Recommended Organizations

I’ve gotten several questions on how you can get involved with organizations in Africa. I understand. It’s hard to find places to trust sometimes, with the way the world is, which is so wrong and sad I cannot even begin to write about it.

There are several organizations I’ve been involved with over the years.  You can also get involved with organizations that I’ve mentioned in previous posts like Brighton Their World (www.brightontheirworld.com) or Amazima Ministries (http://www.amazima.org/).

Compassion International is the one that I sponsor Musa through. I’ve been involved with the organization since 2004 and they are really great.  What they are most known for is the sponsorship program.  When a person sponsors a child, they get to choose the country, gender, and generally get a choice of several children. You get to read a brief history on them and see a picture.  It costs about $32.00 a month. This covers the child’s schooling, clothes, and food. You can also donate money for Christmas and birthday presents. One thing I love about how they do Christmas is they compile all the money and divide it equally among all the children, regardless if his or her sponsor donated any money. If you can’t commit to monthly contribution, they have several other opportunities to get involved. You can find out more about Compassion on their website www.compassion.org

Invisible Children is an organization started by a few college aged guys who traveled to Uganda and found a 20-year-long war going on that few in the United States knew about. What is especially unknown about this war and most in less advanced nations is the use of children.  Child soldiers are quite common and it is unusual for the boys to sign up for this.  What generally happens, for the war particularly, is the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) invades and village and kills numerous people. They kidnap the young girls and boys and might also kill the children’s parents in front of them to scare them into submission.  They beat and force the boys to kill until they are brainwashed and use the girls as “wives” for the older soldiers.  It’s appalling and an far too less known evil in this world.  Invisible Children was started to stop the LRA from their use of children, inform the United States of the war, and bring the war to an end. 

You can get involved several ways. There is a chapter here at KSU if you want to get involved.  They do screenings about once a semester and generally have someone from Uganda that speaks as well. You can purchase merchandise like shirts and bags to buy.  And finally, you can sponsor a child so they can go to school.  Here’s Invisible Children’s website http://invisiblechildren.com/

Other organizations that I’ve been involved with and trust are:

Charity Water: http://www.charitywater.org/

Samaritan’s Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

World Vision: http://www.worldvision.org/

Some of these organizations are involved all over the world so you can choose where you want your money to go and generally what you want it used for. The most important thing is to get involved. We live in the richest country in the world even in an economic crisis. Don’t just sit there. Do something.