The charity organization hopes to help Americans think of the dollar in the same way as impoverished nations, where it could provide three meals to a child, pay for a doctor’s visit, cover the cost of three Malaria vaccinations or provide fresh water for a family of four for one week.

One dollar from one person can make a huge difference, so what if everyone simply donated one dollar? We wouldn’t miss it, but it would make a world of difference for people a world away. The founders of Power of One are trying to make a difference through small donations of just one dollar; trying to reach as many people as possible to donate rather than getting a small amount of society to donate a large sum. Their efforts show the power of what people can do when they band together to help a cause.

From now until the end of August, anyone who donates to Power of One will be entered to win a $500 Visa Gift Card. The donations will go to the Light Christian Education Center, a school in Nairobi, Kenya that is in danger of closing. The school feeds and educates 250 children that live in the slums, but the land that the school is on is on the market because of a shortage of funds. Power of One hopes to buy this land with donations and help the school continue to provide services to these children.

You can visit the Power of One website to learn more about the organization and how you can donate, even if it’s  just one dollar.

The St. Bernard Parish Animal Services in southeastern Louisiana has seen more and more pet owners relinquishing their animals in recent months. More than 100 people brought their pets to the shelter in June, compared to only 17 in June 2009.

“I think about how one day these animals are happy and go to sleep, and then the next day they wake up in a cage wondering, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ These aren’t just scroungy dogs on the side of the road. These are pets,” one dog adopter at St. Bernard Parish told the New York Times.

The situation with the oil spill is different than the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where people were often forced to leave their pets in a rush and didn’t even bring them to a shelter. They were simply left on their own. Now, people are uncertain of their future and what it will hold for them financially. They thus make the decision to drop off their pets.

In an attempt to alleviate the pressure on pet owners, organizations like the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are working to assist pet owners in finding ways to keep them. Those involved in the area’s fishing industry have been granted free access to vaccinations, basic examinations, microchipping and registration, spaying and neutering and pet food. Programs like this are essential to ensure that people can get through these rough times with their pets, and furthermore prevent animal shelters from becoming more crowded due to the spill. You can learn more about the Louisiana SPCA’s program and how to donate here.

In a massive user-generated experiment, Producer Ridley Scott and Director Kevin MacDonald are encouraging people around the world to film this Saturday’s daily activities and upload the footage onto YouTube. The “most compelling and distinctive footage” will be edited into a documentary that shows life around the world in a single day.

The organizers of the project want as many people as possible to be involved, and are working to provide video cameras and computers to those in more remote or low income areas with a lack of personal technology. This will ensure the most realistic and balanced portrayal of life as possible. The uploaded videos can consist of anything, and the producers want as much raw footage as possible to edit into the finished film. Anything from video blogging to documentary-style footage or storytelling is encouraged. The project is an interesting experiment in user generated information and entertainment; taking advantage of the Internet in a style similar to the ever-increasingly popular “citizen journalism.”

Anyone 13 or older with a video camera can get involved. Just film what goes on in your life on the 24th, upload it to your Youtube account and add it to the group of videos. You can read more specific guidelines about how to submit your videos here.

Hoffman was appalled to find that a strip of land in her town of Houston was used as a “dumping ground” for abused, neglected or abandoned dogs. She brought the area to the attention of the local law enforcement, and continues to take in and eventually  find homes for the dogs that she finds in the corridor. It is a criminal offense to abandon dogs in Texas, and Hoffman’s efforts have resulted in prosecution of those who do. She was named a CNN Hero for her work in rescuing and rehabilitating neglected and abused dogs.

Hoffman and her “active army” of animal lovers set up feeding stations throughout the corridor that provide water and 600 pounds of food per week to the animals living there. Their hope is to sustain the dogs until they can get them medical attention and behavioral rehabilitation. She and her team take pictures of all the animals and try to spread the word through area rescues and the Internet, hoping that someone will see a dog and want to adopt it. The animals either go to a foster home, local shelters that are willing to take them until they are adopted, or boarding centers — where Hoffman and her team visit them regularly. They have rescued more than 180 dogs from the corridor so far.

When Hoffman first discovered the corridor, she sent out this e-mail to animal lovers in her area:

“There is an area of town just east of I-59 off Little York. Its about a quarter mile strip of road that I call the Corridor of Cruelty and Neglect…..you can veer off to the left or right at any point and find much of the same EVERYWHERE – pain and suffering . It is overwhelming and hard to leave the area without tears in one’s eyes . I’m writing this email in hopes that a few or a lot, or even one person will go to this area and rescue a stray dog. There are many and they are always there. You will find mixes and purebreeds of all kinds: boxers, labs, shepherds, pitbulls, bull dogs, rottweilers, dalmatians – mostly larger dogs. But you’ll also find small ones and plenty of puppies too. Some have mange, some have broken bones, and some are pregnant. Some are emaciated and ALL ARE HUNGRY. Some will come right up to you and some will run the other way. They live in wooded areas and travel through the ditches and across busy intersections. They get hit by cars and keep on going…..they scrounge in the few parking lots there are for food scraps. They don’t want to live like this. They are scared and lonely. They want to be saved and have a home.”

You can visit Corridor Rescue’s website to learn more about Hoffman’s work in rescuing these abandoned dogs and to learn how you can help, either by donating or working to spread awareness

“While the public recognizes hoarding as a profoundly sad and toxic problem, they often forget there’s a rich and complex human aspect to the condition. People who hoard animals are not bad people. In fact, they are often very loving, caring individuals who mistake good intentions with unfortunate actions. The people in Confessions: Animal Hoarding believe that by taking in a large number of dogs, cats, birds, horses and reptiles, they are doing the ultimate good deed – when in fact, their deed is negatively affecting all the people and animals involved.” -Dr. Karen Cassiday, owner and clinical director of the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center in Chicago.

