Saving the descendants of Eleanor Roosevelt’s monkeys. A “So You Think You Can Dance” finalist teaching kids in the foster care system to use dance, movement, and creative arts as a medium for health and well-being. Spreading Christmas cheer to kids in Peru. Creating a lit bookfest in the most diverse city in the U.S.…
Saving the descendants of Eleanor Roosevelt’s monkeys. A “So You Think You Can Dance” finalist teaching kids in the foster care system to use dance, movement, and creative arts as a medium for health and well-being. Spreading Christmas cheer to kids in Peru. Creating a lit bookfest in the most diverse city in the U.S.
At first glance, these initiatives might seem at odds with each other, but if you look closer you’ll see that they all embody simple acts of kindness for those most in need in their communities—human or otherwise.
Plus, each project has received a $500 financial boost thanks to the Upworthy Kindness Fund—a collaboration between Upworthy and GoFundMe that celebrates and amplifies everyday acts of kindness.
Through the end of 2021, you too can tell Upworthy how your GoFundMe is making a difference in your community for a chance to receive $500 for your project and a shout-out on Upworthy.
So far, more than 120 people have received a financial boost from the Kindness Fund. Meet the latest batch of winners:
Throughout Melanie Buttarazzi’s dance career, she has been a finalist on “So You Think You Can Dance” and has worked with Jennifer Lopez, Pharrell, Pitbull and Ne-Yo. For her, dancing is strength and offers freedom. These are some of the core tenets of Melanie’s nonprofit Fostering Dreams Project. The organization partners with school districts to bring a comprehensive curriculum designed to enrich the lives of foster youth both academically and socially.
Since 2018, the Fostering Dreams Project has explored the therapeutic use of dance, movement, and creative arts improve the grades, self-esteem and behavior of more than 1,000 students in 25 schools. But now, with COVID-19, many school budgets have been reduced.
Melanie’s GoFundMe for Fostering Dreams will allow kids in foster care to continue to have a healthy way to release the stress, anxiety and depression that many battle every day.
Biancha Medina believes in “una Navidad para todos,” which translates to “a Christmas for everyone.” But in many parts of the world, including Peru, kids don’t get to experience the joys of the Christmas season.
With the help of Upworthy’s Kindness Fund, Biancha’s fundraiser will bring gifts and supplies to kids and their families living in extreme poverty in Peru’s agricultural Incahuasi district.
In partnership with Lions Club International, Biancha aims to spread Christmas joy and address the basic needs of more than 400 children in many more villages throughout Peru.
Seventy years ago, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt imported tiny vervet monkeys from Africa for biomedical research in Florida. Nearly a dozen of them escaped, and in the ensuing decades they procreated—as monkeys do—and settled around Dania Beach.
But the monkeys remain wild and, as such, face risks due to human interaction. Deborah Williams, organizer of the Dania Beach Vervet Project, writes on its GoFundMe page, “We’ve lost many monkeys over the years to painful electrocutions, car collisions, and wounds due to possible snaring.”
And because they’re not a native species to Florida, the monkeys are not entitled to proper veterinary care. The best solution is to build a 3.5-acre sanctuary that would reduce human interaction in an urban environment and allow the monkeys to live peacefully and injury-free.
Journalists and writers of color have come together to form the BIPOC Bookfest in Houston, Texas, with a mission to ensure that people’s reading experiences are, as they put it, “a little more diverse, and a lot more lit.”
The two-day festival in what is one of the country’s most diverse cities will celebrate books by Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian American, Pacific Islander and other marginalized groups’ authors. A vital aim of the festival will be to combat low literacy rates in Harris County.
The festival is currently raising funds to pay for venue rental, artist fees, book giveaways and other logistics—all crucial in making the event come alive in Spring 2022.
Do you have a GoFundMe or an idea for one that helps your community or the planet in some way?
Through the end of 2021, we want to hear about projects that make a difference—and should your project qualify, we’d be proud to support your efforts with a $500 grant to your fundraiser!
For questions and more information, please check out our FAQs and the Kindness Toolkit for resources on how to start your own kindness fundraiser.
From Pakistan to Tanzania, the most effective education solutions are community-led. Here’s how local leaders, in partnership with Malala Fund and supported by Pura, are mobilizing entire communities.
When asked to describe what Tanzania smells like, Grace Isekore closes her eyes and breathes in deep. For a moment, she’s somewhere else entirely. Tanzania is a rich tapestry of sights and scents, from the smell of sea mist that permeates the coastline to the earthy cardamom and cloves she cooks with in her kitchen. But when Grace emerges from her reverie, her answer is unexpected.
