DOERS: Doers Offering Emergency Relief Support
Dear Friend of DOERS, There's an old story that illustrates the different ways there are to help suffering people. A person comes to a waterfall and sees that babies are being washed over it. She starts fishing babies out and saving them. She gets lots of helpers, and soon they are saving many babies, but many more are washed over. Then one of them runs up stream a mile, and comes back with the news that people are throwing babies in the water! What should they do? Go stop this outrage, leaving the babies to drown, or stay and fish babies out of the river? We at Doers are faced with the same dilemma. We formed to bring relief to the suffering people of Afghanistan, victimized by drought, the Taliban, and then American bombs. So far we have raised over $21,000, and sent 927 blankets to Afghanistan through the Mennonite Central Committee and the Iranian Red Crescent Society. We also made and sent 456 kits and many boxes of other supplies, at our December 1, 2001 event, which were given to refugees in Bosnia, North Korea, Nicaragua, Serbia, Columbia, and other places. Recently we became aware of a grave threat to refugee lives, which we in the United States are in an excellent position to do something about. We are speaking of global climate change, which is resulting in the melting of the polar ice caps and glaciers. Scientists are now predicting that the oceans could rise one meter in the next century, causing millions or billions of people to become refugees. Should we continue to only do relief work, ignoring this growing peril and our role in causing it? We think not. We have decided that, while continuing our humanitarian aid work, (see page two for details about our Afghan relief sale) we will add the task of educating ourselves and others about actions that we can take to stop global climate change. We are now in the planning stages of two ambitious projects, which will enable folks to work together to combat this problem. The first will start on Saturday, February 15, when we host an illustrated talk by John Foley, the director of SAGE, the Center for Sustainability and Global Environment at UW Madison. His talk, entitled “Global Sustainability, Local Responsibility: How to tackle global environmental challenges in your own life and make a difference,” will inform us of many opportunities to lessen the load which we put on the planet and its most vulnerable citizens. Then, after the talk, and before the tasty Afghan dessert of tea and baklava, we will set goals for lowering our carbon dioxide emissions through concrete actions. Our “Carbon Counter Team” will track, quantify and update the results of actual changes that we make in the months afterward. Making changes in our daily actions can seem to “not matter”. Keeping track of our accomplishments as a group will show what a huge difference we can make, and will serve to inspire others to join us. Do you remember the scene at the December 1 event, as over a hundred people cut, ironed and sewed kitbags, stuffed, packed and loaded them on the truck? So many happy participants asked us, “When can we do this again?” We think that we have a plan to duplicate that feeling this spring. Since trees breathe in carbon dioxide, and breathe out oxygen, planting trees makes great sense for combating global climate change. And since many people, even in the Madison area, suffer from hunger, our plan is to plant an orchard to benefit some disadvantaged group. We don't yet know where we will plant the orchard, or which organization will partner with us on this, but we are certain that we can find a group which needs an orchard of fruit and nut trees planted. If you have any contacts, or ideas of groups or plots of land, which would be a good match for this project, please let us know! Just like the blanket collections, which were such huge successes because you took them on and organized in your own circles, this orchard planting can become a successful model project with your help. Just imagine the feeling we will have as we turn a field into an orchard in the course of one day's work! It will be a great opportunity to build community and friendships, not only among Doers' members, but also with the members of the recipient group. But we haven't stopped raising funds to directly help refugees! This fall we became acquainted with a new group called Women for Afghan Women. (You can visit their website at www.womenforafghanwomen.org.) Though they only formed last year, their adviser, Fahima Vorgetts, is an Afghani-American woman with two decades of experience in funding humanitarian projects in Afghanistan. She runs a store in Annapolis, MD, with fair trade items made by Afghan families in their homes. All of the profits from her store go to fund humanitarian projects. We have decided to raise funds for a project through the sale of Afghan rugs and other handicraft items. There are presently over one million widows in Afghanistan! Desperate to feed themselves and their children, many are turning to begging and prostitution. HOOWA, the Humanitarian Organization for Orphans and Widows of Afghanistan, is organizing classes in traditional handicrafts (sewing) and literacy. At the end of the 3 month course, the widows receive a sewing machine and a work table! To fund 300 students (their maximum) for the 90 day course will cost $33,500. Let's see how much we can raise! You can purchase rugs and other