Texting money to Pakistan

"Why throw money at problems? That is what it is for."
- Kurt Vonnegut

I'm sure you're well aware of the need. From prnewswire:

For those who want to donate to the relief effort, a simple text message pledges either $5 or $10. To donate:

* For Central Asia Institute, text the word CAI to 50555 to give $10. Central Asia Institute provides community-based education opportunities in Pakistan & Afghanistan.

* For CHF International, text the word PAKISTAN to 50555 to give $5. CHF International will provide transitional shelter, create livelihoods, and ultimately re-build Pakistan's economic and social foundations.

* For Islamic Society of North America, text the word RELIEF to 27722 to give $10. The Islamic Society of North America contributes to the betterment of the Muslim community and society at large.

* For UNHCR, text the word SWAT to 50555 to give $10. UNHCR emergency response teams are distributing tents, relief supplies, and humanitarian assistance to people displaced by the flooding.

* For World Food Programme USA, text the word AID to 27722 to give $10. WFP will use helicopters to transport food to people in isolated communities across the Swat Valley.

* For World Emergency Relief, text the word RESCUE to 50555 to give $10. Rescue Task Force is a San Diego County based non-profit relief agency that responds to natural and man-made disasters world-wide.

* For Zakat Foundation of America, text the work ZAKATUS to 50555 to give $10. Zakat Foundation has begun to address the immediate needs of flood survivors by providing food and clothing in four key Pakistani districts.

I'm familiar with the World Food Program, the UNHCR (which is the United Nations' refugee program) and the CAI, all of which seem to be good organizations. You might also consider contacting CARE, which is based in Atlanta.

I contacted CAI and the World Food Program to confirm that using this text service will, in fact, send the money their way. Spokespeople for both organizations confirmed it, though the CAI spokeswoman noted that their program doesn't provide immediate relief.

They build schools for children in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Inshallah

It means "God willing."

From Three Cups of Tea, the story of an American whose near death in the Himalayas led him to build schools in remote parts of Pakistan:

In October 1996, Bergman had been traveling in Pakistan with a group of friends who chartered a huge Russian MI-17 helicopter out of Skardu in hopes of getting a glimpse of K2. On the way back the pilot asked if they wanted to visit a typical village. They happened to land just below Korphe, and when local boys learned Bergman was American they took her hand and led her to see a curious new tourist attraction — a sturdy yellow school built by another American, which stood where none had ever been before, in a small village called Korphe.

"I looked at a sign in front of the school and saw that it had been donated by Jean Hoerni, my cousin Jennifer's husband," Bergman says. "Jennifer told me Jean had been trying to build a school somewhere in the Himalaya, but to land in that exact spot in a range that stretches thousands of miles felt like more than a coincidence. I'm not a religious person," Bergman says, "but I felt I'd been brought here for a reason and I couldn't stop crying."

A few months later, at Hoerni's memorial service, Bergman introduced herself to Mortenson. "I was there!" she said, wrapping the startled man she'd just met in a bruising hug. "I saw the school!"

"You're the blonde in the helicopter," Mortenson said, shaking his head in amazement. "I heard a foreign woman had been in the village but I didn't believe it!"

"There's a message here. This is meant to be," Julia Bergman said. "I want to help. Is there anything I can do?"

"Well, I want to collect books and create a library for the Korphe school," Mortenson said.

Bergman felt the same sense of predestination she'd encountered that day in Korphe. "I'm a librarian," she said.

Use a little less, give a little more

You know those people who have 5 kids and they're on welfare and you think, "Why do you keep having kids you can't afford?" Sometimes I look around at all the stuff we have and I wonder: Are we those people?







likely unrelated.

Time to start again

The local Special Olympics group lost its boats in the tornado.


Liz Fabian, The Telegraph

It's 1,200 miles away

Did you know people are rioting over bags of rice in Haiti? And here in Macon I'm trying to decide whether I want to eat leftovers, or go out and have a margarita with dinner.

