Run for Right to Play

(October 23)

A man of 55 named Martin Parnell, who would has a goal to run 250 marathons to raise $250,000 for the NGO he supports, ‘Right To Play’ came to our school. He was born in England, and graduated with his masters, came work and settle down in Canada. Now he lives with his wife in Cochrane, Alberta and has three children and two grandchildren. :) He is currently on his 197 marathon. He began his journey in January 2010 and is hoping to finish by December 31. Father Lacombe was his 195th marathon

‘Right To Play’ (www.righttoplay.ca)is an organization using sports and play to create a healthier, developed, peaceful world. It’s goal is so simple, yet it helps so many children around the world. It gives kids the opportunity to play in club sports.

He ran 70 laps around the field, it took like 6 hrs. I got tired after the 3rd lap and collapsed at 4^th. Imagine 70 laps, that is like 15 times me, and he’s elderly and i’m supposed to be young and fit. He was just amazing and so determined, it inspired me to reach my goals too and never give up. When he said 70 laps, i really thought he would quit, but he didn’t. What a determined person. I respct that. Our clas spent the whole morning with him and the last 30 minutes of the day watching him go through the last 10 laps. I walked through most of the marathon but got tired so easily. Mr.Parnell probably has alot of passion and effort to be able to do that much running.  He did this for the unfortunate. This just goes to show that even you, a simple civilian can go out and change the world, little by little.

For Parnell to finish by his goal, he needs to run 5 marathons a week to achieve his goal of 250. THAT’S ALOT OF RUNNING. He’s such a great man and has such a great goal.. I believe he will reach his goal and be successful. HAVE FAITH ~. I find this guy really interesting and thoughtless. He’s helping people who want to play and who need something to gain friends and support each other. Thanks to Parnell, more kids will get to play sports, something everyone deserves. A world without sports would be dull , you wouldn’t know the skills of a leader and teamwork. I respect this man alot and i hope everyone does as well. He’s thinking about children in need before himself and is difficultly striving to that goal to help kids get sports.

Speeding Up

(October 23)
Me, Monica and Riza picked the topics religion and colonization. We picked these 2 topics because we are doing colonization in Social class so that will help us on research for both classes. I’m making egwugwu dresses; Riza’s fixing the powerpoint and Monica’s making a poster. We are well prepared, I can’t wait. I worked real hard painting the skirts, it is going to be a full on egwugwu dress. I need to rehearse with Monica and Riza before school tomorrow at 6:30~ MDG Social- I have done nothing on my researching yet because of other work that had to be handed in right away. I will work on this on the weekends though. NO WORRIES. HAKUNA MATATA!!!! I’m have worked a little but my powerpoint is still really far from done, so don’t expect much. I’m sure everything will work out later anyway.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_158866654144819

My facebook group is going great! Well actually, me, Jamal and Riza’s group. I post things about universal education everyday and i get comments everytime. I would like it if there were different people commenting each time so i know EVERYONE is listening but it probably won’t happen. I will make people comment by force if need be (: After making the groups, in a matter of minutes we already had 300 people!! LITERALLY! In about 20 minutes we had about 300 people. Me and riza were frantically clicking people and inviting friends to join and it was a success. People thought it was spam and deleted themselves, i got angry and made them re-join. Hopefully everyone will invite at least 3 friends so we can make 1000!!! Facebook is so awesome (: A billion facebook groups started poping up right after. I suggested the idea to Monica and she decided to make a facebook group and as soon as people saw , a MDG revolution started. I hope people will read my posts along with the others, i hope they pay attention! I’m very glad to see everyone trying to make a different in our world. The future will be bright! <3

GUESS WHAT?!

Riza and me have only 3 bears left D: I am kinda of disappointed because everybody put orders in before letting me advertise. Sure we advertised verbally but only to our classmates and friends. People for grade 12 and 11 probably don’t even know what we were trying to do. They probably didn’t know a bear project existed at all. The point was raising awareness. I kinda wanted to raise awareness to the whole school, not just our classmates and friends. But at least we fundraised alot!!!! Here are some people who bought a teddy bear.

