Rumble: Play to Help

70% of a human being is made up of water. Water is the second most essential element for survival, after oxygen.

Over one billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water; hence, causing them to develop deadly diseases.

One cup of water can make a difference. Free Poverty allows you to donate as many cups of water as you can through an online game. Answer correctly to a question on geography and you donate the cost of "10 cups of water". I donated 347 cups in less than 5 minutes. And you?

PS: Have you tried FreeRice? How many cups of rice did you donate today?

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News: Bill Clinton - Charity only goes this far.

Former US president Bill Clinton has garnered hundreds of millions of dollars for his charitable foundation, which provides AIDS medicines, health-care services, and agriculture assistance in Africa and elsewhere.

The Clinton Foundation is one of the most successful fund-raising organizations in the US. Bill Clinton biggest accomplishment as a philanthropist has been to convince pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of AIDS and malaria medicines for impoverished regions of the world.

Now that Ms Hillary Clinton has been offered the post of "Secretary of State" in Obama's upcoming government, the Clintons are in a bind.. Why? Well the contacts Mista Clinton has and should have for his philanthropic work, might conflict with interests of state, which Missas Clinton stands for.

There is already an uproar in the US charitable world as Mista Clinton has turned over more than 200,000 names of donors who have given to his nonprofit group, a move he has resisted in the past, promising anonymity...

What’s more, Mista Clinton is expected to divorce himself from the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual meeting of world leaders, wealthy philanthropists, and celebrities. It is unclear how the conference would continue without Mista Clinton. Since it started in 2005, Mista Clinton says the meeting has generated $46-billion in charitable commitments. (Full)

Picture courtesy Evaluation

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News: FreeRice is Yahoo's Find of the Year 2007.

In November we reported on FreeRice.com, a free, innovative and addictive online vocabulary game. FreeRice donates twenty grains of rice to development projects each time you nominate the correct synonym. In it first three months, the website visitors have assembled a total donation of 13 billion grains of rice! And the website has been nominated Yahoo's Finds of the year 2007 winner in the charitable class.

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News: Would You Not Pay US$10?

Well, it seems at the end of the year, loads of charity rallies are held. It shows that each of us can help. Nothing seems beyond our capacity to help or our ingenuity finding new and fun ways to assist the less-fortunate.

Every year, Food Bloggers from all over the world join together for a fundraising campaign. They are led by Pim, a popular food critic and author of the Chez Pim blog (Picture left). They call the campaign "Menu For Hope".
Last year, they raised $60,925.12 by raffling culinary rarities.

This year "Menu for Hope" raised funds to support a WFP-run school lunch program in Lesotho. The food for the lunches is bought directly from local farmers who practice conservation farming methods. They help feed the kids (which keeps them in school) and support their parents and community farming as well. Sustainable development they call it. ;-)

Some examples of this year's culinary rarities were:

• Private live episode of Wine Library TV (editor: I guess ...)
• Edible Paris custom food itinerary (editor: edible, hey?)
• Foodie week-end with Fanny (Picture on right) in Paris (editor: Hey, I speak French. And have 10$. Here, have 20$, Hell, take everything I have!)
• Tea time at La Cocotte (editor: "La Cocotte" means "The sweetheart". So I guess I'll take that as well. ok. That is 4!)
• Chris Cosentino (of The Next Iron Chef and Incanto) takes you to lunch on delectable bits at his favorite secret restaurant in San Francisco (Editor: Ok, I will skip that one.)
• Review with Stephen Downes, one of Australia's most experienced restaurant critics
• Dinner with Sigrid (Picture on the right) in Roma (Editor: Hey, I live in Roma!! And I have US$10. Can I still bid?)
• Contigo Conmigo: 4-course dinner for 8 at Contigo chef Brett Emerson's house in San Francisco (Editor: For eight! Cool! Have not had one of those for a long time!)
• One-Night Package at the Vermont Culinary Inn (Editor: Vermont, here I come!!!)
• ...

Each virtual raffle ticket went for US$10. This year, they raised a total of $90,286. Well done, and no wonder!

Thanks to BlackLooks.org and The Other World News for the intial links

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News: Dubai Raises US$1 billion During a Public Fund Raiser

"Dubai Cares", a public fund raising rally collected close to $500 million USD from the public in just eight weeks. Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum matched that an equal donation. That makes close to $1 billion USD.
Based on a long-term strategy of investing in community-based, education programmes, "Dubai Cares" will use the donations to build and renovate schools, train teachers, promote gender equality in education, provide teaching materials, offer scholarships, organize school feeding programmes and establish annual medical check- ups for students in some of the poorest countries in the world.
“I now ask the United Nations to follow Dubai's model of charity work. We are leading the march for human welfare,” said Sheikh Mohammed, who had launched the fundraising drive on September 19 with the aim of helping the United Nations reach its goal of providing primary education to every child by 2015. (full article)

Picture courtesy 7days. Thanks to E. for the link
For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News

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News: Dubai is The Biggest. Even in Charity!

The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is giving US$10bn (ten billion US dollars...) to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East.
The money is meant to improve the standard of education and research in the region, and aims to stimulate job creation.
It is thought to be one of the largest charitable donations in history. (Full article)

And don't give me any crap about oil revenue etc... Oil is only 10% of Dubai's income. Commerce and tourism count for about 80% of the BNP. Talk about vision instead !

(Link sent to me by Peter Scott-Bowden. Tnx Peter! )
For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News

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