Nobody said life was fair. But nobody said you shouldn't try to make it a little more fair, either.

Better than his word

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk -- that anything -- could give him so much happiness. ...

But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.

And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank.

His hat was off, before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.

'Hallo!' growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. 'What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?'

'I am very sorry, sir,' said Bob. 'I am behind my time.'

'You are!' repeated Scrooge. 'Yes. I think you are. Step this way, sir, if you please.'

'It's only once a year, sir,' pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank. 'It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.'

'Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,' said Scrooge, 'I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore,' he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again; 'and therefore I am about to raise your salary!'

Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat.

'A merry Christmas, Bob!' said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he claped him on the back. 'A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!'

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Getting past the cringe

I went down to Poplar Street here in Macon this evening to check out a free dinner and Bible study that a local church, Word Aflame Tabernacle, runs each Tuesday for the homeless.

I was going to write a story about it, but it turns out we ran something about a nearly identical Thursday night program, operated by another church, on Saturday. Poorly kept secret: I don't always read the paper.

But the folks at Word Aflame deserve some recognition. I was there less than half an hour, but it's obvious they genuinely care for the people there. They brought their children. They played in a city fountain with a homeless man. They laughed, they shared, they hugged.

And it put me in mind of a story I read about a man named Abdul Sattar Edhi.

Edhi ministers to orphans in Pakistan. He builds hospitals and buries dead bodies that he finds in the street. He refuses government funding. He puts cribs outside each of his foundation offices for unwanted babies.

His foundation Web site says that 20,000 children have been saved. The National Geographic article noted that Edhi has given away hundreds of brides.

This quote is attributed to him in a summary of his biography:

I had accepted at the outset that charity was distorted and completely unrelated to its original concept. Reverting to the ideal was like diverting an ocean of wild waters. Another major obstacle in the promotion of welfare was exposed...the disgust of man towards mankind. There was only one expression, one reaction from everyone...cringing.

From the grimacing faces of my colleagues I understood that I was the only one not disgusted. They washed their hands vigorously, smelt their clothes repeatedly and complained incessantly of the stench having seeped under their skins. Then they rushed home to bathe, scrubbed their clothes and disinfected them, sometimes gave them away saying, "The very weave was stricken."

There was nowhere to go with this attitude. We could not reduce suffering unless we rose above our own senses...cringing was the first and the greatest hinderance that blocked our way, the most brutal, but also the most understandable.

I know that Macon, Georgia, is not Pakistan. But God bless people who have gotten past the cringe.

If you'd like more information about Word Aflame's efforts you can call their outreach assistants Grady and Faye Bennett at (478)750-0241 or (478)390-1646.

If you'd like more information about Mr. Edhi's foundation, visit it here.

ALS

Growing up, a good friend of mine's dad suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS. Just a hell of a great family. He sent me this email over the weekend.

Go here. It's a buck.

The Dollar4Life campaign is dedicated to raising $1 million from one million donors, a dollar at a time, to help find a cure for a disease that strikes people of all ages, rapidly destroying their physical functions. It kills thousands of people every year, often within a few years of diagnosis. Through Dollar4Life, everyone can make a difference by making a small donation and spreading the word. The power of 1 can be magnified a million times, with your help.

Every dollar raised through Dollar4Life will go to fund ALS research through Prize4Life, an innovative non-profit organization that is already removing the obstacles that stand in the way of a cure. Prize4Life was founded by Avi Kremer, who was only 29 years old when he was diagnosed with this fatal disease three years ago. Together with his friends and top researchers in the field, Avi created an organization that encourages scientists from all around the world to work toward a cure for ALS.

Now Prize4Life needs your help, and that of your friends and family. Please give $1 at www.dollar4life.org and then spread the word about this unique campaign. Your support in spreading the word is even more valuable than your individual donation; Prize4Life aims to demonstrate how a large number of small donations can have a meaningful impact on the lives of ALS patients everywhere.