Today’s organization is working to make a difference for these children.  Forgotten Voices is a United States based non-profit that works through partnerships with churches in Zimbabwe and Zambia.  Their mission is to equip churches in southern Africa to meet ht physical and spiritual needs of children orphaned by AIDS in their communities.

Forgotten Voices was founded in late 2005 by Ryan Keith in response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa.  The organization formed after campfire discussions with Zimbabwean pastors.  At the time there was no other organization partnering with local churches in Zimbabwe and Zambia.  They now partner with dozens of organizations to maximize the resources available.  With each new project, local church leaders are asked to first determine what resources are already available to them through their community, other organizations and churches.  After potential partnerships are identified, Forgotten Voices helps the local leadership explore ways to fill in the gaps that remain to create a sustainable orphan care plan in the community.

The organization focuses on education, home based care, and skill development.  They offer financial support and training to church pastors to prioritize the overwhelming challenges before them.  Projects are run by the church which allows them to have local ownership and limitless possibilities.  Some of the projects have included project management training workshops for over 800 pastors; annual retreats for orphaned children; agricultural training and supplies; grief counseling and support; training for home-based care workers; new wells to provide clean water; community gardens; school fee payments; nutrition programs; and more!

Something else unique about Forgotten Voices is that they don’t take credit for their work whenever possible.  That seems a backwards from how many non-profits operate, but they feel this helps limit dependency and creates ownership, as well as accountability. It also helps position churches to stand on their own after the funding from Forgotten Voices ends.

How can you help? 

There are several volunteer opportunities posted on the Forgotten Voices website.  They are also running a fundraising campaign called Ten Together that encourages groups of 10 people to give $10 a month and donate 10 hours of community service locally.  There is also an option to make a donation directly on the organization’s website.

You can learn more about Forgotten Voices on their website, forgottenvoices.org.  You can also follow their blog and connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) was founded in 1990 by the Project Management Institute (PMI).  It is a nonprofit, non-political, public charitable organization that has adopted the slogan “Empowering the future of project management” to demonstrate its commitment to advancing project management knowledge and the application of project management concepts and theory by society.

PMIEF focuses its work in three areas:

• Building a better prepared workforce through academic scholarships, awards, internships, doctoral research grants, and professional development scholarships.
• Preparing youth for success in life through educational resources, programs, and workshops in project management for youth and their teachers.
• Helping people in need and those struck by disaster by aiding nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations to better utilize their limited resources through PMIEF grants, scholarships, and workshops in project management.

Annually, PMIEF awards over US$400,000 in scholarships, awards, and doctoral research grants.  The scholarships are available to students, teachers, nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations, and project managers.   They also partner with nonprofit organizations to incorporate project management into youth programs, workforce development programs, and teacher training materials.   They offer no cost educational resources for noncommercial use to nonprofits including curricula for youth ages 6 to 20, career resources, training materials for teachers and nonprofits, and materials to build project management skills for life.

PMIEF continues to seek opportunities and partnerships to leverage project management for social good, so if you work with nonprofits or schools, please share this blog post to help them get in contact with resources that the PMI Educational Foundation has to offer.

How can you help?
You can make a donation directly on the foundations website to help them continue to offer their programs free of charge.

If you are interested in learning more about the PMIEF scholarships, you can visit the scholarship page of their website.  Many of the deadlines for application are June 1, so there is still time to apply.

To learn more about the programs that are available through the PMI Educational Foundation, please visit their website, pmief.org.  You can also sign up for their e-mail newsletter and view their most recent edition here.

I encourage each of you to do one thing this week for someone else.  Buy coffee for the next person in line, take cookies to a neighbor, take a meal to someone who lives alone, or scrape the windows of the car next to you in the parking lot (for those in the winter months right now).  If you want even more ideas for kindness, take a look here.

After your random act, stop by to share your story in the comments!

Update: Let’s keep the stories going.  Stop back any day of the year to share your Random Acts of Kindness – either given or received!

