Young voices in research for health
The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are holding their third joint essay competition for the under-30s on the theme:
Climate change and health: research challenges for the health of vulnerable populations
Rules and guidelines
* Authors must have been born on or after 1 January 1978.
* Each author may submit one essay only.
* Essays may be submitted in English or French and should be 1500 words maximum.
* Essays must be based on the author’s own ideas and not be derived from another source.
* Essays must not have been previously published.
* Entries are individual (i.e., the work of a single author).
* They should include original, even provocative ideas and not be technical or academic texts: tables, charts and figures are probably not necessary; references should be limited.
* Authors are free to be idealistic, passionate, to take established practices to task, albeit in a constructive fashion.
* Within the context of research for health, the theme allows authors to include any aspect that interests them particularly – for example, extreme weather, natural disasters, fuels and energy, transport, water management, vectors, food production, demographics, urban planning, security.
Deadlines
* The deadline for receipt of entries is 30 April 2008.
* A shortlist will be announced by the end of June. Shortlisted authors will be asked to provide a high quality photograph and to confirm original authorship and date of birth.
* The winners will be notified by the beginning of August 2008. The judges’ decision will be final.
Prizes
* A selection of shortlisted essays will be published in an anthology as well as on the Global Forum and Lancet websites.
* Winners will be invited to take part (with all expenses paid) in the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health, which will take place in Bamako, Mali, from 17 to 19 November 2008.
Staff members of the Global Forum or of the Lancet or their immediate families are ineligible to enter the competition, as are authors of shortlisted essays published in 2006 and 2007.
For any questions, please contact susan.jupp@globalforumhealth.org or f.mclellan@elsevier.com
Friday, March 14, 2008
Global Forum for Health Research Essay competition 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
KaiserEDU.org Essay Contest
KaiserEDU.org invites undergraduate and graduate-level students in all disciplines to submit an original essay for the website's annual competition. Students are asked to submit entries by March 17, 2008 in response to the following topic:
Topic:
The date is November 24th, 2008. You have just started a job as an analyst working on the President-elect's health care transition team. The director of the transition team has asked you to draft a memo to flesh out the health priorities for the new Administration on a major health policy issue. Select an issue area and a candidate (from the list below) and identify the major policies or strategies that the Administration could develop to advance this issue. Make sure to include evidence and analysis to support your recommendations. Your priorities and strategies should be consistent with the proposals forwarded by the candidates in the campaign. You should also address the challenges in implementing your recommendations, such as budgetary and political considerations, delivery system issues, and how different stakeholders and constituencies would perceive the proposals. Your memo should not exceed 800 words.
Issue Areas:
* Controlling Healthcare Costs
* Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
* Expanding Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Efforts
* Improving Women's Health
* Improving the Quality of Health Care
Presidential Candidates (as of 1/22/2008):
Democrats
- Hillary Clinton
- John Edwards
- Mike Gravel
- Dennis Kucinich
- Barack Obama
Republicans
- Rudy Giuliani
- Mike Huckabee
- Alan Keyes
- John McCain
- Ron Paul
- Mitt Romney
Monday, February 25, 2008
Film Your Issue Short Film Competition
FYI - Film Your Issue is an unprecedented, ambitious outreach to young Americans to engage them in the public dialogue about pressing issues of importance, locally or nationally.
We want to know what young people think, we want to empower the next generation of leaders to understand how their single voices can influence the public debate, and — as hoakey as it sounds — to understand the power of democracy — where every voice counts.
We want your passion, ingenuity, creativity, originality. We want to hear your heart, and see your talent in action.
Official Rules and Timeline
Length - Issue films should be no less than 30 seconds and no more than 120 seconds in length. We will accept a brief credit roll at the end, for a maximum five seconds beyond the 120 second limit.
Format - Live-action or animated.
Deadline - April 14, 2008
Who Can Participate - Anyone age 14 to 24 at the time of film submission. Certain prizes have age and citizenship requirement. Please check individual Awards and Prizes for eligibility.
Style and Content - This is important: we want mini-movies rather than dry Public Service Announcements. We encourage narrative — meaning a storyline. We’re not looking for lots of talking heads and scrolling text of facts and stats to tell the story. Show us dramatically rather than telling us.
Make us laugh, weep, gasp, grin.
And: Be Yourself. Share your issue. Be passionate. Be original. If it looks and sounds like something we’ve all seen for years, our eyes glaze over. Originality excites us more than whether it looks like prime-time.
Copyright and Broadcast Standards
You can’t use copyrighted music unless you have permission unless you have both publishing and licensing rights. (See copyright page). Original music, vocals and instrumentation, are encouraged.
