Madagascar Photo by Birte Thorsen

We invite you to help supply safe, affordable, and sustainable supplies of drinking water in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

 
Photo by Birte Thorsen

What is Africa to me:
Copper sun or scarlet sea,
Jungle star or jungle track,
Strong bronzed men, or regal black
Women from whose loins I sprang
When the birds of Eden sang?

--Countee Cullen (1903–1946) My Soul’s High Song 

You can help feed children in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

"Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism. Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below the soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment." --Kwame Nkrumah (1900–1972), Ghanaian president. Neo-Colonialism, ch. 1 (1965)

You can help feed children in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

Photo by Birte Thorsen

 "It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you—try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God’s will yourself!" -- Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation (1949).

You can help feed children in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

Photo by Birte Thorsen

The rich man goes out yachting,
Where sanctity can’t pursue him;
The poor goes afloat
In a fourpenny boat,
Where the bishop groans to view him.

-- Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866), British poet. Rich and Poor; or, Saint and Sinner (l. 36–40)

You can help feed children in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

Photo by Birte Thorsen 

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969)

You can help feed children in impoverished countries.  Donate here.

 The images of poverty are a stark contrast to the sheer loveliness of the island Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa. CARE is busy there, and so is Birte Thorsen, a retired teacher from Denmark whose stories and photos will appear in this blog in the days ahead. The compelling images in the banner title and the blog published to date are photos that Birte Thorsen has taken on her trips to Madagascar. If you are moved to align the human condition with the loveliness of this great earth, please make a donation to CARE. Donate here.

CARE’s Mission
CARE tackles underlying causes of poverty so that people can become self-sufficient. Recognizing that women and children suffer disproportionately from poverty, CARE places special emphasis on working with women to create permanent social change. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives. 

Photo by Birte Thorsen

Committed to Raising $100K
As a group, our circle has committed to raising $100K this year for CARE. As part of this goal, we are creating an auction of real estate and business-related products and services online at eBay to raise money and we’d like your help. We need items to be donated for the auction. Members of the Giving Circle are donating coaching services, book proceeds, virtual assistant services, and other products to the cause. We are doing it because we believe in the cause and because it’s a great business decision!

Donating is a GREAT Business Decision
We ask our donors for several things. First, we ask for a donation. Then we ask them for a description of their product or service and photographs to support an ad on eBay. Then (and here’s the important part), we ask them to help us promote the auction by sending out word to all of their clients that the auction is happening. By doing this with each donor and with each member of our group, every donor gets exposure to an exponentially larger mailing list. This kind of advertising you cannot buy. It tells prospective clients not only what your product does, but that the people behind the product care about others. This type of marketing worked for Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, and it can work for you too.

Win-Win-Win
So, think about it.  What can you offer us as your donation to this worthy cause? We will running auctions through the end of the year. So if you want to offer us multiple packages of your services, we are happy to accept them. If we have enough, we will space them out in the auction, so your product is listed continuously. Dig deep. This is a great cause. And this format offers us a unique opportunity to do good for others while also helping your business. It’s a win for CARE, it’s a win for your company, and it’s a win for the people who buy the products off the auction. What could be better?

We will list all of the contributors in various venues. We hope that you will be inspired….