Category: General

Donate to Change the World

Illustration of hands up in the air
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

With open hearts and open hands, we gave what we could, and a little became a lot”, said Wendy Smith in her book Give a little: “How your small donations can transform our world”.

People donate money to different causes for a variety of reasons. These include personal satisfaction, tax deductions, and social reasons that can bring change in our society for the better.

Philanthropy on a Personal Level

Although Howard Fensterman donates to a variety of causes, he has chosen two major organizations on which he mainly focuses. One is the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. A non-profit organization devoted to finding the cures for Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis and to improving the quality of life of children and adults affected by this disease.

Advancing the quality of life of all communities is of primary importance to Howard and as such, he is a contributor to his local Chabad, which is an organization that assists folks by uplifting their social environments in locations all over the world.

How You Can Help

Group of Hardworking Volunteers Preparing Donated Free Food Rations

Depending on the reason for donating to charity, people may choose different ways to help. Volunteering to work for a charitable organization is a great way to be directly involved in helping others.

If you want to contribute funds, you will find many organizations to choose from. Many people make choices by keeping in mind how their money will be utilized and the impact it will have in the area they are concerned about, as well as potential tax deductions.

Many individuals do feel compelled to donate to organizations for a cause that is likely to bring social change,* but they end up giving money to establishments, like hospitals and universities, whenever they can make donations. According to research, only 20% of big donors follow their desire to donate to organizations that are working to bring social change.

This may be because of two major reasons, as identified by the same research.

    1. People do not know about such organizations and second, they do not find it rewarding to donate to small organizations.
    2. There could be a lack of trust. Established and traditional recipients of donations enjoy a certain level of people’s trust because of a history of using donations for the intended purposes. Also, making big donations to established organizations and big names is a way to earn respect and admiration in society.

But, there are folks, especially philanthropists, who do not follow the traditional route. In order to satisfy their strong desires to help bring in social change, they make non-traditional choices and look for organizations that are working on innovative projects to change society’s practices, and norms or to address real problems of society.      

Some philanthropists believe that organizations that may be small but are at the forefront of research are the most worthy recipients of their donations. 

Additionally, you may want to consider going beyond donating to medical research and consider contributing directly to hospitals and other organizations. St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital which was founded by Danny Thomas, is a cancer center for children and is a great place to donate, as well as the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital.

Hungry children in Africia
Hunger is an area that we must all consider lending a helping hand. No one should ever go hungry anywhere in the world. Whether that be physically volunteering or sending money. Save the Children is just one of many charities we highly recommend considering.

You may also want to consider helping our veterans and first responders. Tunnel to Towers provides state of the art housing for injured soldiers and first responders. It was founded by Frank Siller, who lost his brother, a firefighter in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in NYC. Wounded Warrior Project is another charity that assists our veterans.

How We Help

This website is devoted to bringing awareness to many illnesses, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and heart disease, as well as discussing mental health issues and domestic lone-wolf shooting attacks.

In addition to learning what these diseases are, we offer suggestions, based on the studies from researchers in the fields, on how you can use preventative measures to stay healthy, and what to do if you feel you may be at risk.

We provide charitable organizations you can contact but we obviously can’t list all the charities here. We do have a plethora of information available with links to sources that you can follow up on. Forbes provides the top 100 charitable organizations and you can use their guide as well.

When you see the impact your money is bringing to society, it gives you the satisfaction that you have played your part in making this world a better place.  

*Social change in this article refers to anything that benefits society, including medical advances as well as social ones.

Please note: This website does not ask for any financial contributions directly or provide any forms to donate to a cause. Please refer to the sources provided and/or you can find them on the Web via Google or other resources.

Physician Group Recommends CBT-I as First Choice to Treat Chronic Insomnia

Man-having-trouble-sleeping-squeezes-a-pillow-around-his-earsInsomnia is a sleep disorder whereby people have difficulty falling and/or staying asleep.

This differs from sleep apnea, which is a disorder that affects your breathing and subsequently, causes your breathing to stop and start. Dr. Robert Gaerlick, a sleep apnea specialist in Long Island, NY provides a very good explanation of the disorder if you’d like to learn more.

People with insomnia have one or more of the following symptoms:

    • Difficulty falling asleep
    • Waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep
    • Waking up too early in the morning
    • Feeling tired when waking up

While there are many methods available to combat insomnia, a recent study points to one specific recommendation.

A recent AP report cited new guidelines issued by the American College of Physicians in the Annals of Internal Medicine stating “… the first choice to treat chronic insomnia should be cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT].”

The group “said Monday the method known as CBT can be effective and doesn’t carry the side effects of medication, a recommendation intended to spur primary care” physicians to prescribe the therapy. They stated that if CBT is not effective for any particular individual, then physicians could consider prescribing medication.

The CBT recommended for people with insomnia is called CBT-I, “which blends talk therapy and sleep tutorials, and has been shown to help a majority of patients recover some normalcy in their sleep quality and duration.” The therapy “requires a trained clinician,” however, “of which there are few in even the country’s biggest cities.”

The NBC News website reported that in putting together the guidelines, “a team at the organization looked at research on insomnia and at an evidence review by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.”

There are also some foods you should eat and others you should not eat if you have sleep apnea. Fruits and vegetables and whole grains are recommended. For a more complete list of foods for/against sleep apnea, click here.

January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland. The troops witnessed firsthand the brutality of the Third Reich. The ‘Final Solution, as the Nazis coined it, was their determination to exterminate the Jewish people because they were ‘not pure enough for their fictitious Aryan ‘master race.

Of course, the Nazis failed in their endeavors, but not before over 6,000,000 Jewish people and another 1,500,000 non-Jews were murdered either in one of the many concentration camps scattered across Europe, as well as outside of the camps by soldiers and roaming gangs in the European cities and towns. Indeed, it was in the earlier years of Nazism that thousands and later, millions were slaughtered in these towns before the concentration camps were fully operational.

One catalyst towards the state-sponsored onslaught of Jews was Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), a name given to reflect the shards of glass that had fallen from the mass destruction of Jewish-owned stores and synagogues in Germany. The pretext to commit these callous attacks was based on the assassination (November 9, 1938) of a Nazi diplomat by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jewish teenager. German police and soldiers stood aside while mobs of Germans, incited by Hitler’s state-sponsored propaganda machine, began their rampage throughout Germany.

Survivors and witnesses have accounted for the mass murder of Jews by German soldiers or groups loyal to the Nazis, who would take people from their homes and kill them without mercy. Women and children included. This slaughter is well documented in the areas of western Russia, where Jews were coldly shot in the fields that surrounded the small Russian towns.

One survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau was Miriam Blumenthal, an author and honoree from many distinguished U.S. and European organizations. She currently spends much of her time educating the world about tolerance and the lessons of the Holocaust. 

Additional information can be found at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which provides a large variety of information on the Holocaust and welcomes people to join in their membership for the continued fight against antisemitism.

January 27th is the date marked by the United Nations to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and we should all pause for a moment of silence to reflect on the millions of innocent lives lost during this dark period in history.