WATCH THE VIDEO FIELD REPORT HERE Here in a shanty-town of Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), life for the 40,000 residents of is a daily challenge, as they are faced with a lack of jobs, medical attention and high food prices.
Even more challenging is the plight of the physically- and mentally-challenged kids in the favela. Thankfully, some local heroes founded a community center to provide education, nutritious food and a nurturing environment for these kids, providing them with the mental and physical stimuli they need to develop in a healthy manner. Cause & Affect traveled to this favela shanty-town (now well-known due to the highly-acclaimed 2003 film City of God) in order to provide material and financial support to this wonderfully-run project.
Laura Muniz helped found the Projeto Resgate ("Rescue Project") over ten years ago and now receives financial support from the wonderful Dutch-Brazilian organization IBISS. As she explains, "Since most kids here come from single-parent homes, these physically- and mentally-challenged children are often locked into their homes when their mothers go off to work. We provide them with a healthy environment and thanks to our physical therapists and teachers trained in dealing with kids with their conditions, we are able to help the kids improve their condition and also help their parents understand and deal with their childrens' disabilities." Cause & Affect arrived to discover that the facilities of the center were in need of a serious make-over, so with $730, we were able to re-paint the walls and purchase a wide variety of art supplies for the project. Thanks to Aspire Inspire, we also distributed 50 backpacks to the kids of the project and the adjoining pre-school.
With the help of donors like, you Cause & Affect is creating positive change in places like City of God. To help the cause, please donate on-line here.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE Rio de Janeiro is known for its pretty beaches, carnaval excitement and sultry lifestyle. But for millions of Rio's residents that reside in the favela shanty-towns, life is a daily challenge as inhabitants struggle to earn a living and provide for their families.
For children here, there exists another challenge: staying alive. Lured by the glamor of gym shoes, money, status and girls, local kids are being wooed into the drug trade, sometimes as young as 8 years old. With only 4 hours of school per day, kids are left out on the street, often with nothing to do but get involved in the alluring drug trade. 12 year-old with a .357s are an all-too-common sight on these streets, as kids lack positive role-models to encourage them along a more healthy, wholesome path. The violence of the drug trade, coupled with the heavy hand and quick triggers of the local police, has created a situation in which "an entire generation of impoverished Brazilian youth is being decimated." Luckily, in many of these favela communities, there is hope. Local community centers provide these kids with a safe haven while teaching them skills and providing them with the stimuli needed to keep them off the dangerous streets. With high rates of malnutrition and broken homes, it is essential to these kids' development to provide them with a place where they can go after school to learn, play and eat nutritious food. In an effort to provide safe haven for more of these children, Cause & Affecthas supported two of these successful projects. 1) Terra Encontada is a neighborhood in the Jardim America favela located in the Northern Zone of Rio and home to about 5,000 inhabitants. When a Dutch organization IBISS arrived to help a decade ago, they asked the parents and kids what was their most important request. The answer was unanimous: a soccer field where the kids could play futbol, exercise and get off the dusty, dangerous streets. In the years since, a soccer coach has been hired to give formal lessons and a team created that competes with other local favelas. With their minds focused on soccer, these kids look up to their coaches and the project staff. A few of the kids told me about friends of theirs that took the other path; all too often, the friends died violent deaths once they became involved with the drug gangs.
Upon our visit, C&A could see the field had fallen into disrepair. Due to years of wear and tear, coupled with heavy rains, much of the field had washed away and had been inundated with frequent flooding. Seeing a direct way to assist, we swooped into action, first hiring workers to clean out the clogged drainage pipes. We then contracted a huge truckload of sand to be delivered to provide that powdery-soft field the kids enjoy. Next we bought new soccer balls and nets for the goals. Beyond these cosmetic improvements though, we wanted to find a way to increase the access to this field. Much to the delight of the project directors (and the kids), we decided to install four strong lamps to allow the kids to play at night. Now, thanks to the $1,500 C&A invested to improve this field, hundreds of kids can stay off the streets and instead play well into the night in a safe, wholesome environment. 2) Cinco Bocas, located in the Braz de Pina neighborhood, is infamous for its drug wars and homicides, often at the hand of the local police. But a percussion project here is changing the lives of many of these kids. The local community center here, founded by locals and supported in part by IBISS as well, provides day care to over a hundred kids. In addition, many of the adolescents in the program take part in an amazing drumming project. They are trained in the rich art of Brazilian percussion and as thisvideo shows, they are incredibly skilled! They have toured in Holland a few times, which gives these kids a real boost of confidence and inspires them to devote their lives to this project. As the video shows, these kids know that their lives have been transformed - it is powerful to see firsthand!
