Blog
Welcome to Giving Children Hope’s Blog!
This blog features insight into a world of nonprofits, social justice, philanthropy, communications, marketing, current events and everything in between that concerns making a difference in this world.
This blog is managed by a staff writer, but we will feature guest bloggers from time-to-time. Please feel free to comment and interact with these posts! If you have any questions about blogs posted or guest blogging, please e-mail us
Eating at the Buffet: Communicating Our Message
For reasons I’ll never quite understand, my parents love to celebrate special events by eating at Hometown Buffet. They look at the rows and rows of food created from recipes around the world as an opportunity to sample a little of everything. I, on the other hand, see more food than my brain or stomach can digest.
Since I began working at Giving Children Hope this past summer I’ve found myself with a parallel problem in that I use far too many words to try and explain who GCHope is and what it is that we do. My response sounded more like a Hometown Buffet menu than something I’d really like to invite others to partake with me in.
Is GCHope a disaster relief organization? Yep! Does GCHope provide life-saving medicines to medical missions around the world? Absolutely! Is it true that GCHope refurbishes medical equipment that would otherwise end up in landfills into pristine, working condition and delivers them to clinics serving the poor both locally and internationally? Of course! Doesn’t GCHope provide backpacks full of food for homeless and hungry children in Orange County? Yes!
Do you see our dilemma? While some organizations do one thing well and are able to tell their simple story in a simple way, we have a team of partners that enable us to do many things well. While we pride ourselves in our service, we’ve failed in communicating our story. In meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, other local businesses and fellow non-profits I constantly hear, “You’re the best kept secret around.” We don’t want to be the best kept secret! With this in mind GCHope has been hard at work to better define our menu message to help the community and our partners clearly understand what it is we do.
So how do we condense our vast menu into a chewable bite that introduces people to the flavor and substance of our work while not losing our customer’s interest in the never ending verbiage of a non-profit buffet menu?
After much internal discussion with the staff and with the external input of partners, as well as a few “God please help us” moments, we have narrowed down our message to the following: Bringing Health to Kids in Crisis
Before you object that your favorite dish was left off of the menu take a minute to look over our tagline again and I believe you’ll find that it’s still there only in a smaller more manageable portion, but none the less tasty.
So join with us in getting the word out about the best kept secret in Orange County: Giving Children Hope. – Sean
Sean Lawrence
Nonprofit Partner Manager
Giving Children Hope
Poor Response to Pakistan
GCHope is responding to the flood Pakistan. The scale of the disaster and the number of people this is affecting there is no hesitation on our part to prepare disaster relief to send.
But something is different this time.
Earlier this year, we responded to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. About 250,000 people were killed and about one million were displaced. Most are still living in unstable living conditions, where sanitation and spread of disease is a concern. Hundreds of NGOs responded and continue their work there (GCHope is no exception) and many Americans gave millions of dollars to help with these efforts. It’s been communicated that it will take a long time to not only rebuild Haiti, but to develop an infrastructure that is more sustainable and successful than before the quake.
Now back to Pakistan. The massive disaster is the greatest flooding in Pakistan in over a century, with a fifth of the country under water. About 20 million people have been affected by the monsoon rains, whether it’s through displacement or the elimination of their crops and clean water. More than 1,400 people have died, two million people are homeless, and 3.5 million children are in risk of cholera. Pakistani livelihood has not been threatened; it has already been taken away. Yet the response to this humanitarian crisis has been minimal. The size of this disaster is greater than the one in Haiti (if you compare how many people have been affected each of the disasters). UN officials have even reported that the Pakistan crisis is greater than the Haiti earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Combined.
Although I cannot come up with a good reason why this is happening, I know that it’s our organization’s responsibility to respond to a major disaster despite the public response or media coverage. We depend on the generosity of the public to help us send out these relief containers full of supplies, but we know that even if this disaster never receives the coverage that Haiti did, God will provide a way to help us send relief.
