ThirstTees

Hi everyone! Do you remember back in November when I shared Kristin's work in India with all of you? And in that post I said-

Outside of this bubble we live in, there is so much more going on in the world. It's easy to get caught up in your daily life and forget this- I know I am guilty of often having a one-track "me me me" mindset, and not looking or thinking outside of where I very comfortably sit. But one of my biggest goals for this next year (and now) is to make a difference, and that's where this blog comes in.

Since then it's been on my heart to continue posting about awesome groups doing great work, and today I'm here to share my friend Kyle and his organization with all of you. There are so many charities and organizations out there, and it's often hard to know where to invest your time, energy, and even money. That's why I love that I am able to use this platform to share the work of people I know, and spread the word about the causes they are working for. Like I mentioned above, today we are hearing from my friend Kyle. He's going to tell you all about his philanthropic organization, and if you're so inclined, feel free to visit their website, check out their work, and even share about ThirstTees via your own blog or twitter.  As always, thank you all so much for reading! I'll hand it over to Kyle now...

I have recently been blessed with the opportunity to start a philanthropic clothing line called ThirstTees (www.thirsttees.com). Every tee purchased provides one person with 25 year of clean water. We are able to do this through a partnership with a non-profit called Thirst Relief International (thirstfelief.org), that builds wells and water purifiers in Africa and South America.

The origin of ThirstTees began with a trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil I took while still in college. I had the opportunity to work with a group of kids living in the favelas (slums). I had seen the pictures and heard the stories about the hardships of different parts of the world, but it never really hits you until you see it with your own eyes. While I was down there, we visited the homes of numerous families and listened to the stories of what they faced each day. They essentially live in shacks made of any materials they can find. Their electricity is stolen from the city and the sewage system consisted of PVC pipes leading to an open river flowing through town (it's hard to forget the smell). However, the mothers were focusing their stories on the concerns of how to keep their 10 and 11 year old children away from prostitution and drugs. How could that already be a concern in a child's life? It was shocking. The problem was the parents didn't have the time to keep their children away from these issues because they were struggling to simply provide food and water for them. It quickly puts the issues of an American lifestyle in perspective. I knew that I wanted to do something to help- and you can check out the full Founders Story if you'd like to learn more about that.

After returning home, I finished school and ended up traveling to New Zealand with my brother for eight months. While we were there, we researched how to start a business between cleaning toilets and making beds to pay for our accommodation. I also began to research more about the water crisis. The more I learned, the more I realized clean water was a HUGE issues that leads to numerous problems around the world.

- Every 19 seconds a child dies from a water related illness.

- Disease from unsafe drinking water kills more people then all forms of violence combined, including war.

- More people on this earth have cell phones then access to a toilet. (More facts here)

All of the time and effort spent on finding clean water is time missed in school, taking care of a family or earning an income. Water is where it starts. Our world has made incredible leaps forward in our capabilities, but through our progress, we have left too many people behind.

At ThirstTees, we believe that a life of joy and fulfillment comes down to giving to others. Focusing on others needs before your own. I do not claim to be an expert on this. I actually struggle with this daily and that is why I wanted to create something where I could devote my life to focusing on others. My goal was to make it simple and easy for my friends and family to help someone across the world that they will never see or meet. We are all connected. What happens on the other side of the world impacts how our businesses operate and the choices our government makes, which then trickles down to our individual lives. Until we start to see the world as one connected unit, we will stay on the same path that many people are not happy with. However, as soon as we take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on others, change will follow.

We would love it if you would join our movement to end thirst, because no one should be thirsty (ThirstTee). Check out our blog, follow us on twitter, like us on facebook, circle us on Google+, and most importantly, purchase a tee and change the next 25 years of a person's life.