Pay-cable is more liberal than network television. However Starz reserves the right to exclude any winning film from broadcast if it violates broadcast standards of decency, excessive profanity or copyright infringement.
Submission Format - All major media formats including:
* Video: .mpg, .mp4, .mov, .flv, .avi, .wmv
* Audio: .mp3, .wav
* Bitrate should be 400Kbs minimum
* Resolution: 320 by 240 minimum
* Maximum upload size is 100MB
When and how to submit - Film entries will be accepted after February 25, 2008. To be eligible for the competition, you must register at www.myspace.com/filmyourissue. Your film entries should also be uploaded at www.myspace.com/filmyourissue. You will also be given the option to have your film posted on Think MTV.
We also encourage you to post your film on your own on as many sites as possible, both for your own visibility and to promote the FYI competition. Use tags pertaining to the film's issue(s), as well as "Film Your Issue," "FYI" and so forth.
The sooner you create and upload your film, the sooner your film will get promotion and international visibility: Following February 25, the Associated Press will pick entries over the next six weeks to distribute to its 1,800 Online Video media outlets.
So the faster you submit, the more exposure your film can get.
Submission Deadline - April 14, 2008
The Voting Period - The voting period runs from approximately April 21 to May 4, 2008. From all entries received by the submission deadline, the FYI editorial team will select approximately three dozen films to continue to the public and Jury voting. All films submitted will be reviewed by the participating organizations for the joint awards selected by The United Nations DPI, The Humane Society of the United States, USA TODAY, NRDC, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/ Strong American Schools, NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, P.O.V. Series.
Beginning on or about April 21, 2008, the semi-finalists will be submitted to the VIP Judges and FYI ThinkTank, which will select the FYI 2008 Jury Prize winner.
The semi-finalists will also be posted on a voting platform on MySpace Impact, where the public will have two weeks to view and vote on the finalists. The top-rated film will receive the FYI – MySpace Impact Audience 2008 Favorite Award.
Films posted on the Think MTV site will also be rated during a one-week period, and the filmmaker of the top-rated film will be profiled on MTV News.
Additionally, The United Nations DPI, The Humane Society of the United States, USA TODAY, NRDC, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/ Strong American Schools, NAACP, Human Rights Campaign and P.O.V. Series will each pick one film from all submissions for the Award and prizing in its respective category.
All organizations reserve the right to decline naming a winner should none of the entries effectively articulate the suggested issues.
All winners will be announced on or around May 6, 2008.
Official Sponsor:
FYI - FILM YOUR ISSUE
1920 N. Alexandria Avenue, #3
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Sunday, February 17, 2008
NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR 2008 PURPOSE PRIZE
Every day nearly 8,000 baby boomers turn 60. Since 2006, anticipating this huge demographic shift and what it could mean for our country, Civic Ventures has been awarding The Purpose Prize–– five $100,000 and ten $10,000 investments in Americans over 60 whose creativity, talent and experience is transforming the way our nation addresses critical social problems. Dozens of other innovators received national recognition for their work. Now nominations are being accepted for the 2008 Purpose Prize. To nominate someone or apply yourself, visit www.purposeprize.org. The application deadline is March 1, 2008. The prizes will be announced in the fall of 2008.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
echoDonations.org™ Releases Web 2.0 Widget for Facebook, MySpace
Local Nonprofit Launches New Viral Marketing Tool
CINCINNATI, OH, January 28, 2008 – Today echoDonations.org™ announced the launch of its first Internet widget; a tool used to share information among millions of people who use the Internet in their daily lives. Demonstrating the capability to reach over 300 million sets of eyes, the widget provides a way for echoDonations.org™ to spread its message around the world.
Everyday more than 300 million people interact with each other online through over twenty social media websites. Facebook alone has over 60 million registered users, with numbers constantly swelling. “The widget is an incredible tool for online sharing,” according to the widget’s creator Ryan Rosensweig, Director of Web Marketing and Design at echoDonations.org™. “I believe that a new wave of viral marketing will develop quickly among nonprofit organizations as they seek new ways to share their mission with the world.”
As a sharing tool, the widget has been added to www.echoDonations.org, as well as other social media websites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal. Once added to a webpage, the widget has the capability to link to other sites and can be shared with other people who have accounts with a social media website or their own webpage.
The widget is a program in itself, which allows for advanced communication in a very simple, concise way. Its physical appearance resembles a button or badge on a computer screen, and contains a simple, clean message in the graphic.