“Tanzania smells like peace,” she says, her eyes still closed. “I see a beautiful country where we are free to move, free to speak. And there is peace within the community.”
For Grace, that sense of peace isn’t just something she smells; it’s something she works toward every day. As a project coordinator with Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a women-led organization that empowers pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, she has seen firsthand how girls flourish when they have the opportunity to attend school. Like scent, education not only connects girls to their own culture, but also helps broaden their horizons, realizing new possibilities for themselves and others. That transformation reshapes entire communities and ripples outward, with the potential to change countries and transform the world for the better.
Different scents, different approaches, and communities driving change
Spices in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
For Grace and others around the world, education is freedom, as well as a pathway to a stronger community. Rooted in that shared belief, Pura, a home fragrance company, was inspired to build on their four-year partnership with Malala Fund to create something truly unique: a fragrance collection that connects people through scent to communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil, where barriers to girls’ education are among the highest.
Using ingredients from each region, the new Pura x Malala Fund Collection uses scent to transport people to these regions directly. “Future in Bloom,” for example, invokes Pakistan’s lush valleys through notes of jasmine, cedarwood, and mango; while Tanzania’s fragrance, “Heart on Fire,” evokes the spirit and joyfulness of the girls who live there through cardamom, lemon, and green tea.
The new Collection honors the work Malala Fund does every day, partnering with locally-led organizations in these four countries to ensure every girl can access and complete 12 years of education. Each scent celebrates the joy, tenacity, and courage of the women and girls driving change on the ground, while also augmenting Pura’s annual grant to Malala Fund by donating eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection to Malala Fund directly.
Just as each country’s scent is unique, so too are their needs related to education. But with support from Malala Fund and Pura, local leaders are coming up with creative ways to mobilize entire communities (parents, teachers, elders, and the students themselves, in their pursuit of solutions, understanding that educating girls helps everyone thrive. Here’s how their efforts are creating real, durable impact in Tanzania and Pakistan, and creating a ripple effect that changes the world for the better.
Parent-teacher associations help Maasai girls and their communities in Tanzania problem-solve
A girl’s school in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Northern Tanzania, Grace’s home, is home to pastoralist communities like the Maasai, a nomadic people who have moved with the seasons to nurture the land and care for their livestock for centuries. The nomadic nature of this lifestyle creates significant and unique barriers to girls’ education. Longstanding gender roles have enabled Maasai to survive in the harsh environment and have placed great value on both women and men. Over time, as nomadic life has been threatened by the privatization of land and stationary education models have been implemented, the reality of pastoralist livelihood has shifted and introduced new complexities. Now, the sheer distance to schools is both a practical challenge and one that often comes with danger from the landscape, predators, and potential exposure to assault along the journey. Girls shoulder the responsibility of household chores and there is often cultural pressure around early marriage – both leading to boys’ education being prioritized over girls’.
“There are very, very good [pastoralist] cultural practices, which are passed from generation to generation,” says Janet Kimori, an English teacher at Lekule Girls Secondary School in Longido, Tanzania. But when cultural practices act as educational barriers, “you have to sit down and look for where you are going to assist. As a school, as an individual, the school administration—all of us will chip in and know how we are going to deal with this problem.”
PWC works to ensure girls are able to exercise their right to an education while also preserving pastoralist culture. One successful approach, the organization found, has been the formation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), created with help from Malala Fund. In PTA meetings, students, parents, teachers, elders, and government officials meet, discuss educational barriers, and come up with community-led solutions that preserve and honor their culture while advancing educational outcomes.
PTA meeting in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
One recent PTA meeting highlights how these community-led solutions are often the most effective. At Lekule Girls Secondary School, the lack of fresh water forces girls to walk long distances to collect water for the school’s kitchen during the school day, and these long journeys not only disrupt class time but can leave girls vulnerable to sexual assault in isolated areas. Through facilitated discussion, PTA members landed on a solution: installing a borehole to pipe in fresh water to the school. Reliable access to water creates a better learning environment for the girls, but it also benefits the community at large, as local governments are then more likely to invest in health clinics and other community resources nearby.
With a solution in place, the PTA was then able to discuss ideas and map out a course of action. The women would raise money for the cost of the borehole, while the men would recruit workers to dig the hole and lay the pipe. Together, they would ask government officials to match their investment.
