Alison, Sampler helper extraordinaire and the crafter behind wonderland q (which was just recently featured on Indie Fixx), has had to have emergency surgery. She is okay and recovering nicely, but like so many self-employed artists and designers she has no health insurance. As someone who went many years without health insurance, including my own stay in the hospital, I know how stressful it can be with the medical bills stacking up. It’s also a really sad fact in this country that many uninsured people end up paying more for services than those who have insurance.

If you’d like to help out, donations can be made via Paypal to info AT auroraseven DOT com. Just so you know, Alison is not behind this donation campaign. Her friends, coworkers, and those who just want to help a fellow crafter in need are behind this push for Alison. No contribution is too small or too big… If you’d like more info, Marie of the Sampler and Susie of Boy Girl Party are posting updates.

Kiva is a relatively new charity organization that is having a huge success and one that I can personally recommend. Kiva, which is the Swahili word for agreement or unity, offers loans to small entrepreneurs in the developing world, many of whom are craftspeople. Individual loaners pool their money and loan it to specific businesses in need. Since the money is pooled together, even the smallest loan can have a big impact. As the business grows, the initial loan is repaid to each person who contributed. It’s great because it gets the money into the hands of the people who have a direct need, as opposed to a government or other organization that decides how the money will be spent. Plus, once the loan is repaid, the individual loaners can choose to invest in another small business with the same inittial loan.

Want to get involved? Go to kiva.org, choose a business, decide how much you can loan, wait for your loan to be repaid, and then choose another business in need. I signed up in December and I’ve already had about 30% of my loan repaid so far.