The $300 House Project: a dream for sustainable and dignified living

Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar first proposed The $300 House in the The Harvard Business Review.  Severe limitations on choices keep the poor impoverished forever, trapped in poverty by lack of opportunity.  Furthermore, Govindarajan suggests leaving 5 billion impoverished people out of the loop is a missed opportunity for corporations as equal talent, creativity, and enthusiasm is just as likely to be found in poor populations.

The $300 House project began with simple questions:

• How can organic, self-built slums be turned into livable housing?
• What might a house for the poor look like?  
• How can world-class engineering and design capabilities be utilized to solve the problem?  
• What reverse-innovation lessons might be learned by the participants in such a project?  
• How could the poor afford to buy this house?

The project now has its winning designs and will move forward with prototypes and pilot projects before eventual implementation.  The poor of India, Indonesia, and Haiti will be the first nations given the chance

"...to live safely and build an inclusive ecosystem of services around them which includes, clean water, sanitation, health services, family planning, education, and micro enterprise, maybe we can start reducing the disease of poverty. By helping create this ecosystem, we believe companies can make money while providing services needed by the poor at an affordable cost. The poor deserve a chance, a real chance, to make it out of poverty."

You can check out the winning designs here.

You Can Adopt-a-Classroom

The nonprofit Adopt-A-Classroom (dot) org wants student success and sees empowering teachers as a way to make it happen.  With community partners and donor funds Adopt-a-Classroom sees that teachers have purchasing power to get the resources needed to make the most of the learning environment.

Donors have the opportunity to interact with a teacher throughout the school year.  So, people can see the difference they've made in the lives of students.

"In most instances, donors receive thank you packages, artwork and other student created projects. Donors may choose to support the classroom in ways beyond the financial contribution, such as visiting the classroom, chaperoning field trips and other activities that are coordinated directly between donor and teacher."

Adopt-A-Classroom directs 100% of all donations earmarked for classrooms to the classroom teacher

Architecture for Humanity

Architecture for Humanity wields the power of design to build sustainable communities. This nonprofit taps the talent of tens of thousands of professionals on behalf of survivors of natural disasters like Katrina and the December 2004 Tsunami in South Asia and impoverished people in developing nations.

Design is important to every aspect of our lives. It informs the places in which we live, work, learn, heal and gather. We engage all stakeholders in the design process. We believe our clients are designers in their own right.  --Architecture for Humanity website

Thoughtful designs can begin to alleviate poverty and insure access to clean water, power, and other essential services.

• Bringing safe shelter to communities prone to disaster and displaced populations
• Rebuilding community and creating neutral spaces for dialogue in post-conflict areas
• Mitigating the effects of rapid urbanization in unplanned settlements
• Creating spaces to meet the needs of those with disabilities and other at-risk populations
• Reducing the footprint of the built environment and addressing climate change

You can see Architecture for Humanity's finished projects around the world.

Food for the Poor Nourishing Souls

As the third largest international relief and development organization in the U.S., Food For The Poor  feeds 2 million people every day. The Christian-based nonprofit helps children and the poorest of the poor by providing food, housing, health care, education, water projects, emergency relief and micro-enterprise assistance in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Praise from Charity Navigator:

“We are proud to announce that Food For The Poor has earned our tenth consecutive 4-star rating for its ability to efficiently manage and grow its finances. Less than 1% of the charities we rate have received at least 10 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that Food For The Poor consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America."

Food For The Poor makes sure nutritious food, clean drinking water, sturdy housing, necessary medical care, educational materials is at the disposal of people in desperate need.   Support for orphans and the elderly and self-sustaining projects are part of their on-going mission. Please visit their projects page to find out how you can join the effort.

An 11-Year-Old Builds a Village

11-year-old Rachel Wheeler of Florida saw the struggles people in Haiti faced and wanted to help.  That was before the 2009 earthquake.  The quake fueled her inspiration to make sure she followed through with her idea to help alleviate suffering.  She raised more than $170,000 with the mission of providing homes to families who needed homes.  The 5th grader received a hero's welcome when she traveled to the Caribbean nation to see the village built with her efforts. 

Rachel worked with Food for the Poor to make her dream a reality.

The Rose, Houston's Leading Breast Cancer Organization

The Rose, Houston's Leading Breast Cancer Organization

The Rose offers breast cancer screening, diagnosis, access to treatment, and support to all women regardless of their ability to pay.  This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit has provided more than 30,000 screening and diagnostic procedures for those able to pay and 19,053 screening and diagnostic procedures at no charge to low income and uninsured women.  

Located in Houston, Texas, The Rose was created by women who shared a passion for life and women’s issues:

Dr. Dixie Melillo’s main concern was saving lives. She had seen too many advanced breast cancers and had watched too many women lose the battle. Dorothy Weston-Gibbons’s passion was the value of women. If a woman could be convinced that she was worth the cost of a mammogram, then she’d believe she was worth anything. 

