After attending a couple (pre)Kiwanis meetings, it was apparent that Kiwanis was indeed something of which I wanted to be apart. So from late last year until April of 2008, we (the Hiawatha-CREW Kiwanis Club) set out to recruit enough members to charter our new club. We started out with a meek crew of about eight or ten individuals. Not everyone was from AEGON, which greatly helped the recruiting process. We had a few early members from Rockwell Collins, the City of Hiawatha, and Heritage Bank, just to name a few. Our initial goal was twenty-five members, the minimum number needed to charter a club.

By time April rolled around, we had recruited over 30 members, and by the time our charter night rolled around in June, we were over 40 strong. If someone had told me we'd have over 40 members in less than a year, I would have never believed it...at least not at first. However once I was involved in Kiwanis and we began to work on community projects, I realized that being a member of Kiwanis really sold itself. Whether it's helping your community, especially the children; being a part of something bigger than yourself; or simply networking with other adults with a common goal - there's something for anyone who wants to do more.

In the short time that we've been organized, we've worked on several projects and we're in the planning stages of several more. Our very first project, the Dictionary Project, was a smashing success. Passing out dictionaries to many 3rd grade classes around the Cedar Rapids area was an incredible way to inspire young minds. Our job was simple, request the dictionaries, free of charge, from The Dictionary Project, and distribute them to the 3rd graders in our community. We received so many thank-you notes from the teachers and the kids that received a copy. It was extremely cool...

Now that we're an official club, we've elected officers, board members, and we've created multiple committees to streamline the administration of our club. I'm very fortunate to be one of the first board members. It's exciting to be a charter member, but as a member of the board, I get to help guide our new club in a more proactive role.

My second role is that of Webmaster. Check out our site at http://www.hiawatha-crew.org. It's a work in progress, but in the end, I think this site will be easy to work with and maintain. I decided not to build it from the ground up, but instead use Community Server to build our site. This has been a life-saver with as busy a schedule that I maintain.

I'm writing this post because I'm hoping it gives someone that little extra push they need to take a chance and experience something like Kiwanis. I promise, if you're willing to put in a little effort, the reward will be tenfold. And I invite anyone with interest or curiosity to stop by and sit in on one of our meetings. We're always looking for new members.

- the UB

Live Free Live Loud 2008, originally uploaded by sherry.moorhead.

What an amazing night this was. We counted over 3500 people who came through the gates and even more were parked in the fields surrounding. We had 164 volunteers carrying coolers, greeting, and parking cars. It was a beautiful night. To top it off $20,900 was donated at the gates, so $42,000 will be donated to local charities. Thank you to all who attended and to all of our amazing volunteers who served so enthusiastically.

It is a slightly complicated programme to explain because grants are available through 16 different organisations, known as national agents. 15 of these organisations offer funding in one specific area or specialism within health and social care. The 16th is the General Fund, which is run by Volunteering England and has just opened for applications.

The General Fund has £500,000 available and offers grants of between £10,000 and £40,000 per year over three years. Voluntary and community organisations are eligible to apply - you don't need to be a registered charity.

Projects should be new or a significant development for your organisation. Your application must show how your project will have a positive impact on the health and well-being of both service users and volunteers (e.g. improving physical or mental health, reducing health inequalities or supporting and improving access for people excluded from mainstream health and social care services).

For this year's round of funding, Volunteering England are particularly interested in the following types of health and social care activities:

• Health promotion
• Health advocacy
• Supported volunteering
• Support for people with specific health conditions not covered by other National Agents
• Befriending and support for people with specific health and social care needs
• Projects that demonstrate a link between volunteering in health and social care activities and employment

The deadline for applications in 29 August 2008 for projects running from April 2009 to March 2012. Competition is always high for this grants scheme. Each year, they receive over 400 preliminary applications; only between 14 and 17 of them get funding.

