Charity & Volunteering 01 (Jun 08 - Mar 11)

[millionairemind]

It's the start of a new school year. If you have sometime on Saturdays

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Do you like working with children from 10-12 yrs of age?

Do you feel like contributing to society but do not know where to start?

Do you have a couple of hours every Saturday to help out an underprivileged kid from a very low income family and become his/her mentor??

If you answered YES to the above, WE NEED YOU

The Supervised Homework Group (SHG) from CDAC at Marsiling MRT branch is short of adult volunteers. The kids that come to the center from 1-4pm every Saturday are from low income families where the TOTAL INCOME/FAMILY is no more than $1200. Quite a few of them are from single parent homes or families with alot of problems.

Between 1-3pm, we coach them in their studies (Math, Science and English). From 3-4pm, we play games with them and act as mentor. Don't worry if you feel that you might not be able to coach them, we have guide books, WE JUST NEED YOU

As all of them come from low income families with little means, this 1-to-1 attention hopes to provide good mentorship/tutoring. We have kids that fail every subject and after attending the classes for a couple of years, pass at least pass 3 out of 4 subjects.

If you think you are up to the task, please PM me here or email me at [email protected]

Thank you

[helios]

WOWW.

MM, you have my respects.

how long have you been on this 'job'?

[millionairemind]

San- Kamsia

This is my fourth year with this program.

We all do what we can, within our means, to make this world a better place. Whether by being a better father, a better mother, a better spouse etc..

If you have friends who are (or might be) interested, please ask them to email me or call me. They can always come in for a week or two to try out and see if the shoe fits

[millionairemind]

If you are watching TV now, you may want to switch on to Channel 8. It is featuring a family of 5 kids who had their mother walked out on them.

The kids are also in the CDAC program and the boy was under my care for 2 years. He finally passed P6 last year and is in Sec 1 now.

This is just to highlight the family background of the kids that come to the program.

[millionairemind]

If you have sometime on Jan 30 (Sat) and would like to do some volunteer work, please see below

You can email the undersigned directly at [email protected]

Thanks for reading.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear volunteer,

CDAC is currently seeking volunteers for its upcoming event of Rice Distribution to CDAC beneficiaries. These rice, which are sponsored by Songhe through its rice donation drive, will be distributed to needy families that are receiving financial assistance from CDAC.

We are seeking volunteers to help out at the various distribution points. The duties of volunteers will be to control crowd and ensure the beneficiaries receive the correct amount of rice & vouchers. If you are keen to help out in this event, please fill up the following portion on “Registration of Volunteers” and email it to me by 22 January 2010.

Details of Rice Distribution
Date: 30 January 2010 (Saturday)
Time: 10.00am – 2.30pm (Lunch will be provided)
Locations of distribution points: Tanjong Katong / Bukit Panjang / Hougang / Redhill / Yishun / Woodlands
No. of volunteers required: Approximately 10 at each location

Registration of Volunteers
Name:
Gender: F / M
Age:
Contact no.:
Address:
Email:
Which one of the following distribution point will you like to help out? (Pls delete where appropriate)
a) CDAC HQ, 65 Tanjong Katong Rd
b) CDAC @ Bukit Panjang, Blk 270 Bangkit Rd
c) CDAC @ Punggol, Blk 512 Hougang Ave 10
d) CDAC Redhill Student Service Centre, Blk 83 Redhill Lane
e) CDAC Yishun Student Service Centre, Blk 145 Yishun St 11
f) CDAC Woodlands Student Service Centre, Blk 317 Woodlands St 31
Would you be able to provide voluntary transport service with your vehicle on that day? [Some of our weak or elderly beneficiaries may have difficulty in carrying the 10-20kg rice allocated to them. Hence, we are hoping to provide transport service to ferry them to the nearest MRT / Bus Interchange / their homes] Yes / No (Pls delete where appropriate)

If you have any query on the above, please feel free to contact me at 6603 5579.

Thank you for your attention and look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Lim Chiu Loo (Ms)
Executive (Volunteers & Social Services)
Chinese Development Assistance Council
DID: 6603 5579 (with effect from 5 Jan 2010)
FAX: 6743 5240
URL: www.cdac.org.sg

[winston]

The Lessons of Haiti by Alexander Green

What can be said about Haiti that hasn't already been said this week?

