The luck of seven is an open-source, around the world project by noel hidalgo, a new york city based activist, organizer, blogger, barcamper and coworker. (Here's the official press release)
For seven months, he traveled to world to see all the seven continents, dive into the seven oceans, and attempt to visit the seven ancient wonders of the world. He used social media (blog, vlog, wiki, flickr, couchsurfing, twitter, myspace, dopplr, and facebook) to harness the collective knowledge of the globe, and reported weekly on seven topics of freedom. I was a donor to his campaign and he has contributed to the America's Giving Challenge (and let encouraged his network to support the Sharing Foundation).
He wrote a post called "Unshakeable Activism" where he lets you know that the $10 donation can truly change a child's life in Cambodia.
as my path wondered through southeast asia, i found myself on the other-side of the world where the US dollar is the all mighty. for less that $6.00 USD you'd can be served a mountain of food fit for a king. little did i know that for less that $2.00 USD, my friend huixian and i would eat lavishly for two days...
if huixian and i ate at her house every day, we'd spend less than $15 USD a week. that's less than $15.00 USD a week ON FOOD!!!!
i know it's hard to understand how we can make a difference in someone's lives at the other end of the world, but those "help a christian child" TV spots aren't that far fetched. "for dollars a day you, can change someone's life..." except in this "advertisement" we're not talking about a newly "saved" cambodian. We're talking about a "no political or religious agenda; we work directly with village chiefs and school principals to target their communities’ most pressing needs. Gradually, we’ve hired and mentored fifty-seven Cambodians who’ve assumed all leadership positions.” - Dr. Nancy Hendrie
I didn't realize that Noneck was a barcamper, so I just had to share this video I made at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit when we distributed the t-shirts from Citizen Agency that included the barcamp t-shirts. I gave some of the smaller ones to the kids at the orphanage - you'll see those at the end.
And Noneck and I also have something in common, while we are on the topic of food ... We both ate weird things in Cambodia. I was offered (unknown to me) a plate of fried ants and it looks like Noneck ate some frog.
There has already been over $22,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 800 people like Noneck. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause and asked your friends to do the same, there is only 36 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life!
And, in 36 more hours, I will resume my normal blogging activity. Promise.
You forgot one thing. Noel is also just an all around great guy.
Posted by: David Cohn | January 29, 2008 at 08:10 PM
thanks for the shout out!!! watching your barcamp in cambodia reminds me of the song "holidays in cambodia"... not that the two have any substance with eachother, but i'm sure we could parody the tune... so what's stoping barcamp in cambodia?
bangkok just had one, who do i need convince??
Posted by: noel hidalgo | January 30, 2008 at 05:36 PM