Friday, January 28, 2005
The following are some humanitarian organizations I found on the Internet whose missions (intentionally, or coincidentally) don't exploit animals. They're listed in no particular order. Please check out their websites by clicking on their logos below. If you like the work they do, please support them, and recommend them to your outreach ministers and others in your churches -- and add a link on your church's website. As always, it's up to you to "do the homework"....
Or, to help you "do your homework", and pick a humane humanitarian charity, Global Giving presents 500 pre-screened grassroots projects to choose from-- education and economic development to health and environment in over 100 countries. You can use their "Donation Wizard". If you select the answer to one of the questions with the John Muir quote, "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world", chances are excellent that you'll end up with a variety of eco-friendly charities to choose from, that don't exploit animals. It's a win/win/win/win for the beneficiaries, the environment, the animals, and you, who will be given periodic updates of the projects you support. Hat tip to Anna of UFETA.
"May your MDG's be cruelty-free!"
This looks like a comprehensive and successful Episcopal-based program, which doesn't mention animal agriculture at all on their site, or in the videos. They are looking for congregational backing, which might be an alternative, and direct people's attention away from the types of charities they've supported in the past, that exploit animals. If you like this one, ask if your church would like to become a Millenium Congregation.
Read my blurb endorsing The Kenya Project. It (and the logo above) links to All Souls' Episcopal Church's website, where the projects they support are described.
This is what the Rev. Michael Russell from All Souls told me:"Our projects are focused on sustainable vegetable agriculture because that is what it takes to keep people from dying of starvation. It is focused on medical care and education especially for the AIDS orphans and urban poor children."
"In this way, Trees for Life demonstrates that in helping each other we can unleash extraordinary power that impacts our lives. Our programs include three elements: education, health, and environment."
Plenty International: A non-government alternative development organization. "Plenty has long promoted sustainable agriculture and a plant-centered diet as a way to feed more of the world's people. Plenty is a strong believer in the value of small-scale village-based soy bean agriculture and soy foods production as a way to improve nutrition, soil quality, and food security." 
ORE is an eco-friendly, plant-based charity that helps rural Haitian farmers move from subsistence farming, with high-quality protein corn, iron-rich beans, fruit trees and other cash crops.
100% of all donations Food for Life received for the Tsunami Relief was sent directly to support their volunteer FFL Relief Teams -- in other words, it all goes to the relief effort, and not administration costs.
"The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is a unique nonprofit charity dedicated to planting edible, fruitful trees and plants to benefit needy populations and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water."Our programs strategically plant orchards where the harvest will best serve the community for decades to follow, at places such as homeless shelters, drug rehabs, low-income areas, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries. FTPF's projects benefit the environment, human health, and animal welfare--all at once!
"FTPF's goal is straightforward: to collectively plant 18 billion fruit trees for a healthy planet (approximately 3 for every person alive). Fruit trees heal the environment by cleaning the air, improving soil quality, preventing erosion, creating animal habitat, sustaining valuable water sources, and providing healthy nutrition...."
The Women's Bean Project is a domestic charity that helps "women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. [They] are a nonprofit organization that teaches workplace competencies for entry-level jobs through employment and by teaching job readiness skills in our gourmet food production business."
Vegfam feeds the hungry without exploiting animals. Their site includes important facts about agriculture and hunger.Article: "Vegfam. Animal-free famine relief"
HIPPO is a vegan organization in the UK, which doesn't seem to have their own website. You can read about them here. And if you'd like to pledge to donate trees to Kenya through HIPPO, please click on their logo.
"Sustainable Harvest International helps farmers reverse rainforest destruction with sustainable land-use practices that allow them to take control of their environmental and economic destinies." Ecologically-friendly, organic, fair-trade -- focuses on land use in a good way.Please note that this organization may have a project that involves chickens. If it is more than building coops for existing flocks, please designate donations to go toward one of their other projects.
And the same goes for other organizations that are popular with church people. Please choose to donate your money toward projects that don't perpetuate and increase animal exploitation.
On 7/6/07, I talked to Erin at Floresta, who assured me that donations for trees will be used only for trees. There are some programs in some of the countries that involve animals. And the micro-loans are used for whatever small business a person might want to set up -- which could be a chicken farm, and isn't up to the charity to dictate. But reforestation and crop farming is emphasized as Floresta's main mission. Check out the countries' programs at the top of the page, for more details. And then check out the Tree Program. Support re-forestation and other plant-based farming.
Click on the logo to read about the projects, etc.
Christians helping the rural poor obtain safe water.
Click here for information about what a well and other projects cost.
Operation Bootstrap Africa: A Minnesota-based, non-profit, inter-denominational organization dedicated to helping people help themselves in a variety of educational programs in Africa
Solar Light for Africa was founded by a retired Episcopal bishop.
