March Carnival Topic: Where do you want to give?

When the APLS moniker was first under discussion, Green Bean posted a series of questions that helped me to understand what life could be as an Affluent Person Living Sustainably:

Do you spend less money than you make?

Do you consciously buy fewer products and, of those products you buy, do you look for used ones or ones that will last longer?

Do you treasure experiences over things?

Do you donate to charity? Time, money or goods?

Do you eat local food? Make your own bread, yogurt, or even your own dinner?

Do you garden? Bike? Hang your clothes out to dry? Compost?

Do you think about your own impact on the environment and what you can do to help our planet?

Do you care about what happens to your neighbor? Your children's classmates? The people manufacturing your children's toys in China?

Do you live a fuller, more meaningful life?

The part about charity resonated with me. We’d just sold our condo and bought a house. I’d just quit my full-time job to stay at home with my son and didn’t know how much I could make as a freelancer. I didn't feel like we had any money to give. And yet, I was reading blogs with a global perspective and realizing how much I have and how little others have.

When I first looked at the Global Rich List, I just focused on how rich I am. When I plugged in the numbers later, I realized that it shows me how far my money could go:

$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village.

And so, I’m asking all APLS carnival participants to share information about worthwhile charities. Inspire your readers to give, even in this time of economic uncertainty.

(Please feel free to share information about any charities, even if you haven’t yet been able to donate time or money to the charities that you discuss.)

To participate in the March carnival, please submit your post to aplscarnival (at) gmail (dot) com by March 13. The carnival will be published at Green Resolutions on March 20.