Last week I got a call from Ray, a long-time friend and supporter. This year Ray and his wife, Edith, want to send help to needy families instead of giving gifts to their own family members and friends. Lovely notion, I think. Ray asked for my ideas about how he might do this.
Here are six packages we came up with:
School Package
Equip a girl for Primary School (Grades 1 to 6) for one full year. This includes two school uniforms*, one pair of shoes, one backpack, plus assorted supplies and textbooks.
$50.
* School uniforms will be sewn by a local NGO, thus providing work and income for local women.
Bicycle Package
Give a Secondary School (Grades 7 to 9) girl a bicycle so she can safely travel the 3 to 10 kilometers from her village to the nearest secondary school. Includes one refurbished bicycle and related maintenance supplies.
$60 for one.
Garden Package
Equip a village family to grow their own vegetables. This includes the tools, seeds, fertilizer, and training to grow healthy, organic vegetables for consumption, trading, or selling in local markets.
$63 for one family.
Chicken Raising Package
Provide a family with six hens, one rooster, feed for a month, enclosure materials, and coaching for success. With this help a family can raise chickens and eggs for consumption, trading, or selling locally.
$65 for one family.
Food Package
Feed a hungry family for more than one month. This includes 50 Kg of rice, 4 bottles of cooking oil, 30 eggs, 10 tins of fish, 50 noodle packets, 2 bottles each of soy and fish sauce, and $10 for vegetables and other supplies.
$70 for one family.
Piglet Package
Help a village family raise pigs for their own consumption, breeding, and selling in the local marketplace. Includes two or three piglets, materials for building a pen, and training.
$250 for one family.
Ray & Edith stepped up for the chicken raising package. But . . . not just one. They funded 85 packages! An amazing gift. Now, thanks to their generosity, 85 struggling Cambodian families will have a new lease on life, along with a sense of dignity as they work to improve their self-sufficiency.
Two days later, I heard from Pam — another long-time supporter and a good friend. She was asking about needs she could fund as part of her annual giving. (She checks in with me like this every year, bless her heart.) So, I sent Pam the same list of pressing needs I had recently shared with Ray. Within an hour I had her response. Here’s what she wrote back to me:
“I am sitting here in a warm house with plenty of food and clothing, a car to drive, and so many other luxuries. How could I not? I can barely imagine what these people’s lives must be like, and yet they find joy and love in their lives and hope for the future.
And you, my good friend, make sure every penny I give goes to them. That especially makes the giving worthwhile. I will put a check in the mail to you tomorrow.”
This amazing lady funded 20 family gardens, 20 bicycles, and two pig raising packages. WOW! What a huge impact she made.
That got me thinking. Who else might be interested in helping these people? Why not present this opportunity to a wider audience?
My guess is there are a lot of you thinking just like Ray (giving gifts on behalf of family members and friends) and Pam (simply wanting to help those most in need).
So that’s it. There’s the opportunity. Straightforward. Easy to visualize. There’s the opportunity for you to make a difference in one life, in a few lives, or in many, many lives.
Will you join Ray, Pam, and me in making a true difference this holiday season?
This way YOU can bring some joy – and hope – to the lives of these marginalized villagers.
Life is good — at least for some of us it is.
Others need a bit of help.
Together we can provide exactly that.
Your tax-deductible donation will get the job done.
Just click this button.
