Last Thursday was Thanksgiving in USA. This holiday, which was originally a religious celebration, is now celebrated as a secular holiday.
The purpose of the celebration is to give thanks and be grateful for what we have.
Both Thanksgiving and the upcoming Christmas means different things to different people. The holidays might just be an opportunity to take some time off. Nonetheless, I believe it can also be a time to take a step back and look at what's important in life. Get some perspective and be grateful for not being a victim of war, a victim of famine, a victim of repression.
At least I think this holds true for many of the readers of this blog. It does for me.
This is what Wikipedia says about Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God, but is also celebrated as a secular holiday.The first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive the brutal winter. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.
So what does this have to do with Joomla?
Well, nothing directly, but not long ago a fund raising initiative was started. Brian Teeman started a fund raising for Médecins Sans Frontières.
In the spirit of thanksgiving and in the spirit of compassion, I hope you will take the opportunity to give thanks for what you have.
Give thanks by donating to Doctors Without Borders.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are committed to two objectives:
- Providing medical aid wherever needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender
- Raising awareness of the plight of people they help. MSF has been setting up emergency medical aid missions around the world since 1971.
You can find out more about their work at http://www.msf.org and http://www.youtube.com/msf
What MSF can do with our donations:
- $35
Two high-energy meals a day to 200 children - $50
Vaccinations for 50 people against meningitis, measles, polio or other deadly epidemics - $70
Two basic suture kits to repair minor shrapnel wounds - $100
Infection-fighting antibiotics to treat nearly 40 wounded children - $250
A sterilization kit for syringes and needles used in mobile vaccination campaigns - $500
A medical kit containing basic drugs, supplies, equipment, and dressings to treat 1,500 patients for three months - $1000
Emergency medical supplies to aid 5,000 disaster victims for an entire month - $5500
An emergency health kit to care for 10,000 displaced people for three months
This is how you do it:
In the UK or want to use Paypal
- Donate using http://www.justgiving.com/joomla-users
It is simple, fast and totally secure and you can donate by credit card or by paypal.
If you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.
In the USA
If you are a US citizen and wish to make a tax deductable donation then you can do so at the special American version of this site http://www.firstgiving.com/joomla-users. This site only accepts credit cards and not paypal.
It would be really great if you could join with me to support MSF and say thank you all together. So if you belong to a JUG, write a blog, have a Joomla web site please consider adding a link on your site. JustGiving/FirstGiving have provided the following code that you can paste into a joomla custom html module that will provide a direct link from your site to the donation site. JustGiving code here FirstGiving code here .