Day 270

Another night of virtual volunteering. This time I used sparked.com - I love the random challenges that cover a wide variety of interests!

My first challenge was coming up with interesting news letter topics for Doostane Farsi Zabane Man, which translates from Persian (Farsi) to “My Persian-Speaking Friends”. The organization aims to increase friendship and cultural understanding between Iranians and Americans through a pen pal program between young citizens of Iran and the United States.

The next challenge was coming up with Arts and Crafts ideas for boys ages 7-10. This one was for Global Give, whose mission is to select financially struggling communities in the U.S. and abroad during the holiday season and make sure that each and every child in the community receives a gift.

The last one was for Children's Specialized Hospital - the largest pediatric healthcare rehabilitation system in the United States. It is the preeminent provider of rehabilitation for children with special needs. The hospital serves children affected by brain injury, spinal cord dysfunction and injury, premature birth, autism, developmental delays, and life-changing illnesses. They were looking for meaningful ways to thank their volunteers.

Day 269

Traveling and feeling so sick, so today's virtual volunteering was a quick visit to care2.com

I did all the click to donate tabs.
I took today's daily challenge to help protect grey seals in Canada.

I got to hang out by the river for a little while today and so today's petitions were environmentally themed:

• I signed a petition to reduce ocean trash (even our rivers are horribly polluted! I say styrofoam cups and trash in the river here);
• to save the rainforests;
• to look at the environmental impact of deep sea drilling;
• to reduce air pollution from fracking;
• and lastly to help protect gorillas in the Congo

Giving is just that easy! Hope you have a chance to give back today :)

Day 268

There were some last minute changes in today's plans, so I ended up at SafeHouse this evening (yay!!).

The evening started off a little slow, and I took advantage of that to talk to some of the quieter people. One gentleman I spoke to lives under a bridge - we have a ritual anytime I pass this bridge and he is there, I honk twice and he waves. Today we talked about Kool-Aid - his favorite flavors, why he thinks it is the best drink, and how he makes it. He also shared that he has never been outside Atlanta, he says he is a true Southerner! He does not like the idea of traveling on planes and trains and we had a long conversation about all the things that can go wrong when you are traveling.

I also got to catch up with one of the ladies who told me about her kids a few weeks back...she is going back home this evening and will be with her kids! She was so excited! She has things she needs to work on and I'm hoping she can make positive changes not just for her sake but for her kids too.

Day 267

Hema, Jiten, and I went down to Global Soap this morning to volunteer. There was a big group of volunteers from a church there too. As soon as we got there we got to work - we peeled soap the entire time.

It was a fun experience, we chatted and caught up on each others' lives as we cleaned soap. It's definitely more lively when Derreck is there, but we still had a good time.

97 days to go...

Day 266

After sitting in traffic (out in the middle of nowhere) forever I made it to SafeHouse!

It was a busy night! The lot was filled with GSU students and volunteers. It was great seeing that many people there having conversations with the individuals there. One of the guys had a new hairstyle so I hung out with him for a minute and he told me about the new look. Once inside, I said hello to lots of people and then sat down with some of the guys.

A younger gentleman talked about his 2year old son and how he wanted to me closer to him and to be a part of his life. We talked about how he could do that. Another gentleman also shared with him the importance of his kids and putting them before anyone else. The younger gentleman listened to the advice and talked about his plans for going back home to his son.

The rest of the night I talked to some of my favorites about all kinds of stuff, we joked around, laughed a lot and celebrated a birthday - it was definitely a fun night :)

98 days to go...

Day 265

Jiten filled in for me today and helped out at school with the Rubble House project - a joint effort between SPSU and Conscience International. The latter has spent the past year building new homes from the rubble created by the January 2010 earthquake that left so many Haitians homeless. The group needs scientific data to support its belief that, not only are these houses easy and inexpensive to build, but they also provide greatly improved safety over traditional concrete block-built homes, in the event of another earthquake. Here's how it went today:

"Due to the weather we were unable to continue testing on the rubble house. So instead, today we sat and did all the mind boggling calculations that needed to be done on the previous data. It was interesting to see that the walls acted independent of each other when a load was pushed against one side during testing the day before. The calculations were no fun at all, but needed to be done. Although we can't make any sense of what we calculate till all the tests have been done. We will be doing more testing tomorrow morning, as long as the weather cooperates!"

99 more days to go!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, I'm sure the rest of it will fly by too :(

Day 264

Today's giving was through Amnesty International. I read through many petitions, here are the one's I wrote letters for today:

• The first was one was for Jabbar Savalan, a 20 year old student who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on May 4, 2011. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and condemns his conviction on fabricated drug charges. I wrote a letter asking for his immediate and unconditional release from prison.
• I then wrote a letter for Sanjiv Kumar Karna and four other students, who were last seen on Oct. 8, 2003 in Janakpur, Danusha District. Karna , a 24 year old student, was picnicking with a group of friends when he and 10 others were arrested by security force personnel. The students were reportedly brutally beaten. Six were subsequently released but Sanjiv and four others have not been heard of since. Police investigations into what happened to these five students have not been made public, nor has anyone been held accountable for their disappearance.
• I made a last minute effort and signed the petition to stop the execution of Troy Davis. The execution is currently on hold!
• The last one was to urge Sierra Leone's health minister to make maternal health a priority and to take immediate action to ensure that pregnant women and girls have access to all essential emergency obstetric care drugs and health care throughout their pregnancy. In spite of the government’s efforts over the last two years to introduce various initiatives to address challenges pregnant women and girls face in accessing drugs and medical care crucial to ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth, the challenges persist and many women continue to be denied access to care. Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The absence of emergency obstetric care violates women’s right to health and puts their lives at risk. 

The 100 day countdown starts now!