More Great Non-Profits

Found out about a couple more cool non-profits helping people around the country and around the world. First I want to share about People for Bikes which is a cool organization that is helping individuals get connected in their community as well as nationwide to bicycle groups and activism. They have some great goals and make it real easy to get involved. A few ways you can get involved is signing their pledge which helps gather voices around the nation who are advocates for biking, sending your representatives letters (they have a great stock letter that you can add to and e-mail from the site), a write up section where you can share your experience and love for biking (I wrote about my cross country bike trip!), and lots of great suggestions on how you can get involved with bike groups in your community. There are so many great advantages to biking whether it be health-wise, economical, environmentally, and even just for shear enjoyment; this is one of the other ways I can help spread the word and I ask you to just check out the site and see what you can do to help.

Because International is a non-profit that a friend of mine from college, Kenton Lee, has setup. Here are some of his words about Because International: "Because International is a non-profit organization that seeks to develop innovative solutions to long-standing social justice problems." So Kenton has lived in Ecuador and Kenya and noticed that kids either don't have shoes or they are wearing shoes that are too big or too small, so he came up with an idea of "The Shoe That Grows", it's a fully adjustable shoe from size 5 to size 12. There are some great companies that I mentioned in a previous post about that when you buy a pair they give a pair, but the one negative drawback is that kids feet don't stay the same but they grow until they become an adult so that one pair of TOMS that was donated last summer might night fit them next year, thankfully they can hand them off to someone else but in all reality they're probably going to keep on wearing a shoe that is too small. So Because International wants to get involved with donors and companies like Soles 4 Souls and TOMS to distribute his "Shoe That Grows" so they can reach more kids instead of giving limited time support. Check out their video below to learn more.

Along the lines as well as bicycles is World Bicycle Relief which is a non-profit whose mission is to provide access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles. This organization wants to help people around the world be more productive, healthy, independent, and less hindered. Biking saves so much time since walking takes much longer, allows people to carry more weight such as food, water, school supplies, etc., and it increases the distances people can travel in a day so they can get more done or able to take advantage of more resources such as education, water, and supplies. World Bicycle Relief is working with bike supplies to improve the design of bicycles, enhance distribution with local sourcing, manufacturing, and assembly, and partnering with other existing non-profits to help aid in their goals. They are currently working in parts of India which have been affected by tsunamis, Zambia, and other places in Africa, more specifically working with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative which provides 300 bikes in 6 countries to help specific HIV/AIDS initiatives. It's crazy how much a bicycle can change someone's life. Please check out their website and see how you can get involved.