The Best $10 I'll Spend This Week

Thanks to BooMama and Rocks in my Dryer for pointing this out.

I had a rare moment today of 15 minutes alone in my house to fold laundry with no one but the dog and the radio for company. As I flipped on NPR, where the dial on the laundry room radio is permanently set (inadvertently, but a happy accident), the BBC World News Hour was on. They were, thank goodness, close to the end of a report about devastating human rights abuses in the Congo. I won't go in to the few details I heard, but every last one of them was something I wished I hadn't known. And again, felt helpless to do much besides bear witness, which is cold comfort, if any, to those affected by these horrendous things going on in Africa, man-made and otherwise.

And, just like that, I checked in on some of my favorite mommy blogs today and saw a way to help. While I have admi(red) the (red) campaign (sorry, couldn't help myself), I am suspicious of how much money is actually going to the cause. Bite Back, however, is a campaign being run by Compassion International, a group in many third-world countries, working with direct aid to families. For $10, you can buy a family a mosquito netting, allowing them to sleep, protected from malaria-bearing mosquitoes, for three years. I like this because I know exactly how my money will be used. And having been in a room with a mosquito (hello, mountain house) and being annoyed, I can't imagine both being annoyed by mosquitoes in my bedroom and simultaneously fearing that that little thing could be bringing me death.

Ten dollars wouldn't buy me lunch at the place I was supposed to meet friends today. But it can buy three years of better sleep for someone...or her child. Please think about clicking. And if you enjoy having your heartstrings tugged, don't miss Shannon's and BooMama's descriptions of their time in Africa. And get a sense for the kids whose sleep you could be buying.