You Can Make A Difference With Your Clicks

You may have heard about them in your online time. You may not think they don't really help. You may not think that they are legitimate. You may have never heard of them. I'm talking about click-to-give sites where you click to engage in online activities and a specified amount of funds are released on your behalf and are donated to those in need. Yes, I'm sure that they are sites that are poor in quality or do not do what they claim. I'm sharing with you click-to-give sites where I click daily or regularly, am well-acquainted with and am convinced are legitimate, really seeking to help the needy. Normally, unless my computer is acting up, visiting these sites and clicking in the designated areas takes just minutes out of my day. I recommend clicking to give especially for those of you who spend much time on your computers and who want to use part of that time to make a difference for causes you care about and at no cost to you. These sites themselves make it clear that they are supplementing the "actual giving" that we need to do for causes we care about, and most of these sites include options to make "actual donations."

More recently, I have discovered another click-to-give networked site, called click-to-care. At this networked site, you have the option of clicking as well as sharing via Facebook, and tweeting. This site includes a number of causes, including helping in the fight against world hunger, children's medical care, disaster relief, the environment, helping to save animals, helping increase the world's supply of clean water, building schools worldwide, and a couple more. I have found this networked site on a link at this web page that houses all known click-to-give sites on the Internet. As of the past few months, I have bookmarked this webpage and I go there on most mornings, unless circumstances prevent it, to click on sites which I feel are most effective, legitimate and represent causes that I care most about. I spend at least a half hour each day, clicking at the sites that say that my clicks generate funds for cause which I care most about. I know that my clicks on any of these sites may amount to only pennies, but I know that, over time, these small funds add up and this holds true especially when some of these sites are shared and many other people click at the designated places at these sites. At this webpage there are links to numerous sites and pages. These sites represent a wide variety of causes, including education, fighting poverty and world hunger, saving the environment, fipreventing and ghting animal cruelty, conserving energy, funding health care (especially for children, preventing and ending teen suicide, conquering cancer (especially breast cancer), and more. The webpage that houses all these sites does include outdated sites and duplicate sites. This webpage can be found at:
http://www.thenonprofits.com.

Want a site where you can help save children's lives? There is a site for that. It's called the Tarahumara Children's Hospital Fund. The clicks done at this site are calculated monthly. Your clicks at this site actually help fund a children's hospital and keeps it open so health care providers can keep serving destitute children. This site provides much detail in their stories and photos of all that is being done to meet the various needs of the children served and how their lives are not only being saved but are being changed. Daily, you click on a designated button and you will see a count of clicks as they add up in real-time each month. After you click, you are given a link where you can visit a page where you can view a chart that gives a breakdown of how everyone's collective clicks help keep the Tarahumara Children"s Hospital open and the the hours of hospital care that everyone's clicks have funded that month. Yes, the clicks you make at this site supplement the work done for the children served through actual public donations. Moved to give of your financial resources to increase your impact? Your actual donations are warmly welcome where there is a donation button. But to click daily, no donated is required. To visit this site, go to http://www.tchforegon.org/.

Want a site where your clicks help different charities that are trusted and help causes that most of us care about? There's a a site for that. It's simply called Click-To-Give, Give To Charity For Free! At this site you click once to help 6 different charities, adding up to 6 clicks per day. These clicks benefit abused animals, abused children, poor children, the homeless, children with cancer, and sponsors individual needy children. Your daily clicks to each charity may add up to pennies per day, but if many people click for each charity daily, the clicks add up and much good can be done. At the "Follow Our Progress" tab on the left of the site, you can see that many thousands of clicks for charity were done the previous month. There are six designated click buttons for each charity. Again, though you can click each button over and over, only one click at each of the 6 buttons per day actually releases funds for the designated nonprofits. And though I have never taken advantage of it, you can "earn points" and be able to "claim rewards" of free items purchased from the charities involved; there is a "rewards store" for this. As you click each button for each charity, you are assured that 100 percent of sponsor money goes directly to the designated charities. To track your individual progress on this site and to "earn points" and be able to "claim prizes," you need to set up an account with this site. But it is worth it in that you are encouraged as you can see how, over time, your clicks are actually helping multiple causes and trusted nonprofits. I encourage you to visit this site; do it at: http://www.clicktogive.com?ref=42267.  UPDATE: I have lost my account on this site and the administrator(s) at the site were totally unresponsive to my concerns and banned me from their Facebook page. If you click at this site, please bear this in mind.

