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By Mom Unplugged, March 15, 2008 5:19 pm

A Heifer International fund raising update:

My daughter’s Montessori class ( 1st-3rd grade) of 20 children raised a total of $1,067 to donate to Heifer International! Each child raised money their own way.

Last semester the class studied basic human needs, and this semester they are studying the continent of Africa. This fund raising project ties in with both those themes.

My daughter (and 5 year-old son) made and sold Christmas ornaments by the side of the road and contributed candy and junky “toys” to their Candy Bank to earn money for the project. In addition to each child’s individual earnings, the class also held a bake sale in the school parking lot (on a very snowy day!!).

I just wanted to post an update about this project since someone out there who knew my address, was so kind as to spread the word and organize contributions from all over the country. Truly amazing! Thank you again whoever you are!

The class earned nearly double their original goal and instead of buying an animal or two for one family, they are able to fund a project that will help an entire African village.

Your generosity, and that of our local community, makes a HUGE difference. Not only to a village in Africa, but to my daughter and her classmates who now know how good it feels to give and to help others. Thank you!

Photo (Zambia) courtesy of Heifer International.

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By Mom Unplugged, September 10, 2007 10:28 am

For me, it is one of those dreaded times of year again: birthday party time. A Good Mom probably cherishes these milestone moments and decorates for hours, bakes a cake from scratch, plans fun games and then sits back and enjoys watching her wee one having the time of his or her little life with perfectly well-behaved and polite little friends at The Birthday Party.

I, however, have come to rather dread The Birthday Party. For me it symbolizes a time of excess, greed and waste. Just call me Birthday Scrooge. I have grown tired of watching my kids rip wrapping paper off yet another toy we don’t need, only to toss it aside to rip the paper off the next one, as all the other kids “ooh” and “aah” with envy.This year I decided to suggest something different to my daughter. Having recently spent a lot of time at the local Humane Society shelter adopting a dog and three cats to add to our already large menagerie, I suggested that this year we have a Humane Society birthday where we would ask guests to bring an item for the shelter animals instead of the usual gift. My daughter loves animals and understands that many animals are homeless, but I wasn’t sure that a 7 year-old could be altruistic enough to forgo the excitement of birthday presents.

I picked my moment carefully (after we had finished sorting out a bunch of old, unplayed-with toys to donate) and made the suggestion:

“Every year at your birthday party you always get a lot of toys like these that you never play with and that just clutter up the house. How about this year we ask everyone to bring pet food, or something for all those homeless animals at the shelter instead?”

“Oh yes, yes, yes!!!” she said. Even her little brother asked if he could do that for his birthday too (we’ll see if he still wants to when his time comes next June).

We asked our cat sitter, who works at the Humane Society, to tell us what they really needed most right now. We put this list on an insert inside the party invitations. My daughter was very excited to help make the insert requesting donations instead of gifts. We even added some photos of our recent shelter adoptees.

We had the party on Saturday, and as you can see from the photo, the eight guests were extremely generous in their donations of food and toys for the animals! The parents all commented on what a great idea our party was. I am sure they were happier spending their money on food for the homeless animals than on a cheap toy for the child who has too much.

Today after school is the really exciting moment. I will pick my children up from school and we will take everything down to the shelter to give to them. My daughter can’t wait!

I must say that as I write this, I feel every bit the Proud Mama. My daughter, at only age 7, was able to derive pleasure from giving rather than receiving. For once, this was a truly enjoyable birthday party for us all!

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By Mom Unplugged, July 30, 2007 7:16 pm

I recently wrote a post about a child who decided to take it upon herself to solve a problem and make a difference in the world. See my post: Involved Kids . In this post, I mention how much easier it seems for children and young people to take action when they sense a need. Adults are often too caught up in the complexities of life to bother.

It was with thoughts of this recently written post fresh in my mind, that I came upon this article in Newsweek magazine: The Flames of Hope (Newsweek, July 16, 2007) about a Berkeley physicist who has invented a stove to be used in Darfur that burns 75% less firewood. This seems unremarkable, but when you consider the unimaginable price women pay to leave their camp to simply collect cookstove firewood in Darfur (rape, mutilation, 7 hours of travel - men can’t go for they would simply be killed), it is a huge asset.

Apparently physicist Ashok Gadgil received a call in 2004 from the U.S. Agency for International Development asking if he could design a press for turning the Darfurians trash into fuel pellets. Gadgil determined that this was not a feasible plan, but rather than give up and carry on with his affairs, he continued to consider the fuel problem. He eventually realized that instead of redesigning the fuel, he could re-engineer the stove. So he did.

The result is an efficient stove that produces the high heat necessary for cooking the Darfurian staple diet of onions, garlic, and okra, resists the strong local winds, and requires 75% less fuel. This of course means fewer risky foraging expeditions and less negative environmental impact from wood harvesting.

The plan is for the stoves to be built locally and rented by the refugees. Obviously this means that money is needed to develop workshops, buy tools, provide training, and purchase inventory for the manufacture of the stoves. If you want to learn more, the project’s website is: Darfur Stoves Project. By the way, just $20 will provide a stove for a Darfur family.

Obviously the ideal solution would be to end the horrible situation in Darfur. But in the meantime, this project seems that it could at least help improve the refugees’ living conditions to some small extent.

I find people like Mr. Gadgil and 14 year-old Savannah Walters to be truly inspirational. As one of my commenters on the Involved Kids post said about her young daughter:

“So far, I’ve decided the best way for her to learn is by example, and I need to do a better job of that.” - Jenny, of Wildwood Cottage

Well, so do I Jenny. Perhaps my blog can be a motivating force for me in my efforts to overcome inertia and do what I know is right: set a good example for my children by volunteering to help others. Unfortunately I can’t single-handedly “Save Darfur,” but hopefully I can instill in my children a conscience and a desire to do good in the world. If everyone on this planet simply did that, then perhaps another Darfur would be less likely to occur.

(The June 2007 Oprah Magazine also featured a small article about the project: Fueling Hope.)

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer Mike Reid.