Here are a couple of follow up links:

• A Thousand Sisters site
• A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman book
• Charity Navigator’s page for Women for Women International
• The Women for Women International Website
• Women for Women on Twitter
• The wiki page for Zainab Salbi, the organization’s CEO and founder

And of course:

• My fundraising page; and
• The events page, in case you’d like to join me for the 5k on July 23rd. (And oh, hey, here’s this Couch to 5k plan…)
• Run for Congo Women site

Click Here to Donate

I’m often left feeling impotent by the news. I mean, these women are a world away from me. What can I do? I suffer from the same chronic deficiencies of time and money as just about everyone else I know. But I haven’t been able to shake that number from my mind. 1,100. Every day.

So I did a little more poking around on the internet and as it happens, there’s a WomenforWomen.org 5k run/walk on July 23rd. So… I signed up. I’ve set a very modest goal–this is a tough economy and April was especially brutal this year, but I’m hoping with your help to raise a mere $200 for Women for Women. It’s not much, but it’s something. And I’m kind of slow, but I’m starting to really understand how somethings add up. There is power in somethings.

So, could you do something too? $5? Maybe?

Here’s the link.

Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies. We’re changing the world one woman at a time.

Run for Congo Women is a global run/walk event series benefiting Women for Women International’s programs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is from 2009:

Andy Khouri and Mark Sable asked me on Twitter yesterday to remind them how you go about doing that.  Good news: it’s pretty easy.  You’re going to be out the price of postage, but it’s worth it.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to anysoldier.com.
2. Click on WHERE TO SEND.
3. Click on ANY SOLDIER SEARCH TOOL.
4. Leaving everything else blank, put either COMICS or COMIC BOOKS into the REQUESTS AND EMAIL CONTENTS field.  (As I write this, COMICS returns 8 units requesting comics–7 Army, 1 Air Force; 5 in Iraq, 1 in Qatar, 1 in Afghanistan and 1 in the Philippines.)
5. Click on one of the soldiers names and read their email, making sure what they want is actually what you’ve got.  Often they’re specific — they want funny comics, or newspaper comics, or Marvel comics, or they may even request a particular hero.
6. Once you find someone who either wants what you’ve got or is just generally requesting comics, click where it says CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THE COMPLETE ADDRESS.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and I can’t proceed any further right now because I don’t actually have any comics to send, but if I recall correctly, you fill out a short form and then you’re emailed the soldier’s address.  I believe you can request up to 2 addresses per day.  (While you’re at it, you might look at what else your soldier is requesting–sometimes it’s something as simple as cotton swabs.  Surely you can throw a package of q-tips in the box.)

The postage fees you pay to an APO or FPO address are NOT international shipping rates.  You pay domestic rates, so while you are picking up a bill, it’s pretty small considering the effect.  And it’s worth mentioning that our local UPS store in KC used to pack up any donations for troops overseas for free.  They’ve since changed ownership and we’ve since moved, so I have no idea if that’s common practice or not, but it’s certainly worth asking.

Good luck!