Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

In less than three weeks, Valentine’s Day will be here. Now that beautiful day celebrating love has a new meaning. Not only is it the day of love for couples, it is also a day to end violence against women. Not by parading or picketing, but by dancing. One Billion Rising on V-Day is the movement. It’s named for the one billion women who are raped or beaten in their lifetimes. According to the slogan: One billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women dancing is a revolution. Other than with a few close friends, I have never shared that I was raped when I was 22. I was living in Japan and seeing a guy there. I invited him over to my house for dinner and he took that as an invitation for more than just dinner. It affected me in my relationships with men for at least five years. When I met the man I was to marry, I had to tell him that it was still affecting me sometimes. It wasn’t a constant pain or ache, but sometimes I didn’t want a man to touch me. Now there’s a ...

You may already know that January is national mentoring month, but did you know you can mentor children as far away as Africa and as close as Philadelphia without ever leaving your home? Or that you can become a buddy to someone with intellectual and developmental disabilities from your computer? It’s called E mentoring. There are many different ways of doing it, from video conversations to email pen pal programs. Infinite Family matches children in Africa affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty with adults around the world, who through weekly half hour video conversations, improve the life and future of these children. E-Buddies pairs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in one-to-one e-mail friendships with peer volunteers who do not have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Matched pairs exchange emails once a week. E-Buddies provides people with IDD an opportunity to develop new friendships and acquire much needed computer skills. ...

I cried so much doing the research for this week’s blog. I guess that’s nothing new. My husband often sees me with tears running down my face as I work on my blog. It’s usually a mixture of sadness and happiness at what happens in this world that causes it.   Have you heard about the 26 acts of kindness that NBC News Host Ann Curry suggested people do in honor of each person who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School? She started out just suggesting people do 20 acts for the kids, but everyone wanted to do something for each person who died.   If you want to see some examples of what people are doing and her explanation of how it all happened, visit the NBC News page about it . I think it’s such a fabulous idea that I had to mention it.   I also found out about a local mother who started her own random acts of kindness initiative.   Were your kids bored over the Christmas holiday when they were out of school?   Courtney Fell’s two boys were, too...

Last week I asked you to think about which charities you might want to support in the new year. This week I have thirteen ways to do so. Not all of these ways allow you to choose the charity you benefit, but many of them do so get ready to give back! 1.        Open a savings account with ableBanking and get $25 given to the charity of your choice and a quarter percent of your average balance once a year as well. They are an online bank with no fees so you will be saving money, too! 2.       Give a dime a day to charity without thinking about it. Help Every Day takes what it calls a “coin of compassion” each day , charged monthly to your credit card, to support various charity projects around the world. You don’t miss it, but it’s helping other people. 3.       Like Carrie Underwood, James Taylor, Katy Perry or the Rolling Stones? Then buy your ticket to their concerts at Tickets for Charity ...