More information on the General Fund is available from the Opportunities for Volunteering webpage

As I mentioned above, there are 15 other national agents also offering grants through Opportunities for Volunteering. If you are interested in applying, you are supposed to check through all of the national agents to choose the most appropriate one to apply to. Some of these agents have open grants programmes; others are open only to members and affiliates of their own organisation, or have committed money a long way in advance. Here's a quick summary of the other 15 national agents:

• Age Concern – projects working specifically with older people. Deadline is 29 August 2008. The maximum grant will be £35,000 per year, for up to 3 years.
• Attend – projects working with leagues of hospitals and working for the needs of patients, former patients both in hospital and in the community. Applications are accepted only from Attend affiliated Friends Groups.
• Barnardo’s – projects working with young people. Applications are only accepted from existing Barnardo’s services.
• Bassac – projects working to develop multi-purpose, community based organisations in local neighbourhoods. Grants are only available to bassac members. More information about joining is available on the bassac website. The next application process starts in autumn 2008.
• Churches Together in England – projects managed entirely or primarily by churches, local ‘churches together’ groups or other Christian organisations. The maximum grant is £20,000 per year. Deadline: 31 October 2008
• Crisis – projects focused on supporting the physical and mental well being of homeless people. Check the Crisis website for updates.
• CSV - aims to promote neighbourhood volunteering in health and social service settings. CSV accept applications from partner projects routed through regional CSV contacts.
• Mencap – projects focused on children, young people and or adults with a learning disability. Mencap awards grants to its affiliated clubs and societies, and other groups, for projects which are designed to be of help to people with a learning disability. The closing date for applications is 30 September each year.
• Mind – projects working with people with mental health problems. Mind accepts and will prioritise applications from its own affiliated local associations and from other community mental health projects. The application process for new projects is due to open in early July 2008. Grants are generally for up to £25,000 per year. The deadline is 30 September 2008
• NACRO – project working to make society safer by finding practical solutions to reducing crime. Applications are accepted only from within Nacro services.
• RADAR – projects that support the disability lobby and create an environment in which disability organisations can effectively campaign for change. RADAR only supports member organisations - it is currently funding 14 of these. It may re-open for new applicants in 2009-2010
• RNIB – supports projects managed by local societies and other local organisations of and for blind and partially sighted people. The closing date for applications will be 30 November
• Scope – projects designed to meet the needs of disabled people, particularly projects involving disabled volunteers and parents/carers. SCOPE are due to start accepting applications in September 2008.
• The Children’s Society – projects that change the lives of children and young people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The Children’s Society only awards grants to Children’s Society projects. Currently, all of their funding is committed
• UK Council on Deafness – projects meeting the needs of deaf, deaf/blind or hard of hearing people. First step application forms for 2009-2012 will be available from October 2008. The maximum grants are likely to be in the region of £15,000 per year.

Some of these national agents have a lot of information; for others, it's a bit more sketchy. I'll keep you posted on updates to the national agents as they happen.

This might be the final year of the Opportunities for Volunteering programme. The Department of Health is reviewing its grant-making activities through Section 64 and this programme. The future of these programmes will depend on the recommendations of the Third Sector Strategic Funding and Investment Review, which will be published later in the year.

Childhood obesity is rising at an alarming rate. In a recent study, 13% of all children aged 6 to 11 were found to be overweight as opposed to only 4% of children in the same age group during the 1960's. [3]  While another study indicates that childhood obesity levels are plateauing, the numbers are still far from positive.[4]

Childhood obesity can have devestating health effects -- from an increased incidence of childhood diabetes to fatty liver disease -- that are difficult, if not impossible to overcome. [5]  

In addition, our nation's children are increasingly malnourished.  How can obseity and malnutrition go hand in hand?  Well, some studies have shown that low income families often cope with limited food dollars by purchasing less expensive but higher fat foods. [6]  So, at the same time that childhood obesity rates are rising, so too is childhood malnutrition. 

Minor malnutrition has been shown to:

•  Limit growth;
• Restrict brain development; 
• Reduce the function of the immune system; 
• Cause iron deficiency, thereby lowering the immune response and reducing a child's ability to concentrate on tasks; and
• Limit a child's cognitive development, overall learning potential and ability to succeed in school.[7]

HOW CAN YOU HELP FIGHT CHILDHOOD OBESITY AND MALNUTRITION?