The benefits of PTA meetings within the pastoralist communities are undeniable. “The girls are talking and addressing issues in a confident way, and parents feel they are part of the resource team to solve challenges happening at school,” Grace says. One unexpected benefit: The larger cultural impact these PTA meetings have created. Thanks to the success of PTAs within pastoralist communities, the models are now being endorsed on a national level, and schools across Tanzania are starting to use them to solve problems in their own communities. When a community creates opportunities for girls to learn, everyone benefits.
Safe spaces in rural Pakistan help students and their parents connect, then drive change
Safe space for girls meeting in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
A continent away in Pakistan, the country’s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan seems like a land untouched by time. The region’s looming mountains, snow-capped peaks, lush valleys and crystalline lakes draw nature lovers and landscape photographers from around the world, but living among this kind of breathtaking scenery has its drawbacks. Schools in the region are few and far between, and the area’s harsh climate often makes roads inaccessible for travel. Poverty and gender-based discrimination are additional obstacles, making school even further out of reach, and girls are affected disproportionately. Going up against these barriers requires a persistent, quiet strength that’s found in the women who live there and reflected in Pakistan’s signature scent.
Saheli Circles are how local leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan are bridging the gap between girls and education. An Urdu term for “female friend,” Saheli Circles are after-school safe spaces where girls explore subjects like art and climate change, while also developing skills that help them manage emotions, set goals, and build positive relationships. Girls study in groups, visit the library, play sports, and tackle filmmaking and photography projects, all designed to develop self confidence and teach the girls how to advocate for issues that matter to them. But the work doesn’t stop there.
“What we’re trying to achieve here will only be impactful if it trickles down to the home environment and the school environment,” says Marvi Sumro, founder and program director of Innovate, Educate, and Inspire Pakistan (IEI), the local organization that developed the Saheli Circles model and partnered with Malala Fund in 2021 to make it a reality. Ever since, Saheli Circles have grown to involve teachers, elders, and parents to encourage relationship building that’s essential for young girls and adolescents. “Our spaces can give mothers and daughters an opportunity to interact a little differently—do an art activity, or have a cup of tea together, or some good conversation,” Marvi says.
The relationship building is what makes the biggest positive impact throughout the community. Recently, one Saheli Circle was able to bring together parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate for better education at their local school, and together they convinced the department of education to hire a science teacher. Another Saheli Circle organized a fund where members of the community can contribute monthly to pay for uniforms, books, and other school expenses for the girls in their village, eliminating those small, hidden costs that are often a barrier to education for many. A third Saheli Circle was able to produce a short film about how gender-based household chores can take away valuable study time from girls, leaving them at a disadvantage. “The girls put the film together and showed it to the mothers, and the response from the mothers was just beautiful,” Marvi says.
Girls smiling in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
The education and relationship building that the girls receive in Saheli Circles connects them to larger opportunities and economic freedom that are not possible in their hometown. “For girls in Gilgit-Baltistan, education is extremely important because of the fact that we’re so far away from where the economy is, where the opportunity is. Education becomes this bridge for us, for our girls, to access all the opportunity and economy that exists in [larger cities].”
From rural Tanzania to remote Pakistan, local organizations prove every day that prioritizing girls’ education benefits everyone. Communities that lift up girls are able to secure resources like clean water and well-staffed schools, as well as build stronger relationships.
These outcomes are only possible because of the women and girls who work tirelessly in these regions to overcome barriers and drive progress. The Pura x Malala Fund Collection is a way to honor them, celebrate their achievements, and unite people the world over around a shared belief that education is freedom. Like scent, that belief can build, travel, and has the possibility to transform the world.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
When Grace Berbig was 7 years old, her mom was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues. Being so young, Grace didn’t know what cancer was or why her mother was suddenly living in the hospital. But she did know this: that while her mom was in the hospital, she would always…
When Grace Berbig was 7 years old, her mom was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues. Being so young, Grace didn’t know what cancer was or why her mother was suddenly living in the hospital. But she did know this: that while her mom was in the hospital, she would always be assured that her family was thinking of her, supporting her and loving her every step of her journey.
Nearly every day, Grace and her two younger sisters would hand-make cards and fill them with drawings and messages of love, which their mother would hang all over the walls of her hospital room. These cherished letters brought immeasurable peace and joy to their mom during her sickness. Sadly, when Grace was just 10 years old, her mother lost her battle with cancer.“
Losing my mom put the world in a completely different perspective for me,” Grace says. “I realized that you never know when someone could leave you, so you have to love the people you love with your whole heart, every day.”
