Great Ideas!

I love sharing inspiring ideas. This one is from partner organization Mercy Homes and what the President Mike is doing with his employees at work.

The company decided to give all of the money that it makes in the soda machine to help support the Mercy Home. Mike and I were in Peru talking about ways to engage employees, and somehow the idea of putting the kids faces on the soda machine buttons was born.

Take a look at these cute kids in Peru and see what you think.

Do you have creative ideas you can share with us?

What do art and human slavery have in common?

Read the entire post to find out:

Over the weekend I had a great chance to catch up with a friend I hadn’t talked to in some time. These days, keeping up with my friends is so hard because every day is SO full here at Giving Children Hope.

As she and I sat yesterday over coffee the time flew. I finished telling her about my week last week and she looked at me and said, “Most people don’t do all of that in 6 months, how do you do it all in a week?” I guess the answer is, when you work in the industry that I am in with the ever changing conflicts around the world (ie Gaza) and you work with so many different kinds of people to get in resources and give out resources, it means that a lot always happens in a week.

For those of us that need to be working in a fast-paced and interesting environment, it’s really perfect. Every day I am learning from the partners that we serve about what issues they are facing in their part of the world. Hopefully this blog is a good place to share them with you and keep you informed in ways that mainstream media can’t. If there are particular things you’d like to learn about, please submit your questions. I promise to listen, and I promise to inform you of the most pertinent information that our partners face and what you can do to make a difference.

Recently, Giving Children Hope is getting more involved with the issue of human slavery because so many of our partners are dealing with the issue of human slavery. We want people to know that when they support us that are assisting in practical ways to support this cause. In response, we’re having an art show on April 18th in our facility entitled My Hands Have a Voice. (www.MyHandsHaveaVoice.org). If you know of people that might like to participate as an artist, let me know. If you know of a celebrity that might like to attend or that can create art, let me know. Otherwise, just save the date and plan on attending.

Honoring the Life of Martin Luther King Jr

Most people know that MLK day is a big volunteer day. What better way to honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. then to spend the day in community service. Today Giving Children Hope hosted about 70 volunteers over the course of the day: http://www.gchope.org/serve-on-martin-luther-king-jr.-day.html. The volunteers also had the opportunity to learn about his life.

I learned some things today. I didn't know that he skipped the 9th and 12th grades or that he finished his PhD at the age of 26! Wow!

So today we tried to inspire the many people in our office to continue to give back. To use their talents and passion to make a difference. Martin Luther King Jr. was a single person who inspired great change in the USA. Who are the Martin Luther's of this generation? What can YOU do to inspire change for the better in your community? Around the world?

What to do about Gaza?

As a humanitarian, we get asked so many questions about the work that we do. On Tuesday, the press was out to talk to us about Gaza.

The story will air tonight on the Real Orange at 6:30. I’m anxious to see how the story plays out. This was a new reporter we haven’t worked with, and we all know the wonderful job of editors who can make you say controversial things to drive ratings. I understand that the news can be more about ratings than reporting facts, but that’s not the case for every reporter or every station. Of course we understand that the media needs to make a living.

Here’s the situation; the reporter was asking about how you deal with uncooperative governments and in this case how to you deal with a terrorist group not recognized as a government. The fear is that the news report will say that Giving Children Hope thinks its still good to send aid even if 50% goes to Hamas.

It came up because my boss acknowledged the fact that sometimes, some aid lands in the hands not of the poor, but of the people you don’t want it to. He acknowledged this when most organizations that do what we do don’t acknowledge it. In fact, we often know when someone’s cargo gets taken but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard another organization publicly admit to this. I’ll also add that in my two years at GCH I’ve not experienced any of our cargo ending up in the hands of government officials. I know of problems with customs and the length of time it takes to clear, but I am not aware of any product that has actually not gone for its intended use.

That being said, in our 16 years there have been times when some cargo has been extorted from our partners and confiscated by the government. Not most of the shipment, but some of the shipment. The point John was making was that if we send aid to Gaza, if 90% of it ends up serving the poor and 10% ends up in the hands of Hamas, we would still send the aid. We hope that 100% of it goes to serve those in need, but if 10% gets used to open the door for 90% going to those in need we think that we should still work hard to serve those in need.

I’d love to hear your feedback on this. I suppose it’s a controversial subject. I have to say that I agree. We work with a network of advocates around the world and together we all do our best to ensure that those we are attempting to serve get served in the best way possible. But I suppose if I were the person in Gaza distributing aid and there were many wounded all around me that might die, and that if I gave 10% of the aid to them in order for them to allow me the 90% to come and save the lives of those around me, I’d do it. I’d do it in a heartbeat. I might be irritated about it, but when peoples lives are at stake you do what you have to do to help a maximum number of people.

So tonight, we’ll see what the news reports. However, I can assure you that we are working hard to send aid to Gaza and we always pray that 100% of our cargo reaches those in need. And by God’s grace that is usually what happens.

Adventures in Peru

There will be more to write in the coming days, but for now I have returned from the jungle and will fly home from Lima today. Here´s the net net:

Highlights: Playing with the kids, seeing our taxi driver and his wife accept Jesus, delivering medicines to the doctor who serves over 80,000 people, the cool team of people I was with, swimming in the waterfalls, seeing the beauty of the jungle, meeting with high-ranking government officials, dedicating the new Mercy Home.

Sad times: hearing stories of the kids and families in need, learning about the terrorism that hurt the region, and hands down - sitting with 90 year old Augusto who lives in the dirt crippled up and blind- thankfully he will be moving into the Mercy Home.

Unexpected: Becoming a godmother to my Taxi drivers two kids in a church ceremony, having one of the tribal people at the first Inca village come running at us in face paint with a spear, seeing a freshly killed large poisonous snake, riding on the top of the van through the jungle, dancing with the Inca tribes, being interviewed on the radio, having a bat flying around on of the ¨hotel rooms¨, eating cow heart, dedicating the new medical building by breaking a bottle of champagne over it.

Pictures and video to come later. But this trip really encouraged me in the work of Giving Children Hope. The doctor, the mayor and all of the people came out and were so grateful for the medicines, which cleared customs on the last possible day (praise God). The community felt blessed. Additionally, because we worked with Mercy Homes who is running projects on the ground, they gained favor in the community.

What a wonderful thing to see all that God is doing in the jungle of Peru!

Arrival into Peru

Mike and I arrived late last night. In addition to our cab driver, there were 6 others waiting to welcome us at 1:30 AM. Today we made our way to a town outside of Lima to visit the new Mercy Home. A family of 5 there has committed to taking in 6 kids. We later spoke in the church about what we are doing in their community and encouraged them to help out this new home.

We're now getting our bags ready to take an overnight bus into the jungle. We'll be there Monday through Friday taking another overnight bus back. We're still praying that the medicines will clear tomorrow so that we will actually be able to deliver them to the clinic. Please pray for Pastor Roger who is working hard to get them cleared in time for us.

It's a blessing to be able to participate in what God is doing here in Peru!

Off to Peru

So, I'm off to Peru in just a few hours. We're still praying that the medicines cleared customs in time for our trip as we don't have confirmation.

We'll arrive in Lima at midnight tonight, travel in the morning to the construction site of the new Mercy House, and that evening will board an overnight bus into the jungle to visit the first Mercy House and clinic where we'll be delivering the medicines.

I'm not sure I'll have Internet access, but if I do I'll post something here. We return on Sunday the 11th. We'll meet with any government officials while we there, but also get to hang out with the kids. The town is outside of San Miguel.

Thanks for your prayers during this trip. The adventure has now begun.