The holiday season is always a reminder of how lucky we are to have our family, friends and great food. It is also a good time to think about helping others who are less fortunate. We have compiled a list of our favorite international charities. Please take the time to visit their websites.
Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic disease.
Médecins Sans Frontières was created in 1971 by a small group of French doctor’s (including Bernard Kouchner), in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War. The organization is known in most of the world by its French name or simply as MSF, but in the United States the name Doctors Without Borders is often used instead.
MSF is governed by an international board of directors located in Geneva, Switzerland, and organized into 20 sections. Annually, about 3,000 doctors, nurses, midwives and logisticians are recruited to run projects, but 1,000 permanently employed staff work to recruit volunteers and handle finances and media relations. Private donors provide about 80% of the organization’s funding, while governmental and corporate donations provide the rest, giving MSF an annual budget of approximately USD 400 million.
The organization actively provides health care and medical training to populations in more than 70 countries, and frequently insists on political responsibility in conflict zones such as Chechnya and Kosovo. Only once in its history, during the Rwandan Genocide, has the organisation called for a military intervention.
The Humane Society International (HSI) is the international division of The Humane Society of the United States. Founded in 1991, HSI has expanded The HSUS’s activities into Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. HSI’s Asian, Australian, and European offices carry out field activities and programs.
HSI addresses issues such as inhumane practices and conditions affecting companion and farm animals, illegal trade in wildlife, threats to endangered species, slaughter of marine mammals, and the use of animals in research and testing. HSI works with national and jurisdictional governments, humane organizations, and individual animal protectionists in over 35 countries worldwide to find practical, culturally sensitive, and long-term solutions to common animal problems and to inculcate an ethic of respect and compassion for all life.
HSI cooperates with policymakers on international treaties and free trade agreements to conduct briefings and to help draft legislation, regulations, policy statements, and resolutions affecting animals. HSI supports the efforts of governments, industries and NGOs to promote the protection of animals through trade capacity building projects in developing countries and international campaigns to reduce suffering caused by exploitation of marine mammals, factory farming, the fur trade, trophy hunting, and animal fighting and cruelty.
HSI represents The HSUS as a regular and active participant in meetings of international bodies such as the International Whaling Commission, the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and enjoys Category I A General Consultative Status with the United Nations.
Project Education Inc is a non-profit, grass roots organization dedicated to increasing the availability of education to impoverished students through parent participation and community development in Kenya.
PEI focuses on education and sustainability of the school providing quality education to impoverished children who otherwise would not have an opportunity to attend secondary school. The entire community benefits which brings new hope. Our programs foster pride in cultural heritage while creating effective new ways to address drought, health and economic issues. Our school has become a hub of self-sustaining community programs that educate and empower.
