The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Debra Winger and Rights Camera Action!

James Byrd Jr. and the Struggle for Tolerance

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Video of the Week: 5 Tips for Reducing Your Garbage

The Week in Green Politics

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Andy Kondrat:

Disappearing Destinations: Visit Before They Vanish

Chuck Norris Wants America to Start Drilling for Oil Here and Now!

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Jon Popham:

NASA Plans Voyage to the Sun

The Girl Effect

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Giulia Rozzi:

Gay Discrimination at Seattle Baseball Game

Bison Brucellosis

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Gina Telaroli:

Fathers Day Celebration of Movie Dads #1

My Father’s Gift of Tecumseh!

The Girl Effect is a new online interactive project seeking to improve the dire situation in the developing world one girl at a time. The initiative, created by the advertising agencies Grow Interactive and Wieden & Kennedy, is part of a $100 Million investment in girls by the Nike Foundation and NoVo Foundation chairs Peter and Jennifer Buffett.

The Girl Effect recognizes that girls and young women are the foundation of communities around the world. The project seeks to direct funding to the education and entrepreneurial business activities of girls and young women in developing countries to help being their communities up. The statistical evidence is incredible when we learn the unique role girls and young women play in the health and wellbeing of their societies. According to the website’s Fact Sheet:

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages 10 to 20%. An extra year of secondary school boosts wages 15 to 25%.

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Natalie Portman, actress extraordinare and vegan fashionista, can add more points to the cookie jar from me for being a supporter of one of my favorite social action organizations - Kiva! Kiva and GOOD Magazine hosted an event in NYC this week for over 350 people to bring awareness to Kiva’s mission to link up micro-lenders with micro-borrowers. They were joined by Portman, Adam Baruchowitz from Heeb Magazine, and documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch.

Check out GOOD Magazine’s article about the event here, and to find out how to become a micro-lender for Kiva.

Our second installation of the TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is here give you the very best of Katie, Nicole, Giulia, Gina and Kerry! More blogs means more to love this Valentine’s Day week, and more social action means a healthier and happier world for everyone. Check out our most popular posts of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

5 Ways to Take Action and Get Action On Valentine’s Day

Top 10 Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gifts: Show Your Valentine You Have a Heart

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Nicole:

Kiva: Microlending to Change Lives

Top 10 New Releases to Inspire Social Change

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Giulia:

Alicia Keys Uses Grammys to Help Keep a Child Alive

V-Day Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary!

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Gina:

Top 10 Movie Characters That Make A Difference

Art As Politics In “The Silence Before Bach”

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Kerry:

Tap Project Gets Donations Flowing For Safe Global Water

Levon Helms’ “Dirt Farmer” Wins Grammy Gold

Kiva, an inspiring microlending organization, is linking individual lenders like you and I to entrepreneurs in the developing world who are working toward lifting themselves out of poverty and achieving financial independence.

Kiva has teamed up with several other microfinance institutions, who’ve done a great job at selecting qualified entrepreneurs in countries all over the world, but who have trouble meeting the financial needs of so many people. Enter wonderful you! For as little as $25 you can sponsor an entrepreneur of your choice and help the world’s working poor to buy the necessary inventory and supplies they need to grow their businesses. Loans are paid back to you within approximately 6-12 months, and throughout the course of the loan you’ll receive email updates about the status of the entrepreneur you’ve sponsored.

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