Widgets are designed to spread messages as far and wide as the Internet will allow. Anyone who finds echo’s widget online can “click it,” “donate,”“grab it,” or “share it.” By “clicking” the widget, the user is linked to echoDonation.org and has the option of reading their blog. Secondly, the widget has a feature that allows its user to “donate now,” a button that links directly to echo’s donation page. Thirdly, by choosing the option on the widget to “grab it,” users can take the widget themselves and add it to their own website. Lastly, the user can “share it,” or invite others to add it to their website.
The widget provides a highly broad form of marketing, which is greatly needed in the expansive Internet world of today. No longer are marketers competing by word of mouth and billboards. Today, they must find new ways to reach out and captivate their audience.
About echodonations.org™
echoDonations.org™, the nation’s leading online charitable mutual fund, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping charities start or grow their online fundraising programs by offering loyalty building cash rewards for donors to give more. More information is available at www.echoDonations.org.
CONTACTS:
echoDonations.org™, Michelle Matthews, 513.276.4332, ext 105.
michelle@echodonations.org
Monday, January 21, 2008
Social Entrepreneurs Help Nonprofits Solve Critical Business Issues
Business executives put technical prowess to work helping charities help themselves
CINCINNATI, OH, January 11, 2007 – A group of Cincinnati based social entrepreneurs are tackling the two most significant challenges to the survival of every nonprofit: raising money and gaining donor loyalty. How? By providing the technology and tools necessary to do so in a world engulfed by digital trends.
Possessing all the vim, vigor, and business savvy of business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are a slight variation of the breed; they measure their success in terms of social impact rather than profit and return.
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many also work in the private and governmental sectors.
Every year, nonprofits face the challenge of having to work harder and spend more money to raise the same amount of fundraising support as the year before. However, increasing the frequency of direct mail solicitations or telephone fundraising is not only expensive, but involves risks. Overbearing solicitations can drive donors away, and in turn be cost prohibitive to the nonprofit. Therefore, the nonprofit industry needs new fundraising tools and communication methods to enhance their ability to communicate, raise money, and increase donor loyalty.
A local entrepreneur, Christopher Hytry Derrington, CEO of Alta Financial Technologies, set out to help solve this critical nonprofit issue. He assembled a diverse team of Cincinnati executives to explore all possible options using the latest business and technology tools.
“No longer is earning cash rewards income and tax breaks from donations exclusively reserved for the high network individuals,” Hytry Derrington said. “Now nonprofits of all sizes and donor demographics can offer their donors cash rewards for their loyalty.”
After two years of research and development, Alta created a new fundraising tool specially designed to create donor loyalty. This tool enables donors to earn cash rewards from their donations year after year. The team of entrepreneurs took a well-established trust method called a charitable mutual fund, put it on the internet by using the latest technology, and made it available to the general public.
Until now, charitable mutual fund models have required high maintenance overhead that made them available only to large dollar donors. Smaller, or “average,” donations were not cost effective in this trust due to the high costs of setting up and managing the charitable fund. As a result, the general public, or the largest segment of a typical donor base, was not being given the same compelling loyalty reward opportunities as the wealthy.
echoDonations.org, a web site created by Alta Financial Technologies, accepts donations as low as $25 to any U.S. 501(c)3 charity – currently 1.3 million on file with the IRS. All donations, large and small, that come through echoDonations.org™ are combined in an online charitable mutual fund, which is invested and monitored for performance in the market. As the charitable mutual fund builds investment return, annual Lifetime Cash Rewards™ are distributed to donors and charities while building an endowment for the charity. The benefit to nonprofits is exponential by way of the annual cash received and through the increased donor loyalty gained from receiving their rewards.
“The new technology offered through echoDonations.org is an impressive lead to the future of online giving,” said Drew Fink, Board Member of nonprofitSherpa.org, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits through technology and innovation. “This innovative idea is has enormous potential not only in the realm of nonprofit organizations, but of any educational organization in search of loyal donors for steady financial support.”
About echodonations.org™
echoDonations.org™, the nation’s leading online charitable mutual fund, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping charities start or grow their online fundraising programs by offering loyalty building cash rewards for donors to give more. More information is available at www.echoDonations.org.
About Alta Financial Technologies
Alta Financial Technologies™, Inc. is a financial services technology company whose patent-pending back-office products and services enables the creation of web based, paperless, mutual funds targeting specific demographics such as nonprofit donors. More information is available at www.altafinancialtechnologies.com.
CONTACTS:
echoDonations.org, Christopher Hytry Derrington, 513.276.4332, ext 102.
chris@echodonations.org .