Grace’s father was instrumental in helping in the healing process of his daughters. “I distinctly remember my dad constantly reminding my two little sisters, Bella and Sophie, and I that happiness is a choice, and it was now our job to turn this heartbreaking event in our life into something positive.”
When she got to high school, Grace became involved in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and a handful of other organizations. But she never felt like she was doing enough.
“I wanted to create an opportunity for people to help beyond donating money, and one that anyone could be a part of, no matter their financial status.”
In October 2018, Grace started Letters of Love, a club at her high school in Long Lake, Minnesota, to emotionally support children battling cancer and other serious illnesses through letter-writing and craft-making.
Much to her surprise, more than 100 students showed up for the first club meeting. From then on, Letters of Love grew so fast that during her senior year in high school, Grace had to start a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of card-making materials.
Speaking about her nonprofit today, Grace says, “I can’t find enough words to explain how blessed I feel to have this organization. Beyond the amount of kids and families we are able to support, it allows me to feel so much closer and more connected to my mom.”
Since its inception, Letters of Love has grown to more than 25 clubs with more than 1,000 members providing emotional support to more than 60,000 patients in children’s hospitals around the world. And in the process it has become a full-time job for Grace.
“I do everything from training volunteers and club ambassadors, paying bills, designing merchandise, preparing financial predictions and overviews, applying for grants, to going through each and every card ensuring they are appropriate to send out to hospitals.”
In addition to running Letters of Love, Grace and her small team must also contend with the emotions inherent in their line of work.
“There have been many, many tears cried,” she says. “Working to support children who are battling cancer and other serious and sometimes chronic illnesses can absolutely be extremely difficult mentally. I feel so blessed to be an organization that focuses solely on bringing joy to these children, though. We do everything we can to simply put a smile on their face, and ensure they know that they are so loved, so strong, and so supported by people all around the world.”
Letters of Love has been particularly instrumental in offering emotional support to children who have been unable to see friends and family due to COVID-19. A video campaign in the summer of 2021 even saw members of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and the NHL’s Minnesota Wild offer short videos of hope and encouragement to affected children.
Grace is currently taking a gap year before she starts college so she can focus on growing Letters of Love as well as to work on various related projects, including the publication of a children’s book.
“The goal of the book is to teach children the immense impact that small acts of kindness can have, how to treat their peers who may be diagnosed with disabilities or illness, and how they are never too young to change the world,” she says.
Since she was 10, Grace has kept memories of her mother close to her, as a source of love and inspiration in her life and in the work she does with Letters of Love.
“When I lost my mom, I felt like a section of my heart went with her, so ever since, I have been filling that piece with love and compassion towards others. Her smile and joy were infectious, and I try to mirror that in myself and touch people’s hearts as she did.”
Please donate to Grace’s GoFundMe and help Letters of Love to expand, publish a children’s book and continue to reach more children in hospitals around the world.
The day was scorching hot, but the weather wasn’t going to stop a Star Wars Stormtrooper from handing out school supplies to a long line of eager children. “You guys don’t have anything illegal back there – any droids or anything?” the Stormtrooper asks, making sure he was safe from enemies before handing over a…
The day was scorching hot, but the weather wasn’t going to stop a Star Wars Stormtrooper from handing out school supplies to a long line of eager children. “You guys don’t have anything illegal back there – any droids or anything?” the Stormtrooper asks, making sure he was safe from enemies before handing over a colorful backpack to a smiling boy.
The man inside the costume is Yuri Williams, founder of AFutureSuperhero And Friends, a Los Angeles nonprofit that uplifts and inspires marginalized people with small acts of kindness.
Yuri’s organization is one of four inaugural grant winners from the Upworthy Kindness Fund, a joint initiative between Upworthy and GoFundMe that celebrates kindness and everyday actions inspired by the best of humanity. This year, the Upworthy Kindness Fund is giving $100,000 to grassroots changemakers across the world.
To apply, campaign organizers simply tell Upworthy how their kindness project is making a difference. Between now and the end of 2021, each accepted individual or organization will receive $500 towards an existing GoFundMe and a shout-out on Upworthy.
