I really want to share a foundation with you guys that is super important to me and my husband. Well, mostly to my husband but I think it's something important enough to spread the word about. It's called the Sky Ranch Foundation and it raises money for the Sky Ranch Boys Home is South Dakota. In 1950 a priest named Father Don Murray found himself looking after a few troubled boys at his rectory in the tiny town of Buffalo, South Dakota. He used a small plane to travel his large "territory" and soon found it could help him with the boys. Teaching them to fly really changed their outlook. But the priest had a dream and needed a lot of help to make it happen. He found the help, and so did thousands of boys who have been helped since then at Sky Ranch. Sky Ranch for Boys was incorporated in 1960. At first, the Bishop of Rapid City served as Chairman of the Board. From the start, however, it was agreed by all that the ranch would be non-sectarian, emphasizing the power of spirituality to help people without favoring one religion over another.
By 1963, 3,000 acres of ranchland on the Montana-South Dakota border had been acquired, and the first buildings were going up.Sky Ranch for Boys continues to help troubled kids (age 12-17) from all parts of America and plans on doing so for a long time to come! Some of the original buildings are nearing the end of their useful life and planning for rehabilitation or replacement has begun.
Sky Ranch is well known among professionals in the field for an outstanding success rate. More than 90% of boys sent to Sky Ranch successfully complete the program! During a single school year at Sky Ranch, most boys gain 2 or more grade levels in the school work they are able to handle. Many go on to very successful lives in a wide variety of fields.
The program has been enhanced recently by the implementation of a "Corrective Thinking" approach. Boys are held responsible for their errors and taught to think through how to avoid problems in the future. It has been very well received by boys and staff.
See my husband was sent to Sky Ranch when he was 17 and stayed there for a year. He went through a lot as a kid and got into a lot of trouble, and instead of having a judge send him to a juvenile detention center, he was luckily sent to Sky Ranch. He has told me so many stories about this place and has a ton of positive and wonderful memories about being there. He got his pilot license there, which is something he has always been proud of, and learned how to take care of horses. It was really something that he needed in his life at that time and he will always remember the place. I've been encouraging him that one day we will move to South Dakota (his dream state) and he will work at that ranch. I honestly believe it's his calling because no one will know what those boys are going through like him, and he is awesome with kids.
But this ranch and organization are so important and really needs help from outside sources. Even if it's small donations, they would still make a huge difference. This ranch is an awesome alternative to being locked up and instills leadership, responsibility, and positive learning during a time when boys need it the most. I couldn't imagine how being a locked cell is going to make a troubled kid turn his life around. Sometimes you come out of those places learning more negative things then you came in with. We need more places like Sky Ranch with people who really care so much about these kids and that are willing to do what they can to make a difference in their lives. Please take a moment to check out this foundation and spread the word...
Showing posts with label Organizations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organizations. Show all posts
Sky Ranch Foundation
Operation Smile - Cleft Lip Organization
I'm really mad, because I just wrote this entire post and for some reason accidentally erased it, and I swear I almost bashed my stupid computer, as well as my own dumb head, in with one of O's toys. But it's so important that I will sit here for another 20 minutes and write it all over the eff again.
I'd like to talk about an organization that is so so important to me and personally close to my heart. I hope I can introduce it to as many people as I can that aren't already familiar with it. It's called Operation Smile. This organization is a worldwide medical charity whose network of global volunteers are dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults with cleft lip and palate. Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P. Magee Jr. a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and clinical social worker. In 1982, the Magees traveled to the Philippines with a group of medical volunteers to repair children's cleft lips and cleft palates. They discovered hundreds of children ravaged by deformities, and although they helped many children, the volunteers were forced to turn away the majority of those who sought help. The Magees saw the need and Operation Smile was born.
You see I was born with Bi-lateral Cleft Lip and Palate, which means the cleft was on both sides of my lip and required a lot of work. Being born this was is a major major part of my life and everything I have endured because of it has shaped my entire existence. From being made fun of to having to go through painful surgeries all my childhood, and eventually to becoming a drug addict because I couldn't deal with all the memories of what I went through. All of this centers around the simple (well complicated) fact that i was 1 in 700 children born with a cleft lip and Palate. But the thing is, is that I was very very lucky in my situation. My mother worked at the same company for 26 years to get great insurance for my treatments, dental care, speech therapy, etc. I was brought to some of the greatest surgeons in the field to have my last surgery when I was 14 at the UCLA medical center. There are so many children in so many countries that cannot afford food let alone surgeries. It's more common in certain poor countries and South America and Asia, where babies with cleft really need help. And that very first surgery to close the cleft is the most important. This closure helps the baby to eat and eventually learn to speak, and without it life will be very brutal for them.
That is why I'm so happy and thankful that Operation Smile exists. They provide medical and dental care for children and Adults with cleft in other countries as well as in America too. It's so hard for new parents who have just discovered their baby has a cleft to deal with the overwhelming task at hand. They often don't know where to begin in getting their child the proper surgeries, dental, breast/bottle feeding care, and speech therapy that they need. Operation Smile is making it possible for those families to thrive and have happy healthy lives. And they even help with Dental care which is so vital when it comes to Cleft. Believe me, I spent almost my entire childhood in a Dentist or Orthodontist chair.
