One thing I haven't much talked about on this blog is donating to charity. I mean, I have mentioned how much I like St. Jude's. But beyond that, I don't think I've said much. Because this is a blog not just about me and about my family but also about international adoption, I think this post is relevant and probably long past due.
For those of you not aware of the goings on over on the other side of the world, China has been hit by some pretty severe storms, killing off crops and dipping temperatures pretty low. This has affected orphanages because goods cnanot be shipped to them.
If you have some extra cash to spare and you either have a child waiting for you in an orphanage in China or you care about the children waiting in a Chinese orphanage to find their families, the good news is that there's something you can do.
Half the Sky Foundation is an organization that sponors four programs to improve the lives of children who spend their first months and years in an orphanage in China. There are other great charities which also provide support for orphanages in China (and in other parts of the world), and perhaps I will post about them in the future, but today I'm writing about Half the Sky.
Right now, Half the Sky is keeping tabs on how several orphanages are doing during the Spring Festival Storms. And this is not a cute name for an actual spring festival. Things are not good. You can see the list of orphanages Half the Sky works with and their needs on this website, and if you feel so inclined, you can donate so that the children and caretakers survive the storms (literally).
Although Marcie's orphanage is in Chongqing, it is not one of the orphanages Half the Sky works with. There is an orphanage in Chongqing that is asking for floor mats and warm blankets right now, but it's not Yunyang. This worries me a bit because Yunyang is very rural, and if Chonqing orphanage is struggling, things can't be looking so good at Yunyang Chenxiang. I don't have any control over that, of course.
Anyway, I don't exactly understand how your donation right now will immediately help these children if the issue is a shortage of commodities-- I mean if goods can't be shipped, what are they using the money to buy? I don't know. But I do know that the organization is reputable. It's a charitable organization, so your donation is tax deductible. And it's financials appear to be relatively transparent, as they include them on their website. So your money won't go to waste, that's for sure.
If you have another, different, favorite organization you want to encourage people to give to, feel free to post it in the Comments section!
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