Meet the first four winners:
1: Balance Dance Project: This studio aims to bring accessible dance to all in the Sacramento, CA area. Lead fundraiser Miranda Macias says many dancers spend hours a day at Balance practicing contemporary, lyrical, hip-hop, and ballet. Balance started a GoFundMe to raise money to cover tuition for dancers from low-income communities, buy dance team uniforms, and update its facility. The $500 contribution from the Kindness Fund nudged Balance closer to its $5,000 goal.
2: Citizens of the World Mar Vista Robotics Team: In Los Angeles, middle school teacher James Pike is introducing his students to the field of robotics via a Lego-building team dedicated to solving real-world problems.
James started a GoFundMe to crowdfund supplies for his students’ team ahead of the First Lego League, a school-against-school matchup that includes robotics competitions. The team, James explained, needed help to cover half the cost of the pricey $4,000 robotics kit. Thanks to help from the Upworthy Kindness Fund and the generosity of the Citizens of the World Middle School community, the team exceeded its initial fundraising goal.
3: Black Fluidity Tattoo Club: Kiara Mills and Tann Parker want to fix a big problem in the tattoo industry: there are too few Black tattoo artists. To tackle the issue, the duo founded the Black Fluidity Tattoo Club to inspire and support Black tattooers. While the Brooklyn organization is open to any Black person, Kiara and Tann specifically want to encourage dark-skinned artists to train in an affirming space among people with similar identities.
To make room for newcomers, the club recently moved into a larger studio with a third station for apprentices or guest artists. Unlike a traditional fundraiser that supports the organization exclusively, Black Fluidity Tattoo Club will distribute proceeds from GoFundMe directly to emerging Black tattoo artists who are starting their own businesses. The small grants, supported in part with a $500 contribution from the Upworthy Kindness Fund, will go towards artists’ equipment, supplies, furnishings, and other start-up costs.
Along with collaborator Rodney Smith Jr., Yuri will be handing out gifts to children, adults, and animals dressed as a Star Wars’ Stormtrooper, Spiderman, Deadpool, and other movie or comic book characters. Starting this month, the crew will be visiting children with disabilities or serious illnesses, bringing leashes and toys to animal shelters for people taking home a new pet, and spreading blessings to unhoused people—all while in superhero costume. This will be the third time Yuri and his nonprofit have taken this journey.
AFutureSuperhero started a GoFundMe in July to cover the cost of gifts as well as travel expenses like hotels and rental cars. To help the nonprofit reach its $15,000 goal, the Upworthy Kindness Fund contributed $500 towards this good cause.
Think you qualify for the fund? Tell us how you’re bringing kindness to your community. Grants will be awarded on a rolling basis from now through the end of 2021. For questions and more information, please check out our FAQ’s and the Kindness Toolkit for resources on how to start your own kindness fundraiser.
Ask about Dave Van de Mark in the communities bordering Redwood National & State Parks, and many people will tell you that the seventy-nine-year-old photographer is a living legend. In June of 1963, as a fresh-faced twenty-year-old, Dave traveled from Southern California to work at a sawmill in Humboldt County. That summer dramatically changed his…
Ask about Dave Van de Mark in the communities bordering Redwood National & State Parks, and many people will tell you that the seventy-nine-year-old photographer is a living legend.
In June of 1963, as a fresh-faced twenty-year-old, Dave traveled from Southern California to work at a sawmill in Humboldt County. That summer dramatically changed his life and set Dave on a path that helped establish one of America’s most beloved national parks.
“On only my second day on the job, I inquired as to where the trees being milled came from,” Dave says. “I was quickly told I shouldn’t ask such questions!”
Intrigued by his co-workers’ evasive responses, Dave began looking for his own answers.
“I explored like crazy, gaining strength as I hiked very long distances….I found extensive areas outside the existing state parks that were beautiful. I also saw them being logged rather brutally and I didn’t like it.”
A series of pivotal events further strengthened Dave’s resolve to save the old-growth forests. He began hearing about the discovery of some of the tallest redwoods near Orick, California, which prompted discussions in the community for a national park. At the same time, he’d decided to take up photography and began documenting his long hikes through the forest. He also attended a meeting with some of the area’s most active conservationists who took him under his wing. “Lifelong friendships developed on the spot!” Dave says.
According to a GoFundMe campaign for Dave, he trespassed on private timber land, chartered airplanes to fly over clear cuts, slept on stream banks, and walked over a thousand miles to capture over 5,000 photographs.These photos of redwood destruction were sent all around the world and began raising much needed awareness that the old-growth forests were rapidly disappearing, and that more parks needed to be created.
