It doesn't matter how much we give away, there is always more to give, isn't that fabulous!
For 2011 I had my "Year of Kiva", where I donated every month to the micro-finance organisation Kiva. You can find them here, and my blog post about it here.
I will keep going with Kiva, the money just recycles itself now, as it is re-paid I re-lend, it's a nice little ecosystem of aid.
But this coming year I have a new project in mind - the Jaipur Foot!
I first heard about it while in Tibet this year. Having dinner at a friends house who had a subscription to a Taiwanese TV channel, it was a rare treat to watch english language TV, and we watched a documentary about Devendra Raj Mehta, the force behind this amazing organisation.
Jaipur Foot is the largest prosthetic fitting organisation in the world. In India more than 10 million people have suffered the loss of a limb, yes, 10 million!
"Ram Chandra Sharma came to develop the Jaipur foot ... He had been invited in the 1960s, by Dr Sethi to teach art as therapy to polio victims at the SMS Hospital. 'Masterji' as he is widely known, is however a restless man prone to looking around for problems to solve or things to make. He watched amputees being fitted with impractical, expensive, imported artificial limbs."
The combination of the engineering mastery of Ram Chandra Sharma and the drive and passion to help people from Raj Mehta has led to the annual manufacture and distribution, for free, of over 10,000 artificial limbs a year.
You can donate a foot for just $45. Imagine that, 45 bucks to get someone literally back on their feet and able to get their life happening again, able to earn an income again.
So that's my giving project for 2012, I feel it's an incredible blessing that I can just sit down at my computer whenever and give this gift to one of my brothers or sisters who need it so badly.
Have a wonderful, outrageously happy, and blessed 2012 everyone.
That's my plan!
This could be off-topic, but if you're anywhere in or near LA, there are a lot of fundraising events for the benefit of the less fortunate where you can participate in. Donate your clothes and shoes like what Greenopolis.com did and be rewarded for your actions. http://youtu.be/jk1mH9JvRr0
Posted by: alex | January 01, 2012 at 12:51 AM