Asha Guwahati: an update from Kristin

My friend Kristin sent me a great update on her work in India to share with all of you here. If you'd like to read the original post or find out how to donate, visit my post from Thanksgiving.  I firmly believe I have the best readers ever, and to know how much we all contributed makes my heart swell. Thank you, thank you. Here's Kristin- and be sure to follow along on her journey via her blog too!:

Hi lovely readers! It is almost impossible to believe but it has been two months since Danielle shared the story of Asha Guwahati right here on Sometimes Sweet. I knew that her readers were awesome, but the outpouring and support that I have received from you all is more than I ever imagined possible. to put it in perspective, you guys have donated enough money to make 6,000 meals. That is right, six thousand!!!! There are no words I can even say to describe how incredible that is. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would stretch around the world as it already has. The amount of support we have received has recently allowed me to expand what we can offer to these kids, and it definitely has me dreaming big. Every penny (or rupee!) that we have received still goes one hundred percent to the children, either through meals or street girls days.

Every week, I head to the same slum with some of my friends and coworkers, though it is the same location it feels different week by week. Things are changing before our very eyes. The slum children are reaching out to one another, helping to pass out meals and doing it with huge smiles on their faces. They hold our hands and guide us through their homes, right down by the tracks as the trains barrel by. One local girl has started inviting me over every Sunday to spend time with her family. Just today we danced, sang, played and laughed and when I went home I couldn't help but cry. I knew when starting this that I was letting them in my heart, but now they have completely let me in theirs. Asha Guwahati continues to provide these meals every week but more importantly, it has become a dependable source of love, happiness and support in a place that rarely (if ever) saw those things.



On behalf of the children of Lakhtokia, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for supporting me and these children though we have never met. As one of the slum girls, Anjuna, sat next to me a few weeks ago and asked if she could help to give out the meals, the purpose of all of this lit up in her. We have the incredible responsibility to be the living example of self-less giving and compassionate love to the children in our lives. Our smallest of actions impacts them in the biggest of ways and has the potential to change them forever. Thank you so much for providing such incredible inspiration to continue to serve the children here.

With Love,
Kristin

Sam Means & Christmas All Over Again

Hello and happy Thursday everyone! Today is a great day for a couple of reasons- one, it's almost the weekend. And two, I have something really awesome to share with all of you today.  One of my friends/favorite people in the world Anita has a super-talented husband named Sam. Sam Means is a musician that you all might know from his old band, The Format, but nowadays you can find him working on a lot of other, very awesome projects, including the song I'm sharing with you today. And even cooler? Sam has generously decided to donate all proceeds from this project to two charities, one of them being Kristin and her work feeding the children in India, that I posted about last week.

Give the song a listen below, and then if you like it (I know you will!), purchase it for just 99 cents. Your donation will go straight to the two charities Sam's selected, and you'll get to download a fantastic song to get you into the holiday spirit. And if you read the post I linked above, you know it costs about 25 cents to feed one meal to a child. So when you buy the song you're essentially providing the resources for two meals.




"Christmas All Over Again" was originally written and performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was featured on the second "A Very Special Christmas" CD to benefit Special Olympics, and Petty generously donated the royalties to the song to the organization. Since its release in 1992, the song has raised more than $200,000 to benefit athletes with intellectual disabilities.

To purchase Sam's cover of "Christmas All Over Again," click the player above or go to:
  http://means.bandcamp.com/track/christmas-all-over-again-cover

All donations from this version will be donated to the Animal Welfare League & Asha Guwahati.

Feel free to share this post with others, and thank you again for making a difference! xo

What really matters.

A lot of the time I am blown away with the number of you who make Sometimes Sweet a daily stop, and it's amazing to me that you take the time out of your day to come here and share in my world. I often think though that with all of the readers and friends I have met over the past few years, there has to be something more I can do with this gift of an audience.

Outside of this bubble we live in, there is so much more going on in the world. It's easy to get caught up in your daily life and forget this- I know I am guilty of often having a one-track "me me me" mindset, and not looking or thinking outside of where I very comfortably sit. But one of my biggest goals for this next year (and now) is to make a difference, and that's where this blog comes in.

Today I'm going to be telling you all about my sweet friend Kristin and the work she is doing over in India. And in the months to come, I'll be sharing different charities, organizations, or individuals that I am personally familiar with that are doing amazing things. Sometimes it's hard for me to just send donations off- I wonder if the money is really going where they say it is, or I'm concerned about the way it's handled. I'm not sure if everyone is like that (maybe I'm just crazy), but if I can't physically help out myself, it's comforting to me to know the person who is, and to see the good they are doing with the donations.

