This is a list of fundraising campaigns that we’re leading for organizations we volunteer with as we travel. Below that is a list of organizations and projects we support, as we can, through small financial donations.  Feel free to get involved or make your own donation, if you’re moved to do so.

Our Current Campaigns

Centro de Desarrollo Jocotepec, A.C. – Women’s Health Clinic

For International Women’s Day 2013, Sheila volunteered with a local women’s health clinic in Ajijic, Jalisco, MX.  But what started out as a short-term volunteer project turned in to a very important personal mission.

The clinic has provided care to indigenous and low-income women and families in the area for over 30 years. Twice a week the clinic offers pap smears and breast examinations, as well as family planning counseling, to one of the poorest and most vulnerable barrios in Jalisco through the Tepehua Community Center but the funding for that program (provided by a local, private, civic organization) was ending in August 2013.  After witnessing women of all ages line up outside the clinic’s doors to gain access to health services they would otherwise not be able to afford, and after realizing how little was needed to keep the program going for another year, Sheila felt compelled to start this fundraising campaign.

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Microfinance Loans

Kiva

Kiva’s mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. Make a $25 loan FOR FREE through our 2cycle2gether Kiva team today.

National  & International Non-Profit Organizations

International Labor Rights Forum

ILRF serves a unique role among human rights organizations as advocates for and with working poor around the world. ILRF believes that all workers have the right to a safe working environment where they are treated with dignity and respect, and where they can organize freely to defend and promote their rights and interests.  ILRF is committed to ending the problems of child labor, forced labor, and other abusive practices.

Women for Women International

Womenforwomen.org provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency.  They offer a unique sponsorship program in which you can sponsor a woman’s year-long training in job skills, business and money management basics and rights awareness education.

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The Blink Now Foundation

A grass-roots organization working to empower young people to become pioneers in developing their own solutions to world poverty, Blink Now Foundation targets under-developed, war-torn countries where extreme poverty exists.  Learn about founder Maggie’s incredible vision and her first project, the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School.

Project Unbreakable

The mission of Project Unbreakable is to increase awareness of the issues surrounding sexual assault and encourage the act of healing through art.  Founder Grace Brown works with survivors of sexual assault, photographing them holding a poster with a quote from their attacker.

Secret Survivors 

Secret Survivors is an interview-based theater project by NYC-based theater company, Ping Chong & Company,  featuring adult survivors of child sexual abuse telling their personal stories on stage.  I watched a live streaming of the production and, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, it was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever witnessed.

Rich Earth Institute

Dedicated to advancing and promoting the use of human waste as a resource. Through research, demonstration, and education projects, REI strives to illustrate the positive effect of this approach in important areas including water quality, food security, energy use, soil health, economic sustainability, carbon footprint, public health, and emergency preparedness.

DonorsChoose.org

Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests and you can give any amount to the project that most inspires you.  We gave to Literarcy Power & Help Us Grow as NonFiction Readers.

Village Health Works

Village Health Works mission is to provide quality, compassionate health care in a dignified environment, and  in collaboration with those they serve, while treating the root causes and the social determinants of illness, disease, violence.

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League of American Bicyclists

The League of American Bicyclists promote bicycling for fun, fitness, transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America.

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Re-Cycle

Re-Cycle‘s mission is to collect unwanted bicycles and ship them to Africa.

Village Bicycle Project

Village Bicycle Project supplies bikes, spare parts and tools to villages in Africa.  They also train owners in basic bike maintenance and repair, work with bicycle mechanics in their villages to improve their tools and skills, and empower whole communities by including women and girls in bicycle education.

New England Non-Profit Organizations (Our Home Base)

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Vermont Foodbank

Vermont Foodbank :: Gather. Share. Nuture.

Vermont Works for Women

Helping women and girls surpass obstacles that can prevent them from earning a sustainable and livable wage by educating them about nontraditional career opportunities in construction, renewable energy, and law enforcement.  Read more….

Fighting for the Closure of Vermont Yankee

New England Coalition :: Originally the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, the Coalition was founded by several groups of citizens and scientists concerned about the nation’s growing civilian nuclear power program.

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Fighting Violence Against Women

When living in Vermont Sheila regularly participates in Laura’s March, an event created to bring awareness to the pervasive problem of sexual violence, and teach understanding and compassion that is necessary for positive social change.  Read More…

Raising Awareness of Homelessness

The Annual COTS Walk is an awareness and fundraising event for the Committee on Temporary Shelter, a Vermont non-profit organization dedicated to ending homelessness and providing services and shelter to those who are homeless.

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Protecting the Public Interest

VPIRG :: the largest nonprofit consumer and environmental advocacy organization in Vermont.

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Supporting Independent Journalists

Local Motion

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CCTV Center for Media & Democracy

Lake Champlain International

To protect, restore, and revitalize Lake Champlain and its communities, LCI educates, advocates, and motivates to ensure that Lake Champlain is swimmable, drinkable, and fishable, understanding that healthy water resources are essential for a healthy economy and a healthy community.

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Green Mountain Club

Green Mountain Club Winooski Bridge Fund  :: Working to Establish a Safe, Appropriate and Permanent Route for the Long Trail through the Winooski River Valley

Independent & Creative Projects

Constructing Rain Barrels

When living in Vermont Kai reclaims food grade barrels & constructs stand alone or daisy-chained units, offering free and sustainable local delivery (by bicycle, of course!).  10% of profit donated to Blue Planet Project, an international civil society movement to protect the world’s fresh water from the growing threats of trade and privatization.  Read More…

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Building Tiny Homes for the Homeless

NerdGirlHomes :: Kendall is a high school senior fulfilling a dream to build her own house.  When she’s done building her Tiny House she’s donating it to someone who is homeless.

Kickstarter Campaign for Janapar

Janapar: Love on a bike Kickstarter campaign ::  To help Tom Allen, fellow touring cyclist, write a memoir about his cycling around the world.  A truly engaging and universal message.  Check out his book and the documentary.

Supporting the Food Movement

Edible City: Grow the Revolution :: feature-length documentary journey (click to watch the movie) through the local Good Food movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world.  Also, we gave to support the open source distribution model that the movie’s fiscal sponsor, Bay Area Video Coalition, promotes.

Grassroots Campaigns

Tim DeChristopher Legal Defense Fund 

American climate activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising.  In 2008 he protested a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah’s redrock country by successfully bidding on 14 parcels of land (totaling 22,500 acres) for $1.8 million with no intention to pay for them.  He served 21 months in prison, from July 2011 through April 2013, even though the government ended up ruling the entire auction was originally illegal.

“I Stand with Brad”, Bradley Manning Courage to Resist Fund

The information that Bradley gave to the public has been a catalyst for pro-democracy movements in the Arab world, exposed the unjust detainment of innocent people at Guantanamo Bay, shown us the true human cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changed journalism forever.

Tar Sands Blockade

Tar Sands Blockade – Legal Defense Fund & Great Plain Tar Sands Legal Defense Fund  ::  Supporting climate justice organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

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