If You Never Do Anything Else For Me (or Shannon), Do This

I'm going to quote liberally from Shannon's call to action here. I'm not doing this to guilt anyone, but please read this and pay attention to the part I've bolded near the end.

The adoption agency that placed our daughters with us has been doing wonderful work since 1992, helping children who would otherwise end up in the fostering system get into permanent, loving homes from birth.

And for the past three years, they've been matching HIV+ children from many parts of the world with adoptive families. HIV+ children are almost never born in the United States anymore, because prophylactic medication during pregnancy prevents almost 100% of maternal-fetal transmission. But in many places in the world, these drugs are not available or affordable. Instead, babies are born positive, their parents die of AIDS and they are left with very little medical care, hopefully in the loving care of relatives, but when that's not possible, in an orphanage.

If they are lucky.

Many orphanages in countries with large HIV infection rates are so overwhelmed that they actually have to turn children away. [...]

Our agency has decided to broaden its efforts to include supporting orphanage care--in particular access to quality medical services--for those children who will simply never be placed with permanent families. [...]

...a dollar can go much further in a place like Haiti, than it can in the U.S. For a fraction of what it would cost to raise a child in the United States, many children can be raised in their home countries (and perhaps have access to surviving relatives, their native language, culture, religion and other benefits).

Our agency is looking for sponsors willing to commit to giving $35 a month to fully support one child in an orphanage in Haiti.

Come on, y'all. $35 per month is not a stretch for most of my friends. Except the one in Los Angeles. Skip a dinner or two out, knock one movie off your Netflix subscription, or don't buy that skirt. I doubt you'll even notice.

Please.