“As soon as the timber companies knew the efforts to create a park were gaining steam,” Dave says, “so were their efforts to log and impact places we were pushing for. They said only a small buffer was needed around the newly discovered tallest trees. That, coupled with almost complete opposition to a ‘grand’ park by local media and government, meant we faced virtually total opposition locally.”
Increased notoriety came with increased risk for Dave. “I was really well known and received some verbal threats right to my face at a public hearing, and was often worried about being harmed arriving late at night to my isolated little home.”
By then, nearly 90% of the redwood old-growth had been cut down. So, despite the threats, Dave and his fellow conservationists knew something more urgent had to be done. With help from university professors, Dave collected data on the scientific and aesthetic value of the redwoods. Thanks to the Sierra Club and national papers like the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times, this information, coupled with Dave’s photos, were able to reach a much larger audience.
Public support grew quickly. Over the next two years Dave and his team participated in all Senate and House hearings regarding redwood conservation, and ensured that congressional members could see the destruction with their own eyes. It all paid off. After years of immense effort, Redwoods National Park was established in 1968.
Now, at seventy-nine, the legendary activist wants to revisit and photograph the areas he helped protect. And this GoFundMe will help him realize this dream.
“I have been back to areas heavily impacted by logging and that is precisely the reason for my “Fifty Years Later Project” – to allow me to have the ability and the equipment to visit and record the beautiful changes that have taken place over a half-century, before I’m too old and unable to do it. It is very heartening to see places that were eroding so badly and threatening the tallest trees, now stabilizing.”
“Dave was instrumental in establishing the park, and continues to help us decades later with his photo project,” says Steve Mietz, Superintendent of Redwood National and State Parks.
Christine Walters, an administrative assistant at RNSP, echoes that sentiment. “Without Dave Van de Mark…it’s very possible there would never have been a Redwood National Park.”
Unfortunately, Dave is struggling to find the resources to complete his dream project. His friend Ted Humphrey, who started the GoFundMe, writes “Now it is time for us to give back and thank Dave for his conservation and protection of the redwood forest. This project is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show, through the eyes of the photographer that helped protect it, what 50 years of conservation can do at Redwood National & State Parks.”
When asked what advice Dave has for those fighting to save and protect old growth forests today, he offers, “Just persevere and don’t ever compromise your values and be as bold as you can be.”
For more information and to help Dave Van de Mark complete his life’s work of documenting the forests he helped protect, please visit his GoFundMe.
Do YOU have an idea for a fundraiser that could make a difference? Upworthy and GoFundMe are celebrating ideas that make the world a better, kinder place. Visit upworthy.com/kindness to join the largest collaboration for human kindness in history and start your own GoFundMe.
Growing up, the kinds of toys you play with can make all the difference. When I was a child, I always felt like the way I looked was wrong because there were no dolls, cartoon characters, or actresses that looked like me. Thankfully, things are changing. Bigger companies like Mattel are now producing dolls in…
Growing up, the kinds of toys you play with can make all the difference. When I was a child, I always felt like the way I looked was wrong because there were no dolls, cartoon characters, or actresses that looked like me. Thankfully, things are changing. Bigger companies like Mattel are now producing dolls in different shapes, genders, and skin tones.
But gaps in the market still exist, especially for kids with special needs, physical disabilities, and skin disorders. That’s where Amy Jandrisevits comes in. With her A Doll Like Me line, Amy makes it her personal mission to make custom dolls for kids who typically don’t see themselves on store shelves. For some of these children, seeing themselves in human likeness is life-changing.
As a former pediatric oncology social worker, Amy used play therapy in order to help children adjust to situations that felt out of their control. This was difficult to do when none of the dolls she had access to looked like the children she worked with.
“Play therapy is how kids work through all of that, and dolls are an integral part of the process,” Amy says. “For someone who doesn’t have the privilege of seeing him or herself in the places that matter, a doll that looks like them can be so validating.”
Amy’s childhood love of dolls combined with her passion for social work have allowed her to turn her A Doll Like Me campaign into a nonprofit, something she never could have imagined. She’s sure that her 8-year-old self would be thrilled at the thought of using dolls to change a narrative for so many children.
“I am a doll-maker who feels that every child, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, medical issue, or body type, should look into the sweet face of a doll and see their own,” she writes on the GoFundMe page for her project. “I talk a lot about changing the narrative, changing who we see and how we see them. Imagine what representation and inclusion look like from a child’s perspective. When they see themselves in the places that matter, that becomes an inclusive message, and that is what shapes a child’s self-concept. Diversity and representation in dolls can be a game changer for children.”
