Note: we'll likely be a year or so behind in reporting below.

2023 Charity Info

Micro-lending: In 2023 we continued our program of micro-lending through Kiva.org (for more information on Kiva, see the "2009 Charity Info" section below.)

2023 Micro-lending through Kiva: This year Peaceful People made 989 loans totaling $24,740 to people in Albania, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

This brings our all-time running total to 6,739 loans for $165,855 so far.

If you would like to get involved with micro-lending, I hope you'll take a look at www.kiva.org/about to find out more.

Foster Children: This year Peaceful People sponsored 2 foster children overseas through Plan International. We've sponsored at least 2 each year since 1997. plan-international.org

We also supported the following organizations:

Doctors Without Borders: "Help people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care." www.doctorswithoutborders.org

CARE Crisis Fund: The CARE Crisis Fund will help reach millions of war victims with urgently needed supplies and food and to aid refugees as they flee violence. www.care.org

Alexandra House: (this is a women's shelter in my area): "The mission of Alexandra House is to empower victims of domestic and sexual violence, and inspire social change, through education, support, and advocacy." www.alexandrahouse.org

World Medical Relief: "Our mission is to facilitate the distribution of surplus medical resources where they are needed. As such, our programs have both a local, national and international focus. Goods are distributed in a non-discriminatory manner without regard to race, color, gender, religion, nationality or political beliefs." www.worldmedicalrelief.org

People Serving People: "People Serving People is the largest and most comprehensive emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness in Minnesota and a dedicated leader in homelessness prevention." www.peopleservingpeople.org

Community Emergency Assistance Programs: Food shelf and other programs. "We know that hunger is a symptom of other issues. Our partnership gives the resources to our families that they need to find sustainable solutions that will move them to independence. Our collaboration meets the needs our families have today and also provides resources for housing, healthcare, and education." ceap.org

Stepping Stone Emergency Housing: "...we work with each resident one-on-one to identify the cause of their homelessness — for example, lack of education, unemployment or under employment, need for affordable housing, making positive personal choices — and help them develop a personalized plan to move toward self-sufficiency.." steppingstoneeh.org

Direct Relief: Provides medical resources globally in all kinds of natural and man-made disasters including earthquakes, war in Ukraine, covid relief and so much more. "Direct Relief works to equip health professionals in resource-poor communities to meet the challenges of diagnosing and caring for people in need." directrelief.org

Interfaith Outreach: "Interfaith Outreach works side-by-side with families in times of need. Job loss, pending eviction, family breakup, a medical crisis or car repair – whatever the need, our team is there to help families stabilize and move past crisis to opportunity, creating a hopeful future." iocp.org

Homelessness Winter Project: At the beginning of the year, we restarted our project working directly with people experiencing homelessness (see 2018 section below for details). It started off pretty well but unfortunately the police "trespassed" me out of the transportation center (meaning that I had to leave and if I returned to give out food again I would be arrested). I took all my food and gear and moved onto a light rail train for the night until all my food was gone. I'll have to rethink this project. The need was definitely still there but it was clearly a very unsafe situation.

Thought I'd sum up my homeless project experience (who reads this anyway):

My friend asked me what I thought the solution was for the homeless. I'm no expert but I have an opinion. During this project I talked with many people homeless for many reasons and I don't think there is one solution. Some are homeless because of bad luck beyond their control, some because of their own bad choices. Mental illness, death of a loved one, divorce, drug addiction, alcoholism, eviction, job loss, aging out of the foster child system, home foreclosure, inability to get a job due to felony record, inability to earn enough to afford rent, and various combinations of those things.

I've heard people disparage homeless people living in tents for free and getting handouts. But it is a tough life for them and a tough life on them.

Occasionally I would meet a person that seemed to be getting by OK one winter and the next winter looked like they had aged 10 years physically and looked completely worn down mentally.

Years ago I would sometimes hand out money to people on street. Sometimes handing someone money is very helpful but sometimes it just contributes to their problem. How do you know which? So I started asking what might help them other than money, for example one guy asked for an interview shirt and some boxer shorts. Giving to homeless charities seems a good way to go because they can work with people one-on-one and give them what they actually need.

For my feeding project, even though they kicked me out in the end, I can't blame the police or the security guards. They actually tolerated me for years as I tried to keep a low profile, but things did sometimes get out of my control. What I personally observed of the security guards and police was actually patience as they did the job they had to do.

I suppose we need as many paths out of as there are paths into homelessness. There don't seem to be sufficient systems in place to move people out of homelessness. I agree it's often not a good idea to hand out cash to people on the street. But what should we do instead? Helping people one-by-one, giving food or clothes is good but the scale is too small for the problem. I think the best way is to support funding to charities that deal with the homeless one-on-one and guide each person toward whatever mental health, job coaching, addiction treatment, etc. that addresses their specific situation, and help them move forward when they've lost almost everything. I think this funding is what is most likely to reduce the homeless numbers and the suffering.

2022 Charity Info

Micro-lending: In 2022 we continued and expanded our program of micro-lending through Kiva.org (for more information on Kiva, see the "2009 Charity Info" section below.)

2022 Micro-lending through Kiva: This year Peaceful People made 994 loans totaling $24,715 to people in Albania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dem. Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Vanuatu, Vietnam and Zambia.

This brings our all-time running total to 5,750 loans for $141,115 so far.