Fighting HIV With The Power of Football

Recently, Nike has used Grassroot Soccer as an example of how sports can be used to help prevent HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Nike’s newest campaign: Nike (RED) Lace Up To Save Lives donates money from the sale of their red shoelaces to AIDS treatment and HIV-prevention organizations.

Grassroot Soccer is one of these organizations. Grassroot Soccer Skillz coaches share why they think the power of soccer (“football”) is so important in combating this deadly epidemic.

Not only does Nike donate money to the Grassroot Soccer program, but it also provides much needed exposure. Already GRS is making a difference throughout Africa by helping youth make smart decisions regarding HIV/AIDS.

South Africa is a football-mad country, and is hosting the next World Cup – the biggest sporting event in the world. This is the perfect time to focus on campaigns such as the Nike (RED) Lace Up program and the Grassroot Soccer curriculum.

To see the short clip featuring Grassroot Soccer coaches, click here: Lace Up

For more about the (NIKE) RED campaign, check out www.nikefootball.com/red.

To visit the GRS website, click here: Grassroot Soccer

OneTribe.com is proud to support environmentally and socially responsible organizations. Like Nike, we help support the mission of GRS through sales of our specially designed Grassroot Soccer shirts. Not only do you donate to a worthy charity – and help one child stay HIV free - but you also get a sweet shirt out of it.

Give as much as you gain – OneTribe.com.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

PeaceJam Can win $1 Million With Your Vote!

PeaceJam has a chance to win $1,000,000 through Chase Community Giving!!!

They can't do it without YOU. Please vote! It only takes a second.

Peace Jam is a Denver-based non-profit that seeks to engage youth in tackling the 10 biggest problems facing society today. The goal is to finish 1 BILLION projects that will help people around the world.

Vote here: http://bit.ly/peacejam-chase.

Voting begins on January 15th and will end on January 22nd.

Please tell all of your friends to this cause! They need as many votes as they can get. Let's all get excited about supporting PeaceJam!!!!!!

OneTribe.com voted for PeaceJam today, and hopes you will too. We are proud to support socially and environmentally responsible organizations.

Through sales of our PeaceJam organic t-shirts, we provide one youth the opportunity to receive training with a Nobel Laureate through the PeaceJam program.

Click here to purchase your shirt today!

Haiti's Next Relief Effort - Water.

Thanks to Water.org for providing the following information

In September 2009, Water.org announced its commitment to bring safe water and sanitation to 50,000 Haitians over the coming 36 months.

On 12 January, Haiti was rocked by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Water.org will be there to respond to this natural disaster, building on their existing efforts to provide safe drinking water to impoverished people in this region (Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere)

The focus of that effort will be providing sanitation facilities to the people of Haiti. Thousands have tragically died in this disaster already, and a lack of sanitation and clean drinking water could kill thousands more. This was a problem in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. If it could happen to some degree in the richest country on earth, what would be the effects on one of the poorest?

If you would like to donate to immediate relief efforts in Haiti, you’ll find a list of potential organizations to support at: CNN Impact Site.

If you are interested in supporting Water.org’s efforts to restore and expand water and sanitation services in Haiti, they would gladly accept your donation: http://donate.water.org/haiti.

OneTribe.com helps Water.org in all their sanitation efforts around the globe. We donate 50% of the price of our "Water.org" shirts directly to this worthy cause. By purchasing JUST ONE of our shirts, you will make sure that ONE person in a place like Haiti has access to clean water for life.

Click here to give as much as you gain: OneTribe.com/Water.


For more information, read this Q&A from Water.org

How is water affected during a disaster like this?
Underground water and sanitation pipelines and concrete water storage tanks are highly susceptible to damage from earthquakes and will likely need to be repaired or replaced.

What is the response plan to get people safe water?
The short term response typically includes bottled water and the use of high volume purification equipment. While this is expensive, it can be quickly deployed as a short-term solution. There are many relief agencies involved in these types of efforts. The response of organizations like Water.org involves the rehabilitation and expansion of sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure.

What is Water.org doing to help?
We will provide assistance to our local partners so that they can restore and expand water and sanitation infrastructure.

How is Water.org coordinating with other agencies?
Before the earthquake, Water.org was already coordinating with the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nations, and other agencies. On the ground, Water.org will work with local NGO partner organizations, consistent with our approach over the past two decades.

How has this affected Water.org’s work in Haiti?
It had made the need for safe water and sanitation even more urgent and will likely mean our focus will initially be rehabilitation, and then expansion of water services.

