Care newsletter

I received a newsletter from Care with some interesting pictures from the results of their campaigns on 2006. It is important to share this information because it shows that this kind of support organizations are really making their work.

El Fant, Egypt

Shaymaa Ramadan, Reda Mohammad and Wafaa Ramaden learn to read Arabic in a multi-grade classroom built through CARE's New Schools Program. Our education programs reached nearly 9 million students by expanding opportunities to attend school - particularly for girls - and improving the quality of education. (©2006 Meredith Davenport/CARE)

Kilamba Kiaxi, Angola

Lorena Olympia Jao Manuel, 42, stands in the grocery store she started with business development training from CARE. Almost 8 million people, more than half of them women, participated in CARE projects that improve access to credit and help people start and sustain small businesses. (©2006 Evelyn Hockstein/CARE)

Irukpal, India

Mothers and young children receive services including vaccinations and antenatal care at a monthly nutrition and health day sponsored by CARE. CARE reached 38 million people in FY06 with information and services to improve their health, including family planning, safe deliveries and newborn care. (©2006 Ami Vitale/CARE)

Preas Ang, Cambodia

Chab Parath purchased a small rice field with a loan from her CARE-initiated HIV support group. Through health and social services, we helped 4.2 million people protect themselves from HIV & AIDS, reduce stigma associated with the illness, and mitigate its economic impact. (©2006 Phil Borges/CARE)

Paraccay, Peru

Emeleth Torres Pacheco, a CARE health worker, helps children wash their hands before lunch at the Las Gotitas school. Four million people gained access to safe water and sanitation and learned hygiene skills in fiscal year 2006, keeping families healthy and freeing time for women and girls to take part in other activities. (©2006 Maggie Steber/CARE/CARE)

Klaten, Indonesia

Survivors of May's Java earthquake carry home jerrycans and other emergency supplies distributed by CARE. Worldwide, 13 million people received assistance responding to and preparing for disaster, with emphasis on the needs of the most vulnerable, especially women and children. (©2006 Josh Estey/CARE)

Merry Christmas!

One of the happiest moments I had was a couple of days ago when I received one CD from one Slovenian school. It was the work of some great teachers and a group of special and lovely kids.
Simona, Matjaž and me... were impressed and touched. I had to hold a tear from falling :)
I would like to share their work with you:


Video: Wishes from OS Toneta Okrogarja and PS Senozeti
For sure God is within those kids! Thanks to all of them to make me feel proud of living in this time!

A good new from Prazniki.net

I mentioned before that we are running a Christmas competition, in Slovenian language, that has like goal to get letters from kids to Santa Claus. This is the third year and we are very happy with it.
This year, one of the good news, is the wish of one of the kids. Her wish is to give poor kids the chance to have what she already have, she means that she has covered her basic needs. That wish is coming true! And just because of her honest wish some kids will receive help from Unicef.

Saving your life... and other's

Are you feeling prepared in case of emergency?
That was a question I made on Yahoo Answers and the answers I got were in some way disappointing. Most people isn't prepared.
What means to be prepared? I think the most important is to know what happens when emergency comes:

• No clean water.
• No electricity.
• No easy way for making fire.
• No medicine.
• No shelter.
• No fridge for keeping food conserved.
• No telephone, at least no batteries.
• No contact with others.
• No easy way to find where you are.
  

Some days ago a reporter died after few days of walking in the snow. His family survived waiting for him in the car. He was found dead close to the car. He was probably walking in circles; there was no signal for his mobile phone. His family survived by using the car fuel for heating and after it was over they used the tires of it.
So why not to be prepared for those cases?
I think it is important to have 2 emergency kits: 1 for the car (when going to trips), one in a protected or safe space at home.
What should we have there?

1. A solar charger for GSM or other devices. Click here; If you find something better don't doubt on sharing the link.
2. General solar charger. Click here.
3. Flash lights. Specially if they can be recharged with movement, manual generators and better if they use leds instead of bulbs. Click here.
4. A set of basic tools: Multitools, Tool sets.
5. Tape.
6. First aid supplies.
7. Sleeping bags.
8. A tent.
9. A cooler for storage of food.
10. Aluminum paper.
11. Batteries.
12. Winter cloth.
13. A radio.
14. A water filer.
15. A GPS or a compass.
16. Rope.
17. Lighter.
    

Well, what a kit! many things that I don't have actually. Ideas will be welcome!
And if you are thinking in an original present for the holidays you can help your friends or family to start building their "life saver" kit.

All the work of Mozart free for you!

More than 400 000 hits during the first 12 hours of opened... and for sure with millions of hits to come, is the web site where all the work from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is available for free!
Click here to see the web site. (The site is a bit slow now... probably many people is downloading and downloading).

Mysteries of life

Something that always kept my attention is Nature and the way life is developing all around our planet.
When I was a kid I had the chance to read and see wonderful books. With nice illustrations and easy to understand texts. The rest was my imagination.
In our days I see the impact of technology in the way we learn. Much better quality contents are available in many different formats: magazines, TV programs, movies, web sites.
Again The National Geographic Society made an outstanding achievement: "Animals in the womb". I was able, during the TV program, to make the first explanations about how the life starts to my 3 years old son. You can see a video preview of the program: here

A gadget to enjoy with the family

Today I went to make some shopping with my wife and children. It was a good day!
And I found one of the presents "Santa" wished to give me... the Nintendo Wii.
I'm now a proud owner of one of these wonderful gadgets and I can tell you that is the most funny thing I ever had. I'm a lover of technology but until now was very difficult to involve my family (of course they are not interested in productivity software, HTML, SharePoint...).
This game console is super simple to install, intuitive and extremely funny! Tatjana, my wife, won a tennis competition very fast! The game controls are wireless and are sensible to the movement. Tati was jumping and swinging to hit the tennis ball for some time!
It is a gooood new! not only because finally there is a gadget that is for all the family but because innovation shows up again to change the rules on the market. (You can read about Microsoft Xbox, Sony PS3). Both Xbox and PS3 got big part of the market Nintento had some years ago but I think Nintendo changed the rules introducing a new concept. Now they are running in a different race.
I will write more as soon as possible!

A Human base in the Moon?

An interesting report about a wish from the U.S. to build a Moon station. Read the article on the BBC
Click on the image bellow.. it is my new way of showing some opinions :)

Skysails

According to an article in News.com this kind of kite is able to save in fuel costs at about US$ 1000 a day!
This one is a good new for the environment. In worldwide scale is definitely an innovation capable to change the way that industry works for ever.
"Turn wind into profit".. sounds great!

A good way of helping and having fun

As I mentioned in other posts Prazniki.net is a web competition site focused on the December holiday season. It is targeted to the Slovenian speaking audience and of course is specially created for children.
The past year we got amazing results. This year we are including many new features into the project and also we are including presents from many different companies that believe on the cause this web site is trying to reach each year: To have a good reason to have a nice time on family and to get the chance of winning an award.
But this year is also different because we introduced an idea that extends the reach of the web site. We bought some presents from Unicef and now they are available to the winners of the competition. That means that this year Christmas greetings to our partners and customers will be in email format and that we will replace the present we were normally delivering to them for the satisfaction that tenths of families had a reason to smile and without knowing were also helping children in need from around the world (Unicef).
It is a small initiative but I wanted to share it because it could give you better ideas to give this holidays more meaning by having more sense of responsibility for what happens outside of our normal environment.