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Tampax and Always Launch Protecting Futures Program
Dedicated to Helping African Girls Stay in School
P&G FemCare brands announce joint program to provide school-based support and feminine hygiene products to girls in Southern Africa through HERO: A UNA-USA Campaign
NEW YORK, November 12, 2007 -- Girls living in sub-Saharan Africa can miss up to four days of school each month because they lack the basic necessity of sanitary protection and other resources to manage their periods. To help give girls in this part of the world a better chance at an education and to raise awareness of this issue, P&G brands Always and Tampax are joining forces with HERO, an awareness building and fundraising initiative of the United Nations Association to launch the Protecting Futures program.
According to research, 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools. And, if a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of approximately 4 days every 4 weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20 percent of her school days. The Protecting Futures program will provide products and services to help keep girls in school as well as help foster the overall health and well-being of every child in the targeted school communities.
“Working with HERO, the Protecting Futures program brings together the brands’ global resources to help make a positive impact on these young girls by improving access to feminine hygiene products as well as education and health services,” said Michelle Vaeth, Protecting Futures Program Director for P&G. “Through this program, Tampax and Always will help build an infrastructure that – with support from local and national governments - can give children in these communities the chance to reach their full potential.”
“Protecting Futures is making a positive and direct impact in the lives of children living in HIV/AIDS-affected communities in sub-Saharan Africa. This program also helps support two of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals – promoting gender equity and ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling,” said Gabrielle Armand, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing for the United Nations Association of the USA. The UNA-USA’s HERO Campaign provides comprehensive school-based support to children living in HIV/AIDS-affected communities in Southern Africa.
Protecting Futures, a ground-breaking five-year commitment was born out of a pilot program Always launched in Kenya two years ago through a partnership with the Girl Child Network (GCN) and is a part of P&G corporate cause, Live, Learn, and Thrive which has helped over 50 million children in need.
Protecting Futures is a comprehensive care program which will bring puberty education, traveling health educators, nutritious feeding programs, educational support services, a pad distribution program, and significant construction projects to nine schools in the first year.
* Launched this year in Namibia, Protecting Futures is providing over 200 children with improved access to education by building and outfitting classrooms, dormitories, kitchens, and toilets, at two school sites. The program will also fund teacher training, uniforms for all students, and a year-round feeding program.
* Protecting Futures is also dramatically improving the sanitation, health and hygiene for the community in this region by building a four-kilometer-long water pipeline to 2 schools in this region. In addition to providing direct access to clean water at these schools for all children and teachers, this project allows girls to remain in class all day without having to walk long distances to obtain water for their fellow students.
* This Winter 2007/2008 support will expand to HERO schools in the KwaZulu Natal region of South Africa where Protecting Futures will provide sanitary protection to young girls at nine regional schools to help them overcome the obstacle of attending school during menstruation. These girls will also benefit from an Always funded Health, Hygiene, and Puberty education program taught by a traveling health educator. In addition, Protecting Futures will fund a traveling health care provider for all of the children at these schools.
* In addition, Tampax and Always help sponsor the HERO Youth Ambassador program through their teen-focused website, Beinggirl.com. Twenty-four teens from across the U.S.A. were selected to become Youth Ambassadors and traveled to Namibia and South Africa this summer to work on the Protecting Futures program. Their personal experiences were documented in a series of webisodes airing on beinggirl.com/hero to help encourage and empower all teens to become global citizens.
In support of Protecting Futures, Tampax and Always will launch a dedicated advertising, in-store and online campaign in the US and Canada beginning this Fall 2007.
“There are lots of reasons kids miss school”, said Ms. Vaeth. “Being a girl shouldn’t be one of them.”
For more information on the Protecting Futures program and ways to be involved and help make a difference too, visit www.ProtectingFutures.com.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sikhcess™ Announces Launch of Sikh Community’s Global ‘Feed the Homeless’ Campaign in March 2008
Sikhcess™ to launch worldwide ’Feed the Homeless Campaign’ on March 1, 2008 with volunteers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Chicago, IL
Today, Sikhcess™, a community service organization, unveiled definitive plans to feed the homeless worldwide through its ‘Feed the Homeless’ campaign on March 1, 2008. Sikh communities throughout the globe will participate, with efforts to feed the homeless and needy in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.
“There has been tremendous interest from people across the world hoping to reach out and help those in need,” stated Mr. Amit Singh, Executive Director of Sikhcess™. “My phone has not stopped ringing and my email inbox is always full. Volunteers are clearly eager to help feed the homeless, a founding principle of the Sikh faith.”
