I have some exciting news and a very worthwhile cause to tell you about today. Three very wise and humble bloggers have come up with a formula for helping the afflicted in Darfur, a region in Western Sudan.

In case you are not aware of the situation, over the past five years, 200,000 civilians have died due to violence, malnutrition, and disease in Darfur and an additional 2.2 million people have been displaced. These three bloggers want to do something about it.

I was introduced to Mark Hayward by way of this article – Pardon me, is that an arrow in your head? – whilst I was training for the Kokoda trek. Mark served in Papua New Guinea in the Peace Corps as a volunteer and has many stories to tell of his two year stint there.

Mark has teamed up with fellow bloggers Leo Babauta from Zen Habits, Dan Clements from Escape-101 and Andrew Flusche in this unique launch of an online non-profit humanitarian organisation:

TrainforHumanity.org – getting fit + social media + blogging = social good.

The three pilot project athlete-bloggers, Mark Hayward, Dan Clements, and Leo Babauta are hoping to raise awareness for the current crisis in Darfur and funds for the organization Darfur Peace and Development. All three are training for endurance events of varying distances ranging from a triathlon to a marathon.

You can help by:

• Spreading the word of this project by blogging about it – they do have a sample post which you could copy and paste if you wish to or write it your way.

• Sponsoring one or all of these athletes is another way to help. Their aim is to raise $50,000 for the cause as they train for their respective endurance events.

• Displaying a Train for Humanity badge on your site to raise awareness like the one in my far right sidebar.

Please consider doing what you can to help these gentleman reach their goal whether it be by raising awareness or sponsoring them and THANK YOU for taking the time to read this post.

This post was inspired by Janette Toral of Influential Blogger Dot Net. Janette Toral is a writer, SEO consultant, trainer, blogger, policy lobbyist, and entrepreneur from the Philippines and has a myriad of sites ranging from personal thoughts to successful business models. You can find a full list of her sites here, on her blogger profile (if I have missed some, please comment Janette )

Janette is always finding ways to promote new and existing blogs so that they may find their way to you the reader and she has asked for help in that bloggers take part in this writing project and name some blogs which have gained readership and have a following. The blogs must also be no older than July 1st 2007, so look out bloggers that are not even one year old!

My list that I have come up with to date is as follows and please note that I can name up to ten blogs and edit this post as I add to it so here goes:

I know you have heard me mention Sean Rasmussen from Sean Rasmussen Dot Com a few times on this blog already and the reason why is because he truly writes a great blog! He’s motivating, inspiring, walks the talk and has gained a good readership since starting his personal blog in September last year.

Durano Lawayan aka Brad Spit, is another blogger who has a great following. The Spitting Vessel is a place where you can spit your mind out, in disgust or in jest, so long as you feel it is a wrong that must be corrected, as the tag line suggests. Great reading for anyone.

Carole Fogarty from the Healthy Living Lounge has many tips for exactly that – Healthy Living – and a must to see and read. Carole also runs women’s retreats in Bali and has extensive knowledge in Yoga and all things alternative to keep your body, mind and soul at peace. Well worth the read.

For now I will leave it at that and update as I come across more outstanding blogs. There are so many and I have to be wary of their start up dates as there is a restriction as to how old your blog can be. Janette will add these blogs to a list on her site as she updates on a weekly basis. If you would like to take part, please feel free to get the word around so that other great blogs may be discovered. Thank you Janette for running this project.