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Nominate someone to be the feature of an upcoming ONE department.

The ONE department answers the question, “I am just one person, what can I do?” Each issue of NEED highlights a single individual’s humanitarian work.

Now NEED magazine is looking to YOU to find incredible individuals who are making a difference in the lives of others.

Click the banner below for more.

Second Anniversary of Hurrican Katrina.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina brought to its knees the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans still bears many signs of misery and neglect, and it has only partly recovered from the shocking disaster.

Walking around the city, what really grabs one's attention is the almost eerie emptiness that fill every street.

Of a pre-hurricane population of about 500,000 people, only half have come back when waters were finally pumped out of the city, and this reflects heavily on every aspect of urban life.

Roads designed to allow a large number of vehicles to cruise from one side of the city to the other bypassing the narrow streets of the French Quarter have almost totally lost their functions.

So traffic is sparse and the array of parking lots and ramps have become mostly redundant; buildings lie empty and disused, often too badly damaged for their owners to fix; hundreds of businesses have never reopened.


Far from downtown New Orleans, on the other side of the Industrial Canal, the Lower 9th Ward was one one of the worst affected areas.

In just a few hours after the levees broke, it was submerged under 22 feet of water that washed away all that was on its path: houses, cars, street signs, and people.

Almost nothing was left standing.

Here, a local relief organization that was created to give immediate help to those who could not leave the city is still at work to rebuild and bring some hope to people’s lives.

In the past two years Common Ground Relief (CGR) has raised $2.5 million USD and helped about 170,000 people during the emergency and afterwards.

Today, CGR provides free legal help, Internet access, and health services from various locations scattered around the city. A network of 150 volunteers is available to assist in rebuilding and gutting houses.

NEED magazine has covered their relief effort on several occasions, along with the work of many other organizations that have done so much to restore hope and help people rebuild their lives.


To find out more and read past coverage, visit the magazine's website. Photostory on NEED's PBase.

Issue 3 is on the way!!

The 3rd Issue of NEED magazine is being printed this week and should soon be in the hands of all our subscribers! This issue will also be carried in select Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores, as well as independent bookstores, food co-ops, and Whole Foods stores.

The issue explores topics including child labor, clean water solutions, and strategies to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis. It also includes a telling pictorial by photographer Ron Haviv about the daily struggles in Darfur.

We hope that it informs and inspires you; and that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Spread Hope!

-Liz-

On the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, MN., August 1, 2007.

People often tells me that being in the right place at the right moment is paramount, especially in my line of work, i.e. journalism.

Indeed, several times in the past I have found myself thinking about it while researching and writing a story, usually mildly cursing the adverse luck that kept me from being were the hard news was.

What I could not expect was that the above statement would become true within my first 24 hours in the city I will call home for the next month, Minneapolis, MN.

My name is Daniele Bora, a London-based, Italian journalist and photographer, who has just started a 4-week-long internship with NEED Magazine. I usually live in England where I study for a BA (Hons) in Human Rights, but I have been traveling across the US since the beginning of July, visiting New York, Charlotte, NC., and New Orleans.

I arrived in Minnesota less than two days ago, Tuesday, July 31. On day one, I took some time to rest after 40-odd hours spent aboard Greyhound buses, and clocked in at NEED's headquarter early in the morning on August 1. At the end of a first day mainly dedicated to introductions, I had the opportunity — journalistically speaking a true treasure trove — to document the collapse of one of the bridges that crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, which is now all over the news, nationwide and abroad.

It was just past 6 o'clock of a particularly warm evening. I was having a drink a few hundred yards away from where the disaster happened, but I did not realize what was going on until a couple of girls came rushing onto the 'al fresco' terrace where I was sitting, sharing the few bits of information they had.

I immediately got onto my bike, and rode to a nearby bridge where I saw the scene as it appeared just a few minutes after the shocking event. But | felt I wasn't close enough, so, doing my best to find my way in a city that is completely new to me, I finally got to a better vantage point, the bridge on 10th Avenue, right next to the fallen one.

The area was already cordoned off by Police and swarming with onlookers, but I managed to negotiate a good spot from which I started shooting as many pictures as I could, and also a few videos.