Cause & Affect loves this project but When we watched the older kids playing with their incredibly genuine smiles, we could see the younger ones looking on in awe. It was clear that these positive role models needed to be encouraged to pass along their skills and wisdom to the younger kids. We asked the Director why more younger kids weren't involved and she replied, "There is one simple answer: we can not afford the drums needed to teach them." Acting upon this need, we compiled a "wish list" and headed to the instrument store to purchase the $1,500 needed to expand the project to 50 additional kids. We delivered the drums, set up the classes and for $30 per kid, young lives are being spared from the violence of the drug trade. Mission accomplished. As the video illustrates, 5o of the younger kids are now a part of the project and the teenagers are very enthused to act as teachers and role models for this "new generation of Brazilian drummers."
As one 18 year-old told me, "We have been so lucky to have this life-changing opportunity. Now we can give back by teaching the little kids."
So simple, so true. Once again, Cause & Affect's micro-philanthropy model proves its efficiency. We do the background research, make field visits, choose a project to assist, find the most effective way to make a difference and then act quickly to purchase the supplies or contract the service needed to directly impact peoples' lives. FIND A CAUSE & AFFECTA CHANGE - this is the C&A mantra and once again, we see it's success.
SPECIAL THANKS TO LYONS TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL IN LA GRANGE, IL! BY CHOOSING CAUSE & AFFECT AS THEIR CHARITY OF THE YEAR, THEY WERE ABLE TO RAISE OVER $3,500 TO SUPPORT THESE PROJECTS! WELL DONE! GO LIONS! (C&A is looking for more schools to participate in the program.)
In order to start a business or improve one's financial well-being, people need access to banking services and credit. Sadly, the vast majority of poor people in the world lack this access to credit.
Recognizing this shortcoming, visionaries like Muhammad Yunus have developed micro-credit institutions (like his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh) that have gone on to help millions of families climb out of poverty. In many cases, these "micro-loans" (often just a few hundred dollars) are coupled with business training classes to allow local entrepreneurs to create and run their own business.
In September, Cause & Affect Founder Adam Carter was invited to speak at a Micro-credit Symposium at the College of Lake County (CLC). (Excerpts from his speech included in Field Report video). Joined by CLC Alum and C&A President Tim Summers, Carter explained to students and faculty why this development approach has become so widely embraced throughout the developing world. He then invited students to participate in funding a micro-credit project, urging them to raise money so they could see micro-credit in action.
Thanks to Liz Clark, the Alpha Alpha Pi Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, a local women's group and the rest of the CLC team, the students were able to raise over $1,300! C&A took this money down to Guatemala to fund a micro-credit loan for Santos Dominga Chiroy García de Camajá, a single mother that lives in the El Quiche region of Guatemala. Santos Dominga, like most rural Guatemalans, is an indigenous Mayan that has been completely excluded from conventional banking institutions. Without access to credit or banking services, she is left on her own to support her five children. She and her family live in a delicate balance, as she is left tending to the fields all day and also preparing food for her children. All she can rely on is her meager onion crop, which does not provide enough income for her to address the food, educational and medical needs of her family.
But, with this micro-loan (administered through our local partner, a very-highly reputable micro-credit institution called SHARE Guatemala), this hard-working mother will be able to purchase additional inputs in order to increase the yield of her onion crop. She will also be able to purchase supplies to weave baskets, using her skills to foster her entrepreneurial spirit. Her older children will be able to assist her in this income-generating opportunity. The loan will be repaid over the course of 12 months, at which point the money will be re-generated into another loan for the next worthy recipient.
Yes, it is that simple! American students learn about the wonders of micro-credit, they raise money to alleviate poverty and they are able to see the fruits of their labors through Cause & Affect's work in action. Meanwhile, in the middle of Guatemala, a family is provided with the means to pull themselves out of poverty. A family has more food, access to educational opportunities and money for medical treatment. Everyone wins. [C&A is looking for other colleges and universities to participate in this sort of program, so please e-mail any leads.]
Keep those donations coming - every dollar is instrumental in changing lives for the better! Donations can be made on-line here. ¡Muchas Gracias!
As part of C&A's Sister-School Program, we have paired up a high school in the states with a school in rural Guatemala!
After students from Peninsula High School in San Bruno raised money, Cause & Affect delivered these funds, as well as their letters and photos, to their Sister School in Patzun, Guatemala.
