Telepresence Options Charities 2014- Helping Others

Our favorite part of the year is the holidays and our favorite part of the holidays is getting to promote deserving charities in what has become an annual tradition. In the spirit of the season I wanted to take a moment to recognize and promote some charities that were founded by members of the telepresence industry and a couple that are near and dear to some of us at Telepresence Options. The list includes: Kiva, where our Linked In group: Telepresence Industry Professionals has a lending team, Bicycles for Humanity co-founded by Pat Montani, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation which David Maldow supports, Vacations for Veterans founded by Chris Carr, The Fluoride Action Network and Amazon Cares which I am supporting, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If anyone knows of any other worthy efforts supported by members of the industry then please pass them along and we will add them to the list.

Amazon Cares

New for 2014 we are adding a unique charity, Amazon Cares, that helps rescue street animals in the cities and towns of the Peruvian rain forests.� The poverty, favorable climate, open refuse, and open spaces of rain forest communities make ideal conditions for wild and abandonded animals to multiply.� Many become injured, malnourished, and/or diseased.� Amazon Cares, located in Iquitos, Peru - the largest city in the world without a major highway in or out, rescues these animals, provides medical care, a comfortable temporary home, and adopts the animals to families as pets. The charity organizes veterinarians from around the world who volunteer their time and pay their own way to provide free services and run spay and neuter clinics in some of the remotest regions of the world.�

How to Help: Donate Money,� For Vetrinarians, Vet Techs/Nurses, and Vetrinary Assistants you can join an Amazon Cares Vetrinary Trip into the Amazon where you can put your skills to work in one of the remotest places on the planet where they need you the most. Volunteer - Amazon Cares has opportunities for creative people and the action-oriented to help from anywhere on the planet.

Bicycles for Humanity

Bicycles for Humanity is a non-profit founded by IP-V Gateway's CEO Pat Montani that collects unused bikes in North America, Europe, and elsewhere in the western world and ships them to developing countries, primarily in Africa, where they change lives by providing transportation for local entrepreneurs, charities, and deserving individuals.

Some of the groups that benefit from Bicycles for Humanity include:

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• Women, who typically spend more time walking than men through performing domestic duties like gathering food, water and firewood.
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• Children, who face long walks to school and arrive too tired to learn, or simply don't attend
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• Healthcare workers, who often walk long distances to provide medication and counselling to people living with HIV/AIDS and malaria in their homes
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• Unemployed people, who can start bike shops, delivery businesses, tourism ventures or spin off projects making trailers, racks and other addons.
  Bicycles for Humanity - Join the Movement \n\n\n
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  An Overview of B4H and Guide to Starting Your Own Chapter!
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  In 2008 Bicycles for Humanity focused on distributing Bicycling Empowerment Centres (BEC) around the world. A BEC is a bicycle shop in a box, ready to be delivered to any community in a developing country. Stocked with 300-400 bicycles, tools, spare parts and accompanied by comprehensive training in bicycle mechanics, it is designed to empower disadvantaged people and their communities with their own transport and their own means of maintaining it. The BEN Namibia, Okathitu update on a BEC will give you a better idea of how it works and the benefits derived.
  
  How to Help:Donate - Time, Money, or Bikes/Tools/Spare Parts., Sponsor a Bicycle Empowerment Centre, Organize fundraising activities to help fund the cost of a shipping container, the shipping cost to a deserving community, tools and in-country delivery
  
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  The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
  

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  The mission of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) is to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centers worldwide, and increasing public awareness about good breast health. Currently, 91 cents of every dollar spent by BCRF is directed towards breast cancer research and awareness programs.
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  Since its inception, the Foundation has raised over \$450 million to support clinical and translational research at medical institutions across the globe conducting the most advanced and promising breast cancer research that will help lead to prevention and a cure in our lifetime. BCRF support for promising yet untried ideas is a crucial component of this research.
  
  How to Help: You can Donate, take action, or help spread the word. You may also Start a Fundraiser, or Sponsor Time for Research.
  
  

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  The Electronic Frontier Foundation
  

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  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been called \"the ACLU for the digital age\". They fight for our constitutional rights in the digital domain.
  
  
  Whether your issue is Free Speech, Privacy, Ensuring Transparency, Protecting Innovation, or Protecting Fair Use, EFF is fighting for you!
  
