Heart to H.E.A.R.T.

Want to help the women and children of Tibet?

There are few times something as easy as voting online for a humanitarian project can do so much good.

This is one of those times!

My friend Arlene Samen is the founder and director of a non-profit organization called One H.E.A.R.T. (Health Education And Research, Tibet). The mission of One H.E.A.R.T. is to save the lives of Tibetan women and children, one birth at a time. Through culturally sensitive training programs, One H.E.A.R.T. provides birthing materials for rural health workers in Tibet and trains them in their use. Unlike most countries, Tibet has no midwife tradition; thus a very high percentage of women and babies are dying in childbirth, often alone in dirty freezing sheds with no access to medical care of any sort.

As with most non-profits, One H.E.A.R.T. constantly fights the battle of funding. Arlene is forever seeking out organizations, grants, and donations to help with the logistics of her mission. American Express has a Members Project that has committed to provide 2009 funding of $2.5million to be shared among the Top 25 Projects, as decided by online voting.

This is where you can help. By voting for One H.E.A.R.T., you can help Arlene continue with her worthwhile mission. It's easy and it costs you nothing but a few moments of your time to give her project your vote. I hope you will consider doing this now because there is a voting deadline of September 1st. She needs all the votes she can muster before then.

To vote: Click here for the American Express Members Project Page set up for One H.E.A.R.T. You'll see a box that says "Should this project make the Top 25?" -- click on the box under that labeled *NOMINATE THIS PROJECT*. You will be asked to sign in. I did it as a Guest Member. After that is successfully completed, the One H.E.A.R.T. page will reappear. You can then vote to "nominate this project". The 25 projects that have received the most votes by September 1st will be sharing the American Express 2009 funding grant of $2.5million.

If you wish to learn more about Arlene Samen and One H.E.A.R.T., click here for her website. To read about her involvement in many other humanitarian projects and awards she has received, you can simply google her name.

For many years, Arlene worked as a Nurse Practitioner with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division at the University of Utah's Health Science Center. It was during these years of providing emergency maternity care that she began a mission of obstetric aid to women living on Native American reservations in the U.S. This mission is now global, serving the women of Tibet, Nepal, Mexico, Ecuador and other desperately poor women of the world. Through One H.E.A.R.T., Arlene is devoted to providing pre-natal health care and teaching safe birth practices to third world women, one birth at a time.

Arlene was featured as a CNN Hero this year! Click here to see video clips of some of her One H.E.A.R.T. work profiled by CNN. On the CNN link, click on links located to the left of her photo: Story / Videos / Extra 1 / Extra 2. Each one reveals a different aspect of teaching and connecting with third world women -- women who are experiencing the highest death-in-childbirth rates as well as the highest infant mortality rates.

Arlene was in Lhasa Tibet during the recent violent Tibetan protests and Chinese crack-down, doing what she always does, helping mothers. It was a very tense few weeks with the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) in lock-down before China allowed her to return back to the U.S.

I hope you will consider giving One H.E.A.R.T. your vote for American Express funding by clicking on the link before September 1st. It will only cost you a little time.

or: Click here if you wish to make a donation directly to One H.E.A.R.T.

I've never used my blog this way before. I hope you understand why I feel this is a worthwhile cause. And I truly thank you for your time and consideration.