In June of 2008, Crys Aigner sat with her very sick daughter Alexa in a hospital room at Children’s Hospital in Dallas.  Alexa, who was wearing a princess outfit, turned to her and said, “Mom, I want to go to a pink park and I want a new pink dress.”  Alexa listed off several more things which her mom promptly wrote on a large piece of paper and hung up in the hospital room with the title, “Things I Want To Do When I Get Better”.  Sadly, a week later Alexa passed away, but that list lived on with her mom.

Crys Aigner founded The Princess Alexa Foundation in August 2008 in memory of her daughter Alexa Aigner, a beautiful 4-year-old girl who loved dressing up to escape the reality of cancer.  The mission of The Princess Alexa Foundation is to build that pink park and to carry Alexa’s love of dress up to other kids like her.  The foundation celebrates the childhood spirit of seriously ill children through dress up and play.  The key word there is “celebrate”- every day of life for these children should be celebrated and that is the main idea the organization wants to promote.

They are based in Keller, Texas, so that is where they are planning to build Alexa’s pink park.  They have given the park the name “Remember to Play” park and even have some concept drawings for a wheelchair accessible park.  You can see the drawing as well as a list of sponsors here.

The playground is just one of the programs offered by this organization.  They also collect donations for several Dress Up Closets around the state of Texas.  These closets allow seriously ill children staying in the hospital to pick out and keep a dress up outfit.  In addition, the Dress Up Delivery program allows people to request a Dress Up Delivery for a sick child and it will be shipped right to their door.

How can you help?

They are always in need of new costumes and accessories for boys and girls in sizes 2 through 10.  You can mail donations to the PO Box listed on their website.

They also accept cash donations either for the playground or their dress up program via PayPal.

You can learn more about The Princess Alexa Foundation at their website, princessalexafoundation.org.  There are some great videos on their website, including one featuring a fun dress up party at a local hospital.  You can also connect with them on Facebook or via e-mail.

In 1987, Joe Cavanaugh heard the question, “there are kids who make fun of me every day, can you do anything to stop them?” from a 10^th grade girl and he took her question seriously.  Since then, Cavanaugh built an organization based on the idea of fostering safe, positive school communities where students and educators can thrive emotionally, socially and, therefore, academically.

Youth Frontiers is a Minneapolis, Minnesota based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that partners with schools to build cultures of respect where students thrive socially, emotionally and academically. They facilitate retreat programs on the values of kindness, courage, respect and responsibility.  Founder and CEO Joe Cavanaugh states, “We are not succeeding as a society if our children receive an ‘A’ in Math… and an ‘F’ in life.”

There are approximately 2.7 million students who face bullying at school every day.  Youth Frontiers is making a difference!  So far, the organization has served more than one million youth across the country, with the vision to change the way young people treat each other in every hallway, lunch line and classroom of every school in America so that today’s young people can make tomorrow’s world better.

To accomplish their mission, Youth Frontiers offers retreat programs for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. These interactive programs are designed to have the greatest possible impact and function as a catalyst for getting students to care about character. The retreats are developmentally appropriate for each age group and take into account what stressors and issues kids may be facing at school.

The programs can be described as MTV-meets-Aristotle days, featuring loud music, team-building activities, small-group dialogues, powerful presentations and large-group sharing times. Led by professional actors, musicians and youth workers, Youth Frontiers knows how to “speak kid” in a way that students understand, and challenges students to think deeply about their character and behavior.

These retreats enhance social-emotional learning competencies like empathy, perspective-taking and conflict resolution.  Eight of ten students believe that since participating in the Kindness Retreat, their peers are more likely to help someone who is being picked on.  After the Respect Retreat, more students reported feeling a part of their school than before the retreat.  And in focus groups, students reported the retreat leaders’ storytelling and other students’ remarks during the retreat’s closing activity helped them gain perspective.

Youth Frontiers retreats are just one piece of a school’s network of support.  Comprehensive follow-up materials are customized for each age level to remind students of the themes they learned on their retreat, while challenging them to continue to stand up for respect in their schools. Youth Frontiers knows it takes more than curriculum to get kids to care about issues of character and acknowledges that it takes more than one day of each year to truly change a school’s culture.  Yet, these retreats are a critical piece to the puzzle of building healthy and safe schools, and each retreat and its follow-up curriculum contribute to shaping the way students treat each other every day.

