MSF Warns More Food Will Not Save Malnourished Children

Group Calls for Increased and Expanded Use of New, Innovative Nutritional Products

New York, October 10, 2007 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called for increased and expanded use of nutrient dense ready-to-use food (RUF) to reduce the five million annual deaths worldwide related to malnutrition in children under five years of age. Current food aid, which focuses on fighting hunger—not on treating malnutrition—is not doing enough to address the needs of young children most at risk, MSF warned.


"It's not only about how much food children get, it's what's in the food that counts," said Dr. Christophe Fournier, president of MSF's International Council. "Without the right amounts of vitamins and essential nutrients in their diet, young kids become vulnerable to disease that they would normally be able to fight off easily. Calls for increased food aid ignore the special needs of young children who are at the greatest risk of dying."

RUFs, which come in individually wrapped rations, contain all the necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that a young child needs. This dense therapeutic food, which has milk powder, sugars, and vegetable fats, can be produced and stored locally and transported easily, and requires no refrigeration, making it ideal for use in hot climates. It allows a child to recover from being malnourished and catch up on lost growth. Being easy-to-use, mothers—not doctors and nurses—are the main caregivers, meaning far more children at risk can be reached.

"In Somalia we are giving acutely malnourished kids packets of ready-to-use food and we see them gain weight and begin thriving within a couple of weeks," said Dr Gustavo Fernandez, MSF head of mission in Somalia. "RUFs are practical to use in places like Somalia where security is very bad. General food distribution is also needed, but it is not going to be very effective to treat kids under three years old."

Severe acute malnutrition in early childhood is common in large areas of the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia -- the world's "malnutrition hotspots." The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20 million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition at any given moment and MSF estimates that only three percent of them will receive RUF in 2007.

Therapeutic RUF for only severely malnourished children, as current WHO, World Food Program, and UNICEF guidelines recommend, is too restrictive. Given its nutritional benefits, RUF has the potential to address malnutrition at earlier stages and is far more effective than fortified blended flour, which is normally distributed. MSF is piloting a program using a modified RUF as a supplement to prevent children from becoming acutely malnourished.

"Instead of waiting for kids to get gravely ill we decided to act earlier," said Dr. Susan Shepherd, MSF medical coordinator, Maradi, Niger. "We are piloting a program that gives RUF to all children under three in at-risk communities so that they get the nutrients that are missing in their normal diet."

Through this early treatment or prevention approach in Niger, MSF is providing mothers with small containers of RUF as a supplement to their normal diet. Early results from this ongoing project, which is reaching more than 62,000 children, indicate that RUF is significantly more effective than the traditional approach of supplying fortified flours and cooking oil to mothers of young children.

MSF is calling for donors and UN agencies to urgently speed up the introduction and expansion of RUF. This is going to take a new allocation of funds to cover the cost of €750 million (approximately $1.05 billion) to reach the most vulnerable. But it will also take a realigning of food aid strategies with existing and newly developed products that have the nutrition needed to cure malnourished children.

MSF has been treating malnutrition with therapeutic RUF since the first products became available in the late 1990s, and in 2006 treated more than 150,000 children with acute malnutrition in 22 countries.

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Young People Making A Difference with the Do Something Good For You! Del Monte Grant

Do Something and Del Monte Foods are encouraging anyone under age 26 with an idea or program that promotes healthy living in their school or community to submit their projects for a chance to win the $2,500 Del Monte Do Something Good For You! Grant.

Do Something operates on six strategic principles:
All programs for people age 25 and under:
1. Led by young people. Adult participation is never required
2. Allow participants the freedom to choose their own course of action
3. Have Measurable impact
4. Are Free
5. Use innovative communications and technologies
6. Publicly celebrate high achievement

We want to get the word out about this great opportunity for young people to make a difference, and we thought So What Can I Do would be an ideal outlet. Applications are being accepted until November 9th!

Below is a link to the Do Something Good For You! PSA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8oBvNvg7Gc

Visit http://www.dosomething.org/node/36048 for more info on the grant.

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Finalists Chosen for the $35,000 Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation

CLAREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University today announced 11 finalists for this year’s $35,000 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

The Institute, which works to advance the ideas and ideals of the late Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management, will honor the winner and two runners-up on Nov. 19 in New York at a gala dinner co-hosted by the Leader to Leader Institute. More than 340 organizations applied for the award.

