First events blog of December! Plenty of ways to meet our non-profits coming up …

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (545 7th Street SE)

Free Tango Practica! Tango dancers of all levels have an opportunity to practice, collaborate, and learn in a collective space on Friday at 7:00 PM.

WSC Avant Bard (at Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA)

Last chance! The one-evening adaptation of Shakespeare’s enthralling history plays Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2, closes this weekend. Catch it on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 PM. Tickets right here.
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Happy (almost) Halloween, Greater Washington! Before trick-or-treating on Monday, consider spending a weekend day with one of our non-profits. We have great events coming up at …

Earth Sangha (at Rocky Run Stream Valley Park, Awbrey Patent Drive, Centreville, VA)

Enrich this stream-buffer site with a planting of native wildflowers and other herbaceous & small woody plants around Rocky Run on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. More volunteer info available here.

Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture (at Glen Echo Park’s Bumper Car Pavilion, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, MD)

“Fall Frolic” is a FREE public Halloween-themed festival on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Activities include hands-on crafts, face painting, pumpkin decorating, costume parade, and studio visits. Full schedule right here.

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DC’s Salvadoran community aiding flood victims (Washington Post Local): “Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran communities in the Washington area have been collecting cash, new clothes and medicine to help flooding victims in Central America. Ten days of heavy rains this month destroyed crops and towns. According to the Associated Press, 105 people were killed in the deluge, which topped 60 inches. [Comunidades Transnacionales Salvadorenas Americanas] is partnering with the nonprofit CARECEN and other Hispanic organizations to raise money for the victims of the flooding.” Let us know if you’re involved!

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By Jade Floyd

This is the second post in a two-part series by Jade Floyd. Ms. Floyd works in international public affairs in DC and serves on the Board of the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative. Follow her on Twitter: @DcThisWeek. Read the first part of the series here.

Preparing for an international volunteer experience can be daunting. But paying for it is the hardest part — and once you have tackled that, you are well on your way. (And remember: keep all you receipts because many of these expenses can be tax deducible.) My program required nearly $6,000 when you factored in program fees, flights, buses, immuniztions, taxis, supplies, gifts for family and friends, hotels, guest houses, and gifts for myself. Luckily, I had a very good friend who worked for an airline, which made a major difference. You can also consider using your Airline miles or those of a family member or friend if they will donate them to your cause. Read all »

By Jade Floyd

This is the first post in a two-part series by Jade Floyd. Ms. Floyd works in international public affairs in Washington, DC and serves on the Board of CFP non-profit DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, a non-profit devoted to providing free arts education experiences for DC public school students and teachers. Follow her on Twitter: @DcThisWeek.

International Volunteering

My arrival to Bangkok was filled with trepidation and butterflies. I thought to myself on the plane that I was completely nuts and had lost my senses. Had I just flown around the world to a country where I knew no one to volunteer with children for a month teaching them art? Surely they had perfectly good teachers there who could give them instruction. I had spent months planning for this international volunteer program. From the onset, I knew that I wanted to partake in a program that focused on children. And after serving for four years on the board of directors for a DC-based arts education nonprofit, two years volunteer teaching at a children’s art center for two, and countless hours fundraising for similar organizations, I decided it was time to take a plunge and expand my reach outside of the US.

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On July 17, 1998, the Rome Statue took effect, leading to the creation of the International Criminal Court. Yesterday, July 17, marked the 13th annual International Justice Day. As David Tolbert wrote for Al Jazeera English:

As we acknowledge International Justice Day on July 17, calls for accountability for human rights abuses resound across the globe, from Cairo to Washington, from Bogota to Kinshasa, from Srebrenica to Colombo. The demands for justice are today a driving force of social change and popular revolutions, and their reach now extends to those at the highest levels of power. Those leaders have, from time immemorial, been deemed untouchable and often afforded immunity in furtive and shabby deals that shielded them from prosecution “for the sake of peace”. That day is passing.

[ ...]

It is essential the past be confronted, the truth be told, victims’ injuries be redressed and steps be taken to ensure institutions that perpetrated crimes — such as the police and military — be reformed. Thus, in addition to the work of international and national courts, broader justice strategies are essential in transitional societies.

It’s a straightforward point, yet a profound challenge: when a crime cannot be prosecuted, or a trial is not enough, how can we assure that injuries are redressed? And moreover, how can we ensure that voices are heard, that stories are told?