The adrenaline was high and kept me going — until late into the night as a matter of fact — but every now and then I found myself resting my finger to stare in awe at the scene that was unfolding right in front of my eyes.

As I have mentioned, I am not familiar with Minneapolis, but I have been told that the interstate Route 35W, an eight-lane highway that cut the city in two, is a major traffic artery that over 140,000 vehicles use everyday. I myself used it on my very first day in town, driving with some friends from the Dinky Town area to uptown, and than back.

Early reports put the number of injures to at least 60, with between six and nine fatalities. While still on the scene, I also heard rumors saying that about 60 vehicles were on that part of the highway when it fell down, a piece of information that made me wonder where they all ended up, since I could see no more than a dozen.

Cars, trucks and also a schoolbus were perched on dangerously slanted sections of the bridge, some others were half-sunk into the Mississippi. A lorry was on fire.

My recollection stops here, the moment I left the scene with these images in my mind, and the loud noises of sirens, helicopters and people shouting orders still hurting my hears as I am writing this post. I left because Police were starting to get edgy even with us members of the press, but also because I wanted to upload my images and video as soon as possible, and spread my personal account of the day over the Internet.

A complete set of photographs can be found on my Flickr account, and I uploaded three videos on Youtube.



Daniele Bora
+1 612 481 24 44
daniele@needmagazine.com

NEED Events

Recently NEED magazine has had the opportunity to be a part of some really cool events in the humanitarian world:

On June 10-12 we were at the extremely unique PUSH conference in downtown Minneapolis. The PUSH Conference is designed for business leaders, policymakers, brand and R&D executives as well as venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, artists and others who are charged with shaping the future and leading the marketplace of ideas. The two-and-a-half day PUSH Conference is presented by the PUSH Institute, a Twin Cities-based non-profit think tank devoted to the study of change and future.

On June 22 we were at the public reception for The Lost Boys of Sudan exhibit at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery on the University of Minnesota Campus. Running from June 19-July 23 The Lost Boys of Sudan is as a one-of-a- kind collection created by young Sudanese refugee artists living in Camp Kakuma in Kenya. The pieces, vibrant in color, depict the lush Sudanese countryside and its rich culture. On the other hand, paintings are often startling in the way they portray the atrocities of war.

We donated two NEED magazine subscriptions to the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights 2007 Human Rights Awards Dinner on June 19th. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights. With the help of the more than 600 active volunteers who contribute an estimated $3.4 million annually of in-kind services, Minnesota Advocates documents human rights abuses, advocates on behalf of individual victims, educates on human rights issues, and provides training and technical assistance to address and prevent human rights violations.

Lastly we donated a couple hundred magazines to be part of Photographer Scott Harrison's event promoting his organization Charity: Water. Charity: is a nonprofit organization stimulating greater global awareness about extreme poverty, educatingthe public, and provoking compassionate and intelligent giving.

If you know of an organization with humanitarian aims with an upcoming event that you would like to see NEED at please let us know!

Are you a writer/photographer or champion of a great cause?

NEED magazine is offering the chance to create high quality exposure for you and for the cause of your choice through an online auction at http://www.charityfolks.com under the AID Darfur section. The winning bidder will have the opportunity to be a guest writer/photographer, in an upcoming issue, with a story of hope consistent with NEED’s mission, “We are not out to save the world, but to tell the stories of those who are.”

Founded in 2006, NEED is the first independent, secular, non-political magazine focusing on humanitarian efforts. NEED magazine creates exposure for humanitarian aid and honors humanitarian workers via an informative, artistic narrative of human stories and combines imagery from renowned photographers. Newly published NEED magazine is being touted as “LIFE magazine for a new generation”; its third issue will be distributed in late August.

Hurry, the auction closes on July 5th at 6:05 pm EST.

The AID Darfur campaign is sending 100% of the auction proceeds directly to the field where UNHCR is working to provide life-saving assistance to the victims of the conflict in Darfur.

Thank you,
Stephanie Kinnunen
Editor in Chief
NEED Magazine