Purpose-Driven Organisations That Deserve Our Love

This time of year is all about caring for each other and our world. So this week we shine the spotlights on charities and non-profits that deserve some good lovin’! These non-profit organizations are each special because of their beautiful causes, their hands-on approach to make a positive change, their 100% models and their openness about where donations are spent.
 

We shine our light on the following purpose-driven organisations:

Charity: Water
Cool Earth
Ilovebeeing
Pencils of Promise
Foodwatch
Kids Camp Kenia

CHARITY: WATER

Why Water?

For people in developing countries, clean water can change everything.

663 million people in the world live without clean water.

That’s nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide.

The majority of these people lives in isolated rural areas. Every day they spend hours walking to collect water for their family. The long walks for water keep kids out of school and take up time that parents could be using to earn money. What’s even worse is that the water often is dirty, carrying diseases, and sickening or killing everyone who drinks from it.

Access to clean water means education, income and health – especially for women and kids.

How does Charity: Water tackle the water crisis?

Charity: Water works with local experts and community members to find the best sustainable solution in each place where they work. Whether it’s a well, a piped system, a BioSand Filter, or a system for harvesting rainwater.

And with every water point they fund, their partners coordinate sanitation and hygiene training, and establish a local Water Committee to help keep water flowing for years to come!

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF WATER:
–
Charity: Water’s website

COOL EARTH

Half the world’s rainforest has been lost over the past forty years. We need a new approach.

Top down solutions championing a “no people = no destruction” approach have failed.

Local people are the forest’s best possible custodians. The only way to halt destruction is to align the future of the rainforest with the people best placed to protect it.

This means placing forest in the hands of the people who rely on its survival for their survival. Cool Earth does just that.

This purpose-driven organisation works alongside indigenous villages to half rainforest destruction. They put local people back in control, giving them the resources they need to keep their forest intact. And by saving at-risk rainforest, they form shields for millions of acres of neighbouring forest.

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF PRESERVING THE WORLD’S REMAINING RAINFOREST AND POSITIVELY IMPACTING LOCAL VILLAGES:
–
Cool Earth’s website

PENCILS OF PROMISE

250 million children lack basic reading, writing & mathematic skills.

Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. Education reduces poverty, empowers women and helps prevent disease.

Pencils of Promise is a global community that believes everyone deserves access to quality education. They’re reshaping the landscape of education guided by their 100% promise:
– 100% Direct giving: Every dollar donated online goes directly to our programs to educate more children.
– 100% Local leadership: All of our Country Directors are from the country they lead.
– 100% Success rate: Every school we’ve opened to date is fully operational and educating students daily.

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF EDUCATION & UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF A CHILD:
–
Pencils of Promise’s website

I LOVE BEEING

This dutch organisation totally gets it. Bees are important! Not only do they pollinate the flowers and trees that keep us alive, they are also responsible for most of the food that we eat. No bees, no beeing. Bees are seriously struggling and these guys know exactly what to do about it.

If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would have only four years of left to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man. – Albert Einstein.

I Love Beeing builds “bee palaces” as well as individual hives. They train beekeepers in bio-dynamic, natural and durable beekeeping. And they also have projects on “urban beekeeping” where bees can live in hives on roofs, in gardens and in cities.

What’s awesome about this organization is that you can not only donate, but also take active part in saving the bees by learning how to keep your own!

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF SAVING BEES AND OUR OWN BEEING:
–
I Love Beeing’s website (dutch)

FOODWATCH

What we eat is no longer something we decide on ourselves. The food industry, lobbyists and politicians have control over what will end up on our plates and what we are allowed to know about our food. This has to stop!

Foodwatch is an independent, European non-profit organisation that exposes food-industry practices that we, the end-consumers, should know about.

Foodwatch fights for the right of consumers so that they can make educated decisions about what they are buying and enjoy good food that is healthy and uncontaminated.

The most pressing issue they are campaigning against at the moment is the proposed free-trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) which will (amongst many other things) have a huge impact on the food we’ll eat in Europe.

“While the EU has an impressively alliterative “farm to fork” strategy, for instance, regulating each link in the food chain, Americans pump their cattle and pigs with growth-promoting hormones banned in the EU. As a result, most US beef can’t be sold in the EU.

Worse, Americans use 82 pesticides banned in the EU. They wash their chicken in chlorinated water to kill bacteria. Ninety per cent of their soya, cotton and corn is genetically modified, while the EU allows member states to ban GM production.” – (Guardian, 2015.)

Is our democracy something our governments should trade with?

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF FOOD DEMOCRACY AND SAFETY:
–
Foodwatch’ website

KIDS CAMP KENIA

This beautiful project is all about giving children from the slums in Nairobi a week away from the poverty & problems they have to face every day.

They organize camps for the children where they have fun activities, food and can actually just be kids.

As they work with locals and buy their groceries on the local markets, they also stimulate the local economy. Their volunteers are young adults that learn about doing something for the world and helping others, which gives them a wonderful experience as well.

YOU CAN GIVE THE GIFT OF HELPING KIDS ESCAPE POVERTY FOR A WEEK:
–
Kids Camp Kenia’s website

 
Of course there are so many more organizations that deserve our attention and love. Please tell us about the charity that stole your heart! Or let us know which one (and why) you choose to donate to in the comment section below!
 
 

Title Photo Credit © Kazuend via Unsplash