The Sikh institution of ‘Langar’ was started by the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. It is the only free kitchen of its kind in the world, collectively serving millions around the globe each year, regardless of gender, social standing, caste, color, religious affiliation, or beliefs. Through this ideal of equality, the tradition of ‘Langar’ expresses the ethics of sharing, community, inclusiveness, and oneness of all humankind.
Working to address homeless hunger, Sikhcess has taken ‘Langar’ (or ‘Free Kitchen’) to those on the streets. On November 17, 2007, Sikhcess launched its first large-scale ‘Feed the Homeless’ campaign with great success. Volunteers throughout North America successfully distributed nearly 50,000 individual food packages to the homeless and needy in just one night - the largest campaign of its kind.
“There are homeless and hungry people across the world, many of whom consume well below the daily food requirement to live. Sikhcess™ is working with Sikh communities around the globe to help alleviate their suffering through the simple act of delivering a nourishing meal. We will do everything we can to help donors and volunteers make that happen,” says Mr. Singh.
Inquiries for donations of food and supplies for distribution to the homeless should be directed to Donations@Sikhcess.com or to Mr. Amit Singh at 248-990-1245.
About the Sikhcess™ ‘Feed the Homeless’ Campaign:
The ‘Feed the Homeless’ campaign began in January 2007 in Vancouver, Canada. The campaign’s initial goal was to distribute 15,000 food packages to Vancouver’s homeless population within 12 months. The entire Sikh community rallied behind the program in Vancouver, and within only 9 short months, more than 20,000 packages were delivered. Now 70,000 food packages have been distributed throughout the United States and Canada.
Through the efforts of this campaign, food packages have been delivered to homeless communities in Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Boston, Newark, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Fairfax, Houston, Atlanta, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Miami.
Every month, the homeless and needy receive thousands of food packages generously donated by the entire Sikh community. In exchange, Sikhcess™ volunteers receive countless hugs, smiles and a heart-felt “thank you”, many times over. Sikhcess™ thanks all those who contribute to the ‘Feed the Homeless’ campaign with their charitable support of time, effort, food, and kitchen facilities.
Sikhcess™ does not accept financial donations of any kind. Inquiries for donations of food and supplies to the homeless should be directed to Info@Sikhcess.com or to Mr. Amit Singh at 248-990-1245.
Contact: Sandy Sangha
Media@Sikhcess.com
630.479.3022
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Contact Information
Sikhcess
Jatinder Singh
604-866-5432
info@sikhcess.com
www.sikhcess.com
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Foundation Provides New Shoes for Needy Children
Barefoot Kids Foundation and Payless ShoeSource Inc. have teamed-up to provide $25. Footwear Shopping Cards for America's Kids in Need.
San Diego, CA, December 15, 2007
This Non-Profit organization exclusively provides new footwear to Kids in Need through their National Distribution Network currently in 20 cities throughout the USA. Childcare organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Salvation Army and Court Appointed Special Advocates provide Payless ShoeSource shopping cards to underprivileged Kids.
The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that 17% or 12.7 Million of our children live below the poverty level. Footwear is often not on the list after the bills, food & medical care are paid. Many of America’s Kids are in desperate need of new footwear.
Everyone can relate to the pride you get when you buy new footwear. Remember those early years when you were fitted for new shoes and sneakers, it was a great moment. You couldn’t wait to show them off. Share this thrill with a Kid in Need.
More Kids will participate in physical activity, and be healthier when wearing proper fitting footwear. They need to feel comfortable and need to fit in with their peers. The distraction of foot pain during class may affect the Kids ability to focus on learning. Studies published in Medical Journals conclude that proper footwear can improve your health. Kids in America need your help.
Their free donation program is now available by making online purchases with participating retailers. Each purchase you make generates a donation from their retail supporters. Go to www.barefootkids.org. Supporters and buy Airline, Hotel, Car Rental, Flowers, Electronics, Office Supplies, Event Tickets, Gifts and everything that eBay and Amazon.com offers. To make a free Donation, just Point, Click and Buy.
Barefoot Kids Foundation has different ways for you to donate. Individuals and Corporate donors can use Credit or Debit Cards on their secure PayPal website: www.barefootkids.org. Donate or send a check payable to: Barefoot Kids Foundation, 7040 Avenida Encinas, Suite 104, Carlsbad, California 92011-4653. Everyone can contribute and improve the life of America’s Kids in Need.
For additional information contact Dan or Lorett Ross at (800) 285-3993 or visit www.barefootkids.org.
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Contact Information
Barefoot Kids Foundation
Dan Ross
800-285-3993
donation@barefootkids.org
barefootkids.org
danross@barefootkids.org