Without organizations like this, before my family had insurance, I wouldn't have had the care that I needed as a kid. I really hope that all people born with Cleft can one day be as lucky as I was. Today, a lot of people can't even notice that I had a cleft and although I am not vain (after going through a childhood where I didn't look normal at all) I am so thankful for that and hope this can be achieved over and over again with others.I really really urge you to take a moment to learn about Operation Smile and all the miracles they are performing. And if you are in a place where you can donate please consider it. Thanks for reading and please spread the word.
FINCA International
Another post to bring light to something that everyone needs to learn about. FINCA International's mission is to provide financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living. Their vision is to be a global microfinance network collectively serving more low-income entrepreneurs than any other MFI while operating on commercial principles of performance and sustainability. the Village Banking Campaign. It will enable FINCA to double its impact: to use the power of microfinance to extend loans, microinsurance, and savings to one million poor families by 2010 so they can effect their own development.
Microfinance refers to financial services provided to low-income people, usually to help support self-employment. Examples of microfinance products include: small loans, savings plans, insurance, payment tranfers, and other services that are provided in small increments that low-income individuals can afford. These services help families to start and build "micro" enterprises, the very small businesses that are important sources of employment, income, and economic vitality in developing countries worldwide.
Because salaried or wage-paying jobs are scarce in many developing countries, most citizens earn their livings through self-employment, creating and operating their own tiny enterprises. But without financial services to fuel their productivity, the poor can never grow their microenterprises into businesses that help them escape poverty. The microfinance movement was born to ease the suffering caused by poverty, and to awaken the global economy's sleeping giant: the under-capitalized productivity of the world's working poor.
By providing very poor families with small loans to invest in their microenterprises, Village Banking empowers them to create their own jobs, raise their incomes, build assets, and increase their families’ well-being. Here's how it works. Neighbors come together in financial support groups called “Village Banks.” Individuals borrow working capital for their microenterprises, and because they have little to offer for collateral, the group guarantees those loans. As businesses grow, families earn more, purchase more nutritious foods, and parents are better able to send their children to school. After a year or more, many Village Bankers make significant improvements to their businesses, their homes, and their lives. Because neighbors support each other while growing their businesses, Village Banking helps invigorate entire communities. Village Banking is designed to reach the poorest of the working poor. FINCA clients—70 percent of whom are women—have no other sources of working capital. FINCA works closely with its clients to help them build their businesses so they can earn more, become part of the larger marketplace, and enter the global economy. In addition to working capital, we provide them with insurance, savings plans, and other services to help them weather crises such as illness or death in the family, or natural disasters.
Please head on over to FINCA international to learn more about how you can be apart of this important movement forward.
The Lost Boys of Sudan
A really incredible organization having to do with the heart breaking issue that is "The Lost Boys of Sudan" was brought to light to me by an owner of a company I recently met, and who I will be doing a future review for. It's called Hope with Sudan and I really hope all of you will take a moment to educate yourselves about the Lost Boys of Sudan as well as this organization.
(taken from Wikipedia) "The Lost Boys of Sudan are more than 27,000 boys who were displaced and/or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005, about 2 million killed). In 2001, about 3800 Lost Boys arrived in the United States, where they are now scattered in about 38 cities.Halted after 9/11 for security reasons, the program restarted in 2004, but peace talks were underway in Sudan, and so other refugee crises in other countries took priority. As of 2006, the largest population of Sudanese refugees in the United States is in Omaha, Nebraska which hosts about 7,000 people. A variety of charities helped bring Sudanese refugees to the United States, such as Catholic Charities. A variety of programs have been done to help and understand these displaced people, everything from reconnecting to their traditional dancing to dental work to replace teeth which had been removed by traditional custom, but whose loss is negative in the USA.
Most of the boys were orphaned or separated from their families when government troops systematically attacked villages in southern Sudan killing many of the inhabitants, most of whom were civilians. The younger boys survived in large numbers because they were away tending herds or were able to escape into the nearby jungles.Orphaned and with no support, they would make epic journeys lasting years across the borders to international relief camps in Ethiopia and Kenya evading thirst, starvation, wild animals, insects, disease, and one of the most bloody wars of the 20th century.Experts say they are the most badly war-traumatized children ever examined.
When villages were attacked, girls were raped, killed, taken as slaves to the north, or became servants or adopted children for other Sudanese families. As a result, relatively few girls made it to the refugee camps."
Hope with Sudan is an organization that offers scholarships to refugee youth in need in Kenya, Uganda and the Silicon Valley. Through this site you can donate to this cause, as well as learn how to become a companion, mentor, tutor, or set up a program to tell the story of The Lost Boys to your community or anyone else who will listen. There are also a few documentaries on this subject such as "And God grew Tired of us" as well as others. So please check out this site and spread the word.
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