Amy is doing her part to make sure every child – ones with limb differences, albinism, cancer, birthmarks, scars, burns – feels valued. Her goal is to normalize, represent, and validate, and at a very basic level, to offer something that is soft and cuddly and provides comfort when a child needs it most.
To date, Amy has made over 450 dolls and every single story is as heartwarming as the next. Dolls are typically requested by parents or caregivers, but in recent years, Amy has received requests from doctors and teachers, because they realize the therapeutic value in play. And thanks to its nonprofit status and donations from GoFundMe, not one family has had to pay for their own doll.
“Sometimes I know that the child who is about to receive the doll is living on borrowed time and when he or she dies, this is going to be even more important for their family.”
Amy says that she never takes this doll-making opportunity for granted and she often uses her platform to talk about what inclusion and representation look like for a child. She believes that it is her personal obligation to advocate for the children that she is privileged to know.
“We all bring a skillset to the table and we need to understand that sometimes small gestures impact other people in ways we cannot begin to fathom. We have a multitude of reasons to NOT do something – ‘I’m too busy, broke, old, young, sick, afraid’ – but there are even more reasons why we CAN, and should, do something.”
Donate to Amy’s GoFundMe and help a child see themselves as they are through a hand-crafted doll.
Helping someone in need is as easy as a click away. Check out our fundraising toolkit and start a GoFundMe that gives back to your community.
The experiences we have at school tend to stay with us throughout our lives. It’s an impactful time where small acts of kindness, encouragement, and inspiration go a long way. Schools, classrooms, and teachers that are welcoming and inclusive support students’ development and help set them up for a positive and engaging path in life.…
The experiences we have at school tend to stay with us throughout our lives. It’s an impactful time where small acts of kindness, encouragement, and inspiration go a long way.
Schools, classrooms, and teachers that are welcoming and inclusive support students’ development and help set them up for a positive and engaging path in life.
Here are three of our favorite everyday actions that are spreading kindness on campus in a big way:
Mark Storhaug is a 5th grade teacher at Kingsley Elementary in Los Angeles, who wants to use pickleball to get his students “moving on the playground again after 15 months of being Zombies learning at home.”
Pickleball is a paddle ball sport that mixes elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis, where two or four players use solid paddles to hit a perforated plastic ball over a net. It’s as simple as that.
Kingsley Elementary is in a low-income neighborhood where outdoor spaces where kids can move around are minimal. Mark’s goal is to get two or three pickleball courts set up in the schoolyard and have kids join in on what’s quickly becoming a national craze. Mark hopes that pickleball will promote movement and teamwork for all his students. He aims to take advantage of the 20-minute physical education time allotted each day to introduce the game to his students.
Help Mark get his students outside, exercising, learning to cooperate, and having fun by donating to his GoFundMe.
According to the WHO around 280 million people worldwide suffer from depression. In the US, 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness and 1 in 20 experience severe mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Kaiya Bates, who was recently crowned Miss Tri-Cities Outstanding Teen for 2022, is one of those people, and has endured severe anxiety, depression, and selective mutism for most of her life.
Through her GoFundMe, Kaiya aims to use her “knowledge to inspire and help others through their mental health journey and to spread positive and factual awareness.”
She’s put together regulation kits (that she’s used herself) for teachers to use with students who are experiencing stress and anxiety. Each “CALM-ing” kit includes a two-minute timer, fidget toolboxes, storage crates, breathing spheres, art supplies and more.
Kaiya’s GoFundMe goal is to send a kit to every teacher in every school in the Pasco School District in Washington where she lives.
Julie Tarman is a high school Spanish teacher in Sacramento, California, who hopes to raise enough money to create a Spanish language class library.
The school is in a low-income area, and although her students come from Spanish-speaking homes, they need help building their fluency, confidence, and vocabulary through reading Spanish language books that will actually interest them.
Julie believes that creating a library that affirms her students’ cultural heritage will allow them to discover the joy of reading, learn new things about the world, and be supported in their academic futures.
Do YOU have an idea for a fundraiser that could make a difference? Upworthy and GoFundMe are celebrating ideas that make the world a better, kinder place. Visit upworthy.com/kindness to join the largest collaboration for human kindness in history and start your own GoFundMe.