Librarian = 1 bear

Harlene Magnaye = 1 bear

Leilani Avendano = 2 bears

Autumn Sali = 5 bears

Michael Felix = 2 bears (donated a dollar)

Vincent Vuong = 2 bears (donated a dollar)

Mrs. Anna Majczak = 1 bear

Julie Le = 1 bear (donated 5 cents)

Amber Aguilar = 1 bear

Robert Townsley = 1 bear

Diana Lu = 1 bear

Janelle Balisacan = 1 bear

David Nguyen = 1 bear

Kay Aranda = 1 bear

Jessica Naidu = 1 bear

Wishmae Antonio = 1 bear

Erine Thai = 1 bear

Jan Vincent Pana = 1 bear

THANKS YOU GUYS FOR CHANGING THE WORLD FIRST!!!! I haven’t even made the pamphlets, the bears took so long themselves.

I guess working hard really pays off ~ What supportive classmates!! Maybe we'll make them bring their bears and show them off one day that to say they believe in universal education!They complimented and loved the bears, that makes me very happy~. They said its so cute and soft. :D We have three bears left! When the green bears are sold out, I'll help the others (Monica, Jessie and Shilah) sell theirs. I hope to reach out to strangers too, not just my pals. Me and riza only made about 50 dollars each. I imagined higher but this will do, i really hope to raise at least 600 dollars on my own. I think that i will need to put up posters anyway, just for fun and so people know what HAS happened. There’s three more left, who knows? Things are really speeding up now though, I am putting a lot of projects into play at this time.

Residential schools, Ghandi and Currents events

OH MY GOSH! 

The evil teachers have never picked a better week to bomb us with tests and worksheets. I'M SO STRESSED.
(October 18)

Today a teacher i’ve never seen before came to our social class (SORRY, i don’t remember her name). She is an aboriginal herself and she wanted to talk about the residential schools aboriginals were forced to attend. Pretty sad doesn't even cover it. It was horrible!!! I was so sad to hear what happened to kids aged 5-18. I read from my textbook in grade 8, that the aboriginals were forced to residential schools but hearing the details in person changed my whole view on the topic. They went through hard times and some were still in trauma even when they grew old. The textbook mentioned NOTHING about that!!!!! No offence , and i’m just speaking truthfully, but i didn’t have much respect for them because i thought they were sort of uncivilized, i thought that they drank alot, hence the term ‘drunken indian’ but hearing the facts straight up made me respect what they had to go through and they were very young as well. This made me look at aboriginals totally different and understand they had so much trouble. I wonder if other cultures are like this too. They state very little about the facts in textbooks so i've never seen or heard the reaility.

Mahatma Ghandi was a man  from india who fought in a non violent way for the british to leave India. He’s so cool! He is non violent so he won’t fight back but i really think his wisdom is something in awe to me. You have to find the deeper meaning in his words. Ghandi stuck to his ways and did not retaliate to the fighting. He stayed true to his beliefs and tried to promote it among India. I find that very courageous. The british put them in a line and beat all of them. I really don’t think i could stand back and let someone hit me without beating the crap out of them first. Ghandi showed great perserverance when walking to the Indian ocean to get salt, he’s so inspiring and wise and I found him really interesting. We finished the Ghandi movie in social class. I hope the finish to real movie someday~

Today’s current events: The Chilean miners were free! They were rescued from a cave in!! That’s great. I never even knew there was a cave in, in the first place, current events is really just great. I’m very glad they were saved because i would want to be saved if i was in that position. They were underground for 69-70 days. Oh my gawd, i don’t think i could survived that. A day without candy is DEATH for me. At least a hole was drilled to transport food and movies to them. I wouldn’t mind if i had my dramas but i’m sooooo claustrophobic, i would’ve died. It’s funny how some man’s wife and mistress were waiting for him. That’d be such big drama. I would’ve divorced right away! HAHA no questions asked. He had that mistress for 10 years.  Oh no! Anyway, the the important thing is that all of them survived!! YAY!!! And they made it out safely~ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0qgmNv8nxQ

Janie and Riza's Day Out~

(October 16)

LOOK HOW HARD WORKING WE ARE ?! 
Okay so today, I went over to Riza's house to work on our MDG project. Monica decided to ditch us HAHA. She gracefully tied my thread and I amazingly customized our bears! They looked so cute <3 I created different personalities for each, ninja bear, girly bear, bow tied bear, manly bear and supa bear! I have a feeling that they'll be sold our really quickly! I am proud of my wonderful creations~ SUCCESS!! Finally, somthing working out!!! Anyway me and riza had a really fun time! She was working on our LA presentation while I answered a few questions with her and contributed to the vocab!!! We finished the presentation and the bears needed a little more touch up cause I decided to redo all the unattractive bears~ Which was almost all of them, I brought them home and finished! YAY! I'm sending the money I raise to UNICEF and Riza, to 'The Lost Boys of Sudan'! We make a really good team, I love being parteners with Riza & Monica too, if she showed up but she said her bears looked really good!

