Day 105: Philanthro-teens

When I started this blog, I didn't really intend to focus largely on non-profits.  I wanted to find people making a positive impact.  Organizations that were making a difference.  Events happening in the world that were encouraging, focusing on progress and hope.  Not doom and despair. 

But the prevalence of non-profits seems to me to be an indicator.  A sign that there are an untold number of people, with great ideas, looking to make a difference.  That these people are passionate about their cause and the people they are caring about.  And that others are inspired by the idea, equally passionate about caring for these groups of people, and join their efforts together to make a larger impact than each could alone. 

There are non-profits for almost any cause or goal you can think of.  Caring for the planet.  Loving youth with broken spirits.  Providing basic necessities for the homeless.  Generating jobs for the poor.  Working to improve lives through eradicating disease.  

But who are the people behind these organizations?  Well, in some instances, they are kids.  Kindergarteners.  High Schoolers.  Philanthro-teens.

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"When Shannon McNamara was 13, her parents took her and her siblings to Peru during summer vacation to volunteer in an orphanage.

“At the beginning of the trip, I was thinking, 'Why can't I be on a cruise ship instead?' ” said Ms. McNamara, now 17 and a senior in high school in Basking Ridge, N.J. But the experience was “worth more than any cruise or trip to Disneyland could give you,” she said.

The family took a similar trip to Africa three years ago, and Ms. McNamara started her own nonprofit, Share (Shannon's After-School Reading Exchange), shortly after to help educate African girls. She has since volunteered in Tanzania every summer, and has collected 23,000 books and shipped them to schools there. She has also begun raising money for scholarships.

Meet the teen philanthropists. Armed with new technology and an awareness of global issues, post-Millennials are engaging in social entrepreneurship in previously unimaginable ways. Though still materialistic, these teens and even preteens want to do something more significant than acquire the latest i-Pod Touch or Wii.

LOOKING FOR A PURPOSE

Borrowing from trends in celebrity charity, kids are mobilizing their peers to address everything from infant mortality in developing nations to neighborhood concerns. They're donating presents to charity, and they're establishing their own nonprofits.

“The number of kids creating their own organizations and taking action for causes they care about is skyrocketing,” said Nancy Lublin, chief executive of DoSomething.org, a New York-based nonprofit that helps young people to engage in philanthropy.

“Kids today just saw their parents go through a recession, get laid off and struggle,” Ms. Lublin said. “They look around and say: 'What's the point? I don't just want a second car in my driveway. I want a life of purpose.' ”

In the past year, 79% of girls in the United States have contributed food or clothing, 53% have given their own money, and 66% have asked family or friends to give or volunteer, according to research commissioned by the United Nations Foundation.

Today's teens also plan to be generous when they get older. More than 75% say they will regularly give to charity, versus 63% in 1989, according to a nationwide survey by the Girl Scout Research Institute of 3,263 students in grades three through 12.

New nonprofits and campaigns are forming to generate teenage service and keep the movement growing. GenerationOn, a New York group promoting volunteerism, launched in October and has received more than 120,000 pledges to serve. It is working with 27 city schools to incorporate a “youth action” focus into the curriculum.

Last fall, the UN Foundation launched Girl Up, a national campaign to energize young women to raise money for their counterparts in developing nations. Girl Up stages rallies around the U.S. to educate teens about the hardships faced by children in poor countries, and its website is a portal for community action groups founded by teens. Thousands of enlistees are using Facebook and other networking tools to organize support for the program.

Girl Up's board of teen advisers includes Ms. McNamara, who has promoted the effort on BBC Radio and MTV.

The results have been impressive, according to Aaron Sherinian, the UN Foundation's executive director of communications and public affairs. “We have been astounded by the reaction—girls who told us they were already doing something or that they have a community of friends who wanted to do something but didn't know where to channel it.”

This generation is digital and global, Mr. Sherinian added. “A 12-year-old has a smartphone and knows where Malawi is.”

Like young people in the 1960s, teens now are coming of age during a time when serious global problems strike close to home. And they are dealing with things the previous generation didn't have to: terrorism, environmental disasters and worldwide recession.

Such concerns inspired Alex Epstein, 20, to start his own nonprofit three years ago. After making a post-Katrina visit to New Orleans and seeing the lack of support for residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, the Manhattan high school student couldn't just stand by.

“The thoughts and emotions this trip provoked made me realize this was what I would be dedicating the rest of my life to,” said Mr. Epstein, now a student at Temple University.

