Do Much Good

	Founders of the "Do Much Good” coalition (l to r) Steve Deace, Stephen Baldwin, Dani Johnson and Kevin McCullough, traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department.
Related Items: See More Photos on Facebook Help Families in Kadwa

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 9, 2014) – Hundreds of Haiti’s students, attending three schools located in Leogane, Tabarre, and Croix des Bouquets, now have access to clean, life-saving water. Thanks to the kindness of the “Do Much Good” coalition who partnered with Food For The Poor, a water filtration unit has been installed in each school.
 
“Food For The Poor takes a holistic approach with all of its projects. When water quality testing revealed that the water supply in these schools was not safe for the children to drink, immediate action was taken,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “Thanks to the magnanimity of the “Do Much Good” coalition and the support of Water Missions International, three solar-powered water filtration units have been installed, and each unit can purify and chlorinate up to 10,000 gallons of water per day.”

In mid-December, the founders of the “Do Much Good” coalition traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department. They are: Stephen Baldwin, actor and public speaker; Kevin McCullough, nationally syndicated talk show host and author; Dani Johnson, ABC Television’s “Secret Millionaire” and financial marketing expert; Steve Deace, nationally syndicated talk show host.

“Do Much Good” supports individuals and ministries around the world that provide food, water, shelter, medical aid, education and teach life skills to people in need. While in Haiti, the members saw for themselves the impact their gift of clean water is making in the lives of students and staff. When they visited the Complexe Educatif Jesus Bon Pasteur School in Croix-des-Bouquets, they were greeted by an assembly of 3- to 12-year-olds, waving banners and singing songs of jubilation for their much needed water filtration unit.

“This water project is beyond your wildest imagination and the impact it’s having here humbles me,” said, Stephen Baldwin. “It’s a blessing and a privilege to be a part of this project.”

“Last year our listeners helped us to bring life-saving drinking water to these children, and your gift made this all possible. This is what this is all about,” said Kevin McCullough.

Potable water can be the difference between life and death, yet thousands of Haitians are using polluted water collected from lakes and streams for their daily needs. Usually, it is the women and young girls who are forced to walk several miles a day to obtain this water for their families, water that is often contaminated with life-threatening bacteria and parasites.

Because there is a desperate need for clean water throughout the country, the water filtration unit installed in each school is being used as a water source for the surrounding communities as well. Nearly 6,000 people living near the Reap de Morel School in Leogane and the John Branchizio School in Tabarre now have access to clean drinking water. Each unit can support a community of up to 3,000 people.                                                                  
The lack of clean water wasn’t the only need the coalition members saw while in Haiti. The members also got to see what life is like in the remote rural community of Kadwa in Mirebalais. After speaking with some of the families living in unfathomable conditions, “Do Much Good” wants to do more to help the suffering in Haiti.

“I think when you’re doing good the way Food For The Poor is doing it, what it does is encourage you to want to pay it forward, and what you recognize is God alone is responsible for the giving in you,” said Steve Deace.

Even though many of the people met by the group in Kadwa do not have much materially, one “Do Much Good” member expressed awe and amazement about their rich faith and their hope for the future.

“We can learn some things from the poor, the poor who know God,” said Dani Johnson. “I have witnessed here in Haiti the beautiful praises for God coming out of the mouths of the poor – it’s humbling and it’s beautiful.”

For 13 years, Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department has traveled with on-air personalities and radio hosts from across the United States to Jamaica, Haiti and Guatemala. As the radio hosts campaign for funding to help feed and shelter the poor, they also educate their listeners about the poverty that plagues parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.

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.

        

Musician shares the power of Somebody’s Praying for Me

For many, Food For The Poor isn’t just their charity of choice, but also a personal prayer partner. Through Food For The Poor’s prayer ministry, the charity’s donors have the unique opportunity to pray for the needs of the poor as well as their own personal needs.

The Christian music artist Don Moen, in support of that ministry, has offered the song Somebody’s Praying for Me from his most recent album Uncharted Territory to be given as a gift to donors. When donations are made to one of Food For The Poor’s 40 radio station campaigns to help prevent the spread of chronic malnutrition in Guatemala from April 16-May 16, the song Somebody’s Praying for Me can be downloaded for free.

“To know somebody is praying for you and lifting your intentions up to the Lord is very powerful,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s President/CEO. “Through the prayers of Food For The Poor’s donors and recipients, we as a charity have grown and prospered during the past 30 years.”

Moen has collaborated with Food For The Poor since 2004. During Moen’s 2011 six-city Canadian concert tour, he shared stories from his 2010 mission trip with the charity to Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haitien and Shada, Haiti. Inspired to help Moen change lives, generous audiences responded with donations to build 13 new two-room homes in Haiti.

“I am more committed than ever to bring the message of hope to those who have lost hope and to help people sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land,” said Moen, a singer, songwriter and worship leader. “Remember God is always working in ways you cannot see.”

The song Somebody’s Praying for Me can also be downloaded for free by completing this form on Food For The Poor’s website.

Food For The Poor has a department that is dedicated to praying for and with donors who have mailed in prayer requests. Thousands of prayer requests are received each month.

