Fighting Hunger in Sierra Leone
Maria Receives Vitamin Supplements
The statistics on hunger are heart-wrenching. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. Three billion people survive on just $2 a day. In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in absolute poverty. And every 3.6 seconds, someone dies of hunger.
Fatima and Daniela know the effects of hunger all too well. Faintness or dizziness along with headaches, fever and colds. Your thirst rapidly increases. Your feet and hands may swell with retained water, causing edemas. Severe and painful constipation is followed by uncontrollable diarrhea. In some cases, depression, vivid hallucinations and suffer confusion, or vertigo can occur.
Here at SeeYourImpact.org, we know that the fight against hunger is winnable. That’s why we’re helping grassroots charities make a huge difference with this issue. 100% our of donor gifts to go directly to the partner charities on-site. These charities must pass a rigorous selection process, including certification by our staff and site visits.
About 2 weeks after a donation is received, we send a follow-up email to the individual donor. The message includes a picture of the actual person benefiting, as well as the story detailing the difference the gift made.
Due to malnutrition, children are at much higher risk for contracting serious disease, and not surprisingly, dropping out of school. Door of Hope, a SeeYourImpact.org partner charity in Sierra Leone, reported on the impact one donor made in the life of young girl.
Daniela lives with her father and mother, and six dependent relatives in a two bedroom apartment with no running water, no electricity. Her father is a pastor and the main provider of the home, with monthly income of $100. Daniela finds it difficult to cope with the financial challenges her parents face, as it simply is not enough to cover basic family needs, including nutritional food.
Daniela takes her vitamins so she can become a doctor
Our micro-philanthropy model leverages the power of individuals for tremendous positive change. Co-founder Digvijay Chauhan says people often ask him, “Really? 100% goes to my gift?” His answer is an unconditional “Yes. Absolutely 100%. It’s your investment in someone’s life, and we spend every penny the way you ask us to.”
Simply put: our model is a game-changer in the world of charities.
Cynics might ask, how do we cover overhead and operating expenses yet still give 100% of donor funding to the charities on the ground? As Chauhan explains, “SeeYourImpact offers donors the option of donating a tax-deductible gift to cover costs. These optional gifts help SeeYourImpact achieve their mission: connecting people who want to give to people in need.”
The idea being that small gifts, provided quickly and easily via the web, transform people’s lives – even more than we might think. Gifts like $10 mosquito nets and $29 water filters – gifted one at a time, but by thousands, potentially millions of people – have a tremendous influence. Co-founder Steve Oki explains, “It’s just that simple: a gift of $15 will help a child overcome the odds.”
We even combine individual gifts to provide longer-term support or larger items. When a donation is made, the SeeYourImpact.org partners on-the-ground are notified within minutes; then they deliver the goods or services to someone who’s been waiting. When it’s more efficient, our charities deliver the donation in advance.
Micro-donations like these are clearly making a real, tangible difference – in a completely new, highly-accessible way. For more information on how you can make an impact today, and help stomp out hunger in Sierra Leone, check out SeeYourImpact.org.
