Music helps rescue girls from the sex trade

According to the US Department of State, between 10,000 and 15,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked into India every year as part of the sex trade. One American band, Wookiefoot, is doing something to change this.

Recently, this band contacted us at NEED to talk to us about the Project Earth music festival. At this festival, founded by Wookiefoot in 2006, 100 percent of the proceeds go to various charities.

NEED was able to connect Wookiefoot with four different organizations previously featured in the magazine, one of which was the Peace Rehabilitation Center (PRC) in Kathmandu, Nepal. PRC is an organization that rescues girls from the sex trade by patrolling the border between Nepal and India, working with police in both countries and teaching Nepalese communities to identify traffickers and protect their young women. Once these girls are rescued, PRC provides housing, health care and job training, and helps them reunite with their families if possible.

The money donated by Wookiefoot to PRC will allow border patrols to stay open and continue stopping the trafficking of young girls into India as well as help pay for girls rescued in India to go to safe houses near their homes in Nepal. For this small organization in impoverished Nepal, the cost of rescuing these girls and transporting them sometimes vast distances to safe houses can be overwhelming, and every donation allows them to free still more girls from bondage and keep others being forced into the sex trade.

To have a group of musicians call us up and ask how they could help was amazing. When we write these stories about small organizations giving everything they have to save lives, we tend to fall in love with those NGOs. Anytime someone tells us that they want to support these organizations, we are off-the-wall ecstatic. Thanks to Wookiefoot, we know that more girls will be saved and it makes us feel like everything we do to keep our publication going is worth it.

Along with its donation to PRC, Wookiefoot is giving proceeds from the previous Project Earth festival to the Rabondo Community Project in Kenya, The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy in Guatemala, and the Nurani Insani School for street children in Indonesia. The sold-out Project Earth 2009 festival begins this weekend, June 26-27, in Geneva, Minnesota. Wookiefoot looks forward to being able to expand their impact around the world by giving the proceeds from this year’s event to these and other charities.

We at NEED are fast becoming fans of Wookiefoot for their willingness to use their skills to aid humanity and leave their footprint on a better Earth.

"Save The World" Photo Challenge

Do you have a great image depicting "saving the world?" Submit it to NEED, the humanitarian magazine*.


photos | John Abernathy (1 and 2), Claudia Janke, Scott Harrison, Yan Sieler, Maciej Dakowicz and Paul Corbit Brown

Your image will be shared on the blog of our new campaign; "screw the man - save the world." Top images will be selected to be displayed on the NEED magazine homepage. And with the success of the "stm-stw" campaign, may appear in the print version of NEED.

What to send:

1. Your best single image depicting saving the world in jpeg format no bigger than 500px by 500px
2. 65 character (not 65 words) description of the image
3. Name and URL of the aid organization affiliated with your image, if any
4. Your full name
5. URL of your website

NEED is a photo-driven publication about life-changing global humanitarian efforts. This is your chance to be part of it.

Submit your images to photos@screwtheman.net

www.screwtheman.net | www.needmagazine.com

*Do not send images that are vulgar, racist, sexist, overtly political or pornographic. Inappropriate images will not be displayed.

Minneapolis-based NEED magazine says 'Screw the Man, Save the World'

Read Gina Czupka's article on the "screwtheman" campaign for the Minneapolis Budget Travel Examiner. >> read the article

SCREWTHEMAN, SAVETHEWORLD? What is this all about?

The best photographers in the world want to inspire people to action by taking photos where people are suffering. NEED magazine wants to tell stories about our heroes who are saving the world through humanitarian efforts. Readers crave inspiration from stories like these. So why is it difficult for a media organization to publish these stories?

Advertising dollars fueled print media in the past. Publications go to great lengths to drive up their circulation numbers in order to entice corporations to buy advertising space. This money comes with a price. Because advertisers control a large portion of publications’ revenue, they can easily dictate the content within written media. During this recession, many media organizations are discovering how unstable advertising money is. As corporations go bankrupt, so do publications that rely on these companies for advertising money. In response to this, NEED magazine is saying, “Screw the man.”

NEED magazine is a small, independent magazine which tells uplifting stories of hope about humanitarian aid. The publication was started by a couple who sold all they had to help humanitarian efforts by inspiring others. The “ScrewTheMan, SaveTheWorld” campaign is a push to drive up subscriptions so that NEED will not have to rely on advertisers for revenue.  If we reach just 25,000 subscribers, NEED can kick advertisers to the curb for the length of these subscriptions. Since all the money sustaining the publication will come directly from subscribers, NEED will not be influenced by outside corporations, and the driving force of the magazine will be the readers themselves.

With every ad removed, NEED will have more space within each issue. We want to fill these pages with readers’ stories. If a reader has volunteered building a well in Sierra Leone, we want to publish it in the magazine so that this story might influence someone else to take a similar action. In this way, every reader has the power to join the founders’ goal of inspiring others to help. ScrewTheMan, SaveTheWorld is about making readers the lifeblood of NEED magazine and expanding its impact.

What’s more, of every 5000 new subscribers gained during this campaign, NEED will randomly choose one to win a PLAY it Forward Adventures trip. PLAY it Forward Adventures combines adventure sports with volunteer relief in exciting destinations all over the world. We are excited to possibly have the opportunity to provide people with the travel experience of a lifetime all while furthering our goal of publishing a magazine that inspires everyone to do their part to save the world.