Agua de Dios, a small private elementary school in this indigenous region provides students with a much better education than the local public school, which is overcrowded with students and under-staffed with teachers, many of whom often miss school for no reason. Unlike the public school, which is home to a lot of drugs and violence, Agua de Dios is a safe sanctuary for the children of Patzun to learn, play and enjoy their childhood.
Upon our visit to Agua de Dios, the students thoroughly enjoyed the pinata celebration, as well as seeing the letters and photos from their California sister-school. The students will continue to correspond with each other in order to deepen cross-cultural understanding.
With the money raised, Agua de Dios will purchase 25-30 desks for their students. Hopefully, the students, faculty and parents at Peninsula will be able to raise additional funds for Agua de Dios in the near future, as the school is in dire need of more classrooms and supplies. C&A is accepting more schools to participate in the program, so please contact us for more information.
Due to an inundation of rain from Hurricane Ida, a giant mudslide barreled down the Chicontepec Volcano in central El Salvador. It gathered mass and speed until it collided with the tranquil town of Verapaz, crashing into the city and swallowing nearly everything in its path: homes, animals, cars and over twenty of the town’s inhabitants. (To add insult to injury, many of the victims had already lost their homes in years past due to earthquakes and floods that have repeatedly struck the region.)
In an effort to provide humanitarian assistance, Cause & Affect arrived in the distressed region in search of the most effective way to help.
After speaking with the local mayor and relief professionals, we discovered that most of the victims’ day-to-day humanitarian needs (food, water and medicine) were already being addressed by the government and other organizations. We were also informed that residents from outlying areas, while affected by the same mudslide, were often out of the relief loop. 1) We discovered Don Luciano Montano, an 80 year-old man whose shack had been destroyed by the torrent of mud that engulfed him and nearly carried him away to his death. El Anciano (“the old man”) as locals call him lives all alone with no savings to fall back on. Widowed and maimed by a sugar-mill accident, he has had his home destroyed by two earthquakes in years past. Today, he scrapes by on whatever manual labor he can find, a most punishing existence for a frail, elderly man. Once we got to know this gentle soul and recognized his determination to somehow survive despite his apparent helplessness, Cause & Affect jumped into action. With the encouragement (and utter disbelief) of Don Montano, we built the old man a new house. Wasting no time, we immediately bought the supplies and called upon his helpful neighbors for their volunteered time for construction. Two days later, our hard-working and wise old friend cried as he thanked Cause & Affect for rescuing him. Most incredibly, we built the entire house (albeit a very simple one) for a grand total of $300. As you can see, Cause & Affect finds the most DIRECT form of giving with the donations we receive! I urge you to watch thisinspiring 4-minute video.
2) Working in association with the local Peace Corps office, we met the Dimas family. On the fateful night of the mudslide, Dona Priscilla Dimas lost her mother, two grandmothers, her grandfather and her 8 year-old son Kevin. Her home and all her belongings were completely destroyed. Since many Peace Corps volunteers had stayed with this family in years past, Cause & Affect is spearheading a fund-raising drive amongst Peace Corps volunteers (past and present) and their friends and families to try to assist the Dimas family, as they will need to build a home in a safer part of town. We produced this video, which is being distributed through the Peace Corps network and also started the aid with a $100 donation towards food and medicine for the remaining members of the family.
Special thanks to my mentor Marc Gold of 100 Friends for leading the path in helping so many elderly people in need around the world.
Thank you for all of your generous donations - you can see the positive change taking place! To give, simply click here.
Honduras has the 2nd worst public health system in the Western Hemisphere. Off the northern coast on an island called Roatan, I discovered a shanty-town community called La Colonia that was founded by refugees from Hurricane Mitch that destroyed these peoples' communities over ten years ago when tidal waves washed away their homes and their farmland. Seeking to settle somewhere with higher ground and jobs, they moved to this tropical island. But life in La Colonia is a daily struggle. WATCH FIELD REPORT HERE! and our first field report from Guatemala here.
