Hurricane Sandy: How to Help

The destruction, the news is overwhelming. So really, the best thing (IMNSHO) is to donate to the American Red Cross. If you are in a storm-affected area, then you most likely know where & to whom you should reach out. If you are not (or are unsure), here's a link that will be updated.

An organization close to our heart is Mitzvah Circle. While they help people across the country, they are located in the Philadelphia area & are assisting people hurt by the storm. Please help them if you can.

If you can & have not, please vote early.

xoxo/gg

(Photograph by Saul Leiter)

FEED Peace, Love & Nature

It's a dismal, rainy, foggy day here. So we thought we'd cheer up with a post about FEED Projects. If you bought gifts for everyone but yourself during the holidays, check out FEED Project Peace, Love, & Nature bags.

The (white) Peace bag generates 25 meal donations to those in areas of high conflict or war. The (green) Nature bag, 25 meals to areas devastated by the effects of natural disasters. A purchase of the (red) love bag donates 25 meals to those who live in areas of high HIV/AIDS infection. All of these meals are provided by the World Food Programme.

ciao-peace-meow/GGCM

(photograph courtesy of FEED Projects)

Haiti, Two Years On

Two years ago, on January 12^th, a powerful earthquake hit Haiti. The quake left approximately 3 million people in need of emergency aid and destroyed or damaged more than 300,000 homes. Americans responded generously to this disaster. So generously, in fact, that one poll reported that half of American households had donated to Haiti relief efforts. - Charity Navigator blog

Please click through to read the rest of this short but important update from Charity Navigator's blog. There are a few links & also a suggestion, which we strongly second, that if you gave in 2010, if you can, please follow up with another.

The art of Haiti continues to inspire. These gorgeous flags by Evelyn Alcide of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. You can see more of her art here & here.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(photographs via Indigo Gallery)

Holiday Shop at FEED Projects

FEED Projects is a big favorite of ours. They've added many lovely products, including a holiday stocking (it's out-of-stock at the moment, but sign up for the re-stock notice), with a wide range of prices. You can even custom design a bag with your organization or company on one side & FEED Projects on the other. Visit the website & be inspired!

ciao-merry-meow/GGCM

(image courtesy of FEED Projects)

Don't Just Stand There

So many crises in the world can be daunting, even overwhelming. But you must start somewhere. There are many links on this page that will lead you to many worthy causes. It doesn't take a lot of money or a lot of time. Everyone can do something. It's especially important to teach children early in life that they are able to help others.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(lovely photograph by liivia)

Change Happens - Darfur Peace & Development Update

We're pleased to report that:

DPDO has received a $15,000 grant from Change Happens Foundation to support health education and services at Kassab Women’s Center;

DPDO is partnering with UNDP (United Nations Development Program) to support the work of paralegals in Kassab IDP camp.

An update soon about our friend Susan's recent trip to Sudan.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(lovely photograph by LaraJade via Benevolent Postcard Society)

FEED Projects - Japan Bag

This bag would be good to take to farmer's* markets this spring & summer, don't you think? (There's a terrific Feed Japan t-shirt, too.)

From the good folks at FEED Projects:

Each FEED Japan bag sold will give $10 to the FEED Foundation’s FEED Japan Fund. The FEED Japan Fund will aid in the disaster relief efforts by supporting organizations on the ground and will target the programs and organizations that need our help the most. The need for support is great and ever-changing, as Japan continues to recover from this disaster.

This white cotton tote bag, sold exclusively on the FEED website, is made in the USA from 100% organic cotton. The brilliant red symbol proudly reflects the Japanese flag on the back, with the FEED Japan logo displayed on the front. The bag reaches 12" high by 19" wide, and the handles are 12" from the top of the straps to the top of the bag.

Other worthy Japan-related fundraising.

ciao-meow/GG's editor

*GG Central employs apostrophes on "farmer's market". The End.

(images via FEED Projects)

Help Japan Eat

There are people in Japan who have not eaten very much, if at all, since last Friday. (Update - this is a re-post from Friday)

As the UN's leading agency in emergency operations, the World Food Programme is deploying experts to help deliver assistance to shattered Japanese communities. This is in response to Japan's request for help in meeting "epic logistical challenges," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.

Please donate funds to the World Food Programme. Japan is the fourth largest donor to WFP but is in great need now & for the foreseeable future. This is a multiple crisis as the lack of donations from Japan will be sorely felt in the rest of the world.. Please help to the best of your ability. Bloggers have been asked to spread the word as well. Those with Facebook & Twitter accounts can be particularly useful in spreading this message. Thanks!

ciao-try-not-to-panic-because-it-does-no-good-meow/GG Central

PS: For a little relief, stick your head out the window & see the full super-moon tomorrow night.