This photo was for humor and spread talk about our bears~
Ms. Majczak let Riza advertise the bears in her class yesterday. I supervised and contributed smiles to the audience from a desk~ We ended up having two buyers and many other promises of buyers too! My surveys proved wrong! We're still persuading others to buy though. Most of them are so picky and don't like green, some even requested for a specific design. I got so many request for specific designs and with the evil teachers bombing me with tests and quizzes, where shall i find the time?! But i enjoy sewing and as long as it's for a good cause, i'll fail anything!!!! AHAH. We made a total of 8 dollars yesterday!! GO RIZA AND JANIE! it feels good when we sell bears. I feel lighter, like a load has been lifted off. I'm sure the people will be happier when they get our donations but, i'm pretty worried because 4 bears made only 8 dollars. i thought we would make at least a total of 70-90 dolars. I can now see the difficulty of fundraising. I feel kinda bad that i ignore some things sent to me when they ask me to buy things in support of something T____T.
Anyway, my booksearch has ended. I found my book at 'Indigo' and it was 30 bucks. I don't really want to buy it because i don't think i'll ever read it more than once so i will try to go and find it at the library, i feel kinda stupid because I never knew you could put books on hold, I can just put my desired book on hold and wait for it to come. I read really fast but my time for fun is very limited. The road to IB is a stressful one indeed. I guess I can just throw away my social life for the next 3 years (:  I already described everything about the book several times so this time, i'll post some quotes from Greg Mortenson and describe my thoughts on them~ I only picked the ones that inspired me though (:


"Educate a boy, and you educate and individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community. "
I think he means that girls have kids and the potential to learn if given the chance. We can extend our knowledge as well as teach our offspring. The boys usually leave their clan and work in the cities for higher pay but girls become leaders of their clan

"You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change." 

I don’t really understand this but it seems that he really wants girls to be educated and firmly believes it’s beneficial, unlike many other countries. He means boys start fights and create war while girls are gentle and can change a society for the better. We can bring new ideas and raise our voices.

"In times of war, you often hear leaders—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—saying, ‘God is on our side.’ But that isn’t true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans." 
God is on the side of those who need help the most, not those who already have enough in their life. I don’t really see as how this ties in with education but my theory is that education would’ve help those people be more successful and not have to go into refugee?

"If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else, then we will be no safer than we were before 9/11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs." 

If we want peace, why do we start wars in order to promote it? Are we really creating peace by starting wars for peace? With education, the people wouldn’t be stupid and try to create war, we’d be one happy family. Everyone has a say and doesn’t need to create bloodshed because they’re too poor or the government is unstable.

"I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death." 
Children aren’t given a chance at life and grow up in rebellion so they could want to seek revenge.

"And they did it with something that is basicly worthless in our society - pennies. But overseas, pennies can move mountains" 

One man’s garbage  is another man’s treasure. We don’t see pennies as worth much in Canada because we have 100 dollllar bills, but some people in poorer countries see it as alot because some factory workers work for a dollar a day.

"Despite everything that has befallen us, do we not continue to hold the destiny of this shattered and magnificent nation, together with the future of all our children-girls and boys alike-in the palm of our hands?" 

Children are the future, so they should grow up educated to create a better future for the next generation by influencing them.

Here's a video of an interview where Greg Mortenson talked about education and his books and his goals. This described the book very nicely and it made me think of education and why it was a very  wonderful choice that i picked it.  I watched this whole video and I found him really inspiring. His beliefs and opinions really made me think. I think i may have a new idol very soon! (:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe-817DhelU

Guns, Germs, and Steel + The World is Flat

(October 15)

Earlier this week our class was watching Guns, Germs and Steel part 2 and 3.  It is a documentary based on a book written by Jared Diamond, describing how geographic luck and where you live affects you and shaped history and the modern world. Diamond's theory is that places like Europe and the Middle East were geographically lucky because they lived and places where they had resources such as metal and animals that can be domesticated such as cows and goats. These cultures were ‘lucky’ because they had everything they needed right where they were.  The animals helped greatly with farming because they could plow. Whereas places like Papua New Guinea were not as lucky because they only had pigs which could not perform like the other animals. They didn’t have the natural resources like steel of clay or even good vegetation.

