Seems like there’s been a lot of activity about good causes lately. First, Chris Brogan pointed out Stand Up Speak Out. Second was Blog Action Day yesterday. And now, I’ve been tagged by Jean Browman from Cheerful Monk to take part in the Caring Compassion Charity project. I think it’s really good that bloggers and the social network are trying to make a difference. If nothing else, it will help raise awareness, and that can only be a good thing.
Anyway, back to the Caring Compassion Charity project. Basically, I’m supposed to write about a cause that I’m passionate about. For more details, you can read the official rules as written by Alex Shalman.
So, my cause. This blog is all about trying to get people to start thinking in new, creative ways. So, it’s understandable that the cause I’m passionate about is education-related (I’ve blogged about education so many times).
I mentioned before that 50% of the donations I receive from this blog will go to Global Nomads Group (GNG).
Founded in 1998, the Global Nomads Group (GNG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to heightening children’s understanding and appreciation for the world and its people.
Using interactive technologies such as videoconferencing, GNG brings young people together face-to-face to meet across cultural and national boundaries to discuss their differences & similarities, and the world issues that affect them.
Global Nomads Group programs aim to:
- Increase young people’s knowledge of the world and its people
- Increase collaboration and dialogue between students of different cultures and nationalities
- Highlight critical world issues ranging from HIV/AIDS to global warming, to war
- Provide an educational framework in which students can become active leaders in their own education
It’s about connecting youths, in order to help their education. It’s about empowering youths. That’s the cause I’m passionate about (though as a youth, I might be biased). To me, the most important thing is education. And not just “schooling”, but all forms of education. There are other organizations worth noting as well, GNG is just one of them. Youth Ventures is another example.
But they all revolve around one thing – developing youths and empowering them. I think that’s a really fundamental issue. Yes, issues such as poverty and hunger and the environment are good causes and very worthwhile. But personally, I think that if you empower the young, if you train them well, that’s the best way to solve all these other problems in the long run. Providing aid and all is useful, but it’s only a short term solution. To truly change the world in the long term, we need to educate and empower our youths.
That’s why I support organizations such as GNG.
What about you? What cause are you compassionate about? If you want to take part in this, just consider yourself tagged by me.
For my part, I would like to tag: Sarah Deutsch, Tom O’Leary, Chris Brogan and Kevin Carroll. And a few of personal friends from Singapore (these are personal diary blogs of my friends, I’m just kind of interested to see what they write): Lynn Ng, Sherry Goh, Li Hsia and Cindy.
