 |
|
|
Thursday 8 April 2004
Introducing: blogging for War Child
 Venture capitalist
Fred Wilson added Google AdSense to his blog a couple of weeks ago, as he is interested in contextual advertising. I am also experimenting with blogs, actually produce one of the
most popular commercial blogs in Holland, and I'd like to learn more about contextual advertising as well. Fred donates his AdSense proceeds to
The Grameen Foundation, that provides 'tiny loans, called "micro-credit" to poor women all over the developing world. The women use these loans to start businesses such as farming, making food, tailoring, etc.' Sounds like a great cause. (By the way, interesting to see that a vc picks a charity that gives out loans, not gifts or grants. I wonder about the term sheets ;-)
I will be donating all proceeds of this blog to
War Child, an organisation that for reasons unknown to me does not yet seem to have a presence in the United States. Here is some background on War Child:
Children are amongst the first casualties of any armed conflict, always the most vulnerable and innocent of victims. In the last decade alone 1.5 million children have died in wars. Four million have been disabled and a further 10 million traumatised. The severe psychological wounds that war inflicts on children can scar them for life, crippling the very generations that must one day rebuild their devastated countries. For the future peace of the world we must do everything in our power to help these war children.
The central theme behind War Child is that you can take a child out of war, but how do you take the war out of the child? Essentially, War Child helps kids that have lived through a war, become kids again. Through singing and dancing and playing games, children that have lost almost every sense of what it's like to be a child, learn to play and discover the joys of being a kid again. The transformation these kids go through is simply amazing.
A friend of mine, whose business acumen I deeply respect, sits on the board of War Child. He has thoroughly checked out the spending and efficiency of their organisation and it's about as mean and lean as it can be. For example, when Dutch pop star and War Child ambassador Marco Borsato
visits Afghanistan for War Child, he pays his own flight, stay and everything: there's no pampering. I find those kind of things vital when judging any charity, and most of them don't pass the test. But every dollar you send to War Child, is a dollar well spent. Here's how
you can help.
And of course, you can always start a blog and donate the proceeds to War Child.
Thursday 8 April 2004 - 03:41 AM | category: Culture
|
|
 |
