Only a few days left for charitable giving in 2006 and if you're looking for suggestions, here is a trifecta of great organizations that you may want to consider:
Soldiers' Angels
Spirit of America
World Vision
Daniel Henniger writes on Spirit of America in his Wonder Land column in today's Wall Street Journal (free for all):
Spirit of America's experience in Iraq has followed the same rugged timeline of events as the war. Recall that in April 2004 it raised sufficient monies to rebuild TV stations in Al Anbar province, staffed by Iraqis, to counterbalance propaganda from the likes of al-Jazeera. Those TV stations were built. And they have been destroyed. A sewing center for Iraqi women was similarly destroyed.
This past year, the group got a request from the Army 451st Battalion to help restore the medical facilities at the Najaf Teaching Hospital. The Mahdi militia had occupied it for a time. Spirit of America sent seven cardiac monitors to the hospital's director, Safaa Hamedi. In October, gunmen killed Dr. Hamedi outside his home.
Still, requests from the Marines and Army continue to arrive at Spirit of America. An Army captain in Afghanistan's Parwan province asked for medical textbooks for local doctors. SoA sent bee serum to inoculate honey bees at a business in Iraq's Diyala region. Marine Lt. Jim Wilmott got camping equipment for 200 Iraqi Boy Scouts. At the request of U.S. Embassy personnel, SoA has sent clothing and school supplies for orphans in Baghdad and Basra. They've sent thousands of kids' backpacks and school supplies requested by soldiers around the country. With the SonoSite ultrasound company, SoA delivered handheld ultrasound machines to the primary hospital in Al Qaim, Iraq, near the Syrian border. "Before this," said Mr. Hake, "they were using seashells to listen to the sounds of a pregnant mother and baby; the Marines couldn't believe it."
Jim Hake says Spirit of America's contributions have fallen off since 2004 owing to general fatigue with Iraq, "but under the circumstances people continue to be quite generous." An end-of-the-year funding request raised more than $150,000. "The emails we send to donors are not a good-news operation," says Mr. Hake. "We don't want to put a happy face on it. But the information is more encouraging than what they typically hear. The destroyed projects are hardly good news, but there are lots of guys and gals in the military there who are not just marking time, who want to see this work."
As Henniger goes on to suggest, those in the thick of things, like S0A, seem to have the most resolve to see the way through to victory:
Could this determination be a variant of the much-mocked "stay the course"? It is at least an interesting irony that the people who have had their faces deepest in Iraq and Afghanistan the longest, as soldiers or volunteers like these, are the ones inclined to stick it out; while many here whose experience comes off the bloody front page every day are the ones looking for a way to -- there is no other phrase -- cut and run.
Like the members of the military, groups like SoA doing the hard work on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq deserve nothing less than our complete support.
If you'd like to know how the numbers breakdown on charitable giving in America and why it's important, you'll want to check out Arthur C. Brooks' excellent new book:
It's well-written and refreshingly concise (under 200 pages). Most importantly, even though Brooks is an Ivory Tower egghead (university professor), he communicates in a down-to-earth, conversational fashion that your average Joe Six Pack (or JB Doubtless) would readily appreciate. He answers the question posed in the book's title thoroughly and convincingly, even though it's not necessarily what he expected to find when he began his research. You'll definitely want to read the book if you want to know Who Really Cares? Hint: it's not secular liberals.
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