexion. Disheveled strands of black hair, which Jessica must have mistaken for her own dark brown, framed her face and small shoulders. She had a round face and soft cheeks. She wore a fuchsia shirt Jessica would love.

Although they looked alike, as I sat at the kitchen table and compared the girl to my sister, I realized how strikingly different her eyes were. They were deep brown—the same color as Jessica's eyes—but they were sunken and glossed with tears. Poverty had made her eyes so sad, so unlike my sister's dancing brown eyes. And according to the letter, the girl from Guatemala didn't even own that cheerful fuchsia shirt. It had been given to her for the picture.

Seeing this girl who looked so much like my sister made me wonder what I could do to help kids like her, kids who gazed hopelessly up at the camera. I was reminded about how dramatically different our lives are. As I sat in the kitchen and ate cookies, kids like her hunted through garbage for scraps of food. My life—and my sister's life—includes a warm, safe home, plenty of food, and the chance to go to school. I knew I couldn't assume this girl had any of these things that are so basic to me.

Jesus tells us to reach out to "the least of these" who are hungry, thirsty, unclothed, and sick (Matthew 25:34-40). I've discovered there are so many ways teens can make a difference to kids living in poverty. I'm sponsoring a kid, and I get to hear about his life through his letters. He's 18 and wants to be a doctor Sponsorship has made a difference to him and his dreams. If you want to sponsor a child, check out World Vision, Compassion International, and Kenya Children's Fund.

Recently, I learned about The Better Hour contest. It offers $40,000 in prizes to high school students who design and carry out projects that improve the world. Zach Hunter, a 15-year-old modern-day abolitionist and author of Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World, supports The Better Hour contest. He believes our generation has the power to make a genuine difference and succeed in eliminating injustices like slavery and poverty. I do, too.

I've read that nearly half the world's kids live in poverty. So now, I'm working to make a difference in their lives—and Jessica helps by collecting money to donate to UNICEF, an organization that helps kids in developing countries. We believe that our generation has the compassion to care for impoverished kids and the dedication to erase poverty from our earth. Because of our faith, we want to reach out to change lives.

Changing the World One Book at a Time: The Story Behind Room to Read

Here’s a story you don’t hear too often: Microsoft millionaire visits a school in Nepal and decides to abandon his job and life of luxury to bring back books for kids.

That’s John Wood’s story. The school he visited in Nepal had 75 to 80 kids packed into one small room with dirt floors, according to Oprah.com’s summary of the “I Walked Away from Millions” show about Wood. Their library had only twenty books, many of which were not suitable for children.

This injustice disturbed Wood, and he promised to do something about it. Wood founded Room to Read, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading child literacy. Soon, he was so passionate about his cause that he started shrugging off e-mails about Bill Gates in order to pursue child literacy, according to Oprah.com.

When he made his decision to leave Microsoft, Wood thought, “It's been a great eight years, but I'm making wealthy shareholders wealthier,” according to Oprah.com’s show summary. “Meanwhile, there are 800 million people in the developing world lacking basic literacy. . . . What kind of a man am I if I don't go face this challenge directly or devote my life to this?”

Wood wrote a book about his story, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children (HarperCollins), which Publishers Weekly gave a starred review. You can find it at your local bookstore or online.

According to Wood’s book web site, Room to Read has established more than 3,800 libraries, published 147 books in the local languages of the countries they work in, and provided more than 1.6 English language books and 1.4 million local language books. Read more about Wood’s accomplishments on www.leavingmiscrosoftbook.com.

For more information on Room to Read, check out www.roomtoread.org.