MARA ink. Donated $1000 to support those in need in Pakistan. Here is one of the projects supported: Pakistan Street Children. // If there are any recommendations to a new Charity of the Month please send an email to [email protected]!!
Walker's Water Campaign:
MARA ink's fourth charity of the month is a Walkers water campaign. Walker is a college student who's birthday is coming up. If you would like to contribute to this project do not hesitate to click the link above! What a wonderful wish - and this is what her wish was:
There are 800 million people in the world living without access to clean water. Let's change that!
"My birthday is almost here. I'm very excited about getting older, but this year I'm extra thankful to have lived another happy, healthy year. I recently got inspired by a person I know through instagram to start this birthday campaign. Through her birthday campaign I learned that millions of kids around the world don't live to see their fifth birthday because they don't have access to clean, safe drinking water. We can help change that.
I'm asking for my age in dollars from everyone I know and you can donate more or less. Every penny helps and every penny of the money raised will directly fund clean water projects in developing countries. Even better, charity: water will show us exactly which projects we funded once they've been fully completed (which takes about 18 months). That means we'll know the locations and names of the communities we helped.
Help me reach my goal. Please donate to my birthday campaign!"
Learn about the water crisis
Smile Train
MARA ink's third charity of the month is (aswell as the two previous charity of the month organizations) an internationally supported organization.
"Smile Train is an international children’s charity with a sustainable approach to a single, solvable problem: cleft lip and palate. Millions of children in developing countries with unrepaired clefts live in shame, but more importantly, have difficulty eating, breathing and speaking. Cleft repair surgery is simple, and the transformation is immediate. Our sustainable model provides training and funding to empower local doctors in 85+ developing countries to provide 100%-free cleft repair surgery in their communities."
Save Our Species (S.O.S)
The second charity of the month is also an internationally supported organization founded three partners: The World Bank, Global Environment Facility and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
CONSERVATION PROBLEM
Despite being a large mammal, the Pygmy Hippopotamus is an elusive and rarely seen species. In 1993 its population was estimated at only 2-3,000 individuals and since then numbers have declined due to habitat loss and hunting.
The Pygmy Hippo is a symbol of the forests of West Africa – the hippos’ fate is intrinsically linked to that of the forest. By securing a future for the Pygmy Hippo its home will be protected as well: the Upper Guinea Forest ecosystem. In doing so, the future of many other species threatened with extinction including the Forest Elephant, Western Chimpanzee, Liberian Mongoose and Jentink’s Duiker will be assured.
In August 2011, a new population of Pygmy Hippos was discovered at the foot of Loma Mountain, northern Sierra Leone and may be the most significant population in Sierra Leone, outside the Gola Forests.
Several former hunters from the local village have been hired to work on the project, providing them with an alternative income to hunting. Community engagement and awareness is ongoing and camera traps and other survey techniques are now being used to determine the size and full extent of this population. One community around Loma Mountain has pledged to stop hunting the Pygmy Hippo and not to hunt any species in areas where Pygmy Hippos are most common.
School for Life
MARA ink's first charity of the month was SFL. Some of the money was donated to SFL (School for Life), and internationally supported organization. This organization is also supported by students at the International School of Stavanger.
"School for Life is an internationally sponsored project in Thailand that provides home and care for children who live in difficult situations. In the beginning the main target-group were Aids-orphans, but meanwhile many children with diverse other backgrounds came to live in School for Life: among them are children who lost their relatives in the Tsunami; children whose parents were killed or are missing, and children who escaped from situations of brutality and abuse. School for Life provides for their basic needs, offers psychosocial and medical care, and a new home, aims to make the best possible education available to them, and respects their right to a happy childhood. "
