‘Tis the season for giving
From Anne Lamott’s column at Salon:
I will tell you: Remember the bees, and look up. Don’t stare at the bottom of the jar in which you are trapped. Turn off the TV for half an hour, and look up. Don’t look at the Wall Street traders in their distressing guise as bees, trapped on the floor of the exchange. They are not prisoners, like the bees; they are volunteers. Instead, look up at your computer and find a good charity site where you can send whatever you can afford. Go to Oxfamusa.com or DoctorsWithoutBorders.com. Send what you can to Planned Parenthood in the name of Sarah Palin. Send what you can to Obama’s campaign in a swing county in your nearest swing state. The Republicans are wrong: You don’t always lose if you share. You actually get really, really happy.
I send $25 a month to a place where my family has adopted children since 1992, and I send money off to Planned Parenthood so that teenage girls and women will not be trapped into having babies they don’t want and for whom they can’t provide. Whatever you can send is the right amount. If you can’t send money, send a promise to volunteer a certain number of hours. Can you put in 15 hours between now and the election? If not, use what you do have and do what you can. Picasso said, “If I don’t have red, I use blue.”
I have a confession to make.
I support Pandas International and World Vision.
Through Pandas International, I have adopted four giant pandas, two on my own and two shared with fellow panda lovers.
My two adopted giant pandas are Feng Yi, born in Wolong, China in August 2006, and Gong Zhu, a 10-year-old who I helped to look after during my volunteer trip this year.
The two shared adopted giant pandas are Jin Xin, born in Bifengxia in July 2008 (in fact, the younger of the first pair of giant panda cubs to be born after the May 12 earthquake), shared with a group called Metal Tribe started by Sandra Miller, and Wen Yu, born in Wolong in September 2007, whose mother Mao Mao perished in the May 12 earthquake.
Of the four, Wen Yu’s adoption is very special. About 60 members of the Pandas Unlimited group on flickr pooled together enough money for her exclusive adoption for one year. We are hoping to contribute funds throughout the coming year to be able to renew the exclusive adoption after this first year.
Through World Vision, I am sponsoring three children in Cambodia, Indonesia and India (I started doing this to match the sponsorship I made for Feng Yi in September 2006). The money for these three children does not go directly to them but as contribution to sustainability programmes set up by World Vision for their respective communities.
These various sponsorships have been a part of my life since 2006. I hope to be able to sustain them for the rest of my life, and God willing, maybe to add more in the coming years.
In this season of giving, I hope you will consider Anne Lamott’s words and “look up at your computer and find a good charity site where you can send whatever you can afford”. To the two she suggested, I would like to add the two I am sponsoring. Please visit the following pages to find out how you can help.
Pandas International: Panda Sponsorship Centre
Thank you.