This week, let’s meet … Sarah Leavitt, Digital Outreach Manager of the Lambi Fund of Haiti! Based on the premise that Haitians themselves understand how development is best achieved in their own communities, Lambi Fund supports small-scale economic development projects that are conceived, implemented, and evaluated by community-based organizations.

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

The Lambi Fund of Haiti just launched an exciting new partnership with a coffee cooperative in Northwestern Haiti. I find this to be an incredibly promising program because we are working with 51 coffee farming groups (with 805 members in all), who are working together to increase coffee production and sales in their region. For the duration of this project, Lambi Fund will work with these coffee producers to modernize their processing plant and to increase outputs during harvests.

In the first phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of a coffee pulper and help the co-op build a glasi (drying surface) which will help improve the efficiency and quality of the co-op’s coffee processing methods. In the second phase, Lambi Fund will fund the purchase of 20,000 lbs. of coffee. Coffee purchased from growers will be processed and placed in a storage facility (to be built) and then sent to sell in international markets. Lambi Fund will also provide 25,000 coffee seedlings and 6,000 shade trees along with the funding and supplies needed to build a tree nursery. This will significantly increase the amount of coffee being grown by farmers in the region.

Throughout the entire duration of this project, we will also be providing training on technical and managerial aspects to co-op members that will ensure program success. Training on modernized coffee processing methods along with project management, and tree nursery care and maintenance will be provided. Its programs like these that really excite me — we are working hand-in-hand with communities to improve their means for agricultural production, increasing the value of goods and strengthening economic opportunities for entire regions in Haiti. Read all »

Given the volume of coverage over the past few days (260 articles in my latest Google-powered count), I thought that I should touch upon the recent “rare and remarkable” interview that the UK’s Daily Mail landed with Bill Gates.

The most oft-quoted element of the interview, it appears, concerns his three children’s inheritence. Deducting the $28 billion donated to charity, Gates is now worth $56 billion. Yet his children “aren’t going to inherit anything like that much [as he doesn't] think that amount of money would be good for them.” He also added that he has denied their requests for iPods and that they own the Windows equivalent. A Zune music player, if you are curious. But overall, as the Wall Street Journal blog Tech Europe summed up: “What did we learn? Sadly not a huge amount.”

That said, the WSJ latched on to this particular quotation, as did the Huffington Post:

I don’t want a legacy. [...] I want a malaria vaccine. If we get one then we’ll have to find the money to give it to everyone, but the impact would be so huge we would find a way. Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied. What I’m doing now involves understanding maths, risk-taking. The first half of my life was good preparation for the second half. Read all »

Welcome to Wednesday! Let’s poke though the non-profit-related news …

Arts groups fight proposed ticket tax in DC — And you can too! Mayor Gray has proposed a 6% tax on tickets to arts (theater, dance, music) events in his 2012 Budget. The Washington Post reports that “arts groups say they will lose audience members and revenue with an added tax on tickets [and] it will have a ripple effect on other businesses, such as restaurants.” Check out the above link to learn what you can do.

Despite Recession, Global Giving Abounds — On Monday, PR Newswire reported that “for the first full year of the global recession private giving to the developing world has remained remarkably stable,” according to the new 2011 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittance from the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity. For the US, aid to developing nations in fact rose slightly between 2008 and 2009 by about half a percent.

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Welcome to the first Wednesday of the (hopefully not too) rainy month! We have a bundle of CFP non-profit news coming your way …

Congratulations to five non-profit leaders — Last night, the winners of the 2010 Exponent Awards were honored by the Meyer Foundation. And of those winners, four are the leaders of CFP non-profits: Jean-Michel Giraud of Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place, Layli Miller-Muro of Tahirih Justice Center, Scott Schenkelberg of Miriam’s Kitchen (check out his “7 Questions” interview!), and Adam Tenner of Metro TeenAIDS. Many, many congratulations! You can also check out the Washington Post’s earlier coverage of the award announcement.

Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power — Check out this cool discussion of bilingual families from Monday’s Morning Edition: “Judy and Paul Szentkiralyi both grew up bilingual in the US, speaking Hungarian with their families and English with their peers. When they first started dating, they spoke English [but] when things turned serious they did something unusual — they decided to switch to Hungarian” for their children. Additionally, several CFP non-profits, such as the Latin American Montessori Bilingual PCS, are also strong evidence for the power in bilingual education!

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