handicraft items to benefit the HOOWA project in 3 ways. The first is to visit our website at http://doerswi.homestead.com. Click on “Current Project” and then on “Afghan Rug and Handicrafts Sale,” and view the items. You can buy things from Fahima's store by phone, with a credit card, or by sending her a check or money order. She will send the item(s) directly to you and credit the profits to the HOOWA project. These rugs are one-of-a-kind, handmade works of art. If you've ever priced Persian rugs before, you will recognize how inexpensive these are! If the price still seems like a lot, think of it as a charitable donation that you benefit from as well. These rugs, pillows, and jewelry will make wonderful holiday gifts, which you can feel good about buying. Don't wait to go to the website: these rugs will go quickly! If you don't have access to the Internet, why not attend one of the 2 holiday fairs where we will be selling these items? On Sunday, November 24, Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, at 1501 Gilbert Rd, in Madison, is hosting an International Christmas Fair, with fair trade items to benefit many good causes, including our own. It will be from 8 am to 3 pm. Parking is plentiful. The Fair Trade Holiday Gift Fair will be held on Saturday, December 7 from 10 to 4, at the Pres House, on Library Mall, at the end of State St. in Madison. (2 doors down from the University Bookstore.) Parking is available in the Lake St. ramp. At both fairs we will have rugs, pillows and jewelry for sale. And we will raffle off a rug! Profits from the raffle will benefit the widows' course. You can buy raffle tickets today by mail, and we will pop them in the raffle box. By now you have seen what ambitious plans we have to help Afghan refugees directly, and to work to stop climate change from creating more refugees. We need your help to make these plans a reality! In the past year we formed an organization, created a mission statement and bylaws, and elected a Board of Directors. In the coming year we plan to apply for 501(c)3 status (tax exempt status), which will cost around $600, and to apply for grants from foundations. Researching and applying for grants is a time-consuming activity, and none of our present active members are experienced at it. So we plan to pay a free-lance consultant (probably between $300 and $500) to find an appropriate foundation and write the application(s), (unless one of you steps forward to do this job!) Our operating costs are very low, yet we do need to pay for paper, printing, postage and phone calls. And if we had enough income, we could get a starter office in the Social Justice Center. Will you join Doers today, and give generously? If we can find 50 people who will give $50 each, we will have $2500, enough to apply for tax-exempt status, apply for some grants, and even to pay for some staff time! The number and kind of projects that a group like Doers can organize is limitless: and people are just aching for the opportunity to do good deeds in a group setting! Give us your money, and we will turn it into occasions for you and others to join in making a difference, for refugees, and for all of us! Sincerely, The Board of Doers: Susan Becker, Karen Carlson, Phyllis Hasbrouck, Fizza Hussain-Razvi, and Janie Jahns.
P.S. Your check will give us the means to fulfill the 3 great projects we have started: funding a sewing and literacy course for destitute widows in Afghanistan; organizing Americans to lessen their carbon dioxide emissions; and planting an orchard in the Madison area! Please send your contribution today! (Use the coupon on the back.) P.P.S. You can win a beautiful Afghan prayer rug worth $300! The colors are dark blue, rich burgundy and some olive as well. Raffle tickets are $2 apiece, or 3 for $5. The drawing is Dec. 7. Your purchase will buy the life-saving gift of education for a destitute widow, and maybe a beautiful gift for you or a loved one!
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Return this in the enclosed envelope to: DOERS, P.O. Box 259525, Madison, WI 53725-9525 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Announcement: Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, inspired by the kit collection which we held there last Dec.1, is doing their own kit collection this year. It is part of a massive aid collection being organized by the Mennonite Central Committee for the Iraqi people, in anticipation of an American attack. You are invited to participate! Bring completed relief kits or new blankets to Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, 1501 Gilbert Rd., Madison, before or on Nov. 24, and they will ship them to MCC's Goshen, IN warehouse. Please pack each kit in a box. They will have some completed kits for sale for those with no time to buy. If you bring your kit in on Nov. 24, between 8:30 am and 3 pm, we will have letters to the Iraqi families who will receive these kits, translated into Arabic, which you can sign. Or you can write your own. If you would like to bring a picture of yourself or your family to glue to your letter, you may. These will not go in the kits, but in a separate packet, to be distributed by the MCC representative in Baghdad or Jordan. Relief Kit (for a family of four): place the following contents in a box
Twin are best (60x80), double (82x90) are acceptable. No bedspreads or thin blankets, only heavy, warm ones. DOERS Annual Appeal: November 2002 |