Upworthy and GoFundMe are celebrating ideas that make the world a better, kinder place. Visit upworthy.com/kindness to join the largest collaboration for human kindness in history and start your own GoFundMe. While most 10-year-olds are playing Minecraft, riding bikes, or watching YouTube videos, Justin Sather is intent on saving the planet. And it all started…
Upworthy and GoFundMe are celebrating ideas that make the world a better, kinder place. Visit upworthy.com/kindness to join the largest collaboration for human kindness in history and start your own GoFundMe.
While most 10-year-olds are playing Minecraft, riding bikes, or watching YouTube videos, Justin Sather is intent on saving the planet. And it all started with a frog blanket when he was a baby.
“He carried it everywhere,” Justin’s mom tells us. “He had frog everything, even a frog-themed birthday party.”
In kindergarten, Justin learned that frogs are an indicator species – animals, plants, or microorganisms used to monitor drastic changes in our environment. With nearly one-third of frog species on the verge of extinction due to pollution, pesticides, contaminated water, and habitat destruction, Justin realized that his little amphibian friends had something important to say.
“The frogs are telling us the planet needs our help,” says Justin.
While it was his love of frogs that led him to understand how important the species are to our ecosystem, it wasn’t until he read the children’s book What Do You Do With An Idea by Kobi Yamada that Justin-the-activist was born.
Inspired by the book and with his mother’s help, he set out on a mission to raise funds for frog habitats by selling toy frogs in his Los Angeles neighborhood. But it was his frog art which incorporated scientific facts that caught people’s attention. Justin’s message spread from neighbor to neighbor and through social media; so much so that he was able to raise $2,000 for the non-profit Save The Frogs.
And while many kids might have their 8th birthday party at a laser tag center or a waterslide park, Justin invited his friends to the Ballona wetlands ecological preserve to pick invasive weeds and discuss the harms of plastic pollution.
Justin’s determination to save the frogs and help the planet got a massive boost when he met legendary conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall.
At one of her Roots and Shoots youth initiative events, Dr. Goodall was so impressed with Justin’s enthusiasm for helping frogs, she challenged the young activist to take it one step further and focus on plastic pollution as well. Justin accepted her challenge and soon after was featured in an issue of Bravery Magazine dedicated to Jane Goodall.
In the following months, Justin learned how to turn fishing line into bracelets, transform plastic bags into doormats, recycle crayons, and shred plastic to make bowls. For him, turning trash into treasure became a thing of magic. He even collected 200 pounds of plastic caps, and transformed this trash into a buddy bench for his school.
On Earth Day 2019, Perise Foran, an environmental science student from Cameroon reached out to Justin asking for help. Justin saw that the streams where Perise lived were overflowing with plastic garbage, and quickly agreed to help his new friend. The two of them started off with a plan to transform the 8,000 plastic bottles Perise collected on a World Litter Run and had been sitting in his yard for over 6 months.
According to Reuters, every minute, a million plastic bottles are bought around the world. And according to PlasticOceans.org, every minute, a full garbage truck’s worth of plastic is dumped into our oceans. Upon learning those facts, Justin further strengthened his resolve.
He started asking everyone he was connected to for suggestions on what could be done with Perise’s stockpile of bottles. Soon, creative upcycling ideas began pouring in from all around the world. Justin completed the projects with family and friends in the United States, and encouraged Perise to do the same in “parallel” in Cameroon. That’s when Justin’s Parallel Projects GoFundMe was created. Its aim is to raise awareness about water quality, find creative solutions to the plastic pollution issue, educate people to move away from single-use plastics, and inspire youth to become eco-heroes.
Soon, the Parallel Projects ideas spread to other countries like Kenya, Canada, Tanzania, and Nigeria, resulting in trash transforming into toys, bottle cap art, flower planters, jewelry, and more.
One might think that Justin had his hands full with all these projects… but he didn’t stop there.
This summer, Justin’s dream of visiting the rare and exotic frogs of Ecuador’s Choco Cloud Forest came true with the Reserva Youth Council. Through his land conservation GoFundMe, and with generous donations from the Rainforest Trust, Old Navy, and the public, Justin purchased 30 acres of land which protected habitat for critically endangered species that were at risk from logging and ranching.
Through a separate Reserva Youth Council initiative, Justin’s goal now is to collect a million letters from young people like himself to send to world leaders with the aim of protecting 30% of the planet by 2030.
For anyone looking to help the planet Justin suggests to “start off small, take chances, and be brave.”