Atrocious economic conditions, a lack of educational opportunities and medical problems have left the 4,000 residents of La Colonia mired in poverty. With scant resources from the government, the people here are left to fend for themselves. Sanitation is absent, schools are overloaded (only 1 in 4 kids here go to school) and the only public health clinics are severely overcrowded and under-manned. Imagine going to a clinic without running water or any medicine! Fortunately, an American nurse named Miss Peggy Stranges, while down in Honduras in 1998 doing humanitarian work after the destructive Hurricane Mitch, recognized the need and acted upon it. What started as a make-shift operation in her kitchen has grown into the two-story Clinic Esperanza addressing pediatrics, maternal health and more. Over 250 foreign volunteers (such as doctors from the states) volunteer at the Clinic annually and the only paid employees are Hondurans, such as the two Honduran doctors, nurse and dentist on staff. Much of the medicine is purchased with World Health Organization (WHO) discount or donated from foundations. Many supplies are donated by tourists that come through Roatan (famous for its gorgeous beaches and coral reefs) but due to the recent political crisis, tourism has been down, which is what led to the current shortage. We are confident that the holidays brings more generous foreigners to aid the clinic.
Having helped rebuild homes after the Hurricane back in 1999 while living in Guatemala, I was saddened to see people still victimized by this storm a decade later. Fortunately, Cause & Affect was able to make a difference. We learned about the current shortage of respiratory and diabetic medicine, so we delivered a $1,200 Micro-Grant to allow them to purchase these needed medications. Be sure to watch the video to see personal accounts about the importance of this clinic for this downtrodden community - their words speak louder than mine. Thanks to all of our donors - as you can see, your money goes a long way! To make an on-line donation, simply click here.
VIEW FIELD REPORT VIDEO HERE Guatemala, a stunningly beautiful country renown for its volcanoes, picturesque colonial cities and rich cultural heritage is beset with a wide variety of social, economic, educational and health problems. One of the most serious issues is malnutrition, as the country suffers from the third highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, ranking below only Yemen and Afghanistan. For a country with such fertile land, this sorry statistic speaks volumes about the level of corruption, inequality and uphill fight faced by this country’s poor population. This problem is especially acute amongst Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan population, which make up over half of the country’s population. Due to their political exclusion and economic marginalization, over 75% of these Mayan people live below the poverty line, and as a result, often have trouble feeding their children. The ridiculously high fertility rate here does not help matters; without access to family planning or contraceptives, indigenous women give birth to an average of over 6 children and half of Guatemalan women are mothers by the time they reach 19 years of age!
Though it requires decades to reverse these worrying trends, Cause & Affect Foundation is committed to using our resources to create positive change today in the most direct manner possible. C&A Founder Adam Carter spent the last month volunteering with several children’s hospitals and non-profit organizations in the country and decided upon a course of action.
First, we worked alongside a local center that provides food and shelter for homeless families that have nowhere to turn and no other source of nourishment. A local contact has agreed to further assist this shelter by providing breakfast for the 80 -100 people that visit on a daily basis. (This comes to $600 a month or $20 a day, which is about a quarter per meal). Second, we assisted Casa Jackson, a clinic for malnourished babies from the region. Babies suffering from malnutrition are referred to the clinic by social workers, orphanages or parents unable to provide enough food for their babies. Babies are brought in and treated for their ailments and put on a nutritionally-balanced diet, being fed twelve times a day to regain their strength. Once they have overcome their malnutrition, they are returned to their families, who are them counseled about proper nutrition and childhood rearing. In assessing the project’s needs, we were alerted that the clinic was in dire need of 4 items: powdered milk, diapers, an industrial blender (to make the formula) and a food processor (to blend fruit and vegetables). Cause & Affect immediately went to the market and purchased all four for a total of $500. Thirdly, we traveled to the remote rural Mayan communities surrounding Lake Atitlan. In association with Feed the Dream and Los Amigos de Santa Cruz, two NGO’s that do amazing work addressing pre-natal nutrition and care, feeding centers and community gardens, Cause & Affect came face-to-face with families in dire need of help, such s the ten children that were orphaned when their mother recently died in childbirth. We discovered that there is no system in place for families like this facing food emergencies to obtain assistance in a timely manner. In order to address this pressing need, we created the Cause & Affect Emergency Malnutrition Fund with a seed grant of $500. Our local partners at Los Amigos de Santa Cruz will be distributing powdered milk, fruit and vegetables to these especially desperate families and reporting back to Cause & Affect on their progress.
By tackling the pressing issue of Guatemala’s malnutrition from three angles, we have shown just how far a small amount of money can go. In this case, we accomplished the three objectives with only $1,000.
As we say, “Find a CAUSE & AFFECT a change. It’s that simple.” Special thanks to Phi Theta Kappa’s Illinois Region - their contribution was well-spent! Please visit website and blog for more information of make an on-line donation here.
Here in a shanty-town of Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), life for the 40,000 residents of is a daily challenge, as they are faced with a lack of jobs, medical attention and high food prices.
