Charity Wins Awards

Charity Wins Prestigious Awards for Water, Housing Campaigns

	Food For The Poor wins the Direct Marketing Association's prestigious GOLD 2014 International ECHO™ Ultimate Team Awards. The international relief and development organization was honored for its direct mail campaigns “I Thirst” and “The Book of Maudiel” during the 2014 ECHO™ Awards Ceremony & Gala at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., Tuesday night.
Related Items: See How Maudiel's Family Lives Watch Choupette's Trek to Get Water View Before and After Photographs

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Oct. 29, 2014) –  Access to clean drinking water and secure housing are out of reach for millions of children living in developing countries. For more than three decades, Food For The Poor has helped countless families by sharing their impactful stories through creative direct marketing campaigns.

The Direct Marketing Association has awarded Food For The Poor its GOLD 2014 DMA International ECHO™ Ultimate Team Awards for two of the charity’s direct marketing campaigns:

• “I Thirst” is the story of Choupette, a little girl in Haiti who had to leave her home early each day and trek down a rocky, treacherous mountainside to fill two one-gallon containers with contaminated, dirty water. Visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/quest to view a short video of Choupette's daily quest for water.
• “The Book of Maudiel” is the story of a little boy and his family who were in desperate need of safe and secure shelter in the rural mountains of Nicaragua. Visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/maudiel to view a short video about their dire living conditions.

The international relief and development organization was honored during the DMA 2014 International ECHO™ Awards Ceremony & Gala at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., Tuesday night.

“Food For The Poor is extremely thankful for the prestigious recognition it has received from the DMA. Our talented creative team devoted many work hours into authentically capturing and sharing the daily routines of life for these children and their families in a compassionate, effective way,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “More importantly, thousands of lives will be changed for the better because of generous donors’ response to these compelling stories of children in dire need.”

ECHO™ Awards honor excellence in creativity, marketing strategy and response results in data-driven marketing campaigns. More than 1,000 entries were submitted by agencies and advertisers worldwide.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Water, Water everywhere, but is it Safe to Drink?

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 18, 2013) – For the poorest of the poor in the Caribbean and Latin America, access to clean water is virtually non-existent. Thousands of families in the countries we serve need safe, clean drinking water. Sadly, for many in the rural communities, their only source of water comes from a watering hole, river or a stream. These waters may appear clean, but they are often harboring harmful and potentially deadly bacteria.

International World Water Day is set aside each year as a means of focusing attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. As World Water Day celebrates its 20th year on March 22, Food For The Poor will launch its fourth annual Water Weekfundraising campaign, March 18 through March 25. During this weeklong donation drive, the charity is seeking to raise money for water filtration units, water wells and pumps.

“Food For The Poor understands the vital importance of providing the villages we build with access to clean water and proper sanitation. Many of the very young and the elderly die from preventable waterborne illnesses such as dysentery, cholera and parasitic infections,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “The theme for this year’s World Water Day is ‘International Year of Water Cooperation’ and by supporting Water Week 2013 you will be helping to provide a community with safe drinking water. It only takes a little to make a big difference.”

Over the past decade, Food For The Poor has completed more than 1,475 water projects, which include wells, cisterns, tanks, distribution systems, and water treatment units in the countries the organization serves. Thanks to generous donors and a partnership with Water Missions International, since the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Food For The Poor has installed 60 water filtration units that purify 600,000 gallons of water each day, and drilled 136 wells in Haiti. Together, these projects provide a safe water source for more than a million people. 

Can you imagine trying to live just one day without clean water or anything to drink? Sadly, this is the daily reality for Choupette, a 10-year-old Haitian girl. Choupette leaves her home early each day and treks down a rocky, treacherous mountainside to fill two one-gallon containers with contaminated, dirty water.  Please click on the following link www.foodforthepoor.org/quest to view a short video of Choupette's daily quest for water, and to learn how you can help quench her thirst and the thirst of those within her community.      
                                       
Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.