He co-founded the New York 2 New Orleans Coalition to create a network of young people interested in helping disadvantaged residents in both cities. NY2NO has since organized 41 trips to New Orleans for 1,000 high school and college students nationwide.

The recession is what spurred Angelica Salem, a 17-year-old from Stamford, Conn. Because her Sweet 16 celebration fell during the downturn, she decided to turn her birthday party into a charity event for low-income residents in the area. Her nonprofit, Voice of an Angel, raised $10,000 at the 150-person bash and has since held a number of galas. In early January, she organized a benefit that raised $50,000 for the Bennett Cancer Center at Stamford Hospital.

PARENTS HAVE A ROLE

“I knew I was going to eventually start my own charity, so I thought now is the perfect time,” Ms. Salem said.

Observers said it's clear that young people have the confidence to take action on their own. “This generation's icon isn't an actor or an athlete; it's Mark Zuckerberg,” Ms. Lublin said. “They don't want to just go get a job, they are builders.”

As in the McNamara family, though, kids' interest in philanthropy is often fostered—and facilitated—by parents.

Jillian and Sydney Medina, 10-year-old twins in Princeton Junction, N.J., said the need to give back is something their parents ingrained in them early on. In second grade, Jillian formed a group to clean up the playground at recess every day of the school year. The youngest members of the Girl Up teen advisory board, the girls raised $3,100 for the UN Foundation by asking for donations in lieu of gifts on their last birthday.

“Parents in our society tend to put their children in the center of the family and cater to their needs,” said Rhonda Medina. “After a while, you have to look at who you're raising—someone centered in the community or centered on themselves.”

In Chappaqua, Deena Bouchier persuaded twins Max and Mia to request gifts to the Westchester SPCA for their eighth birthday recently. They raised more than $700 in cash, along with piles of pet food and accessories.

“Kids these days have so much, they don't even appreciate their toys,” Ms. Bouchier said. “We wanted our kids to start to learn what it feels like, that it's a good feeling to be able to give and help others.”" Crain's New York Business.com

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Day 104: The Price of Making Peace

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Aya Abu Mouwais, a 3-year-old who lives in the West Bank, can barely walk or talk because of a failing kidney and liver. For much of her life, the Palestinian child has needed dialysis to survive.

Thankfully, an Israeli man has been able to help her get the treatment she so desperately requires. More than 140 times in the past two years, Yuval Roth has driven Aya and her mother from a checkpoint near the West Bank border to Rambam Medical Center, which is an hour away in Haifa, Israel.

"What Yuval has done, no one else has done," said Aya's mother, Suhair. "He is day by day helping us to get her to the hospital. I'm not allowed to drive an Israeli car, so if not for Yuval, we wouldn't be able to transport her. I thank him."

Leaving the West Bank is the only way Aya's family can get dialysis. For one thing, medical facilities are limited in the territory.

"In the Palestinian Authority, it's very expensive to get health care, and most of the people cannot afford it," Roth said.

It's also expensive to make the trip to Israeli hospitals. Although the Palestinian Authority allows sick children and adults to leave the West Bank for treatment, Palestinians are not allowed to drive past the checkpoints. To get to Israeli hospitals, they'd have to take a taxi, which would cost at least $90 each way.

Fortunately, there is Roth and his organization, Derech Hachlama ("On the Road to Recovery"). Since 2006, Roth and his team of volunteers have been giving Palestinians a lifeline.

"The volunteers are driving at least five days a week," said Roth, a 55-year-old carpenter and professional juggler from Pardes Hanna, Israel. "Some (drive) in the morning to drop off patients, and others come in the evening to take them back. That makes the whole thing easy, since they can still go to work and don't have to spend the whole day."

For Roth, the transportation service is a way to recover from personal tragedy. In 1993, his brother Udi was kidnapped and killed by members of Hamas. After his loss, Roth found a way to channel his anger into peace.

"I heard an interview on Israeli radio with a man who lost his son in the same way that I lost my brother," Roth said. "After the interview, I called him ... and he said he had an idea to establish a (support) group for both sides, Israelis and Palestinians."

Roth joined the group, called Parents Circle - Families Forum, and befriended many Palestinians. All shared a surprisingly common need: transportation access to Israeli health-care facilities.

"One day, (a program participant) called and told me his brother might have a brain tumor. He had an appointment at Rambam hospital but no way to go," Roth said. "He asked if I could drive him, and I agreed it would be no problem."

That first call for help was more than four years ago. As word of Roth's generosity spread, transportation demands grew, and Roth began to recruit his friends as driver-volunteers.

