We send personal notes to a lot of donors, and in them we ask how they found out about GlobalGiving, what inspired them to give, etc.  We love to hear their stories.  Here is one that came through to our colleague Wylia last week…every so often a member of our community articulates what we are about so beautifully it re-inspires us:

Hi Wylia!

I thought that I would answer a few of your questions. I heard about globalgiving.com by reading White Man’s Burden. The founders and the website were featured and because I was procrastinating writing a paper for one of my masters classes, I decided to take a look at the webpage. I was really excited to see the amount of homegrown effort around the world and thought that I should donate. I have been to Argentina and was heart broken to see the young children on the streets after the collapse of the Argentine economy. I looked around saw the program for education and health services for the Argentine children and thought that could be a way to help.

I was also drawn to the program in Brazil because I have read countless stories about the favelas and how children are impacted by the violence. The particular program I picked had not received too much funding but they were not asking for much either; just enough to pay for the arts and crafts for the children. I thought even if there is a little that I can do to put a smile on a child’s face I have to do it and thought that program was perfect.

Because I am in the military I have been able to travel around the world and see some amazing things. I went to Morocco a couple years ago and fell in love with the country. I saw the water program and was amazed how many Moroccan villagers would be impacted by something we take for granted.
Lastly, my heart went out to the young mothers in Kenya who have been tossed aside by society. I loved how this program is ran by a Kenyan woman who understands the issues these women have to face. I was drawn to her cause.

Overall, I have been very fortunate to have everything that I have. I know others have not been so lucky and I just wanted to donate what I could to help those who needed it. I am looking forward to hearing updates from the programs and will likely share them with my family and friends, many who I already informed them about globalgiving. Hope you have a nice day!

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The new year has been off to a rather sad, turbulent start with all the unrest around the world. Myself, I was slated to meet some project leaders in Pakistan and accompany a team of evaluators visiting a project GlobalGiving donors have funded in Mansehra. With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, that plan was cancelled and I flew back to the US from India. Something we often chat about is our worries about our Project Leaders when we hear of such events. I know that at times I get frustrated if they are not responding to emails or are late in follow up. Then I read emails like the ones below and I realize that these men and women are doing great work in very difficult situations.

Hearing about things in the news is one thing but hearing from people in the midst of the chaos, really brings home to me that these are real people, dealing with real situations and real turmoil be it the fallout of post-election chaos or the assasination of a political leader.

From Project Leader Stella Omunga in Kenya:

Yes, indeed they are now even burning people who have taken refuge in churches. The situation in Eldoret is the worst and believe you me, GEMINI has not been cowed by all this. We are regrouping and doing anything in our power to provide humanitarian assistance and on a personal level, I’m providing shelter to the most vulnerable women and children and psychological counseling to the affected families in a nearby church compound.

You can support efforts to provide comfort and relief to those affected by this crisis here:

Urgent Aid for Kenya– Food, Supplies, and Support

From Project Leader Nabeel Khan in Pakistan:

Things in the state of Punjab especially Lahore is settling down as there is deployment of the police however i cannot say the same about the state of Sindh where Karachi (the largest metropolitan) is in a state of shambles where a majority number of cities are under curfew where Rangers have been given a shoot to kill order (which is more to intimidate than any credible threat). Banks and Food Chains have been set on fire. Furthermore, since Kashf has had branches in many parts of Punjab, the area managers were put on high alert. Most offices in Pakistan were either closed due to security reasons and even if some were open, there was but little staff.It is indeed a bad way to end a reasonably good year however lets all hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Our thoughts are with our Project Leaders and we hope for a much better 2008 for everyone. You can always check our see results page for the latest news from the field.

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