Already the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Tuesday's earthquake has left tens of thousands dead and injured and trapped hundreds of thousands more in the rubble.

This catastrophe will surely go down as one of the worst natural disasters of all time. Yet events like these tend to occur with depressing regularity.

It seems like only yesterday - in fact, it's astonishing to realize it was five years ago - that an undersea earthquake off Sumatra caused a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet high, killing nearly 230,000 people in fourteen countries.

As in Haiti, the people in the vicinity were simply going about their business - and had virtually no warning.

Earthquakes aren't the only culprits, of course. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, leaving more than 2,000 dead.

In 1985, Nevado Del Ruiz claimed more than 25,000 lives in Colombia, mostly from the mudflow that resulted from the volcanic eruption.

Historian David McCullough wrote movingly about one of the great disasters in American history, the Johnstown Flood. After especially heavy rains one year, the South Fork Dam broke, sending 20 million tons of water at 40 mph toward the city of 30,000 below.

According to Victor Heiser, a survivor who rode a section of his barn roof to safety, "I could see a huge wall advancing with incredible rapidity down the diagonal street. It was not recognizable as water, it was a dark mass, seething with houses, freight cars, trees and animals." Thousands died.

Yet even this disaster pales in comparison to the massive Yellow River Flood of 1931. Historians estimate that it killed between one and four million rural Chinese.

Even if you're fortunate enough to live in an area where the ground doesn't shake, hurricanes don't blow, and tornadoes are unlikely to lift your roof off in the middle of the night, there are other natural threats, including The Big One.

On March 23, 1989, an asteroid bigger than an aircraft carrier - more than a half-mile wide - traveling at 46,000 miles per hour, passed through Earth's orbit less than 400,000 miles away.

400,000 miles may not sound like a close shave, but in astronomical terms this was a near miss. Earth had been at that point just six hours earlier. Had the asteroid struck our planet, scientists estimate the energy released would have been equivalent to 1,000 to 2,500 megatons of TNT (or 1,000-2,500 one-megaton hydrogen bombs). It could have been what NASA calls, with some understatement, "a civilization-ending event."

No one saw the asteroid until it had already passed by. And to think you lived to tell your grandkids about it...

Throughout history, tens of millions of our relatives and ancestors have succumbed to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, famines and pandemics. The idea that these are "acts of God" - in the literal sense - is a tough concept to swallow.

Yet if there is anything good to be said about the events in Haiti this week, it is how millions around the world are now putting their troubles and self-interests aside - at least for a moment - to lend a hand.

The situation is dire. Yet money, food, clothing, medicine and other essentials are pouring in.

If you'd like to help, feel free to donate locally, dial the Red Cross, or give to one of the world's very best agencies for disaster relief - The International Rescue Committee.

Today's crisis in Haiti can help us put our own lives in perspective. The security of your job, the performance of your 401(k) and the size of your bank account are pretty small potatoes compared to the idea of having a child or grandchild trapped inside a collapsed schoolhouse.

So consider the suffering in Haiti. And express a bit of gratitude.

Except for the sheerest accidents of birth and circumstance, it could be you and your family in the rubble.

Source: Spiritual Wealth

[winston]

So happy to read this type of news right in the morning ..

CNN star performs brain surgery on US military ship

Star CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta -- a practicing neurosurgeon -- performed brain surgery on a 12-year-old Haitian girl Monday aboard a US military ship.

The girl, whose name was not released, was injured in last week's devastating earthquake, and was diagnosed as having a 1.2-cm (0.4-inch) chunk of concrete embedded in her skull.

The ship's surgeon called for a neurosurgeon, which are in short supply in the region amidst the mammoth and often chaotic rescue and recovery operation.

"With the help of a CNN producer, we called CNN in Atlanta who then patched us through to Doctor Gupta in Port-au-Prince," said the Vinson's Deputy Public Affairs Officer Erik Schneider.

