A Season of Hope: May to August

Thanks to an outpouring of support as 2008 drew to a close, Global Impact funded charities were able to continue providing life-saving and life-sustaining assistance to millions across the globe. In order to keep the momentum going, here are some simple and inexpensive ways you can continue to make a real global impact throughout the entire year.

May: Help local farmers to grow sustainable, environmentally friendly crops

As skyrocketing prices continue to contribute to widespread food insecurity, Global Impact charities are working together with farmers and communities to develop agricultural practices that can sustain lives, cash crops and the planet.

More than 70 percent of poor people rely on agriculture for their income and to feed their households, but as arable land diminishes and climate changes affect harvests, the demand for sustainable solutions is rapidly growing. Oxfam America works with small-scale farmers to diversify their farms in order to protect their land and expand their businesses.

A simple way that Oxfam helps farmers to cultivate their land is by using one of nature’s own tools: worms. At a cost of only $18, a can of worms produces organic fertilizer and enriches soil for farming. For $30, land owners can plant 50 trees that not only produce sustainable crops like bananas and avocados, but also prevent erosion and provide much-needed shade for staple crops like coffee. And for $50, rural communities receive a bank of native seeds, ensuring plentiful harvests for years to come.

June: Lend a hand to families forced to flee their homes due to violence

Photo: Henry McInnes/Sunday Mail for Mercy Corps Violence and instability continue to plague Darfur, where Mercy Corps is providing drinking water, schools and skills classes for 170,000 people.

Ongoing conflicts in global refugee “hotspots” such as Sudan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia, have left 21 million displaced.

Living in constant fear and in deplorable conditions, these men, women and children are deprived of basic rights—including clean water, healthcare, education and employment—that many worldwide take for granted.

Global Impact charities like Mercy Corps intervene with critical aid to rebuild shattered buildings, bodies and minds.

For only $25, Mercy Corps can deliver kits of emergency supplies, such as health items, clothes and shelter materials to families that have literally lost everything. For the same amount they can also provide clean water to 50 displaced individuals, or reach out to traumatized children with three months of physical activities and psychological care to help their wounds heal.

Year after year, Global Impact charities lead the way in rebuilding lives, resettling families and restoring hope across the globe.

July: Rush critical humanitarian aid to regions hit hard by natural disaster

According to the American Foreign Press, natural disasters killed more 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record.

Perhaps most devastating was Cyclone Nargis, whose torrential rains swept through Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta in May; more than 135,000 people lost their lives, and more than one million were left homeless. Just days later, an earthquake struck China's Sichuan province, leaving 70,000 dead, 18,000 missing and nearly five million displaced.

Global Impact charities like Church World Service (CWS) are typically among the first to respond after crises like these, providing immediate aid to disaster-stricken regions. There are several low-cost ways to assist organizations like CWS with critical relief efforts.

For instance, a $10 donation can fund two blankets that provide warmth, comfort and protection to a woman and her infant in a makeshift camp. Just one dollar more ($11) can purchase a hygiene kit containing items essential to personal health, including washcloths, soap, a toothbrush, and bandages. And for $72, CWS can assemble an emergency food package: enough wheat flour, rice, cooking oil, sugar, tea and salt to feed a family of five for an entire month.

August: Purchase an insecticide-treated net to keep a family safe from malaria for up to five years

Photo: Mike DuBose/UMNS Duwahabi Ogoba and her two children in Nigeria are protected from malaria by an insecticide-treated mosquito net provided by UMCOR.

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, another child will die from malaria.

Though the disease is both preventable and curable, right now it affects 500 million people worldwide, 90 percent of whom live in sub-Sahara Africa. In fact, the disease is so widespread in Africa that many think there is nothing they can do to prevent it.

Through their Community-Based Malaria programs and the “Nothing But Nets” campaign, United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) aims to teach basic preventative measures, offer medical interventions for those who are currently ill and provide insecticide-treated nets to pregnant women and families with young children. One net costs only $10 and can keep a family malaria-free for five years; medication to cure the disease costs only $5.

Additional cost-effective tools help entire villages diagnose and treat the disease and identify its root causes: at $50, UMCOR can supply 25 rapid diagnostic kits; $100 funds an entire anti-malaria educational campaign at local schools; $200 funds a training course for traditional healers to treat, prevent and eradicate the disease.