First, take the time to learn more about the devestating health effects on our nation's children.   Then, get involved.  If your community does not currently offer any programs designed to fight childhood obesity and malnutrition, start one! 

The Junior League of Bronxville is working to combat childhood obesity and malnutrition in several ways: 

First, the JLB sponsors a "Backpack Buddies" program designed to provide children from low-income families  in Mount Vernon, New York, with healthy and nutritious meals and snacks that they can easily prepare for themselves.  The JLB partnered with Whole Foods in White Plains, the Food Bank of Westchester and Trinity Place Church in Mount Vernon in making this program, the first long-term program of its kind in the area, possible.

In addition, JLB members have, over the last several years, contributed foodstuffs and made and served countless meals to hungry men, women and children in partnership with the Community Service Associates soup kitchen in downtown Mount Vernon.  Community Service Associates serves over 72,000 meals and other services each year to those in need in Southern Westchester.

Last, the JLB joined with other members of the New York State Public Affairs Committee (NYSPAC) to support the enactment of legislation designed to improve the nutritional well-being of the children of New York State.   http://www.jlroch.org/Docs/NYSPAC-PosStatement-ChildNutrition-030908.pdf

_____________________

Sources:

[1][1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/view/

[2][2] Interview with Dr. James O. Hill, pediatrician and Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, January 9, 2004; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/interviews/hill.html.

[3][3] Mark Lino, PhD., et. al, The Quality of Young Children's Diets,Family Economics and Nutrition Review, published by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Available online at http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/FENR/FENRv14n1/fenrv14n1.pdf.

[4]    http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-fitness/2008/5/27/childhood-obesity-levels-off-but-what-does-it-mean.html?s_cid=rss:on-fitness:childhood-obesity-levels-off-but-what-does-it-mean

[5][5] http://nutrition.tufts.edu/pdf/publications/hunger/hunger_and_obesity.pdf

[6]    http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/06/30/fatty-liver-disease-ups-heart-risks-for-obese-kids.html

[7]  Id. 6

 *       *       *

This week, Vinay sat down (over Skype) with Gulshan Ramesh of Earnkarma.org, which links individuals/organizations that are in need of volunteers or any other kind of non monetary assistance with people who are looking to help them. Here, simplicity appears to be the initiative's strength, as the site's straightforward design is symbolic of the organization's no nonsense attitude.

Vinay Ganti: Thank you for taking time to speak with us today? What exactly does Earnkarma.org hope to accomplish?

Gulshan Ramesh: The mission of Earnkarma is to be a website for volunteers, non-profits and so forth to post their requests for assistance so that those individuals that wish to help can do so. This way individuals that are passionate about a particular cause can locate an individual/organization hopefully near them to provide assistance.

The one major requirement is that none of the posts may involve requests for monetary help. We want to be a conduit for volunteering only. We will monitor every post to make sure this is the case. We do not want to become affiliated with charitable causes as then people may start becoming concerned with where exactly their money is going or how it is being used.

VG: Which areas of India can use Earnkarma?

GR: Actually we initially intended to have it provide volunteer opportunities throughout the world, but for now we are working on building out the United States and India. It is difficult to get the database for other countries. Within India, it is currently available in every state and every major city.

This website is intended for both organizations and individuals. You do not have to be some non-profit or NGO to benefit from the site. Let's say that I have the desire to teach English on my weekends to local teenagers. I can post it on Earnkarma to see if anyone else in my area wants to join, and coordinate with them from that post. In this way the site could help create new organizations locally.

VG: What about beyond the cities? Does Earnkarma plan to reach out to villages?

GR: It is our plan to reach the villages. However, it is very difficult to do that. For example even simple tasks like listing all of the villages' names becomes complicated, as many villages have identical pronunciations and different spellings or vice-versa. Currently, our website supports all the districts and major Indian towns.