I apologize for making you throw up ):
Germs? This could affect the world for better or worse but the result is usually bad. It turns out; it was a huuuge factor in society, altering history for the benefits and negative in each continent. It grew great empires and demolishing the biggest empires, such as the conquistador’s germs against the Aztec empire. The conquistadors brought an unknown germ and disease to the Aztecs. This disease was Small pox which killed huge amount of Aztecs. Germs affected South Africans to such as Malaria. This disease killed so much people. The main killer of the Aztecs was small pox because they did not have the immune system to protect against the sickness.

The World is Flat is a text that we read during social class. We went to the computer lab several times to read this horrifically long chapter. We only read the first chapter but I learned a lot. It talked about Columbus and his voyages and then they talked about how in India they were developing technology. He talked about how India looked almost like America because it was so globalized. He couldn’t eve ntell them apart.  The world is Flat is a really good title because it isn’t literal, he’s talking about how the playing field is becoming more fair. He’s talking about how most countries are catching up to America and Canada so they have a chance to exceed us. He wasn’t talking about how the world itself is becoming a flat instead of spherical. Other countries are developing technology so they are becoming more of the same.

My Plans are Falling Apart!

(October 14)

This blog will probably make you cry, so I hope you have 20 boxes of tissue ready ): My rocketship has crashed so early! I made so much great plans and now they are all withering away!!!! Okay so my plan to hold up posters in public and record honks given is now a ‘probably not gonna happen’ because you could get arrested for public disturbance. And we might make a distraction for people who are driving and they could get hurt because they were paying attention to us instead D: OH MY! My plan to go to St. Rose (my former junior high) is also a maybe because I asked a CERTAIN SOMEONE to go to the junior high and ask and it turns out she didn’t and when i went today, they said that it might take till November or December!!! WAHAHAHHAHA D: I really hope November, because i would like to include this activity in my December presentation! To add to that problem, me and Rizamel want to talk about our MDGs to a WHOLE SCHOOL (YEEEAAAAAH, taking it to the next level~) but other people who joined late don’t want to. They say that a whole group wouldn’t pay attention as much as a little group of just 2 classes. I think that we can get more done and raise more awareness with a Period X. I really hope they come around my idea. If the students probably won’t pay attention... then i think that the powerpoint should be more fun and cool instead! I don’t care; I will get us to PERIOD X!! NO COMPROMISE AT ALL. ALL OR NOTHING. To top this problem off, a billion St. Rose kids want to join this activity and are not pulling their weight. They are either slacking or arguing all the time! I think a big group is ‘okay’ but then we might not get our message through more easily if 20 St. Rose kids are walking around upstage. With more people, no one is working hard at all ): I read an article about a school donating a few hundred through a bottle drive at school. I thought maybe we could do this too but a whole bunch of people don’t want to and are backing out! I thought that we could raise at least 400, but now only me and a few others still want to do this. We might only raise 100 dollars though ): I’m also afraid that our teddy bears won’t sell because I surveyed a few people about if they would buy a bear if they were sold at school and none said ‘yes’ NONE. I hope my survey is wrong!!!!!
My progress so far is going great! I made up to 20 bookmarks today and my speed has increased 300%!!!!! GO JANIE!!!! I also made 2 posters and bought this reaaal nice shade of green from Dollarama~ I am also undating my facebook group almost daily now! Many people are commenting and I heard a group of people talking about it at school! I hope it wasn’t anything bad though -____-“. The facebook group is going fantastic! It was a really niiiccce idea, considering   that everyone goes on Facebook as least 1 hour a day! I and Riza verbally advertised our bears a little today, in class and around the halls. I really want to put our posters up first though, so people can just see what we are trying to do visually. But either way, our promotion is going great! I will need to step it up though, if I want my goal to be noticed and discussed everywhere!
I found a new and better NGO! UNICEF. This is the official website.
http://www.unicef.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx
Here is a short video on their company’s primary goals and achievements. I think that the whole video is good but these are more important parts incase you haven’t got the time~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7Jxt8f7kA
0:55-2:22.
There were so many more videos but you can look them up yourself. I read the titles of most and skimmed through the videos and they talked about how UNICEF has achieved effective ways of teaching in poorer countries, like Malaysia, Indonesia and Guinea-Bissau. Here’s what I found on my research!
Generally, UNICEF was formed in 1955(United Nations Children’s Fund) is one of the best recognized charities in the world and a leading advocate for children, helping to build a world and protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has the global authority to influence decision-makers and the roots partnerships to turn life-saving ideas into reality.

