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Join Me on the Bridge: March 8!

March 4, 2012 By

by Laura Murray

“Stand with women on March 8 to build bridges of peace and hope for the future.”

Join Me On The Bridge logo

On March 8, women will be showing their unity and peace on bridges around the world!  March 8 is International Women’s Day, and also the day of Join Me on the Bridge.

Join Me on the Bridge started three years ago when women from Congo and Rwanda stood together on the bridge between the two African countries.  Congo and Rwanda have a long history of conflicts involving war, death, and rape.   Most of the wars have been over resources like gold and minerals.  The horrible violence, especially against women, still continues.  But these women stood together on the bridge to show their unity and called for peace.

The women’s demonstration fired up the world!  Last year, thousands of people around the globe gathered on bridges to show their support for women in war-torn countries and for women in their own communities.
Join Me on the Bridge celebrates the strength of women and all they have accomplished.  They may be from different countries, speak different languages, and have different cultures…but they are all working together to make a difference!

Watch the videos: Journalist Jude Wanga, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo speaks about: What Join Me on the Bridge Means to Me.  For the full video and her story, check out the JMOTB website.  Here’s a link to the video by Women to Women International.

 

There are a lot of problems, such as war and inequality, in the world, but the women and men of all ages standing on the bridges want to show that we do have hope for the future!

Read about the experience of Megan, New Moon Girls online editor, at Join Me on the Bridge.

 

Can’t get to a bridge?  Organize your own event in your town to spread the word about women’s strength!  Look at Rachel’s ideas for ways to participate in International Women’s Day!

Bridges connect people.  They help us get from where we are to a new place.  How will you be a bridge?  Be sure to let us know how you got involved!

Filed Under: Changing the World Tagged With: , , , ,

What Can You do to Improve the Future?

January 11, 2012 By

What can you do to improve the future for yourself, girls and the world?

New Moon Girls know the importance of working hard to improve the future. Not only do they work to improve themselves, they also work hard to improve the lives of girls everywhere.

Have you ever thought about starting your own charity organization?

A lot of New Moon Girls have, or know someone who has started their own charity. India, 13, Connecticut helped her friend Olivia raise $1,000 for her charity Change for Change. Valorie, 13, Washington and her friend Arielle began their own candle-making business and used their profits to give to other charities!

Have you ever wanted to volunteer or donate to an empowering organization?

There are a lot of ways to help organizations that are working to make a better future for girls and the world. You can always find ways to help on NewMoon.com.

Raincloud, 8, Delaware shares her ideas on how to change the world by donating to charities. Girls have volunteered their time and talents to organizations like Ronald McDonald House and other charities. Read more about them here. New Moon Girls supports organizations that empower girls to create a better future, like Room to Read, who received many donations this year!

What else would you do to improve the world? According to Raincloud’s survey, most girls would like to donate to charity, fight hunger and reduce, reuse, recycle. To see what else you could do, take her quiz here.

If you are or would like ideas on fighting to improve the future for girls and the world, share your stories and experience on the Girls Can Save the World message board.

Every girl can make a difference in the world, no matter how small they think their contribution is!

What have you done to improve the future? What else could you do to improve the lives of girls everywhere? Share your awesome stories and ideas with us!

Emily

New Moon Intern

Filed Under: Changing the World

New Moon Girls Is Giving Back This Holiday Season!

December 14, 2011 By

New Moon Girls is giving back this holiday season, and we asked you to choose which deserving organization to donate to. Well, you voted and we are donating 5% of every membership ordered until Dec. 29 to Room to Read!

Room to Read is an organization that works in developing countries such as Cambodia, Laos, India and South Africa among many others. Their mission is to create the opportunity for every child to get an education and make a difference in their community and world.

Room to Read works closely with communities and local governments to help children learn to read and write, and develop these and other life skills to girls. Room to Read works with both girls and boys, but has a special program just for girls called the Girls’ Education program.

Did you know that 42% of girls in developing countries do not attend school? Room to Read is working to change that. As of now, 234 girls have graduated from the program and over 10,000 are working hard to follow.

Check out the stories of  Dang from Vietnam, Anita from India and Aradhana from Nepal to see how their lives have changed after gaining an education. For more inspirational stories, check out the Girl Graduates 2010 yearbook!