I encourage you to read more about this devastating flood and move into action as you see fit. One way to respond is by giving to Giving Children Hope’s Pakistan Relief Efforts.
The monsoon rainy season is only half way over. There will only be more devastation.
HBO Documentary Highlights Homelessness in OC
Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi has created her sixth documentary for HBO, ‘Homeless: The Motel Kids Of Orange County’. While we run We’ve Got Your Back to address the nutrition needs of homeless children in the county, Pelosi has brought this growing issue in one of the most wealthiest counties in the United States to the forefront.
In the Orange County Register article, Pelosi says, “I really believe this movie could have been made in any zip code in America, and the people in Orange County are probably not happy that we landed there,” Pelosi says. “But Orange County had it coming to it – with ‘The OC,’ ‘The Real Housewives,’ it’s portrayed as the place you go to live the American dream.” The article reports that she looked at other locations but kept coming back to Orange County because the reality of the county was far different from the perceptions people had of it. “The contrasts are stark,” Pelosi says. “We have tons of homeless people everywhere, but the first thing – when I told I people I was making about homeless kids in Orange County – people would say was, ‘There are homeless people in Orange County?’”
In her interview on CNN.com she talks about The Project Hope School in Orange County, one of only four schools that only teaches homeless children in the nation. Giving Children Hope serves this school’s students with food through the We’ve Got Your Back program.
Giving Children Hope is located in Orange County and people in our immediate area are constantly surprised when we let them know that there are more than 22,000 homeless children in this county. Our goal is to not only be on the front lines to address this issue, but to also bring awareness and education.
I hope you all get the chance to watch this documentary and become educated about the community around you. I also hope it dispels some of the misconceptions that have been created about this county. We can all do something to help these children in our backyard.
The documentary premiered yesterday, but will be repeated by HBO servers times in July and August. Please share your thoughts with us and see how you can help.
- Photo is from a scene in Alexandra Pelosi’s documentary ‘Homeless: The Motel Kids Of Orange County’, HBO
Face to Face with Orange County’s Homeless Families
I’m not the type that usually blogs…so the fact that I am taking the time to write this blog means there’s something I really want to share. And if you’re usually not someone who follows a blog, then maybe you should take the time to finish reading this, since we’re both doing something we don’t usually do anyway.
First off, for those who don’t know, I coordinate the We’ve Got Your Back program where we distribute backpacks full of nutritious food every weekend throughout the school year for over 800 elementary-school children who are identified as homeless (unstable housing, living in motels) by the criteria of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Because we still want to provide for the families during the break from school, we are starting our Summer Distribution Program this year where we will be at various locations throughout Orange County on certain days to give food to the families. All they have to do is show up!
At last Thursday’s distribution, we were able to meet and talk to the people who benefit from all our efforts here at Giving Children Hope. I met a pregnant mom who walked with her five young daughters and a baby boy to come pick up the bags of food from us. It must not be easy walking a few miles with five kids under the hot sun- And can I mention again that she was pregnant? They would also have to walk back carrying the bags of food. All the effort they made to show up at our distribution site showed me that they really needed the food. I was talking to her 4th grade daughter who told me it was her birthday next week, but her family doesn’t celebrate birthdays. But she had no complaints. She simply shared that fact with me like it was no big deal…she was simply excited she was getting a year older.
I also met a 5th grade boy with tattered shoes who was telling me about how he loved math and was excited about entering the GATE program. His eyes lit up when he was talking to me about school…SCHOOL! How often does that happen? It was such a sweet moment to me, because I could tell that he and his younger sister and brother didn’t have much, but they were so excited about the simple things: about getting good grades, about their favorite subjects in school, and getting the chance to watch Toy Story 3 in the theaters that weekend.