“They are supported entirely by voluntary funds from governments, organizations, the private sector, foundations and individuals.”
OH MY GOSH! Government organization?! D: HAHA, that’s what i thought when i saw that but i re-read it several moretimes and realized that the government funds it too. Maybe this organization is a little too popular.....They have many events that maybe we can promote even at school and the website says that i can create my own event if i want! Maybe i should!!!! I read a little deeper and it turns out that this organization doesn’t JUST promote universal education but it also helps with health and many more too! I found some articles on Haiti but none of them were about promoting education in Haiti, and that makes me VEEEERY sad ):
“One of UNICEF Canada’s cornerstones is its Education for Development programme, which works through schools, special projects and the Internet to engage children and youth in international development issues such as HIV/AIDS, girls’ education, children and war, child labour and children’s rights.”
YAY!!! This organization is helping education in some poor countries! I’m almost certain that i’ll pick this NGO. The website is packed with info. I will post more about it on another blog next time though. BYE-BYE! 

Through with Things Fall Apart ~

(October 9)
The class has finally accomplished reading the text, ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe. This novel portrayed the society of Nigeria before and after Christianity was introduced. I was able to discover many facts about Nigeria before and after it was colonized.
Part one brought the readers (us) to the village of Umuofia. Achebe was able to display points about the Umuofian society, culture, values, beliefs and religion through a character, Okonkwo. Achebe portrayed how they saw the world and displayed facts that he wanted the world to know about Umofians, like how they used yams and wives to represent wealth. This showed their culture and way of life from in inside view This part showed us a part of Nigeria from an insider’s view, we saw Umuofia from an insider’s view.
Part 2 led Okonkwo to flee to Mbanta as punishment for ‘women crime’. This section showed us how even though Nigeria is one place, that doesn’t mean everyone is the same and every village has the same traditions and customs. Achebe tried to portray this through Okonkwo, being forced to leave to a new place. Many books on Nigeria explain the territory as if it’s all alike. Through this section of the novel, we were able to see how villages differed from each other although they were in the same country. Achebe gives us the comparison of two villages in one place. Through this, we were able to see how villages differed even if they were form the same country.
 Part 3 was about how Nigeria became colonized. The Europeans came to Nigeria and slowly conquered them without any wars. Their strategy was to lure on the outcasts of and converted them to Christian faith (lure the ones that were considered unworthy). They then slowly started the convert women. Umofia didn’t know this, but the missionaries were slowly penetrating the heart of the village. Okonkwo couldn’t take it anymore and committed sucide as a result of the people of Umuofia wanting to convert while he was against it completely. The European District Commissioner thought about publishing a book about his time in Nigeria, and from this entire story, he decided to dedicate Okonkwo a paragraph. A man’s life was a book long; others show it in only as a paragraph. It could represent that though people have visited Nigeria and wrote books on it, they do not know the full story as Nigerians do. This incredible novel showed me that there is more to a book that just reading, you always need to find the deeper meaning because everything happens for a reason. This text is my new official favourite! It opened  me up to new things, it taught me that I should always think and notice that everything is the way it is because it was meant for that! This is why Chinua Achebe wrote this amazing text, ‘Things Fall Apart’.

Lift Off!

(October 6)

Today marks the day I begin to work toward my fundraising and raising awareness. Hopefully my rocket doesn't crash anytime soon (haha).