Want to check out a site for a cause that uses multiple social networks to empower you to get involved and which is expanding in scope? Join My Village (JMV) is for you. JMV is an iniative partnership between General Mills, Merck and the CARE organization. General Mills and Merck have committed to donating money to CARE but this is done only through your clicks and through money donations which they match with their money. All these $$$ go to CARE so the nonprofit can better serve girls and women in Malawi, one of the poorest areas in the world and in Africa. JMV helps girls and women through giving them educational opportunities, empowering them to break the cycle of deep poverty. And this year, JMV has expanded to serve girls and women in India, also through the means of educational opportunties. JMV focuses on girls and women because it's females who, by far, are denied educational opportunties and because when they do receive such opportunites, the payoff is much greater because educated women bear fewer children, are better wives and mothers and are able to take better care of their families. And they increase their earning power and are in a far better position, when educated, to support their families and serve society. JMV runs a Facebook page where every interaction with it releases funds to CARE for girls and women; this page is linked to their site whose link I will soon be sharing. They run a Facebook cause which is linked to the page. And they run a website which is also interactive and where funds are released every time you click to perform online activities there or share these activities with those in your network. Your clicks are worth $1-$3 a click. When you enter this site, you can see that, over time, well over $1 million have been donated to JMV. On the Facebook page, the cause site and on the JMV website, you can view different photoes, videos, slideshows and stories. JMV shows how everyone's daily clicks and matched donations actually help these girls and women, where the $$$ are going and how these girls and women's lives are being changed for the better. Not content to just click but also feel moved to share your financial resources" On their site, JMV provide a donation button where your donations are warmly welcome but not required to click and click over and over. You can visit this updated, revamped website at: http://www.joinmyvillage.com/.

Want to make a difference for 8 different, popular causes each day? There is a network of 8 linked, click-to-give sites that are for you. These click-to-give sites are called the Greater Good Network sites. There are 8 different sites where you can help feed hungry children, help feed rescued animals, help provide free mammograms for needy women, help feed homeless veterans, help provide therapy for autistic children, help fund health care for needy children, help provide books for needy children, and help preserve rainforests. The 8 sites are all linked so that you can click the 8 designated buttons in less than two minutes per day, assuming your computer is running at full capacity. No matter which site you visit, you will see 8 tabs at the top of each site where you can see the sites as linked and which make clicking daily both easy and efficient. As you click the designated tabs 8 times, each time you are assured that 100 percent of sponsor money goes to each cause. You can click over and over on each tab, but only one click on each designated click button per day will actually release funds for each of the 8 causes. On each site, you can read stories and see photos about how needy people are being helped in so many ways and how your clicks make a difference. Want to do more than to just click? There is an online, comprehensive store, accessible no matter what site you are visiting. All funds from purchases made through online shopping made on this site go to the designated causes, so you can shop online here and make a difference! Also, at each site you will find many online petitions that are relevant to each cause. So even if you have no money, you can give your time at these sites and make a difference in many different ways! Here is where you can visit these sites: http://www.thehungersite.com, http://www.thebreastcancersite.com, http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com, http://www.theveteranssite.com, http://www.theautismsite.com,
http://www.thechildhealthsite.com, http://www.theliteracysite.com, http://www.therainforestsite.com.

I don't want to give the wrong message here, that online, free (to you) clicking at certain websites replaces the offline serving, caring and sharing with those in need or the giving of one's material resources. I just want to show that you can do great good with your clicks and that if you are in an life situation where you feel that your ability to serve and give to others is limited, there are still options. And I know that there are some who will never trust click-to-give sites and are paranoid about what they click. This is understandable in light of the scams and viruses that are rampant online. If you wonder why clicks are limited, for the most part, to one daily click or in other ways limited? This is to prevent computer crashes and abuse and also because sponsors have limited funds for clicks. I know a number of you already click on some of these sites and good for you! I hope that because of this blog more people will be steered to what I feel are legitimate, quality click-to-give sites.

http://www.thenonprofits.com
This is the webpage that houses all known click-to-give sites on the Internet and can be bookmarked for easy access and navigation.