Whether you are faced with a challenging day, a difficult decision or have a blessing to celebrate, Food For The Poor’s “Live Prayer” iPhone app will connect you to a prayer partner within minutes. A team of prayer associates are standing by to pray with you in a secure, private, one-on-one phone call. To make a prayer request simply enter your name and phone number and you will receive a return call within five minutes.

Food For The Poor’s free “Live Prayer” iPhone app is available for download by texting “Prayer” to 69866 and by visiting the Food For The Poor website. In addition to the “Live Prayer” functionality, users can also learn about Food For The Poor, make donations to the charity, and receive special news and event notifications. A weekly scripture and prayer is also accessible through the app. Live prayer is offered Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays between 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. EST, and on Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST.

Moen is President of Don Moen and Friends, a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on bringing worship events, worship training, and worship in action to people worldwide. Through concerts, teaching, and partnerships with local and international relief organizations, Don Moen and Friends brings God's message of hope, comfort, and encouragement around the world.

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.

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
jennifero@foodforthepoor.com

A voice for the voiceless: Radio hosts speak on behalf of Guatemala’s poor

A home in the mountains overlooking lush green tree tops, hazy blue skies as far as the eye can see and a crisp clean breeze to caress the skin would be considered by most an ideal place to live.

Ironically, one of the most beautiful places in Central America is also one the poorest places in which Food For The Poor works. People who live in the mountainous region of Quetzaltenango, which is a five-hour bus ride from Guatemala’s capital of Guatemala City, are some of the poorest of the poor. Most are surprised to learn that Guatemala, not Haiti, has by far the worst situation in regards to childhood malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere.

“Families are dying daily,” said Doug Bursch, Radio Host on KGNW 820 AM in Seattle, Wash. “They are dying physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Poverty steals their dreams, stunts their growth, destroys their youth, and takes away their children.”

Bursch’s words sum up what life is like for some of the people he met on his trip to Guatemala with Food For The Poor in February – people like Maria Macario, a 61-year-old widow and her family of 12. Families like Maria’s are living in cramped mud huts and are starving. The only source of protein for many of the children comes from the dead animals plucked from a nearby ravine during the frequent floods. Most receive their daily meal from whatever they pick from the garbage dump in the valley below.

For 12 years, Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department has traveled with radio hosts from across the United States to Jamaica and Haiti to fundraise. For the first time, 13 hosts representing stations from Hawaii to Florida, joined Food For The Poor and its on-air personalities on a five-day journey to Guatemala for the 2012 “Day of Hope” 40 station radio campaign.

“In order to paint an accurate picture of what poverty is like in the third world it was imperative for these radio hosts to see for themselves how difficult day-to-day life really is for people without the bare necessities,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “They have been entrusted with this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the women and children they’ve met in Guatemala. They will be able to do this by sharing their own personal experiences with their loyal listeners here in the United States.”

In this video, Dawn O’Brien, Radio Host on The Fish 95.5 in Honolulu, Hawaii, introduces us to Josefa Morales. Morales is a single mother of 10 who was abandoned by her husband. Her children often scavenge the dumps in search of something to eat.

“I thought I knew what poverty was like because I‘ve been there as a child, but you forget so fast,” said O’Brien. “I think this short mission trip was absolutely worth it, just for us to remember that this is how many in the world live.”

In this video, Elizabeth Kay, Radio Host on 99.1 The Mix in Milwaukee, Wis. shares the story of Catarina Sacrohope, a 27-year-old widow with four young children. Sacrohope and her family are literally living on the edge of a cliff with a 100-foot drop to the rocky ground beneath them.

“We all have our challenges, but thankfully in the United States we do have the means, as tough as they are, to try to get a little bit of help,” said Kay. “These people don’t have a little bit of help on their own; they need an organization like Food For The Poor because that is their only option.”

After getting up close and personal with utter despair, there were moments of jubilation for these first-time visitors to the Central American country. Food For The Poor took the group to the main street market of Quetzaltenango to buy fruit, vegetables, and meat for the children of the El Chulin Feeding Center, where they helped to prepare a special meal for them. While at the center, the radio personalities lived up to their title by playing rounds of football and entertaining the children with their cell phone cameras and broken Spanish.

The group also visited a thriving animal husbandry project of pigs and chickens. They got to see a successful tilapia-farm, a pelibuey (cross-breed between goats and sheep) project and the Xela community of 75 homes, which are all funded by donors through Food For The Poor. While in Guatemala the ministry’s local partners managed to procure land for the families visited by the radio hosts. Thanks to the generosity of the organization’s caring donors, these families will soon have a sturdy home away from edges of cliffs. Click here for a photo gallery of projects in the Xela community.

“The greatest gift that we can share with the poor is our gift of presence. It comes with a feeling of brotherhood, caring, walking the extra mile, and of coming out of our very comfortable worlds; daring to understand their world of suffering and sorrow. It comes with an offer of love and hope,” said Aloma.

Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of 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. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com

Radio personalities travel to Haiti with Food For The Poor

On-air personalities from across the country traveled to Haiti this fall with the Christian relief and development organization, Food For The Poor. For many of the travelers, this was their first experience witnessing this level of extreme destitution.