(woodblock prints by the great Utagawa Hiroshige)

Pictures of the Floating World

Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world--Japanese novelist Asai Ryōi

Ukiyo-e is commonly translated into English as "pictures in the floating world" which is very poetic. Decidedly unpoetic are the images coming out of Japan now. Please help by visiting the International Red Cross link & donate what you can. As always, don't worry if you cannot donate a lot of money. Five dollars (or 5 pounds or 5 euros) adds up. Read more on Ukiyo-e here. Also here about Van Gogh's admiration of Japanese art. (images above are by Hiroshige on left and Van Gogh on right)

ciao-subdued-meow/GG Central

12 Days, 12 Ways to Feed - FEED Projects

FEED Projects is one of GG Central's very favorite organizations. Check in to see how you can help. GG still loves a good drag around the floor in our Feed Project Bag. We hope this year to adopt a bear. How about you? (GG collage/FEED Project website images)

Happy first day of December!

ciao-meow/GG's personal shopper

Yéle Haiti - Week's End

Yéle Haiti has announced a partnership among several organizations, including AmeriCares, called Haiti Earthquake Alliance. This is to avoid duplication of effort. Here is text from today's website (Friday, 15 January):

"Yéle Haiti has pulled together a group of like minded organizations and first responders in order to help coordinate the delivery of emergency services and materials needed by victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Each or the organizations will undertake their own fundraising and on-the-ground operations, but have agreed to share resources, collaborate when it makes sense and avoid duplication....Just formed in the last day, the Alliance has already pulled together four airlifts of medical supplies, food and other emergency supplies – along with teams of doctors. These airlifts will go out beginning Saturday. Keep checking back to this website for details."

GG Central asks that you continue to support your favorite organizations. Do not fall prey to scams. Do not open e-mail from sources you do not know. Doctors Without Borders is a good place to start as well; more on them next week. Today they are expanding surgical facilities on-the-ground.

We like to highlight Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti because it is very important that Haitian citizens are involved in development & rebuilding--real rebuilding-of their country. There were concrete efforts, planning, & progress being made. Many people do not know this fact. We are already hearing uninformed people criticizing Haiti. Not helpful, people. If you want to be involved for the long haul, please visit the William J. Clinton Foundation.

[GG collage from photographs courtesy of Mia Farrow & Haitian paintings by P. Brantle & Valmidor via American University & MedaliaArt--also raising money for earthquake aid]

Help for Haiti

Here is a release from the White House a few moments ago with regard to Haiti. [Vintage photograph in Haiti, via LIFE Archives. By John Leonard] THURSDAY UPDATE: Thank you to Maria Caterina for a Red Cross e-card:

Ciao
Susanna and Giulia,
I was inspired by your posting and have made a donation for the relief effort. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!
xoxo

Help Haiti

Many of our friends around the world will awake to news of the major earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday, late afternoon. News is still trickling out & there are few photographs yet. This photo was sent out from the AP, via Twitpic. Please go to World Vision, the Red Cross to see what you might do to help. More organization links as things become more organized. Here is the latest BBC link, & the latest New York Times link. UPDATE: Yéle Haiti Foundation now has a donation page.

GG Central Breakfast Special

The special? Donate some time or funds (or both) to a humanitarian organization & we won't pester you about it until...tomorrow. If you're blogger, sneak in some do-gooder business. It's a deal, OK? Here's one of our very favorite organizations. Yes, we're running late. What else is new?

ciao-meow/GG's short-order cook

[photograph from Motley Photos via we heart it]

IKEA's Soft Toy Aid 2009 Begins

For every soft toy you purchase from now until December 24, 2009, $1 will be donated to UNICEF and Save the Children. (See here for other countries' currency donations.) This year's campaign tag line is $1 is a Fortune. And so it is. This year, the soft toys got together & made a darling video. There's an interactive website for us regular people to join in, here. We will be featuring the soft animals as we did last year. They are so cute & very inexpensive.

At the moment, GG is asleep beside ancient Celeste the IKEA Pig (her full name). We just might keep one of the toys this year for GG, too.

[GG Central collage made from IKEA images/2008 archives]

Made4Aid Monday - Feelgood Photography Cards

At Made4Aid today there are a few items up for bid. This item is a favorite--surely you need some cards (or you could put them into little frames & hang them together or separately...we're thinking about doing it). If you don't need any cards, they would make a lovely gift. The description & information from the Made4Aid blog:

"This item for sale is a set of hand-made greeting cards with original photographs. They are feel-good photos or pictures (hopefully) to make you smile.