The two met Rose Kushner, journalist and breast cancer advocate, who challenged them to “get off their duffs and do something!”

Since the beginning, The Rose depends on community support. Civic groups, foundations, corporations and individuals along with the unwavering commitment of employees, physicians and volunteers all helped to create an organization that has changed the lives of countless women and families.

Find out more by visiting The Rose website.

Helping Kids with Kent's Soda

Photo Courtesy: Caledonian Record

 What does a 9-year-old ask for when he believes he has everything?

"Dad, I have everything I need right now, but there are lots of other kids with autism that can't do the things they want or need. I want to be able to help them get some of the things they want with the money we earn. Can't we start now? I don't want to wait."  (Source)

Young Kent Melville started making money with a lemonade stand.  A combination of entrepreneurial spirit and desire to help other kids with autism sparked the idea of starting a soda company.  He used his profits from the lemonade stand to get his business started.  From the website:

Kent's Soda Company is devoted to the POSITIVE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT of children with autism.  We are committed to donating a portion of sales for the benefit of social clubs, camps, and other social development programs for children with autism and their families.

You can find out more by clicking here.

Loans for Impoverished Students Worldwide

Striving people of modest means inspire Kushal Chakrabarti.   His own parents taught him that education is the foundation for building a life.  As a tech developer for Amazon.com, Kushal was moved by the story of an Indian rickshaw driver devoting 30% of his income to put his children through school.

Kushal began brainstorming about how he could help finance the education of students in impoverished regions of the world.  Vittana was born.  For as little as $25, a college education can be financed.  And anyone can help make it happen by following these steps:

• Search for and choose a student in the developing world you would like to lend money to. 
• Make a loan for as little as $25 to the student through the Vittana website where 100% of your funds are delivered to the student.
• Using your loan, the student finishes college (or vocational school), gets a degree, and then gets a job.
• When the student repays, Vittana repays you the full amount of your loan. Use the money to make another loan.

Click here to get started.

Since 2008, Vittana has financed 1,000 students in 11 nations. And as Kushal believed would happen, 99 percent of the students have repaid their loans in full. 

The NewsTrust Experiment

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.

Have you ever watched or read the news and known you were hearing a mistake? Or maybe facts were skewed to a certain viewpoint.  NewsTrust (dot) net is conducting an experiment with journalists, educators, citizens, and students to promote superb, fact-based news delivery.

This nonprofit social news network covers the Baltimore area, and news consumers are encouraged to rate and discuss the quality of their news 24 hours a day in an online environment. 

We hope our service will show them how to tell apart good journalism from misinformation, so they can become more discerning news consumers. Our goal for this experiment is to help Baltimore residents become better informed and more engaged about local issues — especially college and high school students. We hope our service will show them how to tell apart good journalism from misinformation, so they can become more discerning news consumers. --from the NewsTrust website

NewsTrust.net is funded by the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic organization promoting human rights, justice, and accountability.

Educational Opportunities for Child Laborers

Lotus Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to the education, health, and safety of vulnerable women and children in the developing world.

One area of focus is rural India where thousands of children work up to 16 hours a day making bricks.  The little ones are often migrant workers and overlooked for education because of their poverty.

Lotus Outreach funds scholarships for enrollment kits which buys school supplies, fees, uniforms, shoes and ensures transportation.

"Education is not only a fundamental right, but is the most powerful catalyst for human development: children with even the most basic levels of education have better life options, earning potential and health, and raise healthier children".

Lotus Outreach now also helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking and keeps at-risk students in school.

Nonprofit Restaurant's Mission to Take Care of the Poor

North Carolina Chef Jim Noble serves more than succulent Southern cuisine at his King's Kitchen restaurant.  

Daily selections of natural meats and organic, local vegetables and sides, our rendition of a contemporary “meat and three.” Soups, salads and sandwiches round out all things Southern and comforting.

Additionally, all profits go to taking care of the poor.  His unique business model includes job training in the restaurant, and people experiencing hard times are encouraged to apply.  Charities received about $50,000 in donations last year from King's Kitchen.

BlinkNow Foundation

Kopila Valley Children's Home from maggie doyne on Vimeo.

As a  recent high school graduate, Maggie Doyne set out to see the world.  She got as far as the Himalayas and fell in love.  Hundreds of orphaned children captured her heart.  With money Maggie saved from babysitting, she bought a piece of land and had a home built for children in need of education, health care, nutrition, and love.

Her nonprofit, the BlinkNow Foundation aims to empower future leaders and end the cyclical poverty the squanders human potential. 

"The organization focuses on under-developed, war-torn countries where extreme poverty exists. These nations have high rates of illiteracy, disease, child labor, and unstable governments, thus making them the prime focus for our organization."

Find out more about Maggie's vision by visiting the BlinkNow Foundation.