Fresh off the release of its newest album "Astronaut," Duran Duran is kicking off the New Year in a big way. Now in the middle of their North American tour, the veteran rockers are also making headlines off the stage.

As seen on Good Morning America, Duran Duran has collected over a dozen celebrity signatures on a soccer ball that it will auction on eBay. All proceeds from the auction will go toward tsunami reconstruction projects on GlobalGiving.

The soccer ball has been signed by the members of Duran Duran as well as some of the most popular stars in entertainment today: Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, Robert Smith (The Cure), the Black Eyed Peas, Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne, Andre 3000 (Outkast), Cate Blanchett, and more.

Bookmark the Duran Duran auction site today and make sure to place a bid between March 7 and March 17. You could be the proud owner of one cool soccer ball - and your support will help villages in Southeast Asia rebuild!

Resources

• Join Duran Duran in support of tsunami reconstruction projects
   
• Visit Duran Duran's auction site
   
• See the band's full press release

Courtesy of Riders for Health

A Public Health Nurse (PHN) in Africa has a lot of ground to cover ? delivering healthcare to 20,000 women, men and children living in small communities scattered across the barren, inhospitable landscape of rural Africa. For these people to have a chance of survival, it is vital that the PHN reaches them, day in day out. She is the lifeline for some of the world?s poorest, most disadvantaged people who have no other means of accessing help in the fight against easily treatable/preventable disease.

There is no traditional transport infrastructure in Africa. There is limited public transport and, in the rural area with the highest density of population, the biggest roads are little more than cart tracks.

Most villages are accessible only after crossing boulder-strewn, dust-shrouded scrubland. So what is the ideal vehicle for reaching these remote villages? The motorcycle. And Riders? project is making sure that the Public Health Nurse has a reliable system of transport, with zero negligence breakdown performance.

She will be trained at our International Academy of Vehicle Management, based at motor-sports complex outside Harare. The outstanding facilities include long and short hard-surface circuits, bush roads, moto-cross tracks and every kind of obstacle generally encountered while travelling in Africa. There is also a state-of-the-art training workshop and a suite of classrooms, including one equipped for IT training.

Since our project first appeared on the GlobalGiving website, GlobalGiving donors have enabled ten PHN to receive appropriate motorcycle training. These nurses are now delivering healthcare to approximately 200,000 women, men and children across rural Africa.

The ultimate beneficiaries of 'Reach the unreached! Delivering Care in Africa' are receiving the basic healthcare that people living in developed countries take for granted. They now have a chance of winning the fight against disease.

Resources

• Give now to "Reach the Unreached! Delivering Care in Africa"
   
• Learn more about how motorcycles are delivering healthcare to rural Africa
   
• Visit Riders For Health homepage
   

Thanks to sellers from the Worldwide Women Artists (WWAO) group, friends of the the GlobalGiving community now have a unique opportunity to buy world-class artwork while supporting grassroots projects around the globe. Laura Iverson, co-founder of WWAO, explains how the eBay Giving Works Program enabled her to combine her career with her passion for charitable giving.

By Laura Iverson

It has always been important to me to give what I can to charity. Since embarking on a full-time career in art in 2001, I have not been able to give as regularly. I stumbled across the eBay Giving Works program in January 2004. It was just getting off the ground then but looked like the perfect solution.

Once I started with the program I found that, in addition to being able to do more for charity, my motivation changed as well. Whereas I used to focus on maximizing sales, I could now focus on how much good my art was generating.

In May 2004, Teresa Turner and I founded the Worldwide Women Artists group. Our group continues to grow and thrive. Most applicants come in as a result of seeing our charity work and wanting to participate in that.

Originally, I selected charities I was familiar with and had supported in the past. Once we had an international group of artists going, we wanted to support nonprofits that were international in scope.. GlobalGiving's impressive range of projects was a great fit for our organization. Another key factor was nonprofit participation. There are thousands of charities registered with eBay but very few will work with us to promote events. We deeply appreciate all that GlobalGiving does to promote this program."

Resources

• Browse through WWAO's full charity art collection on eBay
   
• Visit GlobalGiving's MissionFish page
   
• Learn how to sell items through eBay on behalf of GlobalGiving