You can buy a set of all 8 cards, for a minimum donation of $16.00, or a set of 6 cards for a minimum donation of $13.00. Please leave your name, the amount you will donate, and the numbers/names of the cards you have chosen. You can buy multiple copies of one particular photo, or a set all the same - mix and match them in any way, just let us know what you would like!

The photographs are:

1. teapot

2. Worcesters (apples)

3. Fiddlesticks

4. discopar

5. balloons

6. quintuplets

7. bouncy

8. Rosie watching TV

and you can click on each of these in the list to see the photograph enlarged.

The photographs are printed in high resolution onto premium glossy photographic paper, and mounted on good quality white card with matching envelopes. The cards are blank inside for your own greeting, and they are approximately 5 inches/12.5cm by 5 inches/12.5cm. There is more than one set of these cards available - so,you're not bidding against anyone else.

Postage would be: UK - free; Europe - $1.90; Rest of the world - $2.40.
The sale of these cards begins at 9am on Friday October 2nd, and will end at 9am, Monday October 12th New York time. The highest bidder before that time will win."

Please go to the Made4Aid blog (there's also a link in the upper-right sidebar) for more detailed instructions, to bid, or to make a donation if you don't want cards (but why not?). It's soooooo easy.

ciao-meow/GG's sittings editor

[photographs property of Made4Aid/used by kind permission]

Abandoned in Darfur - Week's End

It's a complicated subject, no doubt about it; we won't disagree. What brought this on? Someone asked us today if 'that Darfur thing' was over. Seriously. A good resource (wherever you are, even if not in the States) is the Enough Project. [Also in right sidebar]

At the very least, won't you protest to your (various) governments? In an e-mail or telephone call? If you've already done that, do it again. Discover your inner pest & redirect it towards officials-who-might-give-a-damn & keep out of trouble with family & friends.

The Management

[photographs by Susan Burgess-Lent/DPDO/all rights reserved/used with permission]

L'eau pour Darfour...

So if we write it in French, will that be more stylish? Italian? That's tomorrow. Yes, we're feeling defeated. Over a year of mostly chipper, we-can-do-it cheer-leading isn't working. Reporters, except for Nick Kristof & a few others, no longer bother. to mention Darfur. If Angie or George C. show up, maybe. Even then...

The first photograph is a Darfur Peace & Development Schools of Peace; the second is its water system. No kidding. You should see how gets there (if it does). People, people, people. For one moment, would you please stop "hearting" & squealing over the latest thing you want & think about being thirsty? And there's not a drop to be had...or it's filthy dirty. Do you think these folks are just going to have to get used to this? Why should they? That was not the reality before 2003 for most of them. They had water just like you--what if someone took away your water tomorrow? You want to know the basic difference between your situation & theirs? Luck. Fate. You were born elsewhere. That's it. You didn't do anything to deserve better; they didn't do anything to deserve worse.

Sigh. Please go here to read about Clean Water Project & maybe you can give $5.00. We don't have a job & we just did. A little challenge.

[Photos by Susan Burgess-Lent/DPDO/all rights reserved; if by some miracle you want to use any SBL pix for a fundraiser, pls contact GG's editor]

"How unpleasant, must we talk about Darfur?"

Yes, we agree; how terribly unpleasant it all is: Darfur, Congo, Burma, etc. How very seven years ago (in the case of Darfur).

But you know what strikes us as really bad manners? Allowing people to starve, be brutalized, raped & remaining silent. The fact remains that these things are happening & as we've said before, it's in your self-interest to do something about it. No one is asking you to give your entire life over to a cause; what's 15 minutes? We waste that x 2 nearly every day watching a Seinfeld repeat. (Not all activists are humorless wretches--truly.) There are links all over this page for anyone to visit. We hope you will....

We continue this week with some repeats from last year because we are still unwell & there are some lovely photos that most people haven't seen. We'll check email every day. Thanks so much.

[school children at Ain Sero & women collecting firewood near Kutum by Susan Burgess-Lent/DPDO/all rights reserved. Taken in May 2008; things are much worse now.]

WWAD (What would Audrey Do?)

It's not just about manners, little black dresses, & Cary Grant. It's about what she did with her life. GG & her editor think WWAD a lot...not just sartorially speaking. Take a visit to UNICEF & see what's happening. See you later today! (photo via scan/audreystyle/by Steven Meisel)

ciao-elegant-meow,
GG/mgmt

Update: Apologies to all who have tried to leave comments on this blog & bricolage. Have no idea what is wrong but investigation has commenced. Thanks for stopping by! (Meanwhile, you could visit UNICEF:) xo, GG Central.