Why We Need To Talk About Epilepsy

          Yes I am seeing that too often we are concerned with only those issues that we see as directly or immediately impacting our lives or the lives of our loved ones. I'm thinking now of my being part of the Cause on Facebook that is called "Turn Facebook Purple For Epilepsy Awareness." Of course, turning a site a certain color is not going to provide any practical help for the problem of any social ill or need, epilepsy included. This issue here is awareness that is meant to spur people into action toward a cure for the forms of epilepsy that are severe and to get us to talk about a medical condition that, for anyone with this diagnosis, this medical condition carries an ongoing social stigma. This stigma is reality also for those whose seizures are totally controlled with medication. And no one wants to talk about it. Epilepsy is one of those things, like autism, mental illness, child sexual abuse, rape and other issues with codes of silence, that we "just don't speak about" or speak about only in hushed tones. This day, I have sent out 350 invitations to people in my network, hoping that many of them will join this epilepsy awareness cause and show their support. I have posted on my page about this cause over and over; I have also shared the Causes bulletin which is a brief note about why we need Facebook to be turned purple. So far, as I write this post, only two or three people have joined this cause out of literally hundreds of people, many whom I know have been online. The Causes note has not had one view, despite my shares of it. This is sad but it only illustrates the social stigma of epilepsy and that those of us who are concerned about it still have work to do.
          Epilepsy affects about 3 million people in the US alone, which experts tells us is about the same incidence as breast cancer. And epilepsy can be as life-threatening, especially if it is undiagnosed and untreated. Breast cancer awareness, however, is far greater and with far more funding and resources, than epilepsy awareness. Breast cancer causes are always popular, breast cancer gets good media coverage, is the subject of high-profile fund-raising events and it seems that it is "cool" to support breast cancer. No one is self-conscious or ashamed to talk about it, either. This kind of awareness and resources are solid for many other diseases and conditions and few of them carry epilepsy's social stigma. But of the 3 million in the US who are diagnosed with epilepsy, according to health experts, many of these are children and teenagers. Epilepsy affects more people than many other medical conditions combined, health experts say. Epilepsy is often caused by head trauma, which is caused by accidents, concussions and therefore any one of us can find ourselves in a situation where we will end up diagnosed with this condition. What do I hope to see more of? I would like to see more advocates and good-hearted people, people who affirm that they care about issues that affect all of us, realize that epilepsy is also one of these important and relatable issues. If you hear much more from survivors of breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and even heart disease, among other condition, guess what? It is because these other conditions do not have a code of silence that hush up their victims/survivors. It is NOT because they affect more people than epilepsy.
          Just as stereotypes of many conditions abound that have some truth but not much, so the same holds true about epilepsy. I fear the stereotype of the typical epilepsy survivor that is floating around is that of a person who suffers seizures on a regular basis and that these seizure are the grand mal, full-bodied type. Not so. Epilepsy, like everything else, happens along a spectrum, from those whose seizures are fully controlled with medication and/or other therapy, to those whose seizures remain uncontrolled despite medication and/or other therapy. And seizures also happen along a spectrum, from "black outs" which mean lapses of consciousness that lasts for seconds, to grand mal, full-bodied seizures. Epilepsy and experiencing seizures only take up small parts of most people's lives, unless the person has severe, uncontrolled epilepsy. But there are enough of these cases that much more research needs to be done for better ways to contol such forms of epilepsy.
