I get by with a little help from my friends

I'm not an activist by any means. And I promise not to turn this blog into a soap box. But there is one thing I hold near and dear to my heart. And that is helping out in a situation that we can do something about without much effort.

Go to links to the left of the posts and you see one for Nothing But Nets. Please go to it and check it out. For $5, you can buy a mosquito net for a child in Africa. Its important.

I've worked and lived in Africa, and I've been part of humanitarian assistance programs. And I studied this quite a bit in college. AIDS is the big one, and gets all the publicity and all the money. But it shouldn't, because it isn't that big of a problem in Africa. It just gets all the publicity. Now, don't get me wrong. It is a problem and should be addressed with common sense.

But I can tell you from personal experience that most people in Africa don't worry about AIDs and dying of it at the age of 20, or 25, or 30, or even 35. That's because too many kids in Africa die before they hit puberty, from malaria, starvation, or other diseases. So the other causes get overlooked. Over 1,000,000 children a year under the age of 5 die a year in Africa. All for want of a net that costs $5.

I can't save the world, but I can do something to help. This is my thing. If you think you might be interested, check it out. It doesn't make you a bad person for not doing anything. I didn't for years, even after I had left Africa. But the time with my daughter has made me realize how precious it is, and if I can help even one more child, then good on me.

But if you think you might like to help, join my team, "The Black Sables". I give individually, so you won't see my numbers there. I started this as a class project in school, but the professor felt I was wrong to do this when it is an appeal for money, so she nixed it. But just read through things and take a look.

If anyone is interested in the aid fiasco in Africa, e-mail me separately and I'll send the titles of some books to read, and some papers I wrote.

Because there is nothing more important than the children.