I didn't do much today but if I work a little a day at a time then it will build up to be a tremendous success! To fundraise our MDG project (our being me and Rizamel) we have decided to make pamphlets for everyone who contributed to buying our green teddy bears. Those pamphlets will include a Facebook group (Support Universal Education Please) that we encourage them to join! People who buy a teddy bears can get 50 cent cookies in our upcoming bake sale~ People who didn't buy one will have to pay a dollar, BWAHAHAH. I will make the posters since I am more artistic (HAHA, sorry Riza) and since Riza has nothing else, she will do the information searching. I made at least 4 bookmarks today. All different styles. It took me amazingly long ): i need to make at least 96 more so i can just hand out to random people (I hope they don't throw it away cause i worked so hard). I have made layouts for 6 posters and will start to work on them next week! We are selling Teddies on October 11th. We hope they will sell out quickly~ I look forward to a very promising month (:
Meanwhile, my book search has hit a wall. I cannot find my novel anywhere. I think i might switch soon if I cannot find one by the end of this month. I read quickly so I should have no problems in time, but IB is telling me otherwise. 'Three cups of tea' sound great, so i hope I won't have to find another one. I look at the Chapters near Sunridge mall & I couldn't find it. I also went to the library in downtown, because I thought it had every book into the world. But apparently, all except for that book D: Maybe I looked in the wrong category. But my mom is bring me to Cross Iron Mills on Saturday so I can search for it in the HUUUGE 'Indigo' bookstore!  
" Education is not the preparation to life, it is life itself "
Wow, I can't find the author of these words but this is a very true note. With education, we can practically do anything! An example would be Adolf Hilter. He KNEW how to persuade the government and persuade the people of Germany, (1919 - 1923) largely as a result of his skills in oratory, organization and promotion, to use violence in advancing his political objectives and to recruit party members who were willing to do the same. He was pretty smart. With the population having knowledge, they can raise their voices and be a part of community whereas people who don't have an education have little say and little power in the future. You can use this power to even change the world someday! Like creating a cure for cancer or maybe discovering timetravel! Who knows? I very much want to help the children of Haiti or at least contribute to giving them a chance in life. They deserve a voice in this world, as does everyone else.
This is an AMAZING video about education and the hardships some people have to sacrifice just to go, whereas we can go to school easily! All we need to do is go(and pay our school fees of course!) What luck i found this video on the first click, because these quotes are so true and they really make us (well i did) think about the importance of education and how lucky we are to receive it so easily and affordably.
Anyway.... ENJOY (:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGp9yd_uIZo

What to Choose?

(October 4)

OH GOSH!!!!!! I CAN'T DECIDE ON ANYTHING ):  So many choices, for which NGO I should decide on, what events I could do to raise more money and how to raise awareness effectively! Barefoot, Stillerstrong, UNICEF, GoInspireGo, World Wide Village, CCFCanada, and Worldvision. These are NGOs I found that intend to aid Haiti in rebuilding schools. World Wide Village began distributing 390 School-in-a-Box kits and 410 recreation kits in 10 rural regions where quake survivors are now living. Each kit provides 40 children with exercise books, pens, pencils and other learning materials. ‘GoInspireGo’ described that one of their efforts is building a middle school for Port-au-Prince residents seeking shelter in Grand-Saline. AHHHH! So much to choose from! Luckily, I already have 2 NGOs I’ve chosen to contribute to, Worldvision or CCFCanada. I notice these commercials on T.V a lot (: But the problem is ...these organizations help in whatever they can. I mean, it’s definitely not a problem but, I don’t think that their primary goal is building schools in Haiti. I want my fundraising money to contribute to that goal. I really think that Haiti needs the most help right now. I will require Mrs. Ponce’s help in choosing an organization.

The sites for these NGOs are www.ccfcanada.ca and www.worldvision.com.
Some commercials I found on these NGOs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxqp-M1XG18

 
Summary: `A Worldvision` commercial emphasizing the importance of our help toward the recent devastation in Haiti. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utsOBE6iFj8

 
Another `Worldvision` commercial. The key parts are 2:19 – 2:38 and 3:30 -3:49.

I recall seeing a commercial about Haiti and how schools urgently need to be built, but I couldn't find it on 'Youtube' D:
I also remember watching a CCFCanada commercial not about Haiti but about their organization building schools in Africa with our future donations. 

----------------------------------------------

Updates on my book! I have decided solely on 'Three Cups of Tea'. I chose this because this book talks about how Greg Mortenson tried to build a school for girls in Afghanistan and the last i checked, i'm a girl! i might find out many interesting things and maybe relate! Plus, 'Stones over Schools' is the sequel to this novel so i should start at 1 before skipping to 2. The cover looks really interesting and I have no idea how the title connects to the goal he was trying to achieve. Anyway, I hope to have a lot of fun reading this book and discover new things (: I cannot find this novel in the school library so i will check the Calgary public library tomorrow if i am not busy.