The dinner will be preceded by an all-day conference, “Creating the Future of Nonprofits: Opportunity and Innovation in the Social Sector.” (For more on the conference, including a list of speakers and a link to register for the event, please go to www.DRUCKERinstitute.com.)

The Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation has been given annually since 1991 to recognize existing programs that have made a real difference in the lives of the people they serve. Consideration is based on Drucker’s definition of innovation — change that creates a new dimension of performance. Cash prizes are designed to celebrate, inspire and further the work of innovative nonprofit organizations in the United States.

In addition to the $35,000 first prize, the second-place winner will receive $7,500 and the third-place winner will receive $5,000. (A list of previous winners is available at www.cgu.edu/pages/4126.asp.)

The judges for this year’s awards are: Ira A. Jackson, dean of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management; Geneva Johnson, secretary of the Leader to Leader Institute’s Board of Governors and former president and CEO of Family Service America; Jeffrey M. Johnson, Yucaipa Cos. executive, chairman of the board of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and former publisher of the Los Angeles Times; Richard Polanco, chairman of the California Latino Caucus Institute and former California Senate Majority Leader; C. William Pollard, former chairman and CEO of ServiceMaster Co.; and Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute. The administrator of the award is Kerry Boyle, executive director of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management.

This year’s finalists are:

BerkShares, Great Barrington, MA. This is a local currency project of the E.F. Schumacher Society and the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. In circulation since 2006, BerkShares create consumer awareness, support local businesses and facilitate the development of new productive capabilities to fulfill the needs of the community.

Friendship Volunteer Center, Sarasota, FL. The Disaster Volunteer Initiative seeks to implement a countrywide coordinated response to disasters by establishing relationships and creating partnerships among non-traditional groups of volunteers from neighborhoods, civic organizations, faith-based groups, businesses and government agencies.

Elderly/Disabled Housing Program, St. Augustine, FL. This initiative offers homeowners living in dilapidated housing the opportunity to have their house demolished and a new home built on the same lot. Financial counseling through grant funding is offered, in addition to family support and advisement.

The “Made in NY” Production Assistant Training Program, Brooklyn, NY. This program enables unemployed or low-income New Yorkers to start careers in TV and film production through four weeks of free skills training followed by two years of job placement and career advancement services.

Wake Up and Walk Tour, Madeira Beach, FL. This effort involves an epic 10,000-plus mile walk of the United States’ perimeter by Executive Director Andrew Mandell, “Mr. Diabetes.” Mandell gets up close and personal with the public about diabetes to create awareness of the warning signs, risk factors, complications, preventability and financial costs.

DIGNITY Programs, Phoenix, AZ. This project was pioneered through Catholic Charities by a survivor of prostitution to help women safely and successfully break free from prostitution and rebuild their lives through community action, street outreach services, support/education groups and alternatives to incarceration.

ForSight Imaging, York, PA. This program serves people who are blind, providing them with a job and career path that seeks to broaden the range of industry positions available to them, from manufacturing to technology. It empowers blind employees to reach their full potential as knowledge workers instead of factory workers.

Disabled and Alone/Life Services for the Handicapped Inc., New York, NY. This program supports families concerned with the future needs of their disabled loved ones through membership in Life Services. Each member family is assigned a Personal Advocate who provides support during emergencies, offers guidance and advocacy, and develops a personal relationship with the family and disabled person.

Career Technology Program, Baltimore, MD. Focused on providing at-risk students at the Baltimore Talent Development High School with in-demand technology skills that lead to industry certification, the program utilizes a visual curriculum and offers the opportunity to take an adult certification course and receive college credit.

Rx Partnership, Richmond, VA. The partnership solicits free medication from pharmaceutical companies and arranges their distribution directly to affiliate free clinics and federally qualified health centers throughout Virginia.

Housing Foreclosure Prevention, Cleveland, OH. This consumer-action led agency provides foreclosure-prevention counseling, while effectively preventing and addressing predatory lending through public education, individual loan resolution assistance, grassroots enforcement of Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) responsibilities, negotiation of CRA agreements with banks, creation of quality loan products in low-income neighborhoods and advocacy for increased regulation of predatory lenders.