"Someone got a hold of our international desk," 40-year-old Gupta later recalled. "They said there was an urgent call from the Carl Vinson. So I put a call in to them and there was something about a head injury."

Assisted by Los Angeles surgeon Henri Ford and the ship's surgeon Kathryn Berndt, Gupta pulled off the surgery between his multiple reports for the international news network on the massive quake that hit the Caribbean nation.

Gupta and Ford said they anticipate the girl making a full recovery.

"I was honoured to help out," said Gupta afterward. "I have a profound respect for the capabilities of the US Navy and the medical team on board the Carl Vinson," he said.

Gupta was considered for the post of President Barack Obama's surgeon general but withdrew his name in March last year due to family and career reasons.

Source: AFP American Edition

[winston]

Help for Haiti

You no doubt have been following the news from Haiti over the past two weeks, looking for the best way to help.

Many reliable and worthwhile organizations are offering support to those suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake. But you may be wondering which ones will put your donation directly into the relief effort.

Our colleague Byron King -- who writes for The Daily Reckoning -- suggests that the Hopital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) near Port-au-Prince is a worthy recipient of your dollars. Founded in 1954, this hospital is not only one of the few medical centers not seriously damaged by the earthquake, it is also the only one in the region with surgical suites.

"As the flow of people urgently seeking care increases over the next few days and weeks, our resources will be pushed to the breaking point. It is critical that we receive support to help us continue with our mission," writes HAS Managing Director Ian Rawson on the HAS blog.

You can make an immediate impact with your donation at www.hashaiti.org

Alex Green -- Investment Director of The Oxford Club -- notes that the International Rescue Committee is also accepting donations. According to the IRC site -- www.theirc.org

-- 90 percent of funds go directly to programs and services.

And John Forde, of Copywriter's Roundtable, points his readers to www.charitynavigator.org, which lists dozens of reputable charities participating in Haitian relief efforts.

If you have even a few dollars to give, please do so. Every penny helps.


Source: ETR

[winston]

Development Dollars by Bob Tschannen-Moran

In the Harvard Business Review Conversation Blog

, Thomas Ogden writes a compelling essay urging companies and individuals to hold back some of their giving for Haiti until after the dust settles on disaster relief. The problem, he argues, is an unfortunate and discernable pattern when things like this happen:

1. Donations spike in the immediate aftermath.
2. A huge portion of the funds donated are spent on setting up disaster-relief operations that are no longer the primary need.
3. A flood of cash and materials cause a logistics nightmare leading to waste and ineffectiveness, if not corruption.
4. Six months later, reconstruction stalls because the world's attention has moved elsewhere.
5. And, finally, a series of reports bemoan the fact that too many funds are devoted to disaster relief and not enough to disaster preparedness and reconstruction.

The solution, Ogden argues, is not to suspend relief efforts. That would be heartbreaking and cruel. The solution is to give regularly to thoroughly vetted organizations, such as Partners In Health , so they can respond to emergencies when and where they happen and while they facilitate economic and human development during ordinary times.

One-time, flash-in-the-pan giving, in response to the disaster of the moment, does not bring long-term relief and invites as many problems as it solves. Ongoing and generous support is the only way to make a real difference.

When companies and individuals adopt such practices, Haitians and other, future disaster victims will benefit most in rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. "One way to do this," Ogden concludes, "that engages employees and customers, is to match the dollars they contribute for immediate relief with a corporate gift for reconstruction, to be given in six or eight months. By that time it will be clear which areas of the rebuilding effort are underfunded. You'll also have time to thoroughly vet agencies, projects, and so forth, to ensure that your donations will do the most good."

The bottom line is that property rights impose social responsibilities. The haves must be smart in assisting the have-nots or we will be constantly struggling to pull drowning people out of the river. It's important that we do that, but even more important that we attend to the structures to keep people from falling into the river in the first place.

Source: LifeTrek Provisions

[winston]

Bill Gates makes $10 billion vaccines pledge

DAVOS, Switzerland – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda say their foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world's poorest countries.

Bill Gates said in a statement issued on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that "we must make this the decade of vaccines."

Gates added that "innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100129/ap_ ... s_vaccines