Over the past years, Iona has been fortunate to share our company’s time, treasure and talent with many worthwhile organizations. During this past Christmas season, we selected three deserving organizations. One was Doctors Without Borders’ famine relief program using Plumpynut, a nutrient dense ready-to-use food. A second organization was to TAPS, a local animal shelter. The third organization was the One Laptop, One Child program.
Designed to help alleviate malnutrition, Plumpynut is a great success story. The innovation of the Plumpynut is that it requires no preparation or special supervision, mothers can simply squeeze out the paste.. It requires no water or refrigeration and has a 2 year shelf life when unopened. Children love the taste and each serving is the equivalent of a glass of milk and a multivitamin. In desperately poor, third-world countries, given over a course of 3 weeks, Plumpynut can actually reverse malnutrition in severely malnourished children. You can read more about it at doctorswithoutborders.com.
A second charitable contribution was given to a local animal shelter, Tazewell Animal Protective Society. Located in the Central Illinois town of Pekin and founded in 1958, TAPS is committed to providing a safe environment for homeless pets until they can be placed into permanent, loving homes. They take in and rehabilitate sick and injured pets that have nowhere else to go, and provide education to pet owners to ensure happier, healthier lives for companion animals.
A third contribution and actually a purchase was to the One Laptop, One Child program. This program is not about just laptops but is really about education in a very unique and profound manner.
“It's an education project, not a laptop project.”
— Nicholas Negroponte
Their goal is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. Led by an MIT professor who drove an effort to design and build a cheap laptop that could be used virtually anywhere in the world. You can find out more about this program and the remarkable laptop at http://laptop.org/ . This donation really married many of our basic beliefs of helping children and their education. It also uses technology in a very profound and provocative manner to help educate children.
At Iona, we operate on the 4 Cs of Clients, Company, Coworkers and Community. It is only through being successful with our clients that we can sustain our company and our coworkers. It is because all of the Cs work together that we can share with the community in which we live, work and play. Feel free to find out more about any of these charitable organizations by exploring our website or going to the links provided above.