About the Drucker Institute

The Drucker Institute is a think tank and action tank whose purpose is to advance the ideas and ideals of Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management. The Institute hosts conferences, undertakes research that builds on Drucker’s writings, produces material that applies Drucker’s work to current events, and offers a curriculum that distills Drucker’s decades of leading-edge thinking. The Institute also houses Drucker’s archives, which are in the process of being digitized for easy online access. The Drucker Institute is a campus-wide resource of Claremont Graduate University and is closely aligned with the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, where Peter Drucker taught for 35 years and which continues to produce effective managers and ethical leaders for business, government and civil society.

About the Leader to Leader Institute

The Leader to Leader Institute furthers its mission — to strengthen the leadership of the social sector — by providing social sector leaders with essential leadership wisdom, inspiration and resources to lead for innovation and to build vibrant social sector organizations. Specifically, Leader to Leader helps social sector organizations achieve excellence in performance and community building by providing guidance in managing for the mission; making innovation a part of all strategy; developing productive partnerships, collaborations and alliances; facilitating dispersed leadership; promoting and building richly diverse, inclusive organizations and communities; and using self-assessment resources for establishing mission, goals and objectives.

Contacts

The Drucker Institute
Rick Wartzman, Director, 909-607-9212

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Marqui to Donate Subscription of Web Marketing Solution to Selected Nonprofit Organization

The Marqui solution helps non-profit organizations manage and increase the effectiveness of their online communications. Every year they host a lottery where one deserving nonprofit will receive Marqui's services free of cost.

Vancouver, Canada, October 12, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Marqui Inc., a leading provider of ondemand marketing automation and website content management software, announced today that they will be donating a subscription of their solution to a non-profit organization as part of their annual non-profit lottery. The award will enable the successful organization to make better use of their limited funds to build awareness and support for their causes without the burden and cost of managing their website or online communications.

“We are very pleased to be running this contest once again this year. We understand that many non-profit organizations have to rely on the generous donations of their supporters and operate with a limited staff and volunteers. The Marqui solution can help these organizations maximize the effectiveness of their online communications and website management,” said Rick Patri, Vice President, Client Solutions, Marqui. “The Web is such a pervasive medium, and Marqui provides non-profit organizations with easy-to-use tools to reach and build awareness with a worldwide audience.”

Non-profit clients such as the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Liver Foundation, Coastal First Nations, and the Shriners of North America use the Marqui solution to:
• Control online brand and messaging
• Increase advocacy and outreach efforts
• Measure and optimize campaigns

To Apply

The award will be granted based on the organization's need and planned usage of Marqui’s ondemand software applications. All NPO/NGO's are invited to apply. Deadline for submission is November 30, 2007. Full award criteria and submission forms are available at www.marqui.com/donate

Marqui offers a comprehensive suite of on-demand software applications that automate and simplify a broad range of marketing activities; including web content management, email campaigns, search engine optimization (SEO), lead generation and CRM integration, analytics and program measurement. By combining all of these capabilities into one Web-based suite, Marqui enables customers to streamline marketing initiatives and improve program effectiveness without the issues or costs associated with installing multiple single-purpose products.

The Marqui suite of products – including Blog Management, Campaign and Email Management, Content Management, Marketing Analytics, and Approvals and Workflow – can be deployed incrementally or all at once based on business needs and objectives.

Further details on the Marqui marketing software suite can be found at:
http://www.marqui.com/solution/

About Marqui
Marqui enables customers to stand out from the crowd by providing innovative web marketing technology that helps align Sales and Marketing teams and execute closed-loop marketing activities. Marqui’s on-demand platform empowers customers to control their online brand and messaging, generate leads and revenue, and evaluate and optimize online campaigns. More than 250+ organizations have leveraged Marqui to successfully grow their brand and online campaigns through effective web content management, SEO, site search, CRM, and analytics.

Marqui's growing customer list includes: the Phoenix Suns, Ford Motor Company, Honda, Merck, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Lakeland College, Roper Bioscience, CruiseWest, Grouse Mountain, BC Ferries, the David Suzuki Foundation, YMCA, and the United Way. Marqui is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. For more information please visit them at www.marqui.com .

