Incredible NGO Volunteers

Over 60 dedicated volunteers help create the vision of AidJoy.

Photographers, web developers, journalists, graphic designers, and politicians unite as humanitarians to deliver the message of AidJoy. Being a volunteer isn’t the only way to help- share one of our blog posts, or “retweet” to your Twitter followers!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/aidjoy

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/AidJoy/439077415530

Increased awareness of our mission helps spread the message of our current project, Project Amazonas (http://www.projectamazonas.org/), as we travel to Peru next month to document the need for healthcare and resources in the Amazon.

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Please, help us reach our $30,000 goal for March.

To help, click on the “Give” button at the bottom of https://www.aidjoy.org/digital-gift.html

• We’re happy to provide you with an itemized expense sheet, just ask.

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FACT: The Amazon covers 2.5 million miles, about the size of the USA west of the Mississippi.

FACT: Right now 75% of the Peruvian Amazon is open to oil exploration and extraction.

AidJoy’s documentary journalism is a radical action. Radical enough to stop 75% percent of this rainforest from becoming a larger version of the Rio Corrientes.

Our work is made possible through individual contributions. We have $45,000 left to raise. Every donation, regardless of size, is greatly appreciated.

Much Thanks,

AidJoy Team

Saving The Amazon

ODE TO AIDJOY AND THE BLACK BLOOD DRAGONS

by Bo Bryan

Part I

Going with AidJoy is risky business, off the chart, where the geodetic survey drops from the table, over the edge where discoveries are made. Where the olden time mapmakers signified the unknown with a terse warning, “Here There Be Dragons”.

Where AidJoy goes the dragons are sometimes microscopic, the size of sporozoites, those tiny, savage bugs that cook you alive in the slow fires of Malaria. Sometimes the dragons are flame-throwing, petroleum giants feeding on the Earth’s black blood, way up the Amazon River.

The dragons are always way up the river. This time in northern Peru, on the Rio Corrientes, a tributary of the Amazon, where a giant lizard, name of Occidental Petroleum, has sucked the black blood out of the Earth for thirty-five years, and now the river is sick. A lot of people who live along the river are dying, and nobody knows. AidJoy will go and investigate, taking medical personnel up the Corrientes, along with cameras, and journalists and all the equipment that directs the light of the civilized world into the caves where the dragons are.

BRIGHT LIGHT IS THE ONLY THING DRAGONS FEAR!

*click “Learn More” for the rest of the story

Happy Happy AidJoy

NGO News Letter 1

Hi there friends of AidJoy,

We would like to let you know about all the exciting things that are currently going on at AidJoy.

So grab your favorite beverage, relax, open your mind, and lets dive in!

The last two years have been a roller coaster of a ride as we hammered out AidJoy’s infrastructure and worked to develop and promote our first partner charity, Project Amazonas. We’ve provided them with a website that utilizes e-commerce technology, donor appreciation packets, photography and video production, public relations, corporate relationship building, and technology grants (among others.) Now, we’re looking to put the finishing pieces in place for this current project and start tackling the next challenge. Before we do that, however, we have to introduce Project Amazonas to the world and put them on the road to sustainable growth.

Helping Project Amazonas In Peru, Ideas & Journalists

Mike & I are headed back to the Amazon. This will be the third trip, and probably final work related trip for AidJoy to this part of the world. We’ve been working with the charity Project Amazonas since the fall of 2008.

Since 1994 Project Amazonas has been busting their humps providing medical aid and land conservation in the Amazon. Since they began they have treated over 100,000 patients.

We are in the early stages of setting up a series of trips for prolific journalists to come aboard the boats and experience a true humanitarian adventure.

Here is our list of initial story ideas & journalists. This isn’t a final list. We’re open to your ideas. Feel free to suggest additional people and ideas.

I’ll keep you apprised as the expedition progresses.

Starting a Movement!

