Social Justice


Why social justice means something to me…

God not only has blessed me beyond measure, in every area of my life, but He has broken my heart on more than one occasion.  It’s been the combination of these two seemingly contradicting actions – an overflowing heart combined with a splintered one – that have led me to feel compelled to do something for those who are hurting, specifically those affected by AIDS and those in Africa.  My full and fractured heart are finding their outlets of gratitude and healing more through my small acts of social justice than anything else I’ve done in my life.

And if you feel so compelled, here’s how you can get involved as well.

Check out a quick video recap of my trip to Liberia with Samaritan’s Purse!

Read

  • The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World, Wallis, Haseltine, Beckmann, Smith
  • The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do, Dortzback, Long
  • The Hope Factor: Engaging the Church in the HIV/AIDS Crisis, Yamamori, Dageforde, Bruner

Give

  • Donate your old cell phones. CARE and Collective Good International are working together on a major mobile phone recycling initiative. It’s designed to capture idle mobile phones in North America and redeploy them, solving an environmental problem, raising funds for CARE and bridging the digital divide.
  • Give financially to a family in the process of adoption. See www.shaohannahshope.com and www.lifeintl.org for more information about financial assistance for adoptive families.
  • Drink only water for two weeks. Save all your change for a month. Rent a video instead of going to the movies. Donate that money.

Do

  • Visit the original “click-to-give” Internet site ( http://www.thehungersite.com) started in 1999 to combat hunger one click at a time. Each daily click is free to the visitor, and provides the value of 1.1 cups of staple food. 100% of site advertising is used to feed the hungry through partners Mercy Corps and America’s Second Harvest.
  • Use the search engine www.goodsearch.com. Organizations like Compassion International, Blood:Water Mission, World Relief, World Vision, Oxfam America, Africans Orphaned by AIDS, and Africa AIDS Education & Prevention Organization Sierra Leone Project, among many others, benefit from each search done on their behalf.
  • Volunteer with Feed My Starving Children packing meals. Their approach is simple: volunteers pack nutritious meals made up of rice, soy, vitamins and dehydrated vegetables, and we partner with relief organizations worldwide to distribute these meals to starving children. You can spend donate 2 hours of your time individually, as a family or with your Community Group, and help put together meals that will feed children all over the world.
  • Go to www.compassion.com or www.worldvision.com and choose to sponsor a child (you can even plug in your children’s birthdates and find children who were born on the same day). Then involve them in saving every month for their support (which is only $32 and $35 respectively), and then have them write these children and become pen pals.
  • Head to www.tenthousandvillages.com. Here you’ll find a website filled with beautiful things, everything from jewelry to stationery to toys & games, created by artisans all over the world who will benefit greatly from your business.
  • Visit www.samaritanspurse.org and click on their Gift Catalog. You can donate to this organization in amounts as small as just $4 to provide a needy child with healthy milk for a week or $9 to purchase a packet of seeds for a family in another country to start their own vegetable garden.
  • Go to The Gap. All (PRODUCT) RED items will give 50% of the net proceeds to fighting AIDS in Africa by providing medicine that will help pregnant women prevent the spread of the disease to their babies.
  • Compose a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or to your favorite magazine telling them about an issue that is important to you or highlighting an organization that is doing well in your community or on the other side of the world.
  • Go to http://www.house.gov/, type in your zip code, and you’ll be given your representatives’ names. You can sometimes even email them right then and there. Don’t be intimidated, just tell them what’s on your mind.
  • Join the AIDS Walk for Orphans. Walk 6,000 steps for the 6,000 children orphaned daily on World AIDS Day, December 1.
  • You can give a child a home through international adoption. To learn more about adoption, download Welcome Home: Eight Steps to Adoption, or to explore other information and identify key adoption agencies at www.HopeForOrphans.com; or contact the Adoption Resource Connection at http://www.arc-adopt.org for more information.
  • Go on a missions’ trip. You can go on a construction trip, a medical trip or a trip to help conduct vacation bible school. Taking your family on a mission trip can be life changing. Visit the following websites for more information: www.gainusa.org, www.helporphans.org, www.hopechest.org.

Support

  • www.bloodwatermission.com
    “The 1000 Wells Project is a simple campaign. It is difficult to argue whether or not a person should have clean water. It is also difficult to deny the equation: $1= clean water for 1 person for 1 year.” -Dan Haseltine, Jars of Clay lead singer and co-founder of Blood:Water Mission
  • http://www.compassion.com
    Compassion International is driven to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.  You can sponsor a child through this incredible organization.
  • http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive
    The Hunger Site is the original “click to give” site.  Click each day and donations are made to alleviate hunger around the world.
  • www.one.org
    ONE is the campaign to make poverty history.
  • http://www.samaritanspurse.org
    Samaritan’s Purse is known for their annual Shoebox campaign.  You can find the gift catalog here each Christmas.
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