How can you help?

Youth Frontiers has opportunities for high school students and adults to be small group leaders at their retreats.  Each year nearly 15,000 volunteers support their programs by leading small groups, establishing the energy and tone of the retreat activities and influencing the student participants with positive leadership.  In addition, they have opportunities to visit a retreat to experience it first-hand. Since they work with kids, all volunteers do require an application and background check.

You can also provide financial support via the Youth Frontiers website.  Youth Frontiers maintains affordable retreat prices for the schools they serve and this would not be possible without philanthropic support from individuals, foundations and corporate donors.

You can learn more about Youth Frontiers on their website, YouthFrontiers.org.  You can also connect with them on Facebook or Twitter.

In addition, there are opportunities to stay connected with this organization though their newsletter programs.  Visit their newsletter signup page to learn about their weekly character challenge that provides an activity or thought to help us think critically about kindness, courage and respect in our lives as well as newsletters for youth educators.

Tatum’s Bags of Fun is a 501c3 non-profit based in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Their mission is to make a positive impact on the lives of every child diagnosed with cancer in Indiana (and beyond).  They do this by supplying a backpack filled with $350 worth of age-appropriate games, toys, and activities ideal for a hospital setting.  This helps to entertain and distract the children during their long and difficult battle with cancer.  Each year almost 300 children are diagnosed with a form of cancer in Indiana alone and since August 2008, Tatum’s Bags of Fun has been able to distribute over 900 bags of fun to children throughout the state.

Tatum is the 11-yr old fifth grade student and a two-time cancer survivor that is behind this organization.  In July 2006 Tatum was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone tumor, in her right femur.  She endured 13 rounds of chemotherapy and 3 major surgeries.  Tatum and her family received a tremendous amount of support from friends, family and the community during her treatment.  One of the gifts she received was a “Bag of Fun” from the Gabby Krause Foundation in Colorado.  Gabby lost her fight with cancer in 2004, but her family started the Gabby Krause Foundation in her memory and “Bags of Fun” was their signature project.  Tatum and her family were so moved by the gift and the concept that they began speaking with the Krause’s about bringing Bags of Fun to Indiana.  On August 1, 2008 a little over a year after Tatum completed her first battle with cancer, her family began distributing Bags of Fun.

Unfortunately Tatum was re-diagnosed with Ewing’s in November 2008, this time in her right lung.  Even though this was another setback, Tatum remained positive and confident she would beat cancer again.  Bags of Fun also provided an opportunity for Tatum to personally deliver Bags of Fun to her new friends that she would be fighting with.  Tatum completed her treatments in September 2009 and has remained cancer free!

Each Bag of Fun is provided to pediatric cancer patients free of charge and is theirs to keep.  The bags are delivered weekly to several Indiana hospitals.  Through an arrangement with the hospital, Tatum’s Bags of Fun receives a list of new patients including their ages and initials.  This allows them to abide by HIPPA regulations and ensure that each child receives just one bag filled with items that are age appropriate.   If the patient has a sibling, a game or toy is also provided to them. With toys and activities that are chosen by same age children, the Bags of Fun provides a way for kids to keep busy and happy during their hospital visits.

On the organization’s blog, you can see some thank yous that have been sent.  One mom said that it made her daughter’s day to get such a wonderful gift and another bag recipient said “no words that I can explain my appreciation and thanks”.

Monetary donations can be made directly on the organization’s website.

You can learn more about Tatum’s Bags of Fun on their website, tatums.bagsoffun.org.  You can also connect with them on Twitter, Facebook or their blog.

As the dust settles on the New Year’s Resolution season, consider moving family volunteering to the top of your family’s list. Emerging research continues to confirm that teaching empathy and compassion to our children not only helps the communities that we serve today. It creates tomorrows advocates for social justice.

Many researchers find that habits of empathy and compassion can even make us all healthier (lowering risks of heart attacks and strokes) and happier.

Thanks to Doing Good Together (DGT) and their simple tips for family volunteering, my own family of five is making intentional acts of kindness as much a habit as brushing teeth or reading one last story before bed.

Here is how we got started. Join us!

