imran*

‘Those who spend in Allah’s Cause,in
prosperity and in adversity, who repress anger, and who pardon men;
verily, Allah loves Al-Muhsinoon, the good-doers.’ {Chapter 3, Verse 134 – The Qu’ran}

In the next few weeks, my friend Mike Sierra will be riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge, to raise money for cancer research and treatment…he’s geo-tagging his route, so others can follow his progress in Google Earth (KML link). Mike lost his brother brother-in-law to cancer a few years ago. I’m sure his efforts are driven by his recent experience.

Separately, Andy Mitchell, one of the co-founders of local startup MeeCard, just took part in the Rickshaw Run to support Mercy Corps‘ work in India. Andy’s also behind MeeTimer, a charityware extension for Firefox, designed to help ‘curb your online procrastination’ and build awareness of Mercy Corps.

Lastly, I recently received a letter from World Vision explaining that my sponsored child’s project will soon be closing as the Peruvian village of Ipaumirim is ready to manage its own development. Samara Lima and I have written each other a couple times a year since she was five years old…she’s now fifteen and ready to contribute to her community. I hope I’ll be able to stay in touch with Samara and also be able to support another project.

Mike, Andy and I are amongst the wealthiest 1% of humanity that has ever existed and yet everyone – all of us – don’t do enough. Everything we do must be world-changing 🙂

UPDATE (7th September): With the Ipaumarim Area Development project drawing to an end, this eveningI wrote a farewell letter to Samara and received details of the next development project and the child I will be sponsoring. Benna Nakibirige is a young girl from Uganda who lives in an area around 120km West of Kampala. The Kibiga-Mulagi Development programme will focus on improving sanitation, HIV+AIDS awareness and school enrollment in those two sub-counties.