NEED | FROM THE EDITOR

“More magazines and other forms of media should focus on the positive as much as NEED does – I think the world would be a better place.”

The problems of poverty, natural disaster, war, social injustice and human suffering around the globe seem too immense for any one person to have an impact. I always thought that I needed unlimited resources to make the world a better place. Believing this prevented me from acting at all. Not long ago, I realized that my inaction was nonsensical. By simply focusing on what I can do, rather than on what I can’t, potential ways to help became visible. Here are four simple things we can all do.

GROCERY STORE
Each time you go to the grocery store, buy kids’ fruit snacks and healthy treats to put into the store’s food shelf donation box. If your grocery store does not have a donation box, talk to the manager to get one there. You can’t image the joy that a child gets from these simple treats. Also think about purchasing items that do not require perishable ingredients. It is a sad realization when there is peanut butter but no bread, or macaroni and cheese but no milk.

YOUR OWN CLOSET
Go through your closets looking for items that are in good shape that you no longer use. You can donate these goods to a nonprofit like Goodwill or The Salvation Army, or to shelters in your area.

WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Host a dinner party and tell your friends and family about a nonprofit that you are passionate about. Word of mouth is the best marketing tool for any business!

GIVING GIFTS
Buy gifts that are “BOGO” (Buy one – Get one), like Tom’s Shoes or the BoGo SunLight Solar flashlight. This way, you can give a gift to someone, and then the company gives the same item to someone in poverty. Purchase fair trade items from an organization like Ten Thousand Villages or Fair Indigo. Take a few extra minutes to search for products that benefit others — the time you spend will be worth it!

Sometimes they are hard to see, but opportunities to make a difference are never far away. All we have to do is look.

Spread Hope,
Stephanie Kinnunen
Editor in Chief and Co-Founder

Restoring Sight

This post was submitted by photographer Kaushal Parikh




Cataracts are the most common cause of partial and complete blindness in India. Few facilities in rural areas have the means to complete the simple surgery it takes to remove cataracts.



Every year a charitable organization called iCare organizes a cataract eye camp at the Baba Amtes ashram in the small town of Anandwan. At the camp, two renowned cataract surgeons from Mumbai spend a week operating on more than one thousand villagers, including lepers and children.

Striving Toward Change

Posted by Anthony Wald



Give Us Wings is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of humanitarian work in Kenya and Uganda. This grassroots organization’s success hinges on the relationship that it has developed with the people of Kenya and Uganda. From listening to people describe their lives and their needs, GUW evolved into an organization that restores and builds houses, started a clinic, and helps provide 20,000 people with clean water. Impressive accomplishments for an organization that grew out of listening to stories of struggle.

The events that led to its founding began in 1998 when Mary Steiner, now the director of Give Us Wings, volunteered in eastern Africa. After completing her volunteer commitment, Mary stayed in Africa to develop a book about behavior guidance for school-age children in the US. The story shifted when a local boy, Abdul, asked what she was writing about. She told him, and he said, “Why not write about children here?” Mary responded, “I don’t know anything about children here, but write me your story and maybe I will.” Upon reading Abdul’s story she was struck by his directness. She says, “Bam it hit me—this is what poverty looks like.”

Mary decided to compile a book of narratives about living with poverty. She explains, “The intense need and poverty in Africa can be overwhelming, but once people hear these stories, they’ll get it, they’ll respond.” Finding people willing to tell their stories was easy. “I just started doing this trust dance with people. Letting them know I was collecting stories,” she says. “I had no money to give them, and people just started lining up.”

The Women of the Swamp

This post was submitted by photographer Benjamin Alexandrovich Guez



Under a grey sky and light rain, the bus bounced across a potholed highway. The road to the port city of Tumaco, Colombia winds through mountains and lowland jungles. Upon entering the intricate chain of neighborhoods of Tumaco, I saw houses dangling on wooden supports above the polluted water. It was obvious that I had arrived in a city where a large portion of the population has been affected by war and displaced from other locations. I had travelled here to photograph the women who collect a shellfish called “piangua.”