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Contact Information
Marqui Inc
Angela St. Amour
604 630 1039
astamour@highroad.com
www.marqui.com

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Enable America Promotes Disability Mentoring Day 2007

Disability Mentoring Day offers an opportunity for people with disabilities to get hands-on, real-life employment exposure by bringing together job-seekers with businesses to open doors, provide mentorship and explore career opportunities. Enable America is proud to be a part of this annual event aimed at gaining awareness of the low employment rates among people with disabilites as well as help them make connections to securing a job.

Tampa, FL, October 13, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Enable America is proud to be a part of Disability Mentoring Day on October 17, 2007 nationwide.

Disability Mentoring Day offers an opportunity for people with disabilities to get hands-on, real-life employment exposure by bringing together job-seekers with businesses to open doors, provide mentorship and explore career opportunities.

Disability Mentoring Day started as National Disability Mentoring Day in 1999 in the White House, as a program to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is celebrated every October.

Enable America was founded in 2002 by attorney Richard Salem in Tampa as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities find employment and live independently. It is the first organization dedicated solely to reducing unemployment among people with disabilities.

To better understand the issues facing the disability community, Representatives from Enable America traveled across the nation and conducted Town Hall Meetings in more than 20 cities in 17 states during a three year period. This listening tour gathered together members of the disability community, business people, educators, service providers, civic organizations and political leaders in cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles. Participants identified five key concerns among individuals with disabilities: employment, health care, affordable housing, transportation and benefits.

Enable America is committed to raising awareness of employment-related disability issues on a local and national level.

Good things happen when people have jobs. Visit www.enableamerica.org for more information.

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Contact Information
Enable America
Dave Mikes
813-222-3227
dave.mikes@enableamerica.org
http://www.enableamerica.org

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SO WHAT CAN I DO LAUNCHES NEWS AND PRESS CENTER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2007

CONTACT: Karama C. Neal, editor
sowhatcanido@gmail.com
http://swcidnews.blogspot.com
http://sowhatcanido.blogspot.com

Celebrating its third year promoting ethics in action, So What Can I Do launches a new News and Press Center. This exciting new companion weblog offers So What Can I do readers even more opportunities to make a positive difference in the world.

So What Can I Do News and Press Center collects and shares press releases and news items from organizations around the globe promoting ethics in action. “We hope to provide an even greater variety of news and opportunities for our audience,” said Karama C. Neal, editor. “The News and Press Center is an exciting and meaningful way to celebrate our third anniversary.”

Press releases or news items describing opportunities to contribute to the improvement of our world should be sent to sowhatcanido@gmail.com in order to be featured at the So What Can I do News and Press Center

So What Can I Do, the public service weblog promoting ethics in action, lists hundreds of ways we all can make a positive difference in our world. The blog has been profiled in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Positive Thinking Magazine, DarynKagan.com, Our Day to End Poverty: 24 Ways You Can Make a Difference, as well as numerous other print and online publications.


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Guster Creates OURthreads Charity Closet to Benefit DramaticNeed.org

Members of First Fashion Marketplace Put Closet Items Up for Auction to Benefit Charities of their Choice

Bloomington, IN – October 9, 2007 – OURthreads, the first online style community where members can buy, sell or trade items from their customized virtual closets, has added Boston-based band Guster as its first charity closet. OURthreads members have the opportunity to bid on items in lead singer and guitarist Ryan Miller’s celebrity charity closet, the proceeds of which will go to the organization of his choice, Dramatic Need.

Dramatic Need (www.DramaticNeed.org) is a non-profit organization that was created to give musicians, actors, artists, and dancers the chance to make a difference to the lives of African children affected by poverty, illness and neglect.

Whether it’s an international charitable organization or a small local association, OURthreads encourages members to create their own charity closets to benefit the organizations that mean the most to them.

“Members of the OURthreads community can not only connect to others through similar fashion interests – they can also connect on a humanitarian level,” says Pete Yonkman, co-founder of OURthreads. “Members can support one another and the charities that mean the most to them by quickly and easily adding items into their virtual charity closets and putting them up for auction.”