Another cool thing was I got to meet a lively woman in her sixties who had adopted a 7-year-old boy and wanted to enroll him in our program. She was speaking a mix of Spanish and Portuguese, and since I speak Portuguese (I grew up in Brazil), I was wondering why I could understand some of what she was saying. I thought at first that I was just going crazy, but then I decided to ask her if she was actually speaking Portuguese. I soon found out that she was born in Brazil and traveled around many places (which I can relate to), and before I knew it, we were chatting like good friends. She even offered to cook Brazilian meals for me and my friends! I thought it was such a kind and generous offer, considering she barely had enough for her and her child.
We stayed at that distribution site for only two hours, but I was able to see that all the hard work the volunteers and staff put into keeping this program running every week help families make it through another week. It’s not extra food to them… it’s their meals. I’ve learned that there are over 22,000 homeless children and youth (pre-K to 12th grade) living in Orange County, according to the 2009 Orange County Board of Education Homeless Liaisons Report. But that’s no longer just a stat to me; I’ve actually met the kids. The families I met on Thursday encourages me to keep on working even on days when I feel completely exhausted, because I am reminded that none of this is really for me. It’s for the kids…like the smart boy with the hole in his shoe, so he won’t have to worry about where his next meal will come from…but be able to continue focusing on things that a young boy should care about…like excelling in school. – Ruth
Ruth Sze
We’ve Got Your Back
Program Coordinator
Statistics of U.S. International Giving
Every so often we receive interesting mail in the office. Most of the time it’s junk mail like “The Pyramid Collection: Myth, Magick, Fantasy and Romance” clothing catalog. Don’t worry. The postal service is delivering it to the wrong address. I think.
Unless someone in the office has a secret life we know nothing about…
Anyway…
This week I received Philanthropy Matters magazine from the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University. The issue featured an article called “Generosity without Borders” that gave insights about donors who give to nonprofits that address global needs. The most interesting part of this data came from the percentage of Americans who gave to international communities.
As noted in the article, research on international giving is in its early stages, but these findings are worth repeating:
- Less than six percent of U.S households give to international causes.
- For the 2004 Asian tsunami relief efforts, 30 percent of U.S. households gave
- Giving to international causes is the fastest-growing subsector of U.S. giving.
- Giving to international causes and disaster relief increases as households’ education level, income level, and frequency of religious attendance increased.
- Within the U.S. donors are propelling international giving to double-digit annual growth
- People living in a community with a greater ethnic diversity or a large foreign-born population increased the likelihood that donors gave to international causes.
They key in all of this, as Una Osili, Director of Research at Philanthropic Studies at Indiana University points out, is that there is a need for knowledge about international philanthropy to inform a donor’s decision. The article also mentions that nonprofits need to leverage conversations about international issues and capitalize on donors’ increased awareness, especially, I think, in the wake of a disaster.
After the earthquake in Haiti, despite the bad economy, Americans gave $1.3 billion to help with immediate relief. This giving was fueled by the information the media was streaming into the living rooms of Americans almost 24/7. Yet, this international attention eventually faded; media coverage of Haiti (as in all disasters) has slowly faded into the background.
It’s important for us (GCHope) to bring the most current information on the communities we serve through our web site, social media, media coverage, newsletters, etc. Natural disasters are most devastating in places where basic resources are already scarce. When we respond to international disasters, we want to make sure donors understand how their money is helping with immediate needs, but we also want to inform them of the history of the communities they are helping.
Even when there is there hasn’t been a disaster, we are constantly working to keep the nation’s interest in developing countries. We do have an advantage. While we focus on international medical development, our organization also serves the basic needs of Southern California and the rest of the United States, whether if it is with food or medicines or with disaster relief (we’ve responded to Hurricane Katrina and Ike). As people learn about our local programs, they also have an opportunity to learn about developing communities around the world.
I have hope that as the world becomes a smaller place through technological advances, that the majority U.S. households will no longer be able to turn away from international communities in need. You will either choose to respond to the knowledge you have received or you will chose to ignore it.
- Statistics and research were taken from the following sources in the “Generosity without Borders” article: Who Cares about Development? Learning About Cross-Country Differences in Generosity; Giving USA; and Preferences for International Distribution.
