Kobe Bryant is taking action to fight homelessness in LA.
Join him on Saturday, November 19th for the annual United Way of Greater Los Angeles HomeWalk.
Got cool stuff that you’re just not using anymore lying around your house? Sell it on karmagoat.com to support his cause.
The Sold Project
In June 2006, Rachel Sparks-Graeser began researching the global issue of child prostitution and decided she wanted to do something about it. One year later, she had raised enough funds to shoot a documentary in Thailand. The SOLD Project Rough Cut was screened to friends and family and many people began asking what they could do to help.
In response, the nonprofit The SOLD Project was born, offering educational scholarships to children at risk of exploitation in Northern Thailand. Indeed, children in these areas are often forced to drop out of school and sent to the city to work. But without proper education, their options are few and they are easily lured into the sex industry.
A second trip in June 2008 completed the footage necessary to create the documentary “The SOLD Project: Thailand” a collection of short films that expose the truth behind child prostitution in Thailand and the hope that exists for prevention.
This hope led to the FREEDOM Project. A prevention program seeks to empower vulnerable children in poor rural areas by offering them educational opportunities and additional resources to help ensure that they are able to live a life free from sexual exploitation. Not only does it offers scholarships, but also mentorship from university students, a Resource Center to supplement their current education with English classes, computer training and other necessary skills, and a trafficking awareness program to talk about the reality of prostitution in Thailand.
Of course, everything has a cost.
$35: One year’s tuition
$50: One year’s worth of books
$260: One month Thai scholarship teacher salary
$365: One year student scholarship ($31/ month)
Want to help? You can donate here.
And if you don’t have cash to donate, you can now support the amazing work of Sold Project by selling or buying stuff on karmagoat.com!
HOW TO BUILD A SCHOOL IN 3 HOURS
What if anyone, with their friends, could raise enough money in 3 hours to build a school for children in need? According to Taylor Conroy, WE CAN. This genius 29-year-old philanthropreneur has created Ten in Three, a social micro-giving platform designed to raise $10,000 in three hours by getting 33 people to donate $3.33 a day for three months. The funds go directly toward building a school with Free The Children. Watch Taylor Conroy’s recent Tedx talk, very inspiring!
iCAREweCARE
The next generation is our future. And Priyanka Jain proves it. Along with other high school and college students, she just launched icarewecare.org. A social networking platform, integrated with Facebook, that gives this generation the tools to take action and make an impact. iCAREweCARE is the first student-run nonprofit to use the power of social media for social good. The platform allows you to interact with your friends around causes you care about, volunteer, and share your experience. Check them out, they are awesome!
Recycling Cool Vintage T-Shirts for a Good Cause
Did you know that most of the t-shirts donated to Goodwill or the Salvation Army in the US - including some really cool ones - end up on the secondary market all around the world? In Kenya for instance. This is where Sean Hewens came up with his Project Repat, after sumbling, in the middle of a traffic jam, upon a guy wearing an awesome vintage t-shirt.
The idea is simple – unlock the true value of those shirts, usually worth only $1 on the secondary market, by bringing them back to the US and selling them online for $25 each. Then use the profits to support local nonprofit organizations active in the countries from which the t-shirts are repatriated.
To learn more about this karmic initiative, watch their video.
Free your stuff, shop from friends, do some good!
Changing the World with a Pencil
The adventure of PoP began years ago with a simple question to a child encountered on the streets of India. “What do you want most in the world” asked Adam Braun, a student backpacker at the time. “A pencil” answered the child. Then Adam reached into his backpack and handed him a pencil. “A smile erupted and his eyes brightened. And I saw then the profound power and promise brought through something as small as a giving a pencil to just one child.”
After years of backpacking through more than 50 countries, handing out thousands of pens and pencils, he eventually decided to start an international nonprofit. A nonprofit that would build schools in the developing world, working with local communities, and also training young leaders to take action at home and abroad. A nonprofit that would try to create a better world through education and passion. In 2008, PoP was born.
So far, PoP has built 23 schools across Laos and Nicaragua. And another 10, including new schools in Guatemala, are underway. The PoP community has grown to more than 100,000 passionate people. Want to join the PoP movement? There are many fun ways to take action, one of those being to create a fundraiser page for you own school. The winning school of this school4all contest will receive a visit from Justin Bieber.
