Tackling Poverty on Blog Action Day

Image by carlaarena via FlickrToday’s a great day for the blogosphere, Blog Action Day. The idea is that bloggers band together to raise awareness of a certain issue, and the theme this year is poverty. B.A.D.’s official site says nearly 11,000 sites are participating reaching 12 million people, though with any luck we’ll get some more bloggers taking part to put the total over the top.

I’ve covered poverty a number of times on the blog, even if it’s not a regular subject, and even if I cover it too lightly. Here’s a bit of a recap:

In October 2006, I was toying with a theme of non-sponsors where I’d promote certain sites that I thought were making the world and the Web a better place, all without any arrangement of any sort with the featured site. My first entry was about Kiva, the microlending site that I still participate in regularly, giving a total of 18 loans over the years (19 including another today while revisiting the site). What’s great is that it’s easy to keep reloaning the money that’s paid back, so you can keep on doing it. The one area where I’ve fallen short in is in inviting others to the site, so if you’re interested in trying it out, let me know. You can make a loan for as little as $25 to help someone jumpstart their business, and no one I’ve lent to yet has defaulted. Learn more at Kiva.org.

In February 2007, I posted one of my favorite titles, "Book of the Hump Club." It’s about the Camel Book Drive that lets you buy books to deliver to children in Africa.

That month I also covered Tree Nation, which helps prevent poverty and desertification. My tree still stands, amassing 700 views so far. I’m glad it’s a well visited tree.

In May this year I mentioned Modest Needs, where people can help prevent others sinking into a downward spiral by helping with some basic needs, like paying utility bills. All applicants are carefully screened.

Poverty came up in the transcript from David Paterson’s talk at the ServiceNation forum in September.

Most recently, I mentioned poverty in light of the DonorsChoose challenge, another social action project I’m participating in through the blog.

Thanks for all your readership. I welcome any other great links to check out down the road. You’ll find many other links at Blog Action Day’s Resource Center along with thousands of other blogs you might stumble on this week.

http://blogactionday.org/js/348a592535e7ff80c9f73a7ee2def012d5ec8496