The good news is that the website itself does not cost much to maintain and it is easy to expand. The website is very simple and overall it cost us a one-time setup fee of $500-600 and a yearly maintenance fee of $100 to $150.

VG: Finding low cost solutions to problems is always something we love to feature on the site. But to keep on the issue of scaling, what are the plans for the future?

GR: At this current juncture our first priority is to make sure it works. Given that one of the major draws of the site is its ease of use, we do not want to be stuck in a situation where it does not work.

However, looking down the road, I along with Siddarth, Shriram and Ganesh (other founders) have discussed building out a site where we would provide means for individuals to become recipients in educational scholarships.

[TC-I has featured Siksha.org, a peer-2-peer platform intended to provide educational scholarships. To read this Changemaker, click here.]

VG: How do you intend to grow the user base of the website? This seems like a venture that requires widespread adoption to be successful.

GR: Right now we are targeting all the organizations across India who require any kind of help. Let's say I am contacting 1000 organizations, some of them can come to the site and post. That will increase the number of posts in our website. We want to target organizations first, so that there are posts there already when people visit.

In the first month of our launch, we had volunteers contacting organizations such as Yogakshema in Bangalore and Vasantha Memorial Trust in Coimbatore. Another user has commited to donate 500 pens to a NGO run school in rural Tamil Nadu. These are just a few instances where EarnKarma has been able to make a small difference.

VG: Have you thought of providing the opposite of what you are doing now -- I mean allowing individuals post their profiles on what type of volunteering work they wish to do and then organizations can contact them?

GR: This is an interesting idea and not one we have discussed in great detail. However, my concern with the inverted model is that I am unsure if organizations will come to the site with that mindset, but it is definitely something to consider.

VG: Well Gulshan, thank you for talking with our readers today and we wish you and Earnkarma all the best.

Especially for Funk 101. 

There are the wives who while performing their matrimonial duties have the misfortune of being infected by an unfaithful husband, there is the 13 year old who was raped by a group of young lads who didnt have the time to wear a condom, there are the children whose ultimate gift from their mothers is an incurable disease, there is beautiful chic who got it from her boyfriend in uni, there is the sister who got it by sharing her sisters blade. We need to stop seeing HIV as a disease for the poor only, you dont have to be promiscous to be infected, even the most saintly ones of us are at risk. If you're like me who used to doubt the existence of the disease, then think again. It took me a while to actually believe that HIV wasn't some prank the west engineered to scare us something until it hit close to home. Most people would tell you to visit hospitals or care homes to see those struggling with the disease, but i would say look around you. There are lots of people living amongst us with the disease but would rather die in silence than have us judge them which we most likely would. For me, reality struck when a very close family friend was diagnosed with the disease back in Nigeria. No one was more shocked than i was because it was the last thing we were all expecting. She's the sweetest thing God created, quiet, easy going, shy and beautiful. To think she had actually known about it for some time but was too ashamed to tell any member of her family, I cant even imagine how many nights she would cried herself to sleep wallowing in self pity, wishing she could have what might never be hers and wondering how her family would react if they ever found out and believe me, finding out wasn't easy. Its very easy to advocate for non discrimination of people living with the disease when you dont know anyone who's got it. There are different things that would go through your mind....how? when? where? why her? everyone wanted to be there for her but the fear was overwhelming. I cant possibly imagine what agony the entire family would have gone through but I am glad today that they've managed to move on and with good treatment and the love of a family and friends that truly care, she lives a perfectly normally life now and dares to dream of a life filled with children and a husband.....yes a husband! Some people aren't that lucky and we can only hope and pray that they do get the love and support they deserve.

