Category: Charity

I recieved this email from a dear freind of mine and rather than forward it I’ve decided to post it.

Everyone needs some odd little cause to support, and this one’s mine.

The National Marrow Donor Program, maintains a database of a whole slew of volunteer marrow donors. As you probably know, finding a match for marrow donation is much trickier than finding a match for blood donation; also, as you probably know, marrow transplants can be lifesavers.

Joining the program is simple. The mail-in kit available online just involves swabbing the insides of your cheeks – they can get all the information they need from that. No blood necessary. If your marrow is a match for someone in need, you can choose to go through the donation process. You can read more about the donation process on the website.

Usually, it costs a significant amount to join the marrow donor program – upwards of $50 – which doesn’t exactly draw in volunteers. Here’s the cool thing, though… for the next two weeks, the NMDP will waive the testing costs for new members. You can get more information on their website. They’ll even mail you the kit – you don’t have to go out of your way to join.

If you’re not interested in joining up, please pass this information along to your friends instead. Sorry for the unsolicited solicitation to join, but this is pretty important to me.

Kate

I don’t know how many of you have seen this already, but I think it lines up with previous conversations we’ve seen on the blog since it’s inception: http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/

Perhaps some of you heard this segment on NPR yesterday morning. I’ve been following the story of the bushmen’s fight for land rights in the Kalahari since early this fall when I read The Healing Land by Rupert Isaacson. I met Rupert, who happens to be an Elgin resident, a few months ago when he came to my book group to talk about his book.

Over many years the government of Botswana has been forcibly removing the bushmen from their traditional lands. The government has cited many reasons, including game preservation, better schools and better health care services. However, the pervading assumption is that the land is sitting on a fortune in diamonds. This week a court in Botswana ruled that this removal is illegal.

I hinted a some weeks ago that I was disillusioned with Amnesty International. This disillusionment stems from Rupert’s frustration with Amnesty’s unwillingness to take on the cause of DeBeers‘s (the diamond trading corporation) activities in the traditional lands of the bushmen. He had unconfirmed suspicions that acceptance of donations from DeBeers may have influenced Amnesty’s sluggishness. After my discussion with Rupert I have come to think that smaller charities working on specific causes may do more good in the world than behemoth groups like Amnesty, UNICEF, etc. These large groups must at some point compromise principle to politics whereas small groups can operate with more agility and focus. Until recently, I was regular contributor to Amnesty but even then I was wondering if I was just paying for more mailers asking for more money.

The offices of Rupert’s group, The Indigenous Land Rights Fund, are housed in his laptop, cell phone and all his contacts throughout the Kalahari. It would seem that this week at least, the little guys won one.

Seems legit. Might help someone besides Bristol-Myers Squib.

Cynical but hopeful,

J. E.