My friend Kristin is a nurse and is currently living in India. She blogs daily about the work she does, and shares some of the most heart-wrenching, inspiring photos and stories. Here's a little bit from her:


"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others... That is a quote by M.K. Gandhi that I stumbled upon before my first trip to India back in February 2011. Fast forward to November and I can easily tell you that I have never understood what he meant more than I do right now. I am an American nurse living life in the biggest city in North East India, Guwahati. I walked away from my simple Californian life and moved to the state of Assam in May after participating in a one week mission with a NGO that repairs cleft lips and palates free of cost. I work full time (and then some) with them now as a nurse manager at a brand new cleft care center in Guwahati.



India is what we in 'developed' countries would call 'underdeveloped.' It teems with half built infrastructure,  animals, temples, greenery, trash, and people. Oh, the people. Or more specifically, the children. I feel like it took me some time to really open my eyes to what surrounded me and in true Indian fashion, what I saw was this twisted, heartbreaking beauty. There are children all over the streets of Guwahati, beautiful children. They are dirtied, half-clothed and hungry. For a longer time than I like to admit, I walked past these children and though my heart ached deep inside my chest, I did nothing. After weeks of planning, talking with friends, going back and forth and feeling discouraged, I made a decision. It was a basic one: I was going to feed the kids. I went down to the slums that first week scared, shaking and alone. I had made 20 meals and in under five minutes they were filling the bellies of 20 hungry children. It was clear, I had to keep this going. Now I am almost two months into this project that I call Asha Guwahati, and it is growing by the day. The goal of what I do is simple, I want to show the children of this slum and street community true love. I feed them without expectation of anything in return. I am still just one person orchestrating these feedings out of my kitchen. I currently make 50 meals at a time, one to two times per week. It takes me around three hours to make the food, and less than ten minutes to pass it out. Every feeding I have different friends come and help, everyone that helps gives of their time freely. Once a month we hold a street kids day where we bathe, trim hair, and cloth 20-30 kids. I am not changing the world as a whole but very certainly, very slowly, the whole world of each child we care for is changing.

Going to the slums is still scary and overwhelming. When the children see us coming with the baskets of food they run to us with this heartbreaking mix of panic and joy. They know I am there, they know that they will not go to bed hungry that night but they are scared that I will not have enough for them. I have many plans for this project but my goal will always remain simple. I know I can feed these kids, I know I can make the food and pass it out and I will do it as much as possible. I have totally lost myself in the service of the children of Assam, India. It means more to me than I could ever express that my friends like Danielle, all the way over in Arizona support me. If it means that much to me, I can not even begin to imagine how much it might mean to these children who have stolen my heart completely."
 

 

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If you visit Kristin's blog I guarantee that you will be moved, maybe to tears like I am, every time I read about her days in India. I urge you to read back in her posts- it's heartbreaking, but also so amazing that she is able to do what she is doing. So that's where we come in. I went back and forth about whether or not I felt comfortable asking you all to donate, but when it comes down to it, I can't think of a better way to assist Kristin in her efforts.



Here's how you can help:

make a donation to Kristin's project- Asha Guwahati. To feed a child one meal costs about 25 cents (and Kristin is working on getting this cost even lower). So even if you gave a dollar, you would be providing FOUR meals. Awesome, right? 

If you can donate anything, a quarter, 

a dollar, ten dollars, you can do so 

via paypal to ashaguwahati@gmail.com.

*Kristin also wanted me to let you know that she is one person developing this feeding project out of her kitchen, and every single rupee goes to the meals and the "street girls" day. She also wanted you to know that she isn't an NGO and therefore cannot offer receipts or letters verifying donations for tax refunds, etc. 

Outside of donating, you can follow Kristin's blog and support her via correspondance, comments, or even just saying hello and letting her know you're there, supporting her. You can also share her blog with others, share this post via Facebook or twitter, or you could even blog about it in our own space, and encourage your own friends and family to help out.

The neatest part about being a part of Kristin's growing project is that you will get to see your donation (whether it be monetary or even sharing her story, reading her blog etc.), come to life as you follow along on her journey. It's truly an amazing thing.

Thank you guys so very much for taking the time to read this. xoxo