Thanks for the magic.
Note: I sent this email Monday night to folks who donated to our matching gift campaign (and opted in) for updates.
Hey Friends,
I thought would stay late at the office tonight to share a more personal story with you and convey my sincere gratitude for your clutch-help in meeting our matching goal last week. We exceeded our goal!
While we were celebrating, my sister spent most of Friday afternoon in a health clinic in Uganda.
Hanna is spending the next few months volunteering in a rural community outside Kampala. This experience is “her deal.” In other words, she was very uninterested in my connections, suggestions or even a packing list.
A recent college grad who is 12-years younger than me, this is her time to chart her own course, even if our courses happen to overlap. I get it.
She’s at an orphanage teaching 3 and 4 year olds. The only volunteer and the only expat, it’s been an adjustment. Let’s just say my family has received a lot of international calls and texts…and leave it there.
This Friday at recess a group of kids started screaming for her. A seven-year-old girl was having a seizure. The girl was throwing up and unresponsive. She couldn’t come-to. There are no ambulances there. So Hanna called a motorcycle, physically tied the girl to the back of the driver, and together the three of them rode to the nearest clinic.
But there was no doctor. Only one nurse. She didn’t know what was wrong, so she took a blood test.
It’s these broken moment’s that can only be experienced. When you learn, “Whoa. The world is really like this?” When it really sinks in that we are so blessed. For thousands of things we always take for granted. Like, ambulances.
In a separate incident, her security guard found three guys hiding in her backyard a few nights ago. She called the police and they said, “Oh. We don’t come out. But if you catch them, bring them here.”
(Again. There’s been a lot of texts…)
One text just said, “I don’t know how you do this.”
“Do what?” I wrote back.
“I don’t know how you choose who to help. The need is so great here. I want to help everyone but I can’t.”
I remembered when I first had that feeling.
I told her that’s why I decided to go to grad school.
She asked why all the children were covered in bad scabs and skin infections. I told her it was probably because they didn’t have Neosporin (among other things).
She wrote back, “I didn’t bring enough with me.”
In the end, I answered her question of “how I do this.”
I wrote, “Ok. Go find Living Goods and see if they can send a woman over.”
In the end, I answered her question of “how I do this.”
I wrote, “Ok. Go find Living Goods and see if they can send a woman over.”
Friends. Last week you helped us accomplish a huge goal. You were part of helping us meet our matching gift for $50,000.
It was no small act.
Living Goods can now train 25 women to care for 20,000 people living in Uganda. Again, 20,000 people. That’s huge.
They will bring health care into villages. Into places where children play without ambulances. Where health clinics lack doctors. Their presence will be saving lives, and they will be doing it sustainably. With Joy.
I am personally so grateful. Living Goods was ecstatic. We can’t thank you enough for joining us and we feel so lucky to have One Day’s Wages as a partner, enabling us to double our impact.
What Happens Next:
In the coming months we’ll keep you updated on who was hired and how their lives were transformed because of your generosity. I can’t wait to share those stories. (if you want to get those stories — sign up here: http://www.theadventureproject.org/get-our-emails)
My Hope for You:
I want to invite you to stay involved. Reach out, join us on social media, and tell us how we can be better. Invite your friends to join us, too. We are constantly striving to grow. Because we need to reach more villages. And we can’t do it without you.
If you can do more:
- Chip-in $20 to help us meet our goal of hiring 100 people.
- Start a fundraiser and raise enough to help create an entire job.
- Buy a shirt. Wear Adventure. We have a few left.
As Hanna witnessed firsthand, you can do a lot as one person. But together… together is where the magic happens.
Truly. Thank you so much.
-Becky Straw
CEO + Co-Founder, The Adventure Project