Pick a project. Check out Doing Good Together’s list of projects, especially the Kitchen Table Activities that are easily done right in your own home. Though it’s energizing to commit an entire Saturday to package food for Feed My Starving Children, it is extremely rewarding to spend the odd hour after school or lazy Sunday evening doing a small project together as a family. These smaller projects are easier to accomplish more often, even when schedules get crammed with other activities. My family started out making greeting cards or decorating dessert bags for Meals on Wheels or taking up some other small, isolated project every few weeks.

Using Doing Good Together’s reflection ideas, I started having some pretty big conversations with my relatively small children. In the beginning they were only 4 and 2, and our conversations primarily expanded their feelings vocabulary beyond happy and sad. Each project seemed to strengthen their awareness of the well-being of others. Now at 6 and 4, we are deepening our conversations nearly every day. Each new volunteer activity, children’s book, or news headline helps us segue into how we can do more or what might be causing the problem at hand.

My first-grader, seemingly empowered by these conversations, is now prompting us to take on new volunteer projects if I don’t set one up for a week or two!

If it was fun, make it easy to repeat. Did your kids enjoy making greeting cards for sick children or did they seem pumped up after taking a garbage walk? Keep the materials on hand to do these things whenever the mood strikes. Our family created a greeting card corner, so the materials – even labels – are always on hand.

Take time for reflection during family dinner. Our family relies on two simple questions to reinforce an intentional habit of kindness:

• How did you help someone out today?
• How did someone help you today?

Simple though they are, both girls take notice during the day. I frequently hear my four-year-old say, this will be my helping thing, when she goes out of her way to bring a treat to the neighbor or spends extra time cleaning up her baby brother’s toys. Even better, she pays attention when others make her happy. She often follows “thank you” with “you will be my helping friend tonight,” which I then get to translate to the store clerk that just offered her a succor.

Enhance your library. Check out Doing Good Together’s growing list of resources for kid’s and parents. From Todd Parr to Shel Silverstein, the world is littered with books just waiting to be the next one your shelf. Think of evening reading time as your very own children’s book club. Ask a few questions about the meaning behind the story. This timeless ritual is an opportunity for some astonishing (or hilarious) conversations.

Whatever you do, don’t simply volunteer when your kids happen to be along. Do good with your kids. Talk about it. Ask questions. Read some of the excellent children’s books that tackle these big ideas. Bring up the difficult subjects at your child’s level, and answer their questions as honestly as you can.

This is powerful stuff and the impact will create habits of kindness and an increased capacity for empathy that will last long past the 2012 resolution season.

One Simple Wish aims to brighten the lives of foster children and vulnerable families one simple wish at a time.  The organization educates people about the lives of children in foster care.  They also empower people to make a direct difference by allowing them to grant simple wishes online.  Granting a wish to a child or family in need can change a life, for just a moment or forever.  When you grant a wish, you’re planting a seed, a seed of hope.

One Simple Wish began as an idea of founder, Danielle Gletow, had more than a decade ago.  She thought it would be great to create a service that allowed everyone to see the needs of children and to be able to facilitate the fulfillment of those needs.  In 2006 she became a foster parent and made a decision to focus the organization primarily on the foster child population because it is so underserved and often depicted negatively in the media.  She knew that more people needed to hear these children’s stories and to be given simple, affordable ways to help.

One Simple Wish is based in Trenton, New Jersey, but they serve foster children and vulnerable families in 23 states.  They partner with more than 180 social service and child welfare agencies.  These approved agencies and organizations are able to login to the One Simple Wish website to suggest wishes to be granted.  Wishes typically range from $10 to $100 making it affordable for just about anyone to make a wish come true.

How can you help?

It’s simple, just go to OneSimpleWish.org and click on Grant a Wish to search through the current wishes.  If you find a wish you would like to grant, simply login or register to grant the wish.  In addition, One Simple Wish accepts monetary donations through their website and even has a variety of unique products available for purchase.  You can also visit their website to learn more about additional volunteer opportunities.

