Written by Thu Tran, MD,FACOG
November 27, 2014
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
Early this morning, many members in my bootcamp and I gathered at Dr. Rebecca Katz’s home for the Turkey Chase event in Bethesda, Maryland to raise funds for local charities. This Turkey Chase of 6.2 miles or 10K run is taking place everywhere, and many local charity organizations will be benefited from it. Dr. Rebecca Katz was a good sport, running and finishing the race even though she was a bit “under the weather.” Way to go, Rebecca! We had a good time running with friends for a good cause, as you can see from the attached photos. The run probably burned enough calories for a few bites of appetizers this evening. The results of the run haven’t been announced yet, but I think I did well, as I mistook a gentleman in a blue cap ahead of me as my friend Howard (Dr. Julia Korenman’s husband) and tried to keep up with him. It turned out that Howard was behind me, and he wore a black cap!
In early 1975, when the communists started inching into South Vietnam, I watched every night on TV how families tried to flee areas where the communists were coming. They would move from the middle part of Vietnam to the South. They had no place to stay. They ended up on many streets of Saigon, the old capital where my family was living. I saw images of kids and women hanging out in front of parks or neighborhoods, and people were trying to shoo them away. Even then, being only 14, I was distraught watching the desperation of the refugees. I kept asking my mother why would people value their front yard more than the humans who needed a place for shelter? I asked if my mother would shoo them away if they were to settle in front of our street?
Somehow, I didn’t feel good living a safe life while kids at my age were hanging out on the streets. I remember how the adults at the time often taught us the lesson of caring for our family first before venturing into helping the world “out there.” In a poor country like Vietnam, with limited resources, that lesson might have been for practical purpose and not one of selfishness.
Ironically, several months after seeing the refugees on the nightly news, my family abruptly had to leave Vietnam ourselves, as the communists took over Saigon as the final act of dominating South Vietnam. We became refugees ourselves. When my family settled in Ohio as refugees, I witnessed the kindness of the American community. We were very well cared for by all the strangers who brought us food and clothing, educated us about the new culture and its traditions. We were invited to one of the church members’ home for our first Thanksgiving, and we learned the stories of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims. I knew we had reached the land of many blessings.
Last weekend, I went to a fund raising event for “Hope for Tomorrow,” an organization of mostly Vietnamese-American dentists and physicians in the Greater Washington area. The money collected from this event will be used to build a medical clinic in Vietnam and support dental missions in different parts of the world. I was happy that my generation of Vietnamese has stepped up to do our part in creating a better world. The keynote speaker in the event, a Vietnamese priest from Rome (a former cardiologist), who went to Liberia to care for Ebola patients, reminded us that to give someone good health is to share the great gift with which we were blessed. The world, he wisely acknowledged, is more close knit than most people realize. Just because the problem is not nearby does not mean it is not “our” problem.
To give is to acknowledge that we are grateful for what we have. We give as an act of sharing our happiness with others. Those who give, as many behavioral scientists have shown, tend to be happier people.
Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Akins of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, together with Michael Norton, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, found in their 2008 and 2012 studies that givers have a higher level of happiness than non-givers. They showed how, regardless of income, spending money on others make you feel wealthier and happier. Dunn and Norton, in their book “Happiness Money: The Science of Smarter Spending,” with data collected from 136 countries, and multiple behavioral exercises, confirmed this effect of giving as a prosocial behavior that improves one’s well being. The effect exists even in children
Many of us have different passions. We support what we believe strongly in. There are so many charities for so many causes. The statistics of giving can be quite surprising. Below are some charitable giving statistics from 2013:
— Americans gave $ 335.17 billion, a 4.4% increase from 2011, with 31% to religion, 18% to education, 12% to human services, and 11% to grant-making foundations.
—In 2012, there were 86,192 charity foundations in the United States, an increase of 5.3% from 2011
—Those at either the high end or low end of the income bracket tend to give at a higher percentage of their income than those in the middle. For example, those making between $100,000-$200,000 gave less (2.6%) than those making below $100,000 (3.6%) or those above $200,000 (3.1%)
The effect is more noticeable at the extremes of the income distributions, with those making $10 million or more contributing 5.9% of their income, and those making
$45,000 -$50,000 contributing 4% of their income.
