Powerful Organizations for CHANGE.

Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public that focuses on the rapidly growing world of social innovation. It provides solutions and resources needed to help everyone become a changemaker and presents compelling stories that explore the fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world.

 

The Hunger Project is a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, The Hunger Project seeks to end hunger and poverty by empowering people to lead lives of self-reliance, meet their own basic needs and build better futures for their children.

The Hunger Project carries out its mission through three essential activities: mobilizing village clusters at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents, and forging effective partnerships with local government.

 

 

According to the recently released United Nations report on the Millennium Development Goals, progress made toward ending hunger and abject poverty may be derailed. Higher prices for food and oil and the global economic slowdown are driving many people deeper into poverty. The Hunger Project’s approach builds self-reliant communities at the grassroots level so they have greater resilience and capacity to meet these challenges and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Assessing Progress toward the Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development objectives that address the multiple facets of extreme poverty. They represent a blueprint agreed to by 191 of the world’s countries. Now, in 2008, we are beyond the half-way point between when the MDGs were adopted, in 2000, and when the targets are supposed to be met, in 2015.

 

La Leche League Philosophy

 

The basic philosophy of La Leche League is summarized in the following statements:

Mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the baby.

Mother and baby need to be together early and often to establish a satisfying relationship and an adequate milk supply.

In the early years the baby has an intense need to be with his mother which is as basic as his need for food.

Breast milk is the superior infant food.

For the healthy, full-term baby, breast milk is the only food necessary until the baby shows signs of needing solids, about the middle of the first year after birth.

Ideally the breastfeeding relationship will continue until the baby outgrows the need.

Alert and active participation by the mother in childbirth is a help in getting breastfeeding off to a good start.

Breastfeeding is enhanced and the nursing couple sustained by the loving support, help, and companionship of the baby’s father. A father’s unique relationship with his baby is an important element in the child’s development from early infancy.

Good nutrition means eating a well-balanced and varied diet of foods in as close to their natural state as possible.

From infancy on, children need loving guidance which reflects acceptance of their capabilities and sensitivity to their feelings.

The ideals and principles of mothering which are the foundation of LLLI beliefs are further developed in THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING, the most comprehensive handbook on breastfeeding and parenting ever published. It has provided needed answers to three generations of nursing mothers on every aspect of breastfeeding.

The 50th anniversary video (PBS 10 minute segment from Chicago Tonight) interviews some of the founders and talks about the history of LLL and where it is now.

 

 

Mothers Across America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that empowers mothers to achieve personal goals through goal-based running programs.

The principle: by setting and achieving a physical goal you develop the confidence to tackle goals in other areas of life. Provided with a team built on the common bond of motherhood, you find the support to try.

MAAM’s founder, Charlotte Gould, created MAAM in response to an unexpected episode of post-partum depression following the birth of her daughter. Deeply impacted by her sense of isolation and loss of self-esteem, she set to work to establish a productive fitness and social support system for mothers.

Many mothers suffer from the loss of independence which accompanies motherhood. Both working and stay-at-home mothers struggle to maintain personal and career ambition from limitations which include time, money and lack of support. This can lead to depression and lowered self-esteem, lack of motivation and neglect of personal health.

MAAM shows how physically active mothers develop stronger self-images and healthier families. In just a few short years, MAAM has been nationally recognized for bringing vision to preventative health for women.

MAAM is based in New York City with a 100% volunteer staff and fast-growing national membership. If you are interested in starting a group outside New York City, please contact us at maamteam@aol.com.

 

 

HIV/AIDS is not discriminatory. It could affect anybody, and babies are not spared from this risk. When a child is brought into the world, we wish he best for the child. However, sometimes, reality hits hard. There has been debate on the interventions that should be put in place to prevent post-natal transmission, while also protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding for the majority of children who benefit from it. WABA aims to work together with UN agencies, breastfeeding groups and other interest groups including HIV&AIDS, women, and sexual and reproductive health groups, towards better maternal, child and community survival and well-being. We can help to create a safe environment where each mother can feel confident that her baby will have the best chance possible to survive and thrive.

 

 

 

            Mother to Mother© provides telephone support and encouragement to women with postpartum adjustment disorder (PPAD.) Mother to Mother© is the only service of its kind in the St. Louis metropolitan area. We serve all women in the metropolitan St. Louis area, free of charge.

Telephone Support
Free support by phone for women experiencing emotional difficulties during postpartum or pregnancy. Moms are paired with a trained phone volunteer that has experienced similar difficulties. Volunteers listen, encourage, and provide peer support. Volunteers are not trained counselors and therefore do not provide counseling or psychotherapy services. If you need additional help, a volunteer will provide resources. Please call314.991.5666 Ext. 4 for information on this service. *Please note that this is not a hotline number, but someone will return your call within 24 hours. All calls are confidential.

 

 

The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. http://www.madd.org/

 

 

 

Become a Blogger for Human Rights

Human Rights Watch has been committed to upholding the right to free expression since its beginnings in the 1970s. The Internet, and blogs in particular, have made it easier for people to express themselves to a potential audience of millions. They have also created an enormous opportunity for disseminating information about, and ending, human rights abuses around the world.

If you are a blogger, you can use your bully pulpit to stand with the victims and activists to prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, protect people from inhumane treatment in wartime, and campaign to bring offenders to justice. You can expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. You can challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. http://www.hrw.org/blogs.htm

Here’s some information that may interest you…

     We are considerably older than our mothers were when we were born, and there are some very specific reasons why.
     First, women are more healthy now than ever before.  We live longer and the fear of having a child and not helping it into adulthood has lessened dramatically.
     Second, over the last twenty years many of us in our early twenties and thirties opted for career advancement rather than starting a family.  Now in our forties, the biological clock that is ticking is not only psychological in nature, but a very real physical one.
     And third, divorce.  The Bureau of Vital Statistics tells us that the average age of a women going through divorce in the United States is 33 years of age.  The same source tells us that most people wait approximately five years to remarry.  (33+ 5=38)  Allow a 38 year old woman a couple of years to become adjusted in a new marriage and you now have a 40-year-old woman contemplating starting a new family.