Aid Organizations

Lions, Rhinos, and Elephants: Oh My!

One Female of a Pride of Lions Resting in Afternoon Shade

Image source: Tourdust.com

When I was a young girl, I lived in Kenya. I spent long days at Masai Mara game reserve, a massive wildlife park (and popular tourist destination) where the animals roam free. I watched the lions sleeping in the hot afternoon sun; the gazelles, fleet of foot and on the watch for cats; and the zebras swishing their tails, a black and white tangle of shivering flanks. The boars rammed each other in the tall grass. A herd of elephants circled to protect a single calf. As the sun started to set, the nocturnal animals emerged: the hammer-headed fruit bat; the aardvark with its long snout and shuffling gait; the bush baby with wide, staring eyes and a whip-like tail; and the civet who’s musk is used in the fanciest perfumes.

Fighting Climate Change, One Volunteer at a Time

A Field of Actic Ice Melt

Image source: Nature.org

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a biology student. I volunteer with a wildlife conservation organization in my area and spend a lot of time with biologists in the field. A few weeks ago I was chatting with a career biologist—a man who has spent the past thirty years working with endangered species. Somehow the topic of climate change came up, and I was flabbergasted to discover that he doesn’t believe in it, as if it weren’t the overwhelming scientific consensus. It illustrated something I’ve long understood: that a person’s political views (he is a staunch conservative) can dramatically affect his opinions, even when he should know better. None of us wants climate change to be real. We all want to cling to a memory of a time when we weren’t so profoundly afraid for our planet.

Take a Step Forward with Samaritan’s Feet

SF in Kingston, Jamaica with Staff Sgt. Alesia D. Goosic

Image source: Afribiz.net

I’ve never had to worry about shoes. I don’t think most people in the United States give it a second thought. We might wish we had fancier ones—Jimmy Choo’s or designer sneakers—but few Americans are walking around barefoot. For the poor among us, Salvation Army stores offer extremely cheap and lightly worn footwear. Donation boxes offer free footwear for those who can’t afford the Salvation Army. But in many places around the world finding cheap or free shoes just isn’t that easy.

Surgical Volunteers International

Surgical Volunteers International Treating an Infant in Haiti

Image source: Memoralhermann.org

In the United States, millions of people don’t have health insurance. Every day they fall deeper into debt because of medical procedures they can’t afford. Often, they don’t seek care because they can’t afford to pay. The system is deeply flawed. People suffer from a lack of medical coverage every day. In a country this rich, it’s shameful. Then again, it is illegal to deny care to someone in need. We know if we go to an emergency room anywhere in the country, we will get treatment. I think that safety net, while paltry and inadequate, protects us from the most heinous kind of medical neglect, and for that I’m grateful. We don’t see children going through their lives with cleft palates, for example. Early treatment spares these kids stigma, problems with speech, and infection. Treatable birth defects are treated, even if the parents are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt.

Katrina’s Legacy: Green Spaces

A Home in the Lower Ninth, Covered in Overgrowth

Image source: Astudiointhewoods.org

New Orleans has been through a lot. Katrina famously demolished whole neighborhoods while residents, many of them poor, suffered. Some of the storm’s effects were immediate—massive flooding, cut-off emergency services, a lack of clean water or food—and others were longer-lasting—water-borne illness, violence born of desperation, lost insurance coverage, and unemployment (to name a few). Today parts of the city are still underwater, if metaphorically. The Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods because of the failed levees, has become a jungle… literally. As residents fled, streets were left without tending, and, in time, nature has taken over.