To read more statistics about Charitable Giving, you can go to:
http://nccs.urban.org/nccs/statistics/Charitable-Giving-in-America-Some-Facts-and-Figures.cfm
How do you know if the charity you are supporting has done a good job with its donors’ money? Dr. Serrin Gantt has gathered the websites below to help you evaluate what charity to pick:
charitynavigator.org
give.org
guidestar.org
myphilantropedia.org
To show you which organizations our LadyDocsCornerCafe website’s writers are supporting, I asked them to name their two favorite charities. Many of us support the same organizations such as Doctors without Borders (MSF), DC Central Kitchen or Habitat for Humanity. Several organizations, however, are not so well known but have done great work. You should read this list and see if you share the same passion as many of us. Even better, you might discover some new organizations that you would like to explore and support their causes. The world will definitely be a much better place if we all reach out and help someone beyond the boundaries of our family. You will never know if you someday will be the one who needs help, as my family learned that hard lesson in 1975 after we fled from the communists. In this world of chaos, we often change roles as donors and recipients.
Dr. Rebecca Katz: Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and Center for Children and Families on Bradley Blvd, Bethesda.
Jody Miller: The National Infertility Association (RESOLVE.org) and WellnessWarrior.org
RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, established in 1974, is a nonprofit organization with the only established, nationwide network mandated to promote reproductive health and to ensure equal access to all family building options for men and women experiencing infertility or other reproductive disorders.
RESOLVE improves the lives of women and men living with infertility
Dr. Aimee Seidman: Doctors Without Borders and Heifer
Heifer, in Dr. Seidman’s words, is an international organization that gives animals to poor people for farming. For example, you can give a flock of chickens to a family and they will start a business selling eggs and sustain themselves. They give chicks to their neighbors so that they can have eggs too.
Dr. Geetha Pinto: Women for Women International
In Dr. Pinto’s words, Women for Women International helps fund women in developing or war torn countries where women are grossly discriminated against. The goal is for these women to become self sufficient and gain skills that will help them provide for their families and develop a sense of worth and accomplishment. Once you sign up, the organization matches you with a “sister” who will directly benefit from your donation. You can get a sense of what your “sister” is accomplishing through the organization’s website.
Dr. Marsha Seidelman: Yellow Ribbon Fund, which supports the Wounded Warriors, and Bread for the City
Dr. Serrin Gantt: Habitat for Humanity and Foodbank
Dr. Chitra Rajagopal: DC Central Kitchen and Oasis
DC Central Kitchen serves the 4000 homeless people in Washington, DC
Oasis is an organization that helps autistic young adults and the Autism Society of America
Dr. Aruna Nathan: YRG CARE, an AIDS research and education center in southern India. It’s a globally recognized proven continuum of care model and directed by Dr. Suniti Solomon, whom Dr. Nathan fortunately met in a medical conference last month in Washington, DC. Dr. Solomon and her team not only offer medical care with free medications to HIV AIDS patients but also involve in the social aspect of care
To read more about Dr. Solomon’s work, you can go to:
http://explore.org/interviews/dr-suniti-solomon/
http://www.ecokitchen.org/eco/
Dr. Julia Korenman: Montgomery Hospice and Mobile Med
I made Dr. Korenman think a lot, as she stated she gives to many charities rather than a substantial amount to any one! The above groups are the two that Dr. Korenman “thinks a lot of,” locally.
Dr. Nadia Hashimi: Doctors without Borders and local food pantries
Two organizations abroad that Dr. Hashimi believes worth mentioning are:
Skateistan: Promotes education and leadership by engaging children in skateboarding. They are active in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Nearly half their members in Afghanistan are young girls and it seems to be a very empowering program for them.
SOLA: School of leadership in Afghanistan. Boarding school for girls run by a young Afghan woman (Shabana) who was awarded a scholarship to study in the US, then returned to Afghanistan to teach girls how to become leaders. Shabana has given a TED talk and been recognized internationally for her work.