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Green Clean Your Home, Office or School…All It Takes is 1 Small Step

Organization teaches social responsibility by donating portion of sales proceeds on behalf of its customers

Parsippany, NJ, October 05, 2007

1 Small Step (www.1smallstep.org) is an organization that provides “Green” approved cleaning products, and coordinates contributions on behalf of its clients to local charities.

The company uses a “Consumerism with a cause” model to implement their program by realizing that people who already use harmful, toxic chemicals to clean their facilities, would like to “go green” but do not know where to start. Because of this, the companies founders decided to make donating to charity on behalf of their customers, their main goal. “Everything we do is centered around a “think global, act local” way of thinking. We want to promote the use of Environmentally safe cleaning products, and teach a social responsibility to the users of our products by donating to charities that affect them close to home,” says Glenn C. Breslauer, Co-founder of 1 Small Step.

The company offers a wide variety of Green Seal Certified cleaning products for Day Care / Pre-Schools, Assisted living facilities, Physical fitness centers, Medical practices, Restaurants and private homes. They even offer a Gift Bucket of their most popular cleaning products, which makes an ideal house-warming gift or fundraiser item for the person who would like to offer the gift of green.

About 1 Small Step
1 Small Step is an organization whose main goal is to provide a solid foundation of environmental responsibility by utilizing a Green method of cleaning, and a social awareness program which is designed to give back to charitable organizations that affect our communities.

For more information, please contact 1 Small Step at 973.457.5824
or online at: http://www.1smallstep.org

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Contact Information
1 Small Step.org
Glenn C. Breslauer
973-457-5824
glenn@1smallstep.org
www.1smallstep.org

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Recognize an Extraordinary Farmer or Rancher With $10K Award

CONTACT:
Jennifer Morrill 202-378-1255 or jmorrill@farmland.org


Washington, D.C., September 27, 2007—Nominations are now being accepted for American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) 2008 Steward of the Land Award. The annual $10,000 prize honors farmers or ranchers who best exemplify AFT’s mission of halting the loss of productive farmland and promoting farming practices that sustain a healthy environment.

Nomination forms can be completed online at www.farmland.org/programs/award, or can be printed, completed and hand mailed to: American Farmland Trust, 1200 18th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036. You may also call 202-378-1255 for an application or with questions. Nomination materials will be accepted until close of business day on Monday, December 3, 2007.

Sandy and Rossie Fisher, beef producers from Manakin-Sabot, Virginia, were recognized as the 2007 Stewards of the Land for their lifelong commitment to farmland protection and environmental stewardship. The Fishers operate Brookview Farm where they raise grass-fed beef and organic eggs that they sell at their on-farm store and to local chefs and grocers. Their farm’s composting operation turns municipal yard waste into compost for use on their farm and for other customers.

“Sandy and Rossie, like all of AFT’s Steward of the Land Award winners, have shown by example how successful you can be in agriculture and still be in harmony with the land. They have been instrumental in raising farmland protection issues in many community forums, and they have helped initiate local and state farmland protection efforts,” said Ralph Grossi, President of AFT.

“The Fishers are the first Steward of the Land Award winners from the state of Virginia, and their sustainable farming practices present a model for the federal 2007 Farm Bill currently being debated in Congress,” Grossi continued. “They also have the ability to look down the road, and they understand how serious the issue of farmland loss is to the future of agriculture.

The Fishers helped found the Goochland Land Alliance in 2002, which educates landowners about conservation easements, and they were the second farm in Goochland County to put all their owned acreage into a conservation easement held by the Virginia Outdoor Foundation and the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Part of their property borders the James River, which is leased to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of a wetlands mitigation bank. The Fishers also participate in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) that involves keeping all surface water fenced from cattle, establishing watering systems, rotational grazing and 23 acres of buffer strips.

The Fishers intend to put their $10,000 award toward conservation causes.
Established in 1997, AFT’s Steward of the Land Award recognizes an American farmer or farm family who best demonstrates leadership in protecting farmland and caring for the environment. The award honors the memory of Peggy McGrath Rockefeller, an avid farmer and conservationist who helped found AFT.

American Farmland Trust is a national nonprofit organization working with communities and individuals to protect the best land, plan for agriculture and keep the land healthy. As the leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation, AFT has ensured that more than a million acres stays bountiful and productive. AFT’s national office is located in Washington, DC. The phone number is 202-331-7300.

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