Jonathan and I attended Brains on Fire’s Fire Session yesterday! A full day of speakers, food, collaboration, and ideas. Afterwards, my brain was loaded but I didn’t know quite what to make of everything. It hadn’t fully soaked in and I was at a loss as to how I could apply my newly found knowledge to AidJoy.

I returned to the bat cave completely exhausted, ate some pizza, and passed out on the couch. I woke up two and a half hours ago (It’s 7 a.m. at the moment) and made my way to bed… but I couldn’t sleep. Something was brewing. Back downstairs to get my Fire Session notebook and out it came. A road map for the future. The spark that will turn AidJoy into a roaring inferno of positive motion! The Key To Life!!!

Ok, so maybe I’m a bit delirious- but I swear, I’m onto something good here, really good! I can’t wait to share it with you!

In the mean time. My thanks to the Brains on Fire team and I’ll leave you with some entertaining inspiration mined from the vaults of youtube:

Jonathan’s Birthday Party

So Jonathan finally turned 40!!!

Ok- so he’s actually only 28 (for like the 8th year running), but it’s fun to give him a hard time.

This year we decided to take it easy and have a little get-together at Soby’s in downtown Greenville for drinks, dinner, and fun with finger puppets. Lots of friends showed up to wish Jonathan a happy birthday and talk about AidJoy. After everyone had their fill of finger puppets (and the kind folks at Soby’s managed to find a table for 35 people) we all sat down to a great dinner. What a fantastic night!

Click on the “learn more” button to see photos from the evening!

AidJoy gets Social-with-Media

Social Media.

Now, I don’t have much of a problem with “social”, and I certainly don’t mind “media”, but you put the two together and all of a sudden I think of incessant tweets and gobs of pointless You Tube comments.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine introduced me to a video on You Tube; some goofy pseudo-rap music video entitled “On a Boat.” Yes, I’ll admit that it was mildly entertaining… but it was painfully pointless! The Kicker: almost thirteen million views. Thirteen million! seriously…

So I pulled up AidJoy’s videos on Vimeo. Hmmm… 1078 total views. Some quick math revealed the sad truth: For every one (1) person that watched an AidJoy video there were eleven thousand nine hundred and sixty five (11,965) people that had watched the painfully pointless yet mildly entertaining drivel my friend told me to check out.

And therein lies the key: My friend told me to check it out- so I did. Hmmmm… isn’t that how social media works? Bing Bing Bing- we have a winner!!!

Fast forward two weeks to this morning, Jonathan and I are explaining just how little we actually know about social media to an eager group of cyber socialites at the monthly meeting for Greenville’s Social Media Club.

At the end of the event Jonathan and I are descended upon by well-intentioned gurus like two cute babies at a quilting convention (ok, so we’re not that young ;) ).  An hour later AidJoy’s Social Media Team has been forged.

It is always exciting to have new energetic individuals joining the AidJoy family. When you work on a project on a daily basis and have to deal with the nuts-and-bolts associated with operating a non-profit it can be easy to lose your positive outlook no matter how meaningful the end result of the work is. With new people comes fresh energy and renewed inspiration.

I’d just like to say thanks to Cassia, Despina, Glenn, Scott, and Christa. You are what keeps AidJoy moving forward and solving dire problems.

Now get out there and tell your friends to check us out-

Viva AidJoy! Click here to retweet

Here are our new brothers and sisters:  (Click on them if you want to get a bit more up close and personal)

Exploring Healthcare in the Amazon Jungle

Early morning scene at the Hospital Regional in Iquitos, Peru.

My breathing and heart rate accelerate as the guard puts his key in the padlock holding the doors shut.  The lock opens, the chain drops, the doors swing wide and the stampede begins.  The crowd at the front of the line surges forward as though it were a single animal.  Behind them, a thousand anxious footsteps, more people ­­­­– pushing, yelling, whistling.

No, I’m not at a Black Friday sale at Macy’s.  I’m at a hospital in the Peruvian Amazon.  The people here aren’t fighting for a designer handbag or the latest electronic gadget, they’re just part of the daily struggle for healthcare in Iquitos, Peru.