In addition to wish granting, One Simple Wish also holds a variety of other events including a Thanksgiving Meal Drive, a Holiday Gift Drive and a Prom Dress Drive that results in hundreds of girls receiving dresses for free or cheap.  In addition, they hold a huge annual event, A Night of 1000 Wishes with performances, awards and a sit down dinner to raise awareness and funds for their cause.  You can learn more about all the programs on their website.

You can learn more about One Simple Wish on their website, onesimplewish.org.  You can also connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Harry’s story began in 2007 when he had problems with his eyes.  After many visits to the optician and the local hospital, the doctors gave him an MRI scan and discovered a brain tumor.  The tumor was in a dangerous place, deep in his brain, so it was inoperable.  Harry began chemotherapy treatments but unfortunately it didn’t work and his tumor grew.  His only other option was radiotherapy.  It was during these treatments that he met Robert Harley who was also having radiotherapy for a brain tumor. They had their treatment on the same day, every day for six weeks so they became very good friends.  In 2009 Robert became very ill so Harry decided to make and sell beaded bracelets to raise money for brain cancer research to help make him better.  Sadly four weeks into his campaign, his friend Robert died at only 55 years old.  Harry wanted to continue selling bracelets in Robert’s memory and to help make sure that no one else would have to go through what they did.

Harry continued regular checkups to monitor the size of his tumor.  It remained stable for two years but unfortunately, his health took a turn for the worse in July 2011 when he developed a blood clot on his brain.  He had an emergency operation on August 10^th and remained in a coma for over eight weeks.  On October 7^th, doctors advised Harry’s family to bring him home to rest.  Harry passed away peacefully in his mother’s arms on October 8th.  Harry’s campaign, however, continues to live on in his memory.

The mission of Help Harry Help Others is to raise as much money as possible to help fund brain cancer research and to raise awareness.  At the heart of this mission are Harry’s beautiful bracelets which act as a symbol for Harry, his campaign and what it seeks to achieve.  It was Harry’s dream that everyone in the United Kingdom would be wearing one of his bracelets.

In April 2011, Help Harry Help Others partnered with Cancer Research UK. As a result, the campaign now largely functions out of their head offices in Angel, London.

How can you help?

Help Harry Help Others welcomes all the support they are offered.  Volunteers have been key to helping raise money for the campaign.  They have opportunities locally for individuals or groups to fundraise for the campaign.  These fundraisers aren’t just limited to bracelet sales, previous groups have done bake sales, live music events, runs, and even jumping out of an airplane.  They also have a team of volunteers who help with bracelet production.

For those who live further away, you can still run a fundraiser and make your donation online or via the mail.  The organization’s website has a fundraiser pack available for download.  Anyone can also purchase bracelets online.

Harry’s organization has sold over 40,000 bracelets and raised over £185,000 (or about $280,000) for brain tumor research.  You can learn more about Help Harry Help Others on their website, helpharryhelpothers.com.  You can also connect with them on Facebook or Twitter.

Many of us have heard of The Water Project – they are an organization that brings relief to communities around the world who suffer needlessly from a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation.  Nisha Varghese set a goal in March 2010 to raise $6,500 for The Water Project.  This is the average cost of building a well in Africa or India.  She created a fundraising site through FirstGiving.com to collect donations and has promoted her fundraising efforts on her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.  She has already raised over $6,000 and with our help she can meet (and maybe even exceed) her goal.

Nisha doesn’t stop there.  She also created another project called Virginia’s Sandwich Run.  The idea is simple, raise enough money to put together 48 sandwiches a week for the people in her current housekeeper’s neighborhood.    This project is named for the housekeeper that Nisha’s family had as a child.  According to Nisha, Virginia was a person who gave her best to the world and the people around her.  You can make a donation to Nisha’s sandwich project here.

When I asked Nisha why she volunteers she said, “I believe that it is up to each and every one of us to create the world we want.”  Her most memorable volunteer experience is “knowing that 15-20 kids don’t go to bed hungry because I spent an hour every Saturday making sandwiches.”

Nisha recommends that those who are new to volunteering should contact their local homeless shelter for volunteer opportunities.  Nisha is an inspiring 20 year old who is wheelchair bound as a result of Cerebral Palsy.  She says, “if I can be of service to the world in spite of my ‘disability’, nobody else has an excuse not to be.”