Trafficking of orphaned children

photo from http://news.balita.ph

Human trafficking is evil. There are news of people that might take advantage of children who were orphaned by the Guinsaugon mudslide. This is taking it to a new level.

“We are also very concerned that the children who have been orphaned will fall in the hands of human traffickers,” Alipui added.

“Only around 87 children survived the mudslides,” reported Fajardo.

“Many of them have lost one or both parents. Already, we have heard of outsiders allegedly looking for orphans to adopt.”

Leyte is a known transit point for trafficked children. In February alone, the non-governmental organization Visayan Forum has documented 25 cases of trafficking in the area.

Read the article here: UNICEF raises alarm on threats to survivors, neighboring communities

More updates on the Leyte disaster can be found here:

Guinsaugon school roof believed found
Rescue efforts continue

Earth-friendly diapers

I remember a very good friend of mine deliberating on whether to get cloth or disposable diapers. Sadly, she went for the disposable type because it was just too much work to use cloth diapers. If she had known about gDiapers I’m sure she would have been thrilled to use these.

I also like the names of the diapers—grassroots green and global blue. It has that nonprofit feel to it. A baby wearing these will look very stylish indeed.

gDiapers have no elemental chlorine, no perfumes, no smell, no garbage and no guilt. In fact, flushables are so gentle on the Earth you can even garden compost the wet ones in one compost cycle, approximately 50 – 150 days. Just think of the standing ovation you’ll get from the planet.

This is certainly something that can be used here in the Philippines. Hope someone gets to sell them here.

(via swissmiss)

Alternative news

gunned down by unidentified assailants	backpacker accused of being a rebel

I’m currently subscribed to the ivolunteer.ph newsletter and got this email about 11 backpackers suspected of being rebels. The backpakers were stopped on their way to Sagada by police. They were arrested and then taken to the police station where they were tortured. Read story here and here.

I checked the name and organization of the person who sent the email. This lead me to the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance website. This also lead me to the story about activists being murdered.

These are the kinds of stories that I will most certainly miss from the major newspaper’s websites. The stories will just be buried under banner ads or cluttered design. Or maybe they won’t be reported at all. See Inq7.net, Manila Bulletin, and Philippine Star and compare the design to Nordis and Manila Indymedia. I find their (Nordis and Manila Indymedia) sites much easier to read. It’s certainly something I’ll be checking on more often from now on.

homelessness (just some thoughts)

I have been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell for a long time now. He’s the writer equivalent of the James Burke, Connections TV shows I used to watch when I was a kid. When Malcolm Gladwell writes, he makes these seemingly absurd connections actually relate to each other. Like the time he wrote an article about the connection between German philosophy and Saturday Night Live.

I was reading this Grist article which lead me to Mr. Gladwell’s latest article called Million-dollar Murray: Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage. This made me very intrigued because I wanted to know what he had to write regarding homelessness. In a nutshell, he used "power law" to describe the problems and solutions that a state in the US had in solving homelessness and other problems. You just have to read the article because you’ll get a much better explanation than I could give.

The solution to homelessness as described in the article is what actually intrigued me the most. The way they saw things, a lot of money was being spent in taking care of homeless people. Medical bills, soup kitchens, half-way houses and the like all added up to millions of dollars per homeless person. Hence the title of the Gladwell article. Instead of spending all that money on services, why not give the homeless a rented apartment for free but with certain restrcitions like they have to eventually get a job and pay the rent themselves.

This had made me wonder whether this can be applied to the Philippine setting, not with the homeless but with sqautters. What if those people squatting/living near railroads or wherever were given an apartment for free a year? Hmmm…

PREDA Fair Trade

I love dried mangoes. Whenever I get the chance I buy some from the supermarket and finish 1 bag all by myself. While doing research I came upon the PREDA Fair Trade project. This is a business I can definitely get into. The only danger being I might buy and eat all the dried mangoes myself. ;)

PREDA Fair Trade is a site where you can order or create your own brand of dried mangoes. Mangoes and other fruits can be supplied with or without preservatives, SO2, can be sweetened or unsweetened all according to your requirements.

Tropical Dried Fruits and Juices, chemical free and environmentally beneficial. All are described with details of processing of the highest quality that passes all European Union standards and the German quality standard (reputed to be the strictest in the world) and price lists. The project benefits farmers’ cooperatives and community development.

The Preda Fair Trade project combines social responsibility, fair wages and community development with efficient and effective business practices.

Bottled water bad

A few weeks back I did a post on bottled water. When I clicked on the “publish” button of my CMS the article got posted. I checked my blog a few minutes later and it was gone. I think it’s a bug in firefox and the session saver extension.

Here’s a link from The Worsted Witch: The Truth About Bottled Water.

Projects

Here are things that some may find useful:

1. I’ve set up a web-based RSS/RDF/ATOM feed aggregator using Gregarius. It’s all the nonprofit/cause related blogs I regulary visit. See it here.

2. I’m currently trying compile web links on nonprofits, NGOs, POs, and GOs here in the Philippines. It’s still a work in progress. Visit it here.

3. I’m also trying to make a calendar of events for nonprofits — events like Children’s Month and the like. Check it out on the righthand sidebar under Upcoming.org Events.

Recycled toys

Arvind Gupta has published books about making toys from trash. When kids do the exercises, they learn about recycling and some science as well.

Mr. Gupta’s work has been recognized by UNESCO and the MIT Media Lab among others.

(via cuying)

More social campaigns

Was just looking at my log files and found this cool site called Houtlust. It’s a site that tracks social campaigns. Definitely a must see.

Also found these cool cartoon adverts from recyclenow.

BiD Challenge 2006: Make Poverty Reduction your Business

Found this competition via the Freecycle Philippines Yahoo Group. Anyone can join. In fact, one of the BiD Challenge 2005 winners was a pinoy. Read about Mr. Jonah Nobleza’s Integrated mobile service units for coconut processing