------------------------------------------------

These 2 songs which I`m sure you`ve heard of before, inform us about the situation in Haiti and what we could do to help. They tie in with Haiti perfectly!

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI (We are the world)

 Key lines:

• ·         Help Haiti rise from the rubble and rebuild

-          We need to help Haiti out of the darkness so they can rebuild their country

• ·         please do more than just watch

-          instead of just watching this tragedy on the news or hearing others talk about it, we should take action ourselves

• ·         Whatever you have, no matter how big or small, it all counts

-          Whatever we can contribute, just do it! We should help in any way we can, it doesn’t need to be a huge donation

• ·         There are people dying and it’s time to lend a hand to life.

-          People are dying in this world, while some are so secure and living in luxury. We who live in peace should help those in devastation.

• ·         We can’t go on, pretending day by day, that someone, somehow will soon make a change

-          Instead of waiting for others to make a huge change, we ourselves can be those people.

• ·         We are all a part of God’s great big family and the truth, you know love is all we need

-          We all live on earth and are one big family. All we need is love to live together in harmony.

• ·         Send them your heart, so they’ll know that someone cares so their cries for help will not be in vain.

-          Let them know we care and hear them by taking action so they’ll have hope of recovery.

• ·         We can’t let them suffer, no we cannot turn away, right now they need a helping hand

-          We can’t let them suffer alone. We need to help!

• ·         But if you just believe, there’s no way we can fall, let us realize, that a change can only come when we stand together as one.

-          If we all have hope, we can do anything. We can go to greater heights when we work together as one.

• ·         When the floor breaks a magic carpet to stand on, we are the World united by love so strong

-          They have us to lean on. We all are united by love

• ·         a guided light on the dark road your walking on, a sign post to find the dreams you thought was gone

-          We can help them get back on their feet, we can be the light to their darkness

• ·         someone to help you move the obstacles you stumbled on

-          we can all count on each other in tough times

• ·         someone to help you rebuild after the rubble’s gone, we are the World connected by a common bond

-          We are all connected in one world so why not help each other?

• ·         Like Katrina, Africa, Indonesia and now Haiti needs us, they need us

-          Hurricane Katrina and the children starving in Africa needed our help before and now Haiti became the next victim & need our help most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB7L1BIDELc (Wavin’ Flag – Young Canadian Artists for Haiti) 

Key lines:

• ·         When the media stops covering and there’s little help from the government we forget about the people still struggling

-          When the media stops airing about Haiti, we might forget that there are still people out there who need us

• ·         We don’t have to wait for things to break apart, if we weren’t involved before it’s never too late to start

-          We don’t just help when a huge disaster happens, we always need to help anyway. If we never helped Haiti when they were in trouble in the past, then we still can help even now

• ·         You probably think that it’s too far to even have the care, just take a look at where you live, what if it happened there? You have to know the urge to make a change lies within and we can be the reason that they see their flag rise again.

-          We would want help too if were in their place. So we should help them now because this is a reality for them. We could help them have hope and help their country rebuild and prosper.

• ·         Out of the darkness in came the carnage threatening my very survival

-          Their lives were at stake because of the devastation. It occurred out of nowhere and were unprepared. Living became even harder than it already was.

• ·         Fractured my streets and broke all my dreams, feels like defeat to wretched retreat

-          Broken homes and broken dreams were resulted. They think they have no chance in life anymore and feel defeated.

• ·         So we strugglin’, fighting to eat and we wonderin’, if we’ll be free

-          Struggling lives, no food, no necessities, wondering if they can recover now and rebuild their lives

• ·         This can’t control us, no it can’t hold us down

-           They won’t let this devastation bring them down, they can stand back up & have faith.

• ·         But it's my home all I have known where i got grown, but now its gone

-         This is their home and where they grew up but now it’s destroyed

• ·        all that we've been through  and now there is more

-          They have already been through so much problems and now this earthquake to top it all off

• ·         we gonna pick it up even though we still struggling

-          they are still going to have hope even though they've lost everything

These videos visually explain how much Haiti is hurting now and how they desperately need our help.