Charity Talks Charity Talks

Dr. James Deutsch, the CEO of Rainforest Trust, joins Charity Talks.  For more than 30 years, Rainforest Trust’s primary mission has been to raise funds in order to make grants in Africa, Asia and South America that preserve and protect land and habitats there.  As James and Brooke discuss, by protecting millions of acres of land, Rainforest Trust is saving endangered species from extinction.  But its impact goes well beyond that.  Rainforest Trust’s work also is helping to ameliorate the effects of climate change, since rainforests keep carbon locked up in their wood and soil, while removing excess CO2 from the air.  It also is empowering indigenous people with the resources to preserve their land and culture.  These are just some of the positive impacts that Rainforest Trust’s conservation efforts have had.  (0:27).
Website:  https://www.rainforesttrust.org/

Princess Padmaja Kumari Parmar, the Founder and President of Friends of Mewar, is this episode’s guest.  Padmaja is the daughter of the House of Mewar, which was founded in 734 AD and is the world’s longest, unbroken serving dynasty.  She founded Friends of Mewar to address three pressing problems - women’s empowerment and education, lack of preventive healthcare, and preservation of Mewar’s cultural heritage.  Over the past ten years, Friends of Mewar’s work in these areas has helped so many people in rural and urban Rajasthan, India.  (0:25). 
Website:  https://www.friendsofmewar.org/
Email:  info@friendsofmewar.org

Michael Chuter, the Chief Executive of Pump Aid, joins Charity Talks.  Pump Aid works primarily in Malawi, and its goal is to achieve lasting positive change in the poorest and most disadvantaged communities there by implementing water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. As Michael and Brooke discuss, over the last twenty years, over 10,000 communities and almost 2 million people have been provided with access to safe, clean water thanks to Pump Aid’s programs.  This access has been life-changing for those communities, and Pump Aid intends to continue its work in the most remote regions of the country until every community has the type of basic access to water that most of us take for granted.  (0:32). 
Website:  www.pumpaid.org

Christopher Cassidy, the President and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation (“NMOHMF”), is this episode’s guest. Chris attended the U.S. Naval Academy and became a Navy SEAL, before becoming a commander of SEAL units in Afghanistan. After Chris left the SEALs, he joined NASA as an astronaut, flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavor and Russian Soyuz spacecraft, commanded the International Space Station, and eventually rose to NASA’s Chief Astronaut.  In total, Chris has spent the fifth most time of any human being in space.  After leaving the military, Chris was tapped to lead the NMOHMF.  During the podcast, Chris and Brooke discuss how the museum (which recently broke ground in Arlington, Texas) came to be, how it will honor the 3,511 Medal of Honor recipients, and how a monument to be built in Washington, D.C. by the NMOHMF, as well as the Foundation’s Leadership Institute, will share the stories of these incredible heroes with current and future generations.  (0:26).
Website:  https://mohmuseum.org/

Dr. Michael Plant, the Founder and Director of the Happier Lives Institute, joins Charity Talks. While studying for his PhD in moral philosophy at the University of Oxford, Michael realized that there was a pressing need for more research on the most cost-effective, evidence-based ways to improve global happiness. That led him to found the Happier Lives Institute. Michael and Brooke discuss how by drawing on the fields of philosophy, economics and psychology, the Institute goes about focusing on neglected global problems, such as mental health and pain, identifies key interventions, and then evaluates the best organizations to deliver those interventions.  (0:22).
Website:  https://www.happierlivesinstitute.org/

Iqbal Dhaliwal, the Global Executive Director of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), is this episode’s guest. J-PAL’s mission for the last twenty years has been to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of hundreds of affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts rigorous research to find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges, and then translates its findings into action by promoting a culture of evidence-informed policymaking globally. Its work has been so impactful that its co-founders were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics for their pioneering approach to alleviating global poverty.  (0:36). 
Website:  https://www.povertyactionlab.org/