“Piangueras” scavenge their way through the swampy mangroves looking for mussels. Traditionally each village along the inner waterways of the departments of Chocó, Valle de Cauca, Cauca and Nariño has had its own handful of piangueras to cater to local dietary needs. Although the historically undeveloped region has ample fertile soil, many have had to abandon their plots due to armed violence, and most piangueras today are displaced farmers living around Tumaco. Usually women of African descent, they range from very young girls to old women. Most of this back-breaking work is realized by more than one thousand women who are transported from Tumaco to the mangroves in canoes not apt for 20 people, let alone the 39 piangueras I found myself accompanying early the next morning.

Restoring Wounded Warriors

Posted by Adam Hanson on May 21st 2009 in Organizations, Volunteers Edit



In the FUTURE section of the most recent issue of NEED magazine, Issue 6, we profiled the Higher Ground program. Run by Sun Valley Adaptive Sports (SVAS), this program helps wounded soldiers recover from their injuries by bringing them together and teaching them how to engage in various recreation activities. I was really impressed by all the things that SVAS does for these soldiers and their significant others. The videos below show Higher Ground events in action. I hope you will enjoy watching these short videos as much as I did.

Video | Wounded Warrior Water Sports
Video | Sun Valley Adaptive Sports: 2009 Wounded Warrior Snowsports Camp

Sun Valley Adaptive Sports (SVAS)

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.

NEED | New Videos | James Nachtwey Interview

Photojournalist James Nachtwey discusses photojournalism, tuberculosis, his TED wish and inspiring involvement with Stephanie Kinnunen, founder of humanitarian magazine NEED.

Visit XDRTB.org for Nachtwey's images and more information about extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

>> watch the interview

Park Square Theatre Area Premiere | “Friends of NEED magazine” Discount

I recently learned about a play coming to Minneapolis for the first time called “I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady From Rwanda” by Sonja Linden. The play depicts the life of Juliette, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, who moves to London and befriends a local poet. Together they are able to tell the powerful and inspiring tale of Juliette’s experiences amidst the horrors of the Rwandan genocide.

The Park Square Theatre is generously offering $10 off the ticket price to “friends of NEED magazine”. To get the discount use the NEED code “document” when ordering (info below). You will find NEED photographer Paul Corbit Brown's images on exhibit in the lobby.

Take advantage of this discount and then write in and tell us about your experience.

Here are the details:



$10 off* tickets to friends of NEED magazine for:

I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady From Rwanda

AREA PREMIERE
By Sonja Linden
Directed by Warren C. Bowles, Featuring Sonja Parks and Patrick Bailey
April 24 – May 17, 2009

"a stirring tale of human bravery in the face of adversity.” Los Angeles Review

Juliette is a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, now trying to survive a hostile and unfamiliar life in London. She has written a book about the genocide and hopes Simon, a struggling poet and author can help her get it published. Through awkward language barriers and cultural gaps, they don't know quite what to do with their blossoming friendship or with Juliette's writing, until they unlock the poetry of her personal experience. Winner of the Time Out London Critic Choice Award™, this play reminds us of the incredible power of the written word and how from time to time, we need a nudge to see the horrific and the glorious in the world.

*Use code DOCUMENT
Phone: 651.291.7005
Online: www.parksquaretheatre.org

Transaction fees apply. Not valid on previously purchased tickets.

New NEED Videos | Peace Rehabilitation Center

Shanta Sapkota with girls at a skills training center. photo | Kyra Gibson

Formerly trafficked and at-risk girls rediscover family life and freedom at PRC in Nepal. PRC founder Shanta Sapkota discusses

• providing care
• assisting those with HIV
• skills training
• border rescue and patrol
and gives a tour of the main PRC home and garden.

View the videos at needmagazine.com or YouTube and Current