The series hopes to show the human side of the problem, with an honest and open look at the lives of people who end up hurting themselves and the animals they were trying to save.

Confessions: Animal Hoarding premiers July 21 at 9pm on Animal Planet.

Photo: Animal Planet

Supporters of a bill to ban pets say that small animals are often an impulse buy, and so many animals end up in shelters that there is no reason for people to be breeding animals to sell. If necessary, people can purchase animals outside of the city. Pet shop owners, however, are not so happy. “It’s terrible. A pet store that can’t sell pets? It’s ridiculous,” a pet store owner told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Turns out that hamsters are the biggest problem faced by animal shelters in the San Francisco area. There are limited amounts of shops that sell dogs and cats, and there are many rescues that take them in, though it always encouraged to get a dog or cat from a shelter as opposed to a breeder or pet shop. However, small animals like rodents (including hamsters), reptiles and birds seem like a lot less of an investment, even though they are a big time commitment and can often be an annoyance to owners who don’t expect it. Hamsters, in particular, make a lot of noise at night, chewing on the bars of their cage and running on a wheel.

This bill hopes to reduce the amount of people who just buy a small animal without thinking, essentially by making them more difficult to get. Shelters go through a screening process to adopt an animal that pet stores do not and are careful to make sure the animal is going to a good home. It seems that a better idea than banning pet sales completely would be imposing stricter regulations on who can buy a pet and the requirements for someone to own an animal. If people always understood what they were getting into, they might not buy so impulsively.

What do you think about the proposed bill? Is it a good idea to completely ban pets or should something else be done? Weigh in!

There’s Grace E., the border collie who helped a recovering cancer survivor get over the loss of her beloved horse, and Chief, who was rescued from a shelter and in turn became a search and rescue dog; saving lives on land and water. And then there’s Lefty — a dog that touches the lives of humans who have, like her, have lost a limb.

Lefty came into the Ingham County Animal Shelter, where I volunteer, after being rejected by her breeder because of a deformed right leg. She showed promise, but the leg would need to be amputated. After she healed, she was adopted by her current owner — a nurse at the University of Michigan. She took to her lack of a leg quite well.

Her new owner introduced Lefty to a group of a dozen amputees who gathered for support and advice, struggling with their lives after the loss of a limb.

“Members of the group have spent days — for some, years — asking why. Why me? Why now? Why didn’t I just die? Why is there all this suffering?” wrote Lefty’s owner.

The group became immediately attached to Lefty, and now she is a regular part of their meetings. Lefty doesn’t need to ask why, as far as she is concerned she is perfectly normal with her three legs, and her attitude about her condition is both inspirational and comforting to the members of the group. A new member recently started to cry as she introduced herself. In response, Lefty hobbled over to her and gave her a kiss. The group laughed and smiled.

Now that the finalists of “Uncommon Bond” have been announced, people are invited to vote for their favorite. The winner will receive a year’s supply of pet food as well as $500 worth of dog food for the animal shelter that cared for the pet. This contest shows the power of animals to help and inspire humans, and does a great thing for the shelters that worked to take them in. Visit the contest website to see all of the stories and vote for your favorite.

Stirred by the stories of Haitian women — who with tears streaming down their faces recalled selling themselves for slavery and the subsequent beatings and molestation, Christian and his friend and travel buddy began the organization.

“We didn’t know what it was, all we knew is we wanted to help people,” he said of its inception.

Later, On a trip to India, Christian saw girls that he said probably weren’t old enough to attend an Anberlin concert standing in the red light district selling themselves for sex. He then decided to focus on putting an end to the devastating practice of human trafficking.

“Faceless International is fighting modern day slavery” said Christian. “I understand that not everyone feels like that’s what they want to work on. I encourage people to just get involved. Human trafficking isn’t the fight for everyone.”

For up to eight months out of the year, Christian is on tour with Anberlin, leaving him unable to travel and less involved with Faceless than he would like, but he knows he leaves the organization in capable hands.

“I have a great support staff working with Faceless International,” he said. “They’re people that have dedicated hours and hours of their lives to helping Faceless thrive. Because of them I can go on tour and know I’m leaving Faceless in great hands.”

And even when he’s on tour, Christian encourages people to get involved. He hopes conversations with fans and media can inspire people to go out and help not only in human trafficking but other issues in their own communities. Anberlin has partnered with a fair trade coffee brewer and a company creating a new energy-efficient car to spread the word and teach people about global responsibility.

Christian said many of his experiences with Faceless International and pushing for social change in the world also become part of his music.

“You can’t differentiate yourself between your experiences and who you really are and your lyrics,” he said. “There have been a lot of songs that talk about hurt or pain or social justice aspects, fighting to keep pressing on. To encourage people that social change is needed and their help is required.”

One song on their upcoming record, “Dark is the Way, Light is a Place,” is inspired by Martin Luther King.

“He had such an amazing message with fighting racism with peace, a nonviolent method of trying to reform our society,” Christian said. “If everyone took on the persona of MLK and fought diligently against racism, it could end in our generation.”

“Dark is the Way, Light is a Place” is set to be released on September 21, and Christian will be touring during the fall, spreading the word about Faceless International and becoming involved in changing the world. Faceless International provides a variety of ways that you can get involved on their website, whether it’s three minutes of calling a grocery store to encourage them to buy fair trade goods, or going on a trip with Faceless International to see for yourself what change is needed in the world.