The new philanthropists: Silicon Valley teens

By Meredith May - San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, July 14, 2008 - Web Link
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July 14, 2008

A group of Kenyan orphans is tasting milk for the first time.

On a train platform in India, teachers are giving lessons to children whose families force them to beg from passengers.

And in Thailand, health workers are showing Burmese refugees how reduce their chances of contracting HIV.

All three projects are largely funded by Bay Area students.

Meet the new philanthropists - Silicon Valley teens with innate computer networking skills, affluent family connections and the one-click ability to bear witness to global poverty.

"Their sense of justice is different than ours growing up," said Sue Schwartzman of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, whose youth foundation gave away $204,000 in global charity in June. A portion funded the train station schools in India.

"I think a lot of Bay Area kids understand that their lives are great and when they see these pictures from around the world it's not OK. They want to make other young people's lives OK, too," Schwartzman said.

The nature of youth activism is becoming increasingly global, said Robert Rhoads, who teaches a course in student activism at UCLA.