Day: February 28, 2010

Contest on Change dot org: Top 10 Ideas for Change in America Continues From March 1st to March 12th

On By legitimatebastardIn Adoptee Birth Certificates, Adoptees' Civil Rights, Genealogy

Fellow adoption reformist, Cully Ray, circulated this email through Adoption News Service. With her permission, I am posting this here. We need your votes! So, please, read on and vote for Adoptees’ Rights by clicking on the link:

Subject: [AdoptionNS] About the Change.org Idea competition
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010, 11:10 AM

Return Adult Adoptees the right to their Original Birth Certificates placed second (2nd) in the Human Rights category, so get ready to Vote Again during the Finals. Each idea will start anew with zero votes (starts March 1st at 1pm ET and ends on Friday, March 12th at 5pm ET. ).  If we can get this idea into the top ten then this idea will be presented to the news media, the non-profit community, and the Federal administration (where our Passports are approved or not). [And, for those of us who live on the USA-Canadian border, or, USA-Mexican border, the Federal Administration also approves or disapproves adoptees’ applications for Enhanced Driver’s License to cross the border – need to prove your birth with proper ID. —added by Joan M Wheeler.]

The end of the first round of voting, where ideas were organized into 20 different issue-based categories, was on February 25th, at which point the three top ranked ideas in each category were advance to the second (and final) round of voting, starting March 1, 2010. In this final round, all 60 qualifying ideas (top three in each of 20 categories) will be in open competition. The final round of voting concludes at 5pm ET on March 12th, and the 10 most popular ideas at the conclusion of voting will be named winners – the “Top 10 Ideas for Change in America.”

The Top 10 Ideas for Change in America

To formally announce the winners, Change.org will host an event in Washington, DC, where each of these top 10 ideas will be presented to representatives of the media, the nonprofit community, and to relevant officials in the Obama Administration. After the announcement, Change.org will mobilize the full resources of our staff, our 1 million community members, and our extended network of bloggers to support a series of grassroots campaigns to turn each idea into reality.

First news of the Earthquake in Chile: SOS Children’s Villages Gives Report

On By legitimatebastardIn Uncategorized
Saturday, February 27, 2010 3:52 PM
Dear Joan, 
 

You might already know from CNN, Fox or another news source, that Chile suffered a huge earthquake this morning. On the heels of Haiti’s disaster, this is almost too much to comprehend. Many SOS staff from the region are deployed to SOS Haiti, and we are now figuring out how to best allocate our resources to assist in both countries. 

SOS has 14 Children’s Villages in Chile with four located in the most severely impacted areas. SOS has had a presence in the Concepcion area of Chile since 1965.

Our teams are collecting all available information about the status of each SOS child in Chile, especially in the area around Concepcion, where the damage has been the greatest. A series of fires have broken out in Concepcion that are of concern.

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, declared several areas of the country, including Concepcion and other coastal cities, catastrophe zones. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake is expected to cause tsunamis across the Pacific, with the potential to impact California and Hawaii. 

Our four Villages in the greater Concepcion area are ready to immediately provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied children and to support reunification with families. Our focus, as always, is ensuring the safety and security of the children.

If you are currently sponsoring a child in Chile, please rest assured that we will provide detail and updates as soon as we have more information from staff on the ground.

If you can assist SOS with further mobilizing resources to help children in this and other disaster situations, please help now.

Heather Paul
Executive Director
SOS Children’s Villages – USA

P.S. Visit our web site for more information on SOS Children’s Villages in Chile. To help mobilize resources for disaster situations in Chile, Haiti and around the world, please sponsor disaster orphans now.