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Favorite charities!


questforstarfish

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So for those on the forums who regularly give to any charities, I'm wondering what your favorite is and why!

 

 

I don't have a ton of spare money while I'm in school, but whenever I work or get my income tax back, this is who I love to give it to! http://www.malawiorphancare.org/ 100% of the money donated goes to pay the school fees (and recently, they've started including university tuition for nursing, trades, and other programs, including one kid who's currently in med school) for AIDS orphans in Malawi. Teachers recommend students who are having trouble paying school fees and who have had one or both parents die from AIDS. UNICEF estimates that there are 650 000 AIDS orphans in Malawi so there is a huge need. $10 covers one term's fees for primary school, and I believe $20 covers a term for high school. I love education programs like these because the only way to change a life, community, and world, is to educate. Education helps people to know their rights, women to know their worth, and gives hope against poverty.

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Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children - they both do things that I think are really important, and they don't waste money.

 

Doctors Without Borders for sure as they've proven how reliable they are through many different disasters and crisis situations

 

The things I tend to look for in a charity in no particular order

 

1) How much % of the money goes to the actual cause as opposed to salaries and such

 

2) Does the charity have any religious, cultural, or any sort of polarizing viewpoints that may lead to any potential discrimination in distribution of the funds/aid?

 

3) How established the charity is

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About the Canadian Harambee Education Society

 

“If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family.”

 

An African proverb that sums up the work of the Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES), a non-profit organisation that provides secondary school scholarships to girls in Kenya and Tanzania.

 

Operated largely by volunteers for over 25 years, CHES has a remarkable track record of subsidizing the education of over 5000 graduating students. Many of these girls have gone on to professional careers in education, engineering, medicine, nursing and other technical trades.

 

In recent years, CHES has responded to related needs by helping with the construction and equipping of dormitories and computer classrooms and have even worked on water supplies. CHES has also partnered with the Canadian International Development Agency to provide supplementary assistance to the students in important life skills, including those that improve employment opportunities.

 

Sponsor an African girl's education

 

The cost of sponsoring a CHES girl is $500 (Canadian dollars). However an additional $50 is requested to provide the additional necessary support for each girl's educational programme. Girls spend 4 years at secondary school – please bear this in mind when you commit yourself to paying for a scholarship, and please commit to paying for her whole education!

Read full details on sponsoring an African girl

 

Sponsor an African girl now! African Girl Sponsorship form [.pdf]

 

Find out more about CHES at http://www.canadianharambee.ca

 

http://www.canadianharambee.ca/about-us.html

Giving girls the chance to educate themselves

 

Our mission is to improve the quality of life of women and their communities in Kenya and Tanzania by providing secondary education scholarships for girls.

 

At CHES, we believe:

■that if you educate a girl, you educate a society

■that educating women results in lower infant and maternal mortality, healthier, smaller, better educated families and greater economic advancement agrarian communities

 

95% of money donated for Africa goes to Africa. Administrative costs, such as postage, brochures and so on, are covered by the remaining 5%, which are also paid for by other fund raisers and specific donations.

 

Find out more about how we use your money.

 

Directors of CHES in Canada and Agents in Africa are volunteers who receive no payment from CHES.

 

CHES is a non-profit organization without affiliation to government or religious organizations.

 

Our history

 

CHES was founded in 1985 by a young Canadian teacher who ran a school in East Africa and was struck by the hunger for her students to learn. Children would even steal or turn to prostitution to raise money for their tuition. When she returned to Canada, she set up the Canadian Harambee Education Society.

 

CHES operated solely in Kenya until 1992, when it branched out, at the request of a poverty-stricken local community. CHES has run twin programmes for scholarships for girls in these neighbouring countries ever since.

 

Since its start, CHES has subsidized the educations of over 600 graduating students. Many have gone on the professional careers in nursing, education, engineering, and many technical trades.

 

Recently, CHES has begun larger projects to assist with the infrastructure of education: dormitories, computer rooms, supporting elementary school programmes and even improving water supplies.

 

Canadian registered tax number: BN-13148-8017-RR001

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  • 2 weeks later...

Charities that I have worked with directly are CNIB and Children's Miracle Network, they both offer amazing programs in my opinion.

War Child and The Stephan Lewis Foundation are two Canadian non profits that I really admire.

sevenly.org is a cool initiative as well.

 

PS. for anyone looking for internships/jobs (even some volunteer positions) with NGOs in Canada charityvillage.com is a great resource. And unjobs.org is great place for United Nations organization jobs and the occasional internship.

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  • 1 month later...
Doctors Without Borders for sure as they've proven how reliable they are through many different disasters and crisis situations

 

The things I tend to look for in a charity in no particular order

 

1) How much % of the money goes to the actual cause as opposed to salaries and such

 

2) Does the charity have any religious, cultural, or any sort of polarizing viewpoints that may lead to any potential discrimination in distribution of the funds/aid?

 

3) How established the charity is

 

Exactly what I suggest, particularly the first point. Many charities (particularly many large, well-known charities) put only a small fraction of the money they receive to the cause they purportedly support, while paying their execs ridiculously high salaries. These numbers can be found through their tax information, which is always available through the Canada Revenue Agency.

 

I enjoy working with small, local charities that make changes directly in the lives of people in my community, personally.

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