GlobalGiving Project of the Month Club

Dear Project of the Month Club,

I hope this update finds you in a warm, cozy place as winter here in the U.S. has been especially frigid. One thing that’s been keeping our spirits high amidst the freezing temperatures has been the generosity shown by donors like you, who are the reason we had our best year ever in 2014, raising more than $32 million for earth-changing projects around the globe.

In January, 217 of you gave a total of $7,365 to “Bridge To Self Reliance 2000 Refugees San Diego CA,” a project run by the Episcopal Refugee Network of San Diego. Your donations will be helping them implement a new program to boost adult literacy rates among the city’s refugee community.

This month your donations will be funding Isha Vidhya’s “Gift An Education...Make A Life!” project, which runs English-medium schools for children in rural India who could not otherwise access or afford such an education. When we informed project leader Venkat Ramakrishnan of the good news, he had this to say:

“We deeply appreciate and value your gesture, which is timely and significant. The donations we get as a result will help us meet our urgent infrastructure requirements for the coming academic year, and have a positive impact on our ability to deliver quality education to underprivileged rural children.”

We here at GlobalGiving share in Venkat’s appreciation of your generosity. We’re always inspired by the impact your donations have to change lives around the world, and can’t wait to see the change you’ll create next month.

Warmly,
Mari and the GlobalGiving Team

It’s a new year and that means many new beginnings. I’m excited to share with you our first Project of the Month selection for 2015, an organization that’s helping refugee families lay a strong foundation in their new home country.

But first, let me tell you about what you accomplished last month! You and 220 other Club members gave a total of $7,228 to support Dream a Dream's “Empowering Vulnerable Young People with Life Skills” project in India. Your generosity is helping 100 youth from the Bangalore area attend a camp program focused on building their self-confidence, interpersonal skills and critical thinking.

This month your donation will fund “Bridge To Self Reliance 2000 Refugees San Diego CA”, a project from the Episcopal Refugee Network of San Diego. Project leader Elaine McLevie was thrilled to hear about her project’s selection, and told us that the timing couldn’t be better. She explains:

“Not only are January and February months in which we frequently receive very few donations, but we usually receive an influx of new families in those months. This year is no exception. Many of the families are large, and supplies of donated bedding and household goods are in high demand. So is transportation to medical and other offices and translation at those visits, because, more often than not, the family does not speak, read or write English. What a boost to our morale it was to have this show of confidence in the value of what we do.”

Elaine also added that your funds could help them start a new program to boost adult literacy rates in San Diego’s refugee community, which would help improve their job prospects. Not a bad start to the new year!

Warmly,
Mari and the GlobalGiving Team