  How to Help: You can Donate, take action, or help spread the word. Also be sure to Get Your Employer to Match Your Contribution, and don't forget to Buy EFF Schwag
  
  

  \nThe Fluoride Action Network
  
  
  It is unfortunately uncommon knowledge that the Fluoride chemicals that are put into the public's water supply to, ostensibly, prevent cavities are actually quite toxic. Depending on the jurisdiction, most public health services use either Fluorsilicic Acid or Sodium Fluoride both of which are the poisonous by-products of aluminum and fertilizer manufacture. Aluminum and fertilizer manufacturers would have to pay about \$10,000 per tank car to dispose of these toxins in a Class A landfill but instead they make a similar amount by selling this waste to public health services where it is disposed of in the water supply.
  Water fluoridation is opposed or questioned by at least 14 Nobel Laureates in medicine and chemistry. It is opposed by the EPA's own scientists and toxicologists who have testified before the US Congress through their union on its toxicity and pushed for a moratorium on its use. It has been linked to lower IQ in 23 36 37 different peer reviewed studies from the around the world including Harvard University and research done at the Harvard School of Dental Health has linked it to increased bone cancer in children. It has also been linked to major health Issues including: Tyroid Problems including Hypothyroidism, Gastrointestinal Tract Problems, Compromised Immune System, and Cancer,
  
  
  Dr. Joseph Mercola, publisher of the world's most subscribed health newsletter, and Fluoride Action Network head Dr. Paul Connett talks about the potential dangers of water fluoridation and what you can do to help remove fluoride from your water supply. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
  
  The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) is leading the charge to broaden the understanding of the dangers of Fluoride and have it removed from public water supplies around the world. FAN has organized over 3,200 4100, 4600+ health, scientific, and environmental professionals including Nobel Laureates, Goldman Prize Winners, National Medal of Science Winners, and the current president and 6 past presidents of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology.
  How to Help:Donate - FAN is currently in the middle of it's annual fundraiser and is trying to raise \$80,000 by midnight on Christmas Eve which would kick-in a \$6,000 matching grant. As of today the campaign has raised \$68,122 from 398 donors so your gift can have a real impact. You can also support the cause by buying copies of its definitive book on the toxicology of Fluoride and donate them to your local city council: The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There,by Paul Connett PhD, James Beck MD, PhD, and H.S. Micklem DPhil
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Kiva

Kiva is a unique charity where donors support entrepreneurs in developing countries by making microfinance loans of as little as \$25. Kiva \"lenders\" can choose from thousands of entrepreneurs and target their loan to a specific country, sector, gender, and/or attributes like green or higher education initiatives. A typical borrower might be a Peruvian woman who makes peanut butter by hand looking for \$750 to buy a machine to quadruple her output. Multiple Kiva members fund the loan and a local charity (called a field partner) administers the loan and collects repayments. As the loan is paid back the money is deposited back into the lender's Kiva account where they can lend again to another entrepreneur in need in a virtuous cycle that creates jobs and local economic development.

We have created a lending team on Kiva for telepresence and visual collaboration professionals through our industry association: Telepresence Industry Professionals (TIP). TIP is open to both members of the visual collaboration industry and the technical professionals who support telepresence, videoconferencing, UC, and visual collaboration in organizations large and small.

Vacations for Veterans

Vacations for Veterans is a non-profit founded by Equinix's Chris Carr, and his wife Peggy. Chris is a former Marine Corp infantry officer and veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Peggy is a former Marine Corp legal officer and both were looking for a pro-active way of supporting the troops. They founded Vacations for Veterans to provide recently wounded veterans of the United States Armed Forces with a well deserved vacation. The organization collects donations of unused time in vacation homes which they then pair up with deserving vets. Occasionally, through the genorosity of donors, they are able to provide amenities like airline tickets, a rental car, and even the occasional fishing trip.

A recent example of Vacations for Veterans at work is the story of the young soldier saved by the actions of Pfc. Ross McGinnes. Pfc. McGinnes' squadleader in Iraq was saved when Pfc McGinnes absorbed the blast of a hand grenade with his body. In November that squadleader contacted Vacations for Veterans seeking assistance with the logistics for a visit to Pfc McGinnes' grave in Arlington National Cemetery on the anniversary of his heroic death. Vacation for Veterans helped with donated frequent flier miles to take care of the plane ticket, money for a hotel room, and a corporate donation of a free rental car from Enterprise. Vacations for Veterans helped ensure that the anniversary of Ross McGinnes' death being honored and remembered in the most fitting way possible.. by the presence and gratitude of one of the men he died to save.

How to Help: Donate Time/Money or Frequent Flier Miles AND/OR Donate Time in your Vacation Home.

Room to Read - World Change Starts with Educated Children
National Vaccine Information Center - America's Vaccine Watchdog
Generation Rescue - Fighting Autism

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - Working to End Prohibition Related Violence and Crime. Donate� Merch
Oath Keepers - Guardians of the Republic!

Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association - Protecting the People. Donate� Merch
SafeMinds - Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders