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World Day for the prevention of Child Abuse

19 November was World Day for the prevention of Child Abuse.

Reading the statistics on child abuse is staggering – often shocking!

It is not only figures such as 1 million children each year are forced into the sex trade, but it is also the abuse that surrounds us in our daily lives amongst people we know that we often tend to turn a blind eye to.

- Most child abuse happens in the child’s home. It is therefore often unreported, unseen, and the children often remain silent, feeling shamed and guilty.

- Of the rapes and sexual abuse reported of children under 12 years, 90% of the victims knew their perpetrator

- Child abuse occurs at all socio-economic levels of society, across ethic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.

- One third of abused and neglected children will go on to abuse and neglect their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.

These figures do not include the atrocities committed against children in countries of conflict, where rape and violence against children is common, and an estimated 300,000 child soldiers – boys and girls under the age of 18 – are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide.

UNICEF, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the World Health Organization has released the United Nations Secretary World Report on Violence Against Children, to coincide with both World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse and with the 15th anniversary of the Commission for the Rights of the Child.

These are just a few of the projects on betterplace.org that support children – and we encourage you to reach out and support:

“Life House Kids Bali” http://www.betterplace.org/projects/484

“Teams for children’s rights” http://www.betterplace.org/projects/103

“School for life in Chiang Mai” http://www.betterplace.org/projects/64

Children’s safety is our responsibility!

Stretching beyond your limits

Community Class

The key to giving is to use what you are good at to give back to the world.

Yoga You Palma is doing just that.

This Sunday 16 November, Yoga You in Palma de Mallorca hosted the first of a weekly “community class” – and betterplace is at the heart of it.

The class is for free, and the teachers give their time voluntarily, but everyone is encouraged to give as much or as little as they feel appropriate to the featured project of the week.

Yoga You Palma have created a Yoga You team on betterplace. They have selected a number of projects which they will be supporting over the weeks to come, one project featured a week.

This Sunday – the class was dedicated to little Ava-Joy – a three year old girl living in Cameroon who’s mother was asking for support to pay for her first year of pre-school. It was great to see that by the end of the class, the “yogis” stretched beyond their limits and completed the project! And little Ava-Joy will begin her first year of school.

Stanford Diaries: the “Smile Revolution”

The conference of Online Giving Markets held at Stanford University came to a close on Wednesday, after 4 very intense days of discussions, “unconference” meetings – where the debates evolved around issues raised by the group – and inspiring talks.

The aim of the conference was to share best practice, grow our network – but most importantly – try to find common ground that can help grow each of our online giving marketplaces and explore ways of cooperating.

In many ways these goals were achieved.

We take home with us to Berlin inspiring ways of growing and scaling the platform, with the aim of giving our users a stimulating and “addictive” user experience.

We have built friendships and found ways of cooperating with existing platforms in other markets, thereby expanding our global reach.

However, of the many great lessons learned – it was a very simple, yet powerful lesson that I take home with me: changing the world starts with a single act of kindness.

We were not only showed generous acts of kindness by complete strangers though out our trip (like Hitesh and Pooja who generously invited us into their home), the conference kicked off with a “Smile Revolution challenge”:

We were each given a “smile card” – and with this card encouraged to show an anonymous act of kindness to a stranger. So after giving flowers to a romantic couple, leaving money for the next person at the phone booth, and buying a stranger a cup of coffee – we realized that even on the campus of one of the worlds most elite universities – there is nothing as contagious as a smile.

This trip was an initiation into the “Smile Revolution” – find out more on: www.helpothers.org

Stanford Diaries: Where to from here?

Online Global Markets - betterplace

As each day passes, the gathering of online global markets becomes more intense and discussions dig deeper into the who we are, how do we grow and scale our market places, and how can we continue to expand and inspire our users base and sponsors? However one core issue remains to be answered: can and will our coordinated effort as global giving markets, have a larger impact on bringing about social change – and if so – how do we go about it?

These are questions that in principle we can all agree, but in practice the next steps remain unclear. Each of the 14 platforms represented, have pitched their best “business” practice – models aimed to inspire and possibly be replicated by other platforms.

Today guest speakers will be coming to share their experiences, open the discussion on the challenges to next stage of development, and hopefully, try to answer some key questions – primarily – where, as a group, do we take it from here?

Stanford Diaries: Do’s and Don’ts in San Francisco

Save the Earth - San Francisco

Do visit China Town on your first night of arrival

Don’t go for the deep fried assorted platter.

Do stay awake despite the jet lag

Don’t give into a quick 5 minute nap

Do go for a real American breakfast (eggs Benedict and hash browns)

Don’t order extra large hot chocolate (sugar overdose)

Do bike over the Golden Gate Bridge

Don’t think that it takes 2 hours

Do take a cable car up Nob Hill

Don’t mind the gap

Do stop to see the Cool Globes environmental exhibition

Don’t drop your litter

Stanford Diaries – Online Giving Markets – The journey begins

Airports are curious places: a cultural no-mans land – a collision of world citizens on the move.

I am sitting at Heathrow Airport in the Departure lounge –watching time and people pass by. My journey, together with Till, is taking us across the Atlantic, to take part in an annual event – the gathering of Online Giving Markets, 5 – 8 Oct at Stanford University.

This year betterplace has been invited to take part in the event – we feel honoured – and look forward to inspiring discussions, sharing ideas with like minded people, but mostly, strengthening our common goal of using the internet for change.

We will stay in San Francisco tonight, then tomorrow have been generously invited to stay with Hitesh and his wife ( www.qashcow.com – watch this space), and on Sunday the conference kicks off.

Let the journey begin…

Teenage-Power

On Sunday I attended the confirmation ceremony of Anton Kleihues, a fifteen year old from Berlin, who is also active in betterplace junior. At the end of the church ceremony, Anton got up announcing that the collection would go to Choki Traditional Arts School in Bhutan on betterplace.org.

Amongst his group they had discussed various projects the donation could go to, but as Anton was familiar with Choki and had been involved in fundraising for the school, which supports underpriviedged children in Bhutan by giving them a solid professional education in the traditional arts, he was able to persuade the group to donate the collection to it. A total of 1150 Euro came together and I am very thankful to Anton for his commitment.

As a recent article in the New York Times points out, more and more teenagers are getting involved in charity.

Donating $10 to buy a mosquito net to save an African child frommalaria has become a hip way to show you care, especially for teenagers. … Unusual allies, like the Methodist and Lutheran Churches, theNational Basketball Association and the United Nations Foundation, are stoking the passion for nets that prevent malaria. The annual “American Idol Gives Back” fund-raising television special has donated about $6 million a year for two years. The music channel VH1 made a fund-raising video featuring a pesky man in a mosquito suit.

Part of what has helped the campaign catch on is its sheer simplicity and affordability — $10 buys one net to save a child. Nothing But Nets, the best-known campaign, has raised $20 million from 70,000 individuals, most of it in donations averaging $60.

 

 

Social Design on Osocio.org

Osocio, the highly entertaining and eye-opening website for social advertising and non-profit campaigns from all over the world, currently presents the Social Design Video in which betterplace also has a part.

Together with the team of the Social Design Site  we are planning a film festival for autumn 2008 in Berlin with films, dealing with the design of social relationships in the widest sense. We’ll keep you up to date.