I envy those that are bold enough to go for tests to find out their health status. Most people would tell you that having an HIV test was the scariest thing they've ever had to do and i can tell you....its a life changing experience. The truth is that no matter how scared we are of what lies ahead, we must at one time or the other confront our fears because going for a test is the only way to know if you've got cancer or any other disease. If more women got their mamograms earlier, if we did the causual tests more often, the rate of spread would reduce. The most common cancer now is cervical cancer which is more prevalent amongst young women most of whom get to find out they have it when they're rying to have babies. Even though the test is easy, i did not get one until recently and i was virtually hauled to the hospital to do it but i was glad i did, there's just something about hospitals and tests that scares the hell outta me, however, every woman who's of child bearing age MUST have this test done so that treatment can start early.

I have been doing some volunteering for cancer research UK and what I have experienced is something i might never be able to desribe here or anywhere else, there are amazing people who are struggling for their lives from this horrible disease and the strenght and determination that they have is phenominal. Today was another race for life event and it gave me hope to see women of all ages, races and status coming together to run 5 km to raise money for cancer research. My heart goes out to those who have lost their loved ones to cancer, even though they are gone, their families keep their memories alive by joining in the fight against the disease and the search for a cure. You can never understand until you listen to the survivors, their fight and the victory thay have had only makes tem stronger, what doesn't kill you they say can only make you stronger. The bravest of them all, are those who even though have lost the battle refuse to be cast down by cancer, they will enjoy every sunshine, graduation party, weddings, birthdays and everything else life has to offer while they can.

Ofcourse, the amazing works of organisations like cancer research would not be possible without all the amazing men and women who volunteer their time to raise money for research and keep the donations in kind coming. It feels so good doing something for others in return and while its easy to make up reasons why you're too busy to help, you'ld be amazed to find how much you're capable of doing once you've put your mind to it. 

I'll leave you with this, the next time you feel like complaining about how wretched and messed up your life is.....just think about those who are barely holding on to dear life out there and you'll thank God for little mercies.

We have been invited by Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard assistant director, Stephanie Solomon, to volunteer at one of MHC’s organic gardens (the Crestmont Community Garden) this Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m.  Family and friends are also welcome. 

Here’s a little bit about the MHC gardens:

“MHC’s Community Gardening Program promotes self-reliance by teaching people an economical way to grow healthy food right in their own backyards.   In this innovative program, MHC teaches our low-income patrons the life-skill of organic gardening.  Our patrons plant, tend, and harvest produce that goes directly to the MHC food pantry and to their kitchens.  Over the 7 years of this program, MHC staff & volunteers have raised over 10,000 pounds of organic produce for the MHC food pantry.”

For more information: http://mhcfoodpantry.org/indexevents.html

Please e-mail me if you’d like to come, so I can let Stephanie know how many of people to expect. If you plan to drive, let me know so we can organize carpools.

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Speaking of Bulgaria, I think I need to write at least one blog post about the orphans in Bulgaria. Recently there have been quite a lot of international media outcries about the plight of the orphans in Bulgaria. The 'original' documentary was BBC's 'Bulgaria's abandoned children'. Here it is, but I think all viewers should bear in mind that Bulgaria's government is actively working to better conditions at orphanages, and many volunteers go to help these 'abandoned' (I think this word is way too strong for this case) children.

Recently, a French documentary also came out about the plight of Bulgarian orphans.

Bulgaria's government, though, is trying to improve the conditions that the children live in:

The support for orphans, living in special homes is going up from BGN 3947 to 5961. The increase would become effective beginning July 1, 2008 and includes all 1461 children living in the specialized homes till they finish 12th grade, but are not older than 20 years of age.

Plus, the dedication of people like Hyeon make me very optimistic about the whole situation:

This summer, I will be going to one of Plovdiv’s orphanages, Rodopski Pansion, that have been significantly reformed since 2007 through a volunteer organization. The fact that it has opened up to receive help from international volunteers to stay with the orphans who have no relatives to stay with during the summer shows the significant extent of the reforms. Although I know that this is an opportunity for me to help these children who are in need of personal attention, I am still troubled by the thought that there are many more orphanages in more rural villages that don’t even have the bare minimum given to the orphans at Rodopski Pansion.

However, still more needs to be done.  I applaud those helping orphans in need, and I wish the best of luck to them.