The Cost of Watering "Plants"

In fifteen years, it is expected that almost 3 billion people in 48 countries will suffer from a scarcity of water, according to waterfootprint.org.

The country with the biggest water foot print is, of course, the United States. The reasons are many, among them our “thirst” for water-intensive food and products like beef, rice, and cotton. Additionally, we have turned the world’s greatest (virtually) free product – tap water - and turned it into an elitist product – bottled water.

The Clean Air Council reports that Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic water bottles an hour. That is 60 million a day; 22 billion a year.

While more than 1 in 6 people worldwide have no access to clean water, Americans have access to clean, healthy, free water everywhere they go. Yet, we spend more money on bottled water each year than we do on iPods – an amount somewhere around $16 billion dollars a year.

Bottled water is indeed expensive. Whereas tap water costs about 1/10th of 1 cent per gallon, bottled water can be up to 10,000 times that cost. In cities, it isn’t unusual to pay $15 or more for a gallon of bottled water.

People claim that they drink bottled water because it is convenient, it is healthier, it tastes better, and it is often chilled.

Convenience: $15 for water is not convenient. For the majority of Americans it would take 1-2 hours of work to pay for that water (CEOs of bottled water firms not included).

Health: Bottled water is not healthier. In fact, at least 40% of the time, it is simply tap water with additives. One of the sources of Aquafina’s water is the Detroit River… which hardly calls to mind pure, glacial mountain springs. Ugggh! (Many bottled water plants are far removed from the picture they show on their label. Check out the image for Everrest Premium Water, which is bottled in the less-than-glacial area known as Corpus Christi, Texas.)

Bottled water may be less healthy, in fact. The FDA for bottled water regulations are far less strict than the EPA regulations for tap water. It is tested less frequently and for fewer contagions. And whereas tap water is always moving, bottled water is still… so minute traces of bacteria from the bottling plant can fester inside a water bottle.

Another recent trend that dentists are seeing (much to their delight) is a return of cavities in bottled-water sipping kids. Flouridation in tap water nearly eliminated cavities in Americans, and with the majority of bottled water companies not adding fluoride to their product, children who don’t drink tap water aren’t getting the protection they need.

Finally, a chemical compound in plastic called phthalates can easily leach into the water, and is known to cause liver problems, reproductive difficulties, and even cancer.

Bottled water is not healthier.

Taste: In blind taste tests, people who swear they only drink bottled water have often rated tap water as tasting better than the ultra-expensive Evian (here is a non-scientific example from ABC News)

All water tastes better cold – so keep a reusable container of water in your fridge.

The Environment

Another factor in all of this is the environment. According to FoodAndWaterWatch.org, it takes 47 million gallons of oil to produce water bottles for Americans each year. That doesn’t include the amount of oil needed to transport all these bottles across the country. This is no small amount, considering that 60 million bottles are thrown out every day. Of these, somewhere between 70-86% are simply thrown away instead of being recycled. Not only does this add to our growing problem with garbage disposal, but plastic doesn’t degrade very well. It can take hundreds of years to degrade, and as it does it leaches dozens of dangerous chemicals into the water supply (that is a vicious water cycle!).

The Economy
Privatized water claims that it helps communities. In reality, bottled water plants provide few jobs (usually from outside the community that they are taking water from), the jobs they provide are low-wage and dangerous, and the benefits go to the corporation – not the local community.

What you can do

1. Stop buying and drinking bottled water
2. Buy a stainless steel reusable container for convenience
3. Buy a water filter for taste
4. Buy a pitcher for storing water in the fridge if you like your water cold
5. Support water charities that fight to keep our water clean, fight the commodification of water, and work to provide safe water access to needy people around the world.

One of these companies is water.org. To learn more about what they do, check out their really cool website at www.water.org

OneTribe.com is proud to support socially responsible organizations such as Water.org. Through sales of our own “water” shirts, we provide a steady and lasting revenue stream for this worthy cause. Whenever a shirt is purchased ($39) through our website, we donate 50% of the price ($19.50) directly to this non-profit. That single donation is enough to provide one youth access to clean water for life.

To buy one of these organic shirts for you or a friend, click here: OneTribe.com/Water

A Nice "Pitch" -- Give HIV the RED CARD

During the December opening of the Khaylitsha Football for Hope Centre in South Africa, Grassroot Soccer debuted their new AIDS prevention program, The Red Card campaign.

A red penalty card signifies poor behavior during a game of soccer, and for Grassroot Soccer, can be used as a powerful symbol for risky behaviors off the field (“pitch”) as well. With the popularity of soccer in African countries, the Red Card is now used to demonstrate to young people which risky behaviors can lead to HIV/AIDS transmission.

