Top Charitable Causes in Asia 2010

Recent natural disasters in Asia have caught the attention of many around the world.

Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupted with renewed ferocity on Sunday, pushing the death toll to over 120, while the floods in Pakistan, which began in late July, have displaced over 20 million people.

Many around the world are now finding ways to help those affected by natural disasters. Others are also continuing to give to countries with rising poverty rates. Roughly 62 percent of India's population live in slums, a New York Times report said citing a recent study.

If you've made some gains in the stock markets this year, think about putting that money to good use - where the returns don't just come in dollar value

Click ahead to find out what some of the popular charitable causes are in Asia.

By Elvina Simpson
Nov 8, 2010

The widespread flooding, which devastated much of Pakistan in July and August, has affected 20.2 million people, 9 million of which are children.

Since then, UNICEF has set up almost 700 temporary learning centers, which have been attended by some 52,000 children.

The charity is providing safe drinking water to 2.6 million people every day, distributing more than 6 million water purification tablets, which translates to 60 million liters of safe water.

UNICEF Australia has raised $5.6 million for the Pakistan Floods Children’s Appeal.

Source: UNICEF

Devastating droughts mean the people of Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) face severe food shortages for up to five months of the year.

Oxfam is raising money to help prevent chronic malnutrition by providing families with vegetable seeds, and the training needed to prepare balanced meals.

Local farmers are also being taught how to grow larger crops to create a source of income.

30,000 children die every day from preventable diseases, and millions miss out on learning to read and write.

To help put a stop to this, Plan has child sponsorship programs in 47 developing countries, providing education, water and sanitation, and child protection services.

Some of its current campaigns include Learn Without Fear - to end violence against children in school, and Universal Birth Registration to give children the fundamental right to an identity.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia with 80% of people still living in remote rural areas, and with 60 percent of the population under the age of 24.

Save the Children has been working in Laos for more than 22 years.

Over the last year, Save the Children has helped more than 65,000children in northern Laos, through its comprehensive Primary Health Care program.

Government figures show about 40 percent of Bangladeshis live below the poverty line. There are about 380,000 children living in slums.

To help prevent children becoming malnourished, Medecins Sans Frontieres staff give cooking classes to teach mothers about the importance of food hygiene and nutrition.

Volunteers run health care and feeding centers to care for children under five and pregnant and lactating women.

Source: MSF

There are currently 700,000 orphans living in China.

Love Without Boundaries is a worldwide volunteer organization dedicated to helping orphaned and impoverished children in China.

The charity helps more than 1,500 children a year, by providing medical care, education and foster care programs in 14 Chinese cities.

Source: Xinhua

Fundraising website Everyday Hero allows you to create your own fund-raising webpage so you can tap into your support network to help a range of charities across the Asia-Pacific region.

They include Animals Asia Foundation and I-India Project Australia, which cares for India’s street kids.

There are currently more than 147,000 individual support pages, which have received almost 700,000 donations.