This is not your ordinary sponsored piece on GeekDad. Rather than reviewing the latest tabletop game or Kickstarter gadget campaign, this is about a charity. Specifically, this is about CARE – the global humanitarian organization created in the wake of World War II to help feed a starving Europe, and which today is dedicated to fighting global hunger by empowering communities with education and technology, both of which we embrace here at GeekDad.
Have you ever received a care package? I know I used to get them from my parents when I first went off to college. They represent our loved ones sending us food or other supplies to help us when we’re far from home. But did you know that if you have received a care package, what you really received was a CARE package? The term actually refers to the packages filled with food supplies sent from the US to a decimated and hungry Europe after WWII had ended, by a new organization, CARE, formed from more than a dozen existing charities coming together to confront what could have become a huge humanitarian disaster. In the decades since then, the idea of a CARE package has become generalized to mean any sending of food or support. But we shouldn’t forget the term’s roots.
Today, CARE.org carries on the fight against global poverty and hunger by running programs in 87 different countries, to improve basic education, end gender-based violence, provide healthcare and nutrition, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
A few of the best examples of CARE’s programs using education and technical savvy to help people help themselves include:
- Installing moisture-collection systems (vaporators, anyone?) for families in the Ecuadorean mountains.
- Providing micro-loans (less than $10 in value) to families in Africa to help them start small businesses and become self-sufficient).
- Partnering with phone companies to initiate SMS-based banking allowing poor communities to access and transfer funds as needed.
- Introducing lower-cost solar lamps to replace kerosene in communities without electricity.
- Connecting hundreds of schools in poor countries together via mobile apps to aid in the sharing of strategies and content for education.
CARE is providing practical, real-world solutions at the community level all over the world, and 90% of every donated dollar makes it to the people being helped. And now they’re reaching out to the internet community with their #CAREKnowsHow campaign to make sure we’re all aware of how we can work with them to make a difference. Please consider visiting CARE.org and looking at the good that you can help get done.
