Humanitarian Issues – SOS from U.S. Charity Organizations

February 21, 2012

By Padmini Arhant

Tough economic times have taken toll on all in the society especially the most vulnerable and needy bearing the brunt of austerity.

However, the hope is revived with many charity organizations and volunteers’ sincere commitment to provide for the demography struggling to make ends meet in their lives.

Some of them have additional restraints due to physical disabilities and are challenged in daily survival increasingly becoming arduous with deep cuts in state and federal funding for vital programs.

Although population in general are weathering harsh winter in United States and other parts of the world,

Sadly, many have succumbed to the extreme weather while others yearn for human generosity and kindness to rescue them from the plight.

Citizens are kindly requested to extend their support to the less fortunate and disadvantaged members in the society.

Similarly, lawmakers with the power to make a difference in human lives are urged to pass bills in bipartisanship prioritizing humanitarian needs at the critical hour.

Economy and environment being intertwined – the United States Congress once again have the opportunity to unanimously approve Gulf Restoration bill.

The funds from BP fines related to Gulf Coast environmental disaster could save many American families suffering from the oil spill endangering life and habitat.

United States citizens outreach to humanitarian aid is emulated and appreciated worldwide.

Human empathy towards all transcending social and economic identity could foster better relation besides promoting much required peace and harmony in the world confronted with violence and warfare.

Natives in the land are often forgotten members in the society.

Nations’ focus on disproportionate military spending and urban growing demands absorb bulk of the budget allocations leaving little or none for rural as well as indigenous people progress.

Society prosperity shared among all would contribute to universal development.

Energy costs hurt the average citizens and further exacerbated with any preparation for unnecessary and unaffordable involvement in military intervention particularly in the oil producing Middle East.

Winter is a major hurdle for the poor dependent on charity to keep them warm and safe.

Children susceptible to illnesses from inadequate heating are the worst victims in the exponentially rising energy expense.

Your thoughtfulness through donations and petitions to congress members could alleviate suffering endured by many in silence.

Please take a moment and review the genuine plea from different charity organizations with a common goal – saving humanity.

Your compassion could heal the pain and uplift human spirit.

Thank you for your assistance in the humanitarian cause.

Peace to all!

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

P.S.: Please respond to SOS from charities with fund raising deadline and congressional action.

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1. Urgent Heating Fund

Request from Fr. Stephen Huffstetter, SCJ
Director, St. Joseph’s Indian School ,

South Dakota, USA.

Please visit –  http://stjo.org/site/MessageViewer.

https://secure3.convio.net/stjo/site/Donation2?df_id=4383&4383.donation=form1&autologin=true

Dear Friends,

There’s just one day left before our matching gift expires, but we still need your help to raise $95,000 to keep our students safe and warm this year.

Will you take this rare opportunity to DOUBLE your impact before time runs out? Donate to our Urgent Heat Fund before midnight tomorrow.

Our heating costs can be unpredictable, and especially high this time of the year. I won’t back down from our commitment to keep every child in our care safe and warm so I’m turning to you for help.

Time and time again, friends like you have come through for our students in our hour of need – can our little ones count on you again today?

Please come to our rescue this winter: donate today to keep a child warm!

  • $25 becomes $50 to keep a child warm for  two weeks!
  • $50 becomes $100 to keep a child warm for  one month!
  • $100 becomes $200 to keep one child warm for two months!

It is only through the generosity of people like you that our Lakota students have the safe home, structured curriculum and nurturing environment they need to learn and thrive.

Pilamaya – thank you – for your kind and compassionate support of our students right now – and all year round.

God bless,

Fr. Stephen Huffstetter, SCJ
Director, St. Joseph’s Indian School

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2.  Kids in California left to fend for themselves?

From:  Easter Seals – Creating life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play.

All around the country, states facing tough times are being forced to slash their budgets – and many are choosing to balance the numbers on the backs of children with special needs. Major cuts could have major consequences for children who depend on state funding.