“The bottom line is people, humankind, should not be living in this kind of squalor,” said Big Wave Dave, afternoon host of The Fish 95.9 FM in Los Angeles, while walking through Shada, Haiti. “This is something that we as Americans cannot fathom – the worst parts of the Bronx, the worst part of Southern California and L.A. – pales in comparison.”

In this video, standing along the seawall, Big Wave Dave describes the putrid smell of the rotting garbage in the canal and how the children surrounding him drink, fish, and wash in this water source. In the distance, the dilapidated structures that the children call home are visible.

“Now just imagine what that is doing to their bodies on top of their living conditions,” said Big Wave Dave. “The $12 a month will not only feed a family of four for a month, or $144 for a year, but, get this, Food For The Poor is building new homes to get families out of this mess and into a new environment. If you want to talk about boots on the ground, that is the core.”

With more than 600,000 Haitians still living in tent cities, one of Food For The Poor’s biggest priorities in the country is building homes. Almost 17,000 homes have been constructed by the charity in Haiti – 2,600 of those since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The charity has the capacity to build 350 two-room homes a month, and is limited only by funding.

“With your help we have made a difference here without my feet being on the ground,” said Tim Hartlage, General Manager of 94.7 FM WFIA in Louisville, Ky. in this video shot in Derac, Haiti. “These kids used to live in a house much worse than the house behind me. Across the street here this is what we are doing, this is the hope you are giving these families here, we are helping them.”

Since returning to the air in Louisville, his passionate pleas have stirred listeners to help those starving in Haiti. “Right now our mission is to help feed them,” said Hartlage.

In 2009, when Hartlage traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor, he said he was overwhelmed to learn Haiti’s destitute children eat “mud cookies” to help quell their hunger pains.

While in Haiti, the group witnessed firsthand the work of Food For The Poor, and met the families featured in the radio campaigns, as well as those who wished to thank radio listeners for their compassion. They distributed food at a Food For The Poor feeding center which provides 15,000 hot meals six days a week. The travelers also visited a Food For The Poor school in Cité Soleíl, where the students receive what might well be their only meal for the day.

“It is unbelievable, it just brings you to tears,” said Melanie Lynn, morning on-air host for PULSE 96.9/92.1 FM from South Bend, Ind., during her first visit to Haiti.

With children seated in her lap and clinging to her in this video, Lynn encourages listeners to partner with Food For The Poor so children might have renewed hope and access to food and safe drinking water.

On-air appeals raise money to house and feed starving families in Haiti.

Additional radio personalities on the trip included Rob Davis, Salem Radio; George Flores, WAWZ (N.Y.); Heather Lloyd, KPRZ (San Diego, Calif.); and Katherine Worthington, KKLA (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Food For The Poor, 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.

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
jennifero@foodforthepoor.com

WLRN campaign feeds 780 children in Haiti for 6 months

More than 780 children in Haiti will be fed for six months, thanks to the generosity of Friends of WLRN and compassionate public radio listeners. For every $100 committed by supporters who called to make a donation on March 17, Friends of WLRN sent $18 to Food For The Poor.

At a time when soaring food and fuel prices are threatening nonprofits’ ability to get lifesaving food to the poor, the March 17 campaign was especially appreciated by the international development and relief agency.

“This gift of money for food could not have come at a better time,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “Everything is costing more, and these children are depending on us to give them simple meals that will give them life and hope for one more day. We are very grateful for the support of Friends of WLRN and 91.3 WLRN.”

The campaign took on an even greater significance midday, when American Airlines executives heard the call for donations on the radio and were moved to help. They offered two tickets for every 100 donations, with the requirement the tickets be used by relief workers.

“This is a great campaign to help the people of Haiti, and American Airlines wanted to do something substantial to show our support,” said Peter Dolara, American’s Senior Vice President based in Miami. “We have proudly served Haiti for 40 years and believe this is an important effort to help the needy.”

This is not the first time Friends of WLRN has reached out to the children aided by Food For The Poor. Through the station’s generosity in two campaigns last year, more than 1,300 children were fed for six months through Food For The Poor feeding programs.

Wagner Previato, Director of Marketing and Membership for Friends of WLRN, called the campaign a success for both the station and for the children.

“The South Florida community and supporters of our public radio station responded generously when we mentioned that a portion of their contributions would be going directly to feeding children in Haiti through Food For The Poor,” said Previato. “Our partnership with Food For The Poor helped mobilize our efforts in making a gift that nourishes Haiti’s most vulnerable citizens, and supports 91.3 WLRN’s news coverage of Haiti and all other local news stories.”

In Haiti, more than half of the population, including two-thirds of the children, suffers from malnutrition. About 76 of every 1,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday.

“Through the generosity of 91.3 WLRN, Friends of WLRN and American Airlines, we can not only make sure that children get vital food, but Food For The Poor will benefit from the additional tickets to get essential relief staff to Haiti,” Aloma said.

Food For The Poor, the third-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 agency 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. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Director of Public Relations
Food For The Poor
954-427-2222 x 6614
kathys@foodforthepoor.com