You asked for it...

Young adult friends, welcome to the February edition of You asked for it., the New Community Project monthly email to people like you. I'm back from recent travels-first the Around the World deal in Nov/Dec, then our Learning Tour to Ecuador , where there were not 1, not 2.but 5 young adults along! Two of them even got college credit for it-this could be you next year!

Got plans for today, this summer-or the rest of your life? Mind if I've been doing a little planning for you? This edition of You asked for it . is devoted to options for service and action-and the chance to change yourself and maybe your world in the process. Justice, Enviro and Faith Facts at the end.best not to read them if you're hooked on bottled water or if you're not a fan of Bono..

Take care. Stay in touch. Stay out of trouble-except the good kind-causing a ruckus by raising your voice about troubling things.

David

Here goes:

• The humble New Community Project has a bunch of very cool service/solidarity opportunities for those with a few months to a year or more to give. Follow links from this page http://www.newcommunityproject.org/solidarity.shtml to learn about women's advocacy and teaching opportunities in Sudan ; translation for visiting delegations in Honduras ; working with a leading enviro organization in India ; joining programs for sustainable agriculture or ministering to exploited hill tribe girls in Thailand ; and helping preserve rainforest in Ecuador . These are great people doing great work-they're all partners of NCP-and they would really benefit from having someone like you join them.

• Orion online lists loads of orgs interested in people just like you: http://www.oriononline.org/pages/ogn/ics.cfm

• The Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers) is now accepting applications for legislative internships for 2006-2007. Interns work as full-time members of FCNL's staff for eleven months, from early September through the end of July. Interns receive a subsistence salary, health care, local transportation subsidy, paid vacation and sick leave. Find out more about the internship and how to apply at http://www.fcnl.org/young/intern.htm Deadline is March 6!

• March Advocacy Days conference in Washington , DC has the theme: "Challenging Disparity: The Promise of God - The Power of Solidarity." It's billed as the largest national gathering of U.S. grassroots progressive religious activists focused on the broad spectrum of international and domestic policies. There are special young adult events, and some scholarship money available. See: http://www.advocacydays.org/

• Looking for a short-term gig? NCP Learning Tours can take you to Honduras (mid-June), Denali/Kenai Fjords (mid-August), the Arctic (late August), Nepal (mid-October), Sudan (January), and the Amazon (May 2007) in the coming 18 months. Check 'em out: http://www.newcommunityproject.org/learningtours.shtml Some scholarship aid available for young adults.

• Want to do something today? The National Park Service is proposing changes that will lessen protection of the nation's National Parks. Comments are being received until this Saturday! http://ga3.org/campaign/protectourparks

Enviro fact: US'ers spend $9 billion a year on bottled water, and toss 30 million water bottles a day. One-fourth of bottled water travels across national boundaries, with this transportation adding to its environmental impact. The PET plastic used to make the bottles is petroleum-based, fueling our dependence on oil and requiring energy to manufacture the plastic. Making the bottle also requires an amount of water equal to 17.5 times the weight of the bottle itself. And bottled water doesn't even have fluoride-available for 1000 times less cost from a water fountain near you! ( 2/15/06 NYTimes; State of the World 2004 )

Justice Fact: 20,000 people around the world die every day because they're too poor to stay alive. The culprits? Malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, water-borne diseases, respiratory disease from indoor cook fires. ( The End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs) Want to do something about it? $81 builds an adobe stove in Guatemala ; $10 pays for a mosquito net in Sudan . Why don't you and your friends give up bottled water for a month and send us the savings.? We'll put it to good use on the projects above!

Faith Fact: " And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.

Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad.

Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment."

-excerpt from sermon given at National Prayer Breakfast on February 2 by U2's Bono. Read the whole sermon at the link off our Young Adult page http://www.newcommunityproject.org/ya.shtml