A recent Easter Seals report found that programs serving children with disabilities are so underfunded that more than one million kids are going undiagnosed and untreated for their special needs. Without the proper support, these children will struggle to keep up in school and in life, even though the health and learning difficulties they face are treatable.

If you believe every child deserves the help they need to achieve their dreams, ask officials in your state to protect funding for programs that serve kids with special needs!

Since we launched our Make the First Five Count campaign last year, more than 40,000 people like you dedicated to helping children with special needs have asked government officials to protect federal funding for the programs that help our most vulnerable kids succeed. But many children are still falling through the cracks – so we can’t stop there. This year, we’re taking our message to the state level, too.

Right now, elected officials across the country are weighing their options and making crucial decisions about how they’ll balance their state’s budget this year. Many will have no choice but to make painful cuts – and when it’s time to cut the budget, programs for children with disabilities are often among the first items on the chopping block.

This is your chance to speak up – if you don’t, even more children could miss out on their best chance to get the help they need at the age when it’s most effective.

Send your message to officials in California now: don’t cut funding for programs that diagnose and treat children with disabilities.

I know you won’t let them down. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Katy Beh Neas
Senior Vice President, Government Relations

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You may also please donate online at www.bva.org/donate

3.  Blinded Veterans Association

477 H Street NW

Washington DC 20090-8081

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Please visit www.kidswishnetwork.org for online donations.

4.  Kids Wish Network

Wish Fulfillment Center

P.O.Box 0968

Wilton, NH 03086-0968

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5. Urgent Alert: Please ensure BP’s Fines go to the Gulf!

From: Louisiana State

Dear Friends,

We need your help right now to seize an historic chance to restore the Gulf Coast to environmental health.

Please Take Action Today! Urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and your Senators to pass the RESTORE Act amendment on the Senate’s transportation bill.

It is outrageous that almost two years after the worst environmental disaster in American history, Congress still has not passed a single new law dedicating BP’s fines to repair the long-term damage done to the extraordinary and economically vital Gulf Coast and Mississippi River Delta.

But, right now, the bipartisan RESTORE Act has been attached as an amendment to the Senate transportation bill, giving us a golden opportunity to finally move forward. In our more than 35-years of work on this issue, we have never had such an important opportunity to make so much progress.

If Congress doesn’t pass legislation to direct BP’s fines to Gulf restoration, two things will happen:

  1. The funds will simply go to the U.S. Treasury’s “general fund” – to be used on unrelated federal spending, and
  2. We will have squandered a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in real Gulf Coast restoration.

Please Take Action: Send an email to your Senators, as well as Senators Reid and McConnell.

Here is why this legislation matters. For decades, the fragile Gulf Coast wetlands have been cut up, channelized, and engineered to serve the offshore oil industry and shipping interests – starving the wetlands of silt and sediment and poisoning them with saltwater.

As a result, the wetlands are disappearing – not just shifting or changing – they’re actually vanishing at the astonishing rate of a football field every hour.

So, after the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, last year’s BP blowout and resulting oil catastrophe battered an already depleted and vulnerable coastline.

And the damage is still being felt. To this day, oil continues to wash up on Gulf shores. As much as 30 percent of the spilled oil is still out there: on or under beaches, draped across marshes, sunk to the bottom, floating as tar balls.

This issue isn’t complicated. As the Gulf struggles to recover, the only thing we’re asking Congress to do is simply pass common sense legislation to direct the BP fines to fix the Gulf.

Sadly, in Washington these days, nothing is simple. That’s why we need you to help us force the issue.

Please Take Action: Urge your Senators as well as Senators Reid and McConnell to pass the RESTORE Act amendment attached to the Senate transportation bill.

Help us make sure Congress stops holding the battered Gulf Coast hostage.

Thank you for your activism and support,
Courtney Taylor
Coastal Louisiana Project

Written by Padmini Arhant · Filed Under Humanitarian 

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