Giving girls an education is one of the most powerful things that can be done to reduce poverty. It gives girls the skills to build healthy families, lower the rate of disease and earn higher wages. The cycle of poverty can be greatly reduced by educated girls and women who can make positive life decisions.

 

Help Room to Read get the most out of our donations. Here are some easy things you can do:

  • Create a poster about how much you love New Moon. Get permission to hang them up around school, church or area businesses to spread the word!
  • Host a New Moon holiday party for your family and friends. Check out these awesome tips on decorations, food, activities and more.
  • Design your own New Moon t-shirt, give your old issues of New Moon to friends or host a “snowy day read.” See these and other ideas here.
  • Donate to the New Moon Girls Scholarship fund.
  • Order a membership for your school or local library.

By voting for Room to Read, you are helping girls worldwide by ordering or renewing your membership to New Moon Girls. Thanks to you, Room to Read can continue to help even more girls receive a quality education and reduce poverty!

What are some other ideas you have to help Room to Read? Share your ideas with us in the comments below!

Emily

New Moon Intern

Filed Under: Changing the World

Celebrate What You’re Thankful for by Giving Back!

November 23, 2011 By

How do you volunteer your time, money or talents to others? The holiday season is a wonderful time to remember what you are thankful for. It is also a wonderful time to give back to those who are less fortunate. Everyone has something they can contribute, and no time or talent is too small to make a difference!

Lily, 12, California painted faces at a children's festival where she volunteered to do community service!

December 5 is International Volunteer Day, a day created to recognize organizations that work toward creating a better world for everyone. Do you volunteer for a cause such as ending world hunger or fighting AIDS. Maybe you volunteer for a different cause? Would you like to?

New Moon Girls give back to others in many ways:

Posie Rose, 13, Maryland volunteered to bring Goofy for a walk, a dog at the local Humane Society animal shelter!

If you would like to volunteer your time, money or talents but don’t know how, check out some very helpful message boards that are all about giving back! WHO LOVES TO VOLUNTEER? is for those who love to give back, or want ideas on what they could do. Are you looking for, or have great ideas for service projects? Join the discussion on the Service Projects message board. Or, check out Lila, 12, Hong Kong’s message board about her friend’s charity called Orphan’s Heroes!

Do you like to volunteer? How do you share your time, money and talents to help others? How would you like to give back? Tell us in your comments below!

Emily
New Moon Intern

Filed Under: Changing the World, New Moon Girls News

Let’s Help Raise Rice! Donate Rice to People in Need

November 1, 2011 By

Have you ever wanted to make a big difference in the world, like helping to stop world hunger? Even if it is something small, everyone can do their part to help this cause. The Gifts That Keep Giving campaign — a campaign held by the organization FreeRice — started October 3 and will run until December 12. Everyone is encouraged to participate!

FreeRice.com is a website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. They have two goals:

1. To provide education to everyone for free
2. To help world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is how FreeRice works:

Participants can answer questions from a variety of categories like English, math, science and languages. Everytime a question is answered correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to someone in need. The more questions that are answered correctly, the more rice is donated.

So, if you answer five questions correctly, 50 grains of rice are donated. If you answer 10 questions, 100 grains are donated!

This is how the Gifts That Keep Giving Campaign works:

1. Search for and join the group that has been created on FreeRice.com for MIme Campaigns at http://freerice.com/users/simple-complexity

2. Action alerts will be sent out through our networks, seeking widespread participation. Reminder alerts will also be given for continued participation.

3. On December 12 at 7:59 p.m. EST, the campaign will end and two super givers will be selected. One for most questions answered and another for most rice donated.

4. Campaign awards will be sent by December 15:

  • Super Giver 1, gets a $75 visa card
  • Super Giver 2, gets a $50 visa card

Many New Moon Girls know and love the work of FreeRice. Abby, 13, North Carolina asked her New Moon sisters to help her end world hunger in her story Give Them Rice!

Dragonfly, 14, Minnesota began a Free rice new moon girls group to raise a lot of rice!

Megan, 13, Oregon urges others to check out FreeRice.com in her story, just like Hannah, 12, New Hampshire does in hers!

No matter who or where you are, you can make a difference in the fight to end world hunger. Have you participated on FreeRice.com? How much rice were you able to donate? In what other ways would you like to help fight world hunger? Let us know in your comments below!

Emily
New Moon Intern

Filed Under: Changing the World
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