Today, Roth's group has grown to 200 volunteers. Transport coordination efforts are run entirely by Roth, who spends many hours on his cell phone inquiring about the location of volunteers and Palestinian families. Each volunteer maintains his or her own vehicle, but Roth covers gasoline costs with his personal income and any donation money he has received.

Even though differences exist, including some language barriers, Roth believes that the program helps Israelis and Palestinians learn from and respect each other.

"When we are coming to pick up the sick kids, the (Palestinian and Israeli) checkpoint managers help us a lot," Roth said. "It makes our life and their life a lot easier. I think Palestinian families trust me also because I'm coming as one of them. I feel like they are my family or my friends."

Roth's group has driven an estimated 60,000 kilometers (nearly 40,000 miles) in 2010 alone. He says they have helped hundreds of Palestinians get access to health care.

"I lost my brother, but I didn't lose my head," Roth said. "This activity gives me an essence for life. I have learned the price of the conflict is a lot more than the price of making peace. We are all human beings."

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Day 103: Be a Role Model

January  is National Mentoring Month.  "The time each year when our nation spotlights the importance of mentors and the need for every child to have a caring adult in his or her life.  When you serve as a mentor, you enrich your own life as much as you do the life of a child."

A caring adult.  Someone who will be there and can be counted on.  Dependable.  Providing a positive example in how to approach challenges.  Demonstrating healthy relationships.  We all need someone like this in our life.  And for some children, this isn't their parents for whatever the reason.  But a mentor can provide this social and emotional construct.  Visit National Mentoring Month and MENTOR to find ways to connect with at-risk youth and help guide them in a positive direction.  

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Working at a table crowded with binders and textbooks, Glendale resident Nancy Stein is leading two children through their homework exercises.

"Is that how you spell 'remember?'" she asks. "Sound it out. You are missing some letters."

It is a scene played out each evening in households across the country. But the children, siblings Jenny and Danny Barajas, 9 and 12 years old, respectively, are not Stein's own. And the table is not in the family kitchen, but in the activity room at PATH Achieve, a homeless shelter in south Glendale.

Stein, a volunteer with the nonprofit organization School on Wheels, works to ensure that her students stay on track despite the instability of homeless life. School on Wheels provides a variety of services, including free school supplies, uniforms, school enrollment and parent counseling.

Its primary mission, however, is to foster academic success with one-on-one tutoring. Hundreds of School on Wheels volunteers work at sites across Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

There are more than 35,000 homeless youth enrolled in Los Angeles County schools, according to the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. Families with young children now account for 40% of the nation's homeless population.

Homeless children face myriad challenges, said Natasha Bayus, School on Wheels regional coordinator for Burbank and Glendale, including limited access to nutritious food and hygiene products. And they are sometimes plagued by social stigma, as well as frequent moves.

"Each time a student moves, they are set back three to four months," Bayus said. "If they move multiple times in a year, they can be behind at least a year of school. They might be working on things like algebra but lacking basic addition and subtraction [skills]."

Parents are typically consumed trying to find steady work and places to live, Bayus said, leaving them little time to go over homework. And in some cases they themselves may be uneducated.

"A lot of the parents might not have graduated high school themselves," Bayus said. "So if the kid is in high school and is working on some advanced problems, it is even harder for those parents to handle those things."

School on Wheels volunteers are seeing more families forced into homelessness due to job loss, eviction and foreclosure, Bayus said. Jenny and Danny's mother, Maria Cardenas, said her family was evicted from their Sun Valley apartment last spring after a dispute with their landlord.

Terrified that her children would be removed from her custody, she tried to hide the family's circumstances, Cardenas said. Each night they parked their car at Sun Valley Park. For four months, the children slept in the vehicle, while their mother slept next to it on the curb. They used the park's pool facilities to bathe.

Eventually, Cardenas was approached by a Los Angeles police officer, who encouraged her to go to a shelter. She is determined to keep her family together, Cardenas said, and with the help of the School on Wheels tutors, her children remain on track at school.

"They are excellent with them, especially [my son]," Cardenas said.

Roberta Lara, a paralegal at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank and a School on Wheels volunteer, said she communicates directly with a client's teacher in order to identify weaknesses, such as reading. Her most recent student made noticeable progress, she said.

"I try to talk to them and make them feel as comfortable as possible," Lara said. "They really open up to me, and I enjoy that."

Watching children not only survive homelessness, but actually thrive, is incredible, Stein said. She has had tutoring relationships that lasted for several years, and others that lasted just a few weeks.

"You don't really know how much effect you had on them," Stein said. "You just hope and pray that somehow you helped them."  Glendale News-Press By Megan O'Neil

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