Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Water.org

(Thanks to reader Jim Humphreys for this suggestion- "I can attest that co-founder Gary White is a strong Christian man and this organization is awesome.")

Check out Water.org's WaterCredit.

About WaterCredit


Rashana and Maizabeen of Vinayakngar in Hyderabad, India.

The WaterCredit Initiative represents the creation of a new space at the intersection of water and sanitation and microfinance. By catalyzing small loans to individuals and communities in developing countries who do not have access to traditional credit markets, WaterCredit empowers people to immediately address their own water needs. As loans are repaid, they can be redeployed to additional people in need of safe water.

The Need

Current financing methods to address the world water crisis are not sufficient. Grants alone will never reach the nearly one billion people in need of safe drinking water. People often are forced to wait years for a grant that may never come. Meanwhile, they’re getting sick and dying from the unsafe water they’re drinking – not to mention the hours they are spending every day collecting it.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

'Plant' a Tree Today!


Hey, if you don't have time to plant a tree today, buy one for someone else!

DONATE A TREE

In countries like Haiti and Ethiopia, deforestation is causing soil erosion that leads to degraded farmland and devastating floods. Your gift can support better local livelihoods by improving land stewardship — offering education, training in a variety of environmental care methods, and support for tree nurseries that provide thousands of fast-growing forest tree seedlings each year. Since some of these seedlings are fruit trees, they provide the added advantage of improving nutrition and increasing income!

Have you ever gotten a tree for someone else?

Why GreenChristian.org?

GREEN CHRISTIAN.ORG
Connecting Environmentally Conscious Christians With Green, Faith-based Projects

Issue:
God calls us to be good stewards of the land and animals he's given to us. For many Christians, that gives us the desire to have a positive impact on the environment, but not in a hippie, tree-hugging, worshipping mother-earth, sort of a way.

General Concept:
To provide options where Christians can donate time and money to positively affect the environment with projects that also align themselves with their faith goals of serving those in need.

Story:
I consider myself a 'green' Christian, in that I want to be a good steward of what God's given me, but I want to find places where I could put my resources with ministries I could believe in. After a considerable amount of searching, I finally found a couple options, buried on a site. I found that many individuals, Christians, and churches honestly desire to give money and resources to 'green' projects, but that the Christian non-profit community is sorely lacking in providing options for them to do so.

Tools:
Non-profit focused- Make non-profits aware that Christians do want to donate to projects that fight deforestation, support positive land-use, make their homes and churches carbon-neutral, provide clean burning stoves, and other 'green' options.

Individual and church focused- help individuals and churches find projects where they can put their prayer, time, and money that will have a positive affect on the environment and those in need.

What do you think of this idea? Comment below!