          I have already shared my own epilepsy story in my first post about epilepsy last year but I will review it for those who have missed it. I know that many in the epilepsy may not embrace me as "one of their own" because, through I was diagnosed with epilepsy as a child, I have been seizure-free for the past 16 or so years. This is because of my long-term use of anti-convulsants; like many with epilepsy, seizure control comes at the price of often nasty side effects, everything from hair loss, swollen gums, cognitive losses to increased risks of osteoporosis and even liver failure. Side-effects of anti-convulsants often seem almost worse than seizures themselves! Yes, I'm aware of the ever-present possibility of a breakthrough seizure, which is possible for any one with epilepsy. When I was growing up and did experience seizues, they were the grand mal, full-bodied type without auras. When I experienced my last seizures, they were public. I experienced one of them on the school campus where I was attending college as an adults, have returned to school. On that particular day, I experienced another seizure when I was with my family and dining out at a local restaurant. The third seizure occurred when I was in my neurologist's office. Because the stigma of epilepsy was even worse in those days, no one talked about it. Therefore, I thought I was the only one with this medical condition. And because I was also diagnosed with Marfan's Syndrome, a condition that affects the connective tissues, eyes and heart, I have had, to this day, restrict my daily physical activities. This is not unique for those with potentially life-threatening medical conditions.
          The social stigma of epilepsy may not be quite as bad as it was when I was growing up and certainly before that, but it remains. To illustrate this stigma, when I did return to the class where I had one of my last seizures, I was encouraged to drop the class. I found that I was ignored and not treated the same. I know why, that people no longer felt comfortable with me and what used to be an invisible condition had become very visible. As signs of this same stigma, each time I have volunteered to disclose my epilepsy to nonprofits, including in applications when asked about disabilities, my self-disclosure has backfired. Each time, I have been denied the opportunity to serve as a volunteer. Apparently, though I have accompanied my epilepsy self-disclosure with the assurance that my seizures were fully controlled, the nonprofits seemed to fear the condition and me and would have nothing to do with me again. These nonprofits would always provide other, nebulous reasons as to why my applications were refused, but these reasons came across to me as excuses for the real reason: prejudice of diability and difference, especially invisible ones. In my past, when a young man with uncontrolled seizures was talking with a friend, this friend, wanting to know how things were going with this young man, leaned forward and said, in a hushed tone, "your condition, your------------------,"
as though epilepsy were unspeakable and deeply shameful. And also, I recall a segment about a woman years ago, which was aired on the "Mystery Diagnosis" series. This woman experienced seizures that were uncontrolled but accompanied with auras so she could plan somewhat. She discussed the lengths she would go to to hide her seizures, including heading to bathroon stalls to cover them up, so her friends and associates would not know. Even today, people with epilepsy are generally discouraged from disclosing their epilepsy, especially on application unless directly asked about diabilities. And the very facts that I fear filling out another application where honsty will dictate an epilepsy self-disclosure and are finding it challenging to get strong, solid support for this "Turn Facebook Purple For Epilepsy Awareness" cause illustrate the continuing stigma of this medical condition. Yet in the Bible, when God visited the Earth in the Person of His Son Jesus, people with epilepsy would come to Him and be cured of their medical condition; he did not shrink from them.
          Yes, there is no way to get past it or around it. I have epilepsy. I am also a daughter, a mother, a sister, a niece, a friend and a Christian, meaning that I have a relationship with God through Christ. Epilepsy is not my identity. It is just a tiny part of my life of which I am reminded each time I take my anti-convulsant and experience its side effects. Anyone else with epilepsy can say the same about themselves and their lives. They are first people and then they have epilepsy.
          Why add your voice to this effort to spread epilepsy awareness or in other ways show your support? It is because you may know someone, even someone among your friends or associates or others in your life, who may have epilepsy but who may "stay in the closet" because of their fear of social stigma.

http://epilepsyfoundation.org/
This is the website for the trusted nonprofit that advocates for people with epilepsy in a variety of ways; you can educate yourself more there and see about how you can help.

http://www.talkaboutit.org/
This is a website for a nonprofit that is dedicated to eliminating the social stigma of epilepsy through awareness in many different forms and which has been founded by an actor.

http://talkaboutitorg.ning.com/
This is a social networking site for people with epilepsy and for anyone who wants to support them.

http://www.patientslikeme.com/
This is a social networking site and forum for people with medical conditions, including epilepsy.