As a follow up to the Blogathon Invoke participated in we received a very thoughtful thank-you from Plan Canada for the $2500 we raised which also acts as a promotional piece in their journal for their fund raising tools. We have no problem being made an example of:

“Over the next five years, Plan will invest $750 million in food and income security programs that will reach more than five million people. Our goals are to provide immediate relief for children and families, and long-term solutions to the global food crisis.

You can be a part of this by donating to Plan Canada’s $750 million food security campaign.

Or, like Meli, you can launch your own fundraising campaign, using our online tools to help you get organized. Inspire your friends and family to be part of something extraordinary!”

And to keep the good news coming, there is a fantastic initiative we are working on with Plan Asia. It’s kind of ‘Top Secret’ at the moment but will likely tie into their newly launched Learn Without Fear project, which was recently launched out of their Bangkok office. Here are some of the details of the project:

“Violence in schools kills thousands of children around the world each year, with millions more suffering serious injuries, depression, mental health problems or sexually transmitted diseases, according to a groundbreaking report by Plan, the leading international children’s NGO. This violence includes sexual assault, inhumane physical and psychological intimidation and violence committed by teachers, along with widespread student bullying.”

The report Plan has produced is the most comprehensive global examination of school violence ever, focusing on the three major areas that effect the 350 million children who suffer from violence worldwide: Sexual violence, corporal punishment, bullying.

Key goals of the global campaign include:

• Persuading governments to outlaw all forms of violence against children in school, including corporal punishment, and to enforce those laws
• Working with school leaders and teachers to create violence-free schools and promote alternative discipline methods to corporal punishment
• Creating a global momentum for change, including increased resources from international donors and governments to tackle violence in schools in developing countries

Invoke is extremely proud to be involved in Plan initiatives as they work with more than 3.5 million families each year throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America.

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

Well that’s it. We did it!! 24 long hours, 49 posts, and countless cups of coffee later we have completed the 1st Annual Vancouver Blogathon for Charity. I am thrilled that we participated and that we were able to do so much for such a good cause in such a short period of time. It is definitely worth the lack of sleep that I’m feeling at the moment.

I would like to take a second to thank each and every donor who took the time and effort. The following is a list of people who helped us raise an amazing $2,539. This money will go along way in N’Gouruba and will make the lives of it’s residents brighter.

I’d like to take this chance to thank all of the Invoke staff for all help I’ve received to pull this off – it was truly an Invoke team effort. Without your help and posts, it would not have been possible. I’d also like to thank all of the people who have supported us in the blogathon and those who took the time to donate to our charity of choice.

I’d also like to congratulate all of my fellow bloggers who took the time out of their week to participate – Rebecca Bollwitt, Tania Morrison, Raul, Shane Gibson, Karen Hamilton, Ayeza Garcia, Isabella Mori, Danny Dang, Mehnaz Thawer, Barbara Doduk, Chris Richardson, Colleen Vince, and Duane Storey.

I’m going to go get some much needed rest now and look forward to doing this again next year!

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity
Well there is only 2 1/2 hours left till the end of the blogathon. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The ride has been an interesting one with some definite ups and downs. The greatest peaks were when I received an email from Plan saying that someone had donated to our charity of choice for the blogathon. I would like to take a second to thank each and every donor who took the time and effort. The following is a list of people who helped us raise an amazing $1,481. This money will go along way in N’Gouruba and will make the lives of it’s residents brighter.

Morgan Borody

Kevin Campbell

Will Panenka

Alana Williams

Tod Maffin

Brad Nguyen

Ben Watson

Cordelia Williams

Amanda Immelman

Andrew Archbold

Sporkist Empire

Michael Ciebin

Scott Meli

Ken and Judith Ayton

Rodrigo Gomez-Tagle

Nicole Finkbeiner

PENTAX_BOYZ

dustin sacks

Andre Liem

Xiaohong Qi

Beier Cai

Paul Donnelly

David Tedman

Ryan Holmes

Jenn Lowther

Dario Meli

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

One thing that this blogathon has made very clear, the hardest part of writing is getting the initial inspiration to pick up your pen and put it to paper (or fingers to keyboards). I’ve always known that inspiration is very important in my writing – from University papers before through to blog posts today.

Once a topic has inspired me, I find myself writing away like a mad woman on a mission. I tend to get hyper focused and can write brilliant articles in very short order. I have always been like this and imagine that I always will be. The best topics are ones that have me fired up and steaming. These posts in particular come to mind: The Problem with Allergy Medicine: Inflated Drug Efficacy and Permission Marketing: How Not to Piss off Your Target Market. As you can see with these articles, I was fired up on the topic I was speaking too and it shows in my posts.

On the other hand, when I’ve not been inspired to write, but need to get something out, it feels like I sit in front of my keyboard for ages staring blankly at the screen. There are millions of things that I can write about, but formulating my initial thesis/topic is the hardest part. Even when I do get around to taping my fingers on the keyboard, it is obvious (at least to me) in my writing that it was forced – like this post. It lacks that certain something that makes writing compelling. I feel a bit like a fraud and am waiting for someone to call me out on it.

This brings me to the point of my post, where do you draw your inspiration from? This isn’t just limited to writing, but everything that we do in our lives. What makes you get up everyday, get ready, and walk out of your front door?

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

My good friend kc and I went on a pretty nuts trip this past May. It was a whirlwind that started with Amanda and I spending a week on the beach in Mexico followed by London, Bamako, Casablanca, Paris, and Lyon with the main purpose of the trip to get our boots on the ground in Mali, make sure things were going well, and to see where we could further get things done.
To get to Bamako from Europe you need to take a late flight, arriving at 3am local time. Leaving is the same. Upon our arrival our driver Camara grabbed us and we made our way to the Listel’s Libya Hotel which was financed by Libyan dictator Momar Khadafi. Turns out he is very generous with his oil money to his neighbors. In fact, he is in the process of creating a massive district to centrally house all of Bamako’s government bodies.

After a short sleep we were up and at’em and heading out to meet with Plan Canada and Plan Mali representatives. First on the agenda was to visit a textiles factory. Mali only processes 1% of the cotton they harvest. Instead of exporting it all to be manufactured into usable textiles in Asia and then re-imported we are looking at opportunities to develop textiles in Mali as a vertical industry where the cotton is grown, processed, and manufactured locally thereby creating jobs and keeping the economy self sufficient.

Most of the equipment was from the 70′s and in need of replacement. As you can see these pics:

When I saw these guys rummaging through this junk i was curious. No joke, this is their parts department. Workers sort through these heaps hoping to find parts to repair the old machines. The company is looking for $20 million to refit the plant.

Later this day we were presented with an outline of what Plan was looking to do to expand the projects we’re working on and get us geared up for the next day’s trip 2.5 hours away to N’Gouraba Village. That is where the bulk of Lochmaddy’s work is done and I was extremely eager to get out there.

To be continued…