Connecting with young people in order to prevent HIV/AIDS transmissions is the goal of Grassroot Soccer (GRS). An example of how this works is an activity called “Risk Field.” In this game, players dribble soccer balls through cones. Whenever the players dribble the ball into a cone that represents a risky behavior – such as multiple partners or cross-generational sex – the Red Card is shown and players do a push-up as a penalty.

These activities, while not only fun for participants, are proven to work. Young people are moving, engaged, learning, having a good time, and working with leaders they respect. All these tools work together to reinforce messages of how to prevent this devastating illness.

Avert.org says that over 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV, with at least 15-20% of all adults infected in places like South Africa, where this campaign is launching to coincide with the 2010 World Cup being hosted there. The timing and impact of this campaign could be huge, considering that more people watch the World Cup than the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, and World Series combined.

According to Grassroot Soccer’s website, the Red Card campaign’s goal is to educate 1 million youth through its programming by 2014. Already, over 300,000 youth in 13 African countries have been served through previous campaigns such as this.

OneTribe.com is proud to support socially responsible organizations such as Grassroot Soccer. Through sales of our own “Red Card” shirts (right), we provide a steady and lasting revenue stream for this worthy cause. Whenever a shirt is purchased ($39) through our website, we donate 50% of the price ($19.50) directly to this non-profit. That single donation is enough to provide one youth access to GRS lessons -- such as the Red Card campaign -- which will help keep him or her HIV free for life.

To buy a shirt and support GRS, click here: OneTribe/GrassrootSoccer

You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

New Year's Resolution... or New Year's Revolution?

Did you make a resolution to improve yourself this year? What about a resolution to improve the lives of others? Are you committed to helping worthy causes but don’t know where to start?

Here is an idea that might work for you.

1. Pick a favorite charity.
2. On a monthly basis, donate a set amount of money.
3. This amount can be a small amount. In fact, regular donations in small amounts can be easier to budget for and are more likely to be made than single donations in a larger amount. As President Obama has said, change starts from the ground up and in small amounts.
4. Keep track of this donation and remember to have those records handy at tax time.

One of the hardest parts of this is choosing a worthy cause (and then deciding on your monthly budget), so here is an even better idea:

1. Go to OneTribe.com.
2. Once a month, purchase a different shirt.
3. We have different colors, sizes, and styles for men and women that support five different non-profits.
   
4. Your monthly budget will be $39.
5. Half this amount, exactly 50%, will be donated directly to the charity associated with that particular shirt.
6. In every case, the purchase of only ONE shirt will make a significant difference in the life of at least one person (you can read about those benefits here).
7. Feel good. Because not only are you donating $234 ($19.50 x 12 months) to charity this year (which you can deduct from your taxes), but you are also...

• multiplying your wardrobe…
• or getting your 2010 holiday shopping done early…
• or staying ahead of all those pesky birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and other holidays that you can never find time (or inspiration) to shop for…
• or further enhancing your cosmic graces by simply giving someone this shirt for no reason (which also helps promote these noteworthy causes)…
• and best of all, staying “green” the whole time. Click here to read how our shirts are good for you and the environment.

This year, give as much as you gain.

OneTribe.com is part of One Tribe Creative, LLC., and is proud to help support five socially and environmentally responsible organizations around the globe. The purchase of our t-shirts helps support and promote this effort. We thank you for your continued interest.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Water.org Serves 400,000 People

Since 1990, Water.org has directly served more than 400,000 people with safe water and toilets in Africa, South Asia, and Central America.

In the last year alone, Water.org . . .
• Served 136,000 people with clean water and 67,000 people with sanitation.
• Completed 135 community-based water improvements such as hand-dug wells, bore hole wells, spring catchment systems, and roof water harvesting systems.
• Established more than 6,000 individual household water connections and constructed more than 2,500 toilets.
• Incorporated health and hygiene education into each project.
• Made 1,820 WaterCredit loans, empowering people to immediately obtain their own water and toilet connections. Repayment rates: nearly 100%.
• Launched programs in Ghana and began expansion into Uganda and Haiti.

You can see video of Water.org co-founders Gary White (pictured above) and Matt Damon in India discussing past success and future growth here: YouTube.

OneTribe is proud to have helped contribute by providing a lasting revenue stream for this worthy cause with sales of our Water.org T-shirts. 50% of every sale of these fashionably designed, organic shirts goes directly to Water.org and helps provide one person access clean water for life.

Help support this effort with your tax-deductible purchase today: OneTribe.com/Water

Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to Water.org for the information used in this post!