Bead for Life: Support Ugandan Women This Valentine's Day

Through Bead for Life (http://www.beadforlife.org/), you can buy bracelets and necklaces made by Ugandan women and help a nation of people devastated by war and poverty.

Watch MSNBC's coverage of Bead for Life to check out how they're impacting Uganda: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/1874437...

These make beautiful and thoughtful Valentine's Day gifts, showing your love not just for another, but for the entire world. Check our blog again next week for more ways to show your love on Valentine's Day.

You can purchase Bead for Life jewelry here: http://www.beadforlifestore.com/servlet/StoreFront.

"Outside My World" By Caroline D.: A Creative Piece About Nigeria (Guest Blogger)

In eighth grade, Caroline D. traveled to Nigeria with her family, and she wrote about the moments that left a lasting impression on her in “Outside My World.” The smell of Nigeria reminds Caroline of the sorrow there, but even amidst destruction, beauty always emerges when people open their hearts to help.

This week I want to give Caroline the opportunity to share her memories with you as a guest blogger. She wrote "Outside My World" after watching the Invisible Children movie. Make a difference by reading her piece and sharing it with your friends and family, and then channel your compassion into action. Please feel free to leave comments, share your own experiences in other countries, and let us know what you're thinking or how you are taking action.

Outside My World
By: Caroline D.

Sometimes, when I smell Nigeria, I get sick to my stomach.

Nigeria smells like burning leather and dry heat. It is very hard to associate these smells with anything happy. It smells like a lot of people who can hardly buy food, let alone frivolities like deodorant. It smells like meager meals being cooked in a giant pot in the backyard, framed by garbage, meant to feed a group of fifteen. It smells like so much dust and sand in the air that it’s often difficult to breathe.

When I think of this smell, I remember the airport we flew in and out of, with signs posted all over the walls prohibiting the use of cameras within the area. I think of the fear these kinds of warnings invoke.

When I think of this smell, I think of stopping at a gas station, surrounded by children with bags of nuts, children with warm sodas, children with wilting vegetables, thrusting anything they could in the windows and begging for money so their families could survive. I remember watching as we bought five sodas from one child, and the rest were left with nothing. As we drove away, I turned around in my seat and saw two of the little girls return empty-handed to take the arm of a woman who stared after me with eyes fogged over by thick cataracts.

When I think of this smell, I think of driving over a creek with trash piled up so high that it found its way onto the bridge. I remember seeing women gather that water for their homes, and watching children drink from it.

I think of so many people wearing one large strip of cloth tied into a dress. And hearing my father ask a woman if this was a tribal dress, or something traditional, and hearing her one-word response: “Poverty.”

I recall women and children by the side of the road breaking rocks into gravel with only their hands and other rocks, and being paid less than a dollar a day to do this.

I see children who were older than I was, but looked half my age because of malnutrition.

I picture the shells of buildings which were bombed just days before.

I think of waiting for my mother to come home until late into the night and early that morning—and not knowing and fearing and pacing and crying and imagining the bombs going off, the men pacing the streets with machine guns, the groups that hate us for living—and wonder what it must be like to live all the time with that fear, and to live all the time not knowing.

When I think of this smell, I think of large walls surrounding every building, and the barbed wire or broken glass attached to the top of each of these walls.

I remember the running water inevitably failing for any given amount of time, and then gathering buckets of water to be able to shower and flush the toilet.

I think of not being able to drive down a street without bribing someone to let you pass, and of men trying to sell me a stray cat that was not theirs because they needed the money so much.

When I think of this smell, I think that my house and my school and my friends are in the same world as these things, and I am not sure I believe it.

3 Ways to Rescue Kids in Kenya

Many of you have heard about the recent violence in Kenya, including a church burning in Eldoret, and 300,000 people displaced (according to Kenya Children's Fund). Here are three ways you can help the Kenyan people during this time of crisis.

1. World Vision: Donate to emergency aid disaster response. World Vision is an excellent humanitarian and child sponsorship organization.

2. Kenya Children’s Fund: Donate or sponsor a child. Kenya Children’s Fund is an excellent child sponsorship organization located in Kinyago-Dandora in Nairobi, Kenya--one of the regions affected by the recent violence.

I sponsor 18-year-old Faizo through this organization. I’d like to share some quotes from his letters with you. He wants to be a doctor, which he considers "a marvelous career." His role models are his teachers, who "are sharpening my mind to be full of knowledge, so that one day I could help my society in rebuilding it." He also writes, "I don’t know how I can express my gratitute to you but I’m really happy and glad."

When my violin teacher went to Kenya with Kenya Children’s Fund, she introduced music to their schools and ran a photojournal project. The children took photos with disposable cameras, and then wrote why they took those particular photos. What really struck a chord with me was that they were so thankful for everything--their parents, health, and many other things I tend to take for granted (one thing Faizo writes that he’s thankful for is the "fresh air in the atmosphere.") Please feel free to share your child sponsorship stories with me also.

Read the Kenya Children’s Fund web site for information on their organization during this time of crisis. Many teachers and kids are taking refuge from the violence in their homes, without enough food/water.

3. Raising Awareness: Repost this bulletin, and make a goal of telling five other people about the violence in Kenya and how they can help, too.




Thanks for supporting us and keep changing the world!

Fall Out Boy and Invisible Children

If you haven't already, take a moment to watch Fall Out Boy's new music video "Me and You," filmed in Northern Uganda with Invisible Children.

Now, read about the war in Northern Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army in Grace Akallo's personal story from Ignite Your Faith magazine and DeNeen L. Brown's article about Akallo from the Washington Post.

Finally, check out the Invisible Children web site, especially their Schools for Schools Campaign. You can organize an Invisible Children club at your high school, ask Invisible Children roadies to come to your school (or other place in your area) to play the Invisible Children movie, and much more.

Update from Kenya Children's Fund and World Vision

For those of you who sponsor a child through Kenya Children's Fund, or just like to keep up with them, read their update on the violence in Kenya here.

World Vision also has an update.

Violence in Kenya

Read about it here.

Please take a moment to think about these people, honor those who were harmed or are suffering or afraid right now, and reflect.