Dr. Daphne Keshishian: The McKenna Center: http//www.fathermckennacenter.org/ and the American Red Cross htttp://www.redcross.org
The Father McKenna Center was found in 1983 to carry out the legacy of Father Horace McKenna, a Jesuit priest who devoted his life to the service of the poor and the homeless. The goal of the center is to see why a person suffers from poverty and homelessness and, through mental health, medical, addiction, counseling, and education to motivate the person to go beyond his current situation.
Dr. Bhavana Mistry: the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and DC Central Kitchen
Sheila Blackwell: Empower Action and WONDERuS
Empower Action provides strategic solutions to combat spiritual and physical global poverty in the Dominican Republic. The group’s effort and collaborations focus on addressing the critical areas of: Educational, Medical, Nutritional, Physical, Pastoral, Spiritual, and Vocational.
WONDERuS Foundation recently was found by two artists to connect and create a positive influence on the rap and hip hop community. One of their initial projects is an outreach program with potential partner- the American Society for Suicide Prevention- to address the alarming suicide rate among 10 years old in America today.
Dr. Jattu Senesie: 1. The Sierra Leone Christian Mission, found by her parents, to build a church and school in a rural village in Sierra Leone. With the Ebola outbreak, they are currently seeking donations to provide food for the villagers and get radios for their students so they can get lessons on the national radio service
2. The Mama-Pikin Foundation, found by Dr. Senesie’s fellow ObGyn resident and Sierra Leone national Dr. Fatu Forna and her pediatrician husband to improve maternal and child healthcare in Sierra Leone. Dr. Senesie is a board member. The foundation provides medical supplies to clinics in rural areas of the country and arrange an annual medical mission trip to care for women and children. Since the Ebola outbreak, the foundation has provided Ebola safety gear and education classes at the clinics they support.
http://mamapikinfoundation.org/
Dr. Cynthia King: The Heifer project (Dr. King used to donate goats to the project when she was young)
Locally, Dr. King supports A Wider Circle, to help furnish homes and provide job support for local families in need.
Dr. Linda Yau: Jill’s House (Jillshouse.org) and Operation Christmas Child (www.samaritanspurse…)
Jill’s House provides respite for children with intellectual disabilities and their families in the Greater Washington, DC area.
Operation Christmas Child sends shoeboxes of gifts all over the world to needy children.
Dr. Jill Paulson: Doctors Without Borders and Kiva, both are four star charities
Kiva provides microloans for people around the world.
Like Dr. Korenman and many of our website writers, my family contributes yearly to many organizations, as we are very passionate about many causes, such as Habitat for Humanity, Doctors without Borders, The Ronald McDonald House, the American Red Cross, various national cancer centers and soup kitchens. Every year, however, we would make a substantial contribution to one or two local organizations, much less known but ones that carry out work with great effect on the locals’ life:
–The Treatment Learning Center (TLC): Their mission is to improve the lives and expand possibilities for individuals with disability. The Catherine Thomas School is part of TLC and has educated students with disabilities and/or or mild to moderate autism.
For a more details of this amazing organization, you can go to:
ttlc.org
—The Children’s Inn at NIH: this organization gives children with life threatening illnesses and their families from all over the world and the US a “home away from home” while the children are under treatment at NIH. The inn is on the campus of NIH.
This coming year, we plan to give significant support to The William Penn House (WPH), a Quaker center on Capitol Hill with multiple work camp projects, some local and some in different areas of the country such as the Pine Ridge reservation in S. Dakota or the 9th Ward of News Orleans. It will be a new adventure for me and my family to support a program where garden boxes will be built and then given to families in SE Washington, DC and, with the help and guidance from WPH staff and volunteers, these residents will care for their own vegetables in the garden boxes. As many of you know, the lack of healthy and affordable vegetables in the district has been a serious problem for many years. It is time these inner city residents have a chance to eat healthy foods like the more fortunate in the suburbs! Similar to the Heifer program that Dr. Seidman has supported, or the Women for Women International program that Dr. Geetha Pinto has supported, the tool will be provided for the recipients who will be empowered by taking care of themselves. It’s a great path to charity where the recipients participate in their care and are responsible for the outcome. Studies have shown the great results will be longer lasting.
If you have other organizations you would like us and other readers to be aware of, do not be shy to let us know. Whatever you might do, an act of kindness and giving will improve your well being!
“Let us then try what love will do.”
William Penn
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