Found on a search for reforestation charities. This is generally an eco-friendly charity that does have one existing project that involves bulls & oxen for transportation and fertilizer, but doesn't specify they're used for meat. They currently have 4 bulls & 2 ox carts, as of this posting (11/07). This is one among many projects. And their projects are easily designatable, when making a donation on their site. (Beekeeping is a new project they'd like to try.) Mostly, I'm listing this one, because they have many tree and fruit tree initiatives. And just as the UN's FOA reported that animal agriculture contributes more to Global Warming, so does deforestation.
Cool Earth is a new charity that invites people to donate a relatively small amount to protect an acre of Rain Forest from being burnt or cleared for cattle ranching, farming, logging, etc. Although this is is an environmental charity, it's premise to protect the destruction of Rain Forests will help protect all of life, human and non-human -- "All Creation". Not only does the destruction of Rain Forests (like animal agriculture) contribute more to Global Warming than all the use of fossil fuel, but the forests they concentrate on also supply our atmosphere with 20% of the world's oxygen. I'm listing this charity on this page, because, as mentioned on the FAQ page, it helps local people in several ways, by giving them a livelihood that doesn't depend on ranching. This, like some of the other charities on this page, are paradigm-changing. And that's what we should be thinking about, when it comes to the charities we choose to support, because too often, what we support is the status quo -- in larger quantities....What do local people get out of Cool Earth?
Answer: Conservation only works if local communities benefit. Helping to ensure that local people have better livelihoods working with rainforest protection is key to Cool Earth's success. As well as making sure that, with every project, local people are employed in monitoring and protecting the forest, we also make sure there is full access for local people to protected areas for rubber tapping, nut and fruit extraction and other traditional trades. The employment we create also helps to keep communities and families together, while logging or ranching can take men hundreds of miles from their families for months on end.
On a search for vegetarian charities, I found this link to two vegetarian orphanages -- the Lotus Children's Centre in Mongolia, and the East African Mission Orphanage.
The webpage says, "Several orphanages around the world, often in the poorest countries, remain vegetarian for cultural, religious or other reasons" and features those two, with links to make donations. (Both orphanages have websites, but I didn't see anything on them to indicate they are specifically vegetarian. That's why I'm linking to the page where I originally found them.)
I found this "Seeds of Hope for African Families" after clicking on The Rainforsest Site. Here's a little info:
When normal agricultural cycles are disrupted and sources of crop seeds are gone, people struggle to survive at the most basic level. Sadly, this is all too often the case in Africa. But with a "Seeds of Hope for African Families" Gift That Gives More, you can help plant seeds of hope for the future -- literally.
$30 provides 15 kilograms of seeds -- nourishing maize, millet, carrots, spinach, peas, beans and onions (even spicy curry leaf and chili peppers) -- providing food for 15 people for years to come! Now isn't that a seed worth sowing?...
Play the word game to feed the hungry.The following aren't necessarily charities, but could be useful for groups that are partnered with others, such as companion dioceses, or churches with missionaries working overseas.
Sun Ovens International "Saving Lives by Preserving Forests Around the World!" along with protecting health and encouraging entrepreneurship.
The Growing Connection (TGC) is a grassroots project developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the American Horticultural Society supported by a progressive coalition of private and public sector partners.
The Growing Connection links people and cultures in a revolutionary campaign that introduces low-cost water efficient and sustainable food growing innovations hand in hand with wireless IT connectivity. It provides a sound educational foundation, and offers hundreds of families, both in America and abroad, a concrete opportunity to earn income and climb out of desperation. Perhaps most important, The Growing Connection engages people – a network of committed individuals - in an elegant solution to one of man’s fundamental challenges.
Click on the logo, and then on the "Global Gardening" and "About Us" links on the left side of the screen.II. To share Square Foot Gardening with the entire world enabling all people to live a more nutritional, healthy, and self-sufficient life.
2. Encourage Composting.
3. Emphasize Conservation of Water. (A Natural Resource)
4. Enhance Principles of Self Sufficiency Through the Use of SFG.
5. Accentuate the Beauty of SFG.
6. Show Adaptability Anywhere in the World.
7. Explain the Efficiency, Economics, and Ease of Starting SFG.
8. Demonstrate the Suitability for all Ages and All Abilities.
9. Highlight Simplicity, Ease of Learning, using Natural Materials.
10. Emphasize Earth Friendly, Non-Polluting, Non-Land Destroying.
I found this on their "Humanitarian Project" page (linked on the left side):
On a separate, but related topic, please check out the links below to find out which health-related charities [do or] do not fund animal testing:
http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_charities.asp or
http://www.humaneseal.org
As long as there are charities that help people without harming or exploiting animals, it seems reasonable that charitable people would want to prefer to support only humane charities.
For information pertaining to animal research, see:
http://www.curedisease.com or
http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/position.html or
http://thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/dr_ray_greek.html
