As we are all busy with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we often forget to take time for those less fortunate. Today I would like to take a step back from the design world and focus on a more serious issue. My friend Paloma Contreras has contacted me along with several other bloggers, about a very deserving charity called Pencils of Promise.

Pencils of Promise is an organization based in New York that partners with local communities and organizations to build schools in third world nations. These facilities for early-stage education, located in developing nations, serve some of the world’s most impoverished and undereducated children. There are more than 75 million children worldwide that don’t have the opportunity of a quality education.

Recently, Pencils of Promise founder Adam Braun, and his photographer Nick went to visit Champet, Laos, a village that is home to the only high school in the region.  In order to attend this high school, students must leave their families and homes to live in dormitories, boarding school style. But this ”dormitory style” is far from what comes to mind when we think of U.S. boarding conditions.

And even more concerning is the fact that the students are often young girls who are living co-ed in these unsafe dormitories, that are actually more like make shift bamboo huts.   It is heartbreaking, but at the same time inspiring to see these young people act so courageous just to receive an education, an opportunity to better their lives and themselves. There are many loving parents who are unwilling to send their children into these dismal conditions, even though it means they must forgo an education and potentially much more.  Pencils of Promise is on a mission to build safe, legitimate housing for the female children to have access to further their education.

To learn even more about this deserving charity, watch the Pencils of Promise Video by following this link.

During this season of Thanksgiving, I have been especially focused on all the things I am so fortunate to have, the things we all take for granted. I get to come home each day and sit in my beautiful living room and discuss with my daughter all of the amazing things she learned in pre-school that day.  At age 4 she is learning spanish, computer technology, art and so many other things that will prepare her for a successful life. Never does it enter my mind to worry about her safety at school or think about where she will sleep at night.  But for parents and children in these impoverished countries, nothing is a given.

Today, a group of my blogger friends and I are asking for your help on behalf of these children.  Just think of the enormous impact we could make if each person who reads this post donates just $1.00. If you are willing and able to give more (35.00 buys shelves for a classroom, $50 provides pencils for one year, $100 provides a teacher’s salary for three months), it would be greatly appreciated.

So I hope that you will find it in your heart to make a donation to this worthy cause today.

For that person on your list that has everything, I think a donation to Pencils of Promise in their name would make the perfect gift! So please join with me and my friends in making a real difference this holiday season.

Thank you and may God’s blessings shine upon you this Christmas and in the year to come.