give52

Watsi

WEEK 51: WATSI

As the countdown to 2018 begins, I want to take a moment to say thank you! You have made this one of the best experiences of my life. More on that next week, because right now I want to tell you about one of my favorite organizations of this entire project: Watsi.

Watsi allows you to directly fund life-changing surgeries for people around the world.  100% of donations go to providing treatment. Watsi simply blows my mind. They have two programs: Watsi Crowdfunding and Watsi Coverage that "use technology to help create a world where everyone has access to care — whether that’s a life-changing surgery or a check-up".

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Here's how it works: First, a patient seeks care at one of Watsi's medical partners. If they cannot afford care, a member of the staff asks if they would like to share their story and participate in crowd funding their medical bill. A profile is submitted and approved and the patient gets treatment while their profile is posted online. Donors fund the treatment and get a post-treatment update about the patient they helped. Watsi has supported over 15,000 patients from 23 countries. 

Here's to health and happiness in the New Year. What an opportunity to change a life.

All the best and more,
Jodi

Pencils of Promise

WEEK 50: Pencils of Promise

Can you believe there are only 2 more weeks of 2017? Welcome back to another week of GIVE52.  Today we are giving to Pencil’s of Promise. 

Pencils of Promise, or PoP for short, builds schools and increases educational opportunities in Laos, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. They believe that every child deserves a quality education and are innovators in the non-profit space with a “for-purpose” model and 100% of donations going to programming. As of the time of this email, they have built 429 schools, trained 783 teachers, and impacted 74,503 students. You can read more about their impact here.

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"250 million of the world's primary school aged children lack basic reading, writing and math skills. Poor, unsafe infrastructure, untrained teachers and preventable illnesses are all barriers to quality education, especially for children living in rural, developing communities. In our countries of impact, Ghana, Guatemala and Laos, students and teachers lack the resources and tools proven to overcome these barriers. In Ghana, 28% of primary school students will drop out before completing primary school. In Guatemala, four years is the average length of schooling for a child. And in Laos, 30% of the population is illiterate, with even higher rates of illiteracy amongst ethnic minorities. Students in these communities attend class in dilapidated structures or outside, under the shade of trees, rather than in formal schools. Teachers in these communities lack formal training and don't have a support system in place to help them become effective educators." 

"Pencils of Promise provides the means, methods and materials necessary to give the world's neediest children quality education and basic literacy. We build primary schools to ensure students have safe access to a structurally sound, quality learning environment. We train and coach teachers, implement WASH and provide innovative in-classroom programs to create a scalable model for a complete, high-quality education. Our teacher training workshops model effective classroom practice and high-engagement instruction. We build safe and clean bathrooms and teach students about water, sanitation and hygiene to keep them healthy and in school. We integrate e-readers and tablets into our programming with the goal of achieving basic literacy for 90% of students by the end of grade six.” - PoP

Here’s to quality education for all. 

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season!

Jodi

The Fistula Foundation

Week 21: The Fistula Foundation

This week's organization is the Fistula Foundation. It was founded as an all volunteer organization to support the pioneering Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. Their mission to fight fistula globally and to provide women with free and safe surgeries.

I know that a few years ago, I was completely unaware of what a fistula even is. So, let’s start here: a fistula is an obstetric injury caused by childbirth leaving a woman incontinent of urine or feces or both. To add to this trauma, a woman with fistula is then often rejected by her husband and pushed out of her village. Obstetric fistula most commonly occurs among women who live in poor countries and women who give birth without access to medical care.

The Fistula Foundation believes that “no woman should have to suffer a life of shame and isolation for trying to bring a child into the world”.

The Fistula Foundation issues grants on an invitation-only basis to “treatment facilities that are known, trusted and have access to qualified fistula surgeons who can provide the best care possible to women”.

The goal is to provide women with free and safe obstetric fistula repair surgery.

This surgery can give a woman her life back after severe trauma, both physically and socially. I am so delighted this week to play a small part in making these surgeries possible.

We are halfway through the year, and still going strong!
I hope your week is lovely, and also that this year truly is shaping up to be one of generosity. I cherish and love being a part of this community, and am so excited to keep up our terrific momentum.

All the best and more,
Jodi