A Charitable Retirement

Children stand with Ben Wilson in Vietnam.

DANANG, VIETNAM
Amazing, exhausting, and heart-warming: that's how I would describe my week visiting the programs conducted by Children of Vietnam (COV), the Children’s Culture Connection-represented charity that supports Vietnamese children in need.

Children of Vietnam, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, was started by a man named Ben Wilson as he was facing retirement after a long corporate career. According to Ben, he didn't play golf and was worried that he wouldn't have enough to do to keep busy. So, at 65 years old, he started COV.

After seeing how many ways his organization is impacting the lives of children in need, I can confidently say that Ben does NOT need to worry about being bored.

Zambian caregiver presses Congress for Aids and TB funding

Lister Chingangu outside the Capitol Dome. Courtesy of World Vision.To raise awareness about the tragic impact of HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis (TB), a Zambian caregiver who partners with American organization World Vision has just visited the United States and spoken to members of Congress.

Lister Chingangu asked them to take action swiftly and renew the Global AIDS, TB and Malaria Bill, a bipartisan legislation worth USD 50 billion that was first passed in 2003 to fund programs to fight these diseases in poor countries. World Vision has worked with Congress since then to ensure that this funding is protected, but authorization for this bill expires on September 30, 2008.

NEED magazine had the opportunity to speak to Mrs. Chingangu about God Our Help Ministries, the home-based care program that she runs in Lusaka, her hometown in Zambia.

Child Addiction

This post was submitted by photographer Nathan Golden



Street children living at the Howrah Railway Station near Kolkata, India, take care of themselves and each other in an otherwise uncaring environment. I was moved by their ability to generate a community and to survive. They represent tremendous potential that is wasted and in danger of being lost altogether.

Helping Families Transform Their Futures

Inspired by the Bible verse “seek the wellbeing of the city,” Rev. Michael J. O’Connell launched the Jeremiah Program in 1998. Its mission was to help single mothers and their children in Minneapolis, Minnesota move from poverty to a better future.

The program’s successes are quantifiable. For example, most women who enter the program with a high school diploma or GED are earning an average wage of $8 per hour at that time. Two and a half years later, when they graduate with an associate or four-year degree and leave the Jeremiah program, they earn $15 on average. There are plenty of non-quantifiable successes as well. How do you measure the self esteem developed by enhancing one’s life skills? How do you measure what stability means to a child who is now doing well in school?

The program is rigorous. In addition to attending school part-time and working part-time, participants go to biweekly meetings about life skills. The topics range from parenting to healthy relationships to budgeting to academic success. Program participants have a “coach” with whom they meet regularly to evaluate their progress towards their goals. Along with the affordable and safe housing on campus, there is a licensed child development center. The center provides safe and nurturing childcare that prepares children for school. Participants also have access to an employment task force.

Birthday presents for kids in need

Six-year-old Mike, living in a shelter, thought only other people had birthdays. He had never celebrated one because his family could never afford it. Cheerful Givers was founded to make sure parents like Mike’s always have a gift to mark their child’s birthday.

While visiting a food shelf in 1994, Robin Maynard-Steele met distraught parents trying to find something special, like a box of cereal or a can of fruit, to give their children. Recognizing an unmet need, she founded Cheerful Givers to give parents living in poverty a helping hand. Since then, with one full-time staff member and volunteers nationwide, the organization has filled birthday bags for thousands of children. It will fill its 300,000th birthday gift bag on May 18.

Street Kids of Kolkata

This post was submitted by photographer Soham Gupta





Kolkata has 60,000 homeless people who live on pavements without even a thatched roof over their heads. Half are children. To these street kids, the streets of Calcutta are their home, their playground and their future. They were born here, they will marry here and they will have their own kids here.

Giving Back

Posted by Rhea Datta on June 4th 2009 in Organizations, Volunteers Edit



After most people travel to exotic destinations, they simply post pictures online and send thank you cards to their hosts. Not Heather Burkland. As a junior at Macalester College in 2002, Heather traveled to Cameroon to study for a semester. There she was overwhelmed by the generosity and hospitality shown by her host family and the communities she studied in. Despite meager resources and limited funds, all the Cameroonian people she met were eager to open their homes to the American students.

Heather met Michelle Wilson in the same program. The young women shared an observation — that there were not enough educational resources for Cameroonian youth to complete their academic aspirations.

Upon their return to the US, Heather and Michelle provided their host family and friends with financial support, but soon realized that in order to make a significant change for their friends they would have to spread their message. Opportunity Africa was born from their desire to increase their outreach. The nonprofit’s mission is to provide Cameroonian students from disadvantaged backgrounds with scholarships and other educational resources. Armed with a belief that education can open doors for a better understanding of family (and community) health and greater earning potential, Heather and Michelle created a forum where people can provide monetary support to deserving Cameroonian youth.

Homeless in Argentina

This post was submitted by photographer Toby Binder


Roque lives with his family under a bridge in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. They have been homeless for five years now.




Habitat for Humanity Argentina. Volunteers work with local leaders and families to build homes for people in need of housing.

Gold, the Money Stone

Miners descend down narrow holes nearly 400 feet deep to pull gold-laden quartz rock out.

Small-scale gold mining in Africa is dangerous and illegal. Men, women and children who are poor get caught in this profession in hopes of escaping poverty and building a better life.

“The Money Stone” is a feature-length documentary that sheds light on the realm of small-scale gold mining. The story is told through perspective of three young men surviving in the conflict-ridden world of galamsey—life as a local miner in Ghana. This underground industry affects not only the miners, but millions worldwide.

“The main challenge of this film is to deal with the complexity of different issues that affect small-scale mining communities in a way that will make sense, as well as to balance the viewpoints of the various stakeholders,” says producer Paula Ely.

Rancho Sordo Mudo School For Deaf Children

This post was submitted by photographer Alex Espinosa



In my experience as a photographer, I have worked with NGOs in 16 countries in Latin America. The majority of these organizations do humanitarian projects with children in diverse areas such as human rights, health and migration.



The children they assist have suffered seriously in their lives, for which reason it is crucial to act with great sensitivity around them. Most recently I took photographs for Rancho Sordo Mudo, a free residential school for deaf children in Baja California, Mexico.



Working with the children of Rancho Sordo Mudo gave me personal experience on being unable to communicate with others. In other places I have been, even when working with children who didn’t speak my language, laughter and gestures allowed me to develop a relationship with them.

Abduct Yourself | FREEING THE CHILD SOLDIERS

April 25, 2009, an organization called Invisible Children is asking that you “abduct yourself.” People in more than 100 cities across the world have already signed up and agreed to do just that. The free 30 minute movie “The Rescue of Joseph Kony’s Child Soldiers” tells why this action is being taken.

The movie was put together by three friends: Bobby, Jason and Laren, who went to Africa in search of a story and an adventure. They ended up in Uganda, and while driving one day, witnessed local townspeople escaping to the next town to avoid rebels from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). Hundreds of children were hiding together in abandoned buildings. The filmmakers talked to these children and could hardly believe what they heard. Children were being abducted while sleeping at night. They were being forced to be soldiers and to resist the rebels meant instant death.