Mother’s Day Charity Round-Up

Photo from helpamotherout.org courtesy of Julie Michelle

If you enjoy reading blogs, using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, or simply *paying attention*, you will know that many bloggers advocate for charities or have started their own.  They are hired by charities to spread the word, they work for them for free, or they operate their orgs out of their own pockets and within their hectic schedules.

Why?

Because they are good people with big hearts.  You can tell because their hearts spill out onto their blogs.  Blogs are the vessels that catch the overflow, so all that love and emotion doesn’t go to waste.

With Mother’s Day coming up next weekend, there have been a lot of groups doing promotions for their causes in the name of celebrating this holiday.  Below are just a handful of the special mother’s day efforts that were chosen by the staff of ShePosts to highlight this season.  We know that there are countless ways to help the countless people in the world who need it, but these are just a few that tugged our heartstrings.

International Princess Project

Shannon Keith started this charity to help the millions of women – and children – in India who are trapped in the sex-trafficking trade, whether by force or economic pressures.  Keith and a volunteer team “advocate for these women, give them opportunities to restore their broken lives and empower them to live in freedom.”  They employ the women in a facility that makes PUNJAMMIES, beautiful pajamas handmade in the style of the Indian Sari.  PUNJAMMIES is doing a special Mother’s Day promotion that includes several heart-wrenching real-life stories about the women they have helped.

31 Bits

This company sells paper jewelry made by women in Uganda who had no way to get their wares to an international audience…until now.  Proceeds from the sales go to lifting these women out of poverty.  If you purchase a Mother’s Day gift (I chose this necklace for my mom) you can pick a special greeting card and jewelry bag to go with your gift.

Meals For Moms

A project of Meals on Wheels, which brings food to homebound seniors, Meals For Moms is dedicated to making sure elderly women get healthy meals.  For Mother’s Day, they offer free e-cards for your mom, a mom-like individual in your life, or you can send one to a homebound senior.  They say a donation of just $35 feeds a mom for a week.  This website will make you miss your grandmother.  Here’s a quote from 80-year-old Betty, whose husband and only son have passed.  “‘I miss my family very much,” she confesses. ‘I still read the Mother’s Day cards my son sent me when he was alive. You always have good memories. Always.’”

Kiva

By now a juggernaut in the world of online giving, Kiva jumpstarted the idea of microloans – small donations that truly make a world of difference by empowering an aspiring entrepreneur in a Third World country to get his or her business off the ground in order to provide a sustainable means of making a better living.  For Mother’s Day, Kiva suggests a $25 gift certificate that will allow the mother in your life to choose a beneficiary.

Moms4Moms

This is a group of twelve bloggers – many of whom you know and/or have been featured here – who joined forces with Mom-entum, Every Mother Counts, and Hope Phones to divert some of the $14.6 billion in expected spending on Mother’s Day – in America alone – toward women and children who are at risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth worldwide.  Moms4Moms is helping to spread the word about this disparity, and encouraging people to make donations to everymothercounts.org or send their old cell phones for recycling – proceeds go to the charity. 

Help a Mother Out

Did you know that 1 in 3 American moms has struggled to provide a healthy supply of diapers for her baby?  In these tough times there are families right under your nose who have to choose between rent or diapers.  Food…or diapers.  Gas for the car so they can get to work…or diapers!  A baby in a soiled diaper is more susceptible to diaper rash, infection, and even child abuse.  Help a Mother Out is a mom-run grass-roots charity that collects diapers and raises money for the purchase of diapers to benefit needy families.  This Mother’s Day they are holding events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and encouraging people to make a donation in honor of their moms.  (Disclosure:  I am the Los Angeles chapter manager of Help a Mother Out and I can’t stand the thought of a baby sitting in filth and crying because his mom is stretching the diaper supply until she gets her next 20 bucks.)

Do you have a favorite charity that is helping moms out on Mother’s Day this year?  Let us know by leaving a comment!