How $10 Can Actually Make a Difference

Poverty: The Big Idea

Poverty is a pretty loaded word. Poverty conjures up different images for everyone, whether it’s of a homeless teenager holding a coffee cup in Manhattan or an Ethiopian farmer whose already meager crop was ruined by drought. Since you’re sitting at a computer reading this blog post, I’m going to assume you are not poor. But don’t we hear money woes all the time? “Can’t make it to the beach this weekend, I’m broke” or “Oh my god, look at my bank balance — I’m so poor!” If you have the option of renting a beach house, or if you even have a bank account, you are not poor by most of the world’s standards.



But let’s look at the definition of “poverty” in the New Oxford American Dictionary: lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society. [emphasis mine]



This is where the confusion arises. What is considered comfortable in French society is certainly different from what is considered comfortable in Cambodian society. Therefore, a poor Frenchman may have a lot more than a poor Cambodian.

The point of this post isn’t to chastise you for having money or make you feel guilty for living in relative comfort. Actually, I’m sure plenty of my readers are having a hard time making ends meet to live comfortably in their societies. What I want to demonstrate is that a small sacrifice on your part can make a genuine difference in parts of the world where the standard of poverty is much lower. I want to show you how even sparing just $10 can make a difference.



Poverty in Thailand

Living in Thailand, it’s a common occurrence to be approached by young children peddling flower garlands, peanuts, or roses. These kids come out at night to sell their wares at the restaurants and bars that tourists and foreigners frequent. Knowing that many of them are working to help their families scrape by, I have a hard time saying no to their sweet faces. But the challenges these kids face run far deeper than my 10 baht (about 29 cents) could ever go.

Working late into the night isn’t the only reason these children can’t go to school; many of them have no ID cards, and most of them can’t afford school fees anyway. Their parents are often illegal migrant workers, refugees, or from one of Thailand’s indigenous “hill tribes.” Denied ID cards and basic human rights by the government, these families are often left in acute poverty. Families of migrant workers usually live in slums on the construction site, at the mercy of the boss and the possibility of a police raid. As the children spend their nights selling flowers in the street, they become vulnerable to the very real dangers of human trafficking and sex work.

Going with the logic that the most direct route is the most effective, how do we give these kids what they need instead of just money for what they need?



Enter my friend Lisa Nesser, who founded Freedom House to tackle this issue. Freedom House is a nonprofit organization that offers refugees and internally displaced hill tribe people the opportunity of education. Freedom House brings children daily from the construction sites to the school, and there are currently 34 students who receive Thai and English lessons, a daily snack, and fun activities like yoga and music. Thai lessons for the parents are conducted either at the school or on the actual construction sites.

For these students, learning Thai is essential to make future schooling and work a realistic possibility. English instruction offers even more potential options. Though milk sounds like a staple to most of us in the Western world, a healthy snack with a glass of milk is a welcome luxury for these kids.

Thanks to dedicated volunteers and the low cost of living in Thailand, Freedom House runs on a monthly budget of less than $1500, which covers the schoolhouse rental and maintenance, daily transportation of students, volunteer coordination, and daily milk and snacks. That’s less than $50 to cover one month for one student. In the case of Freedom House, “every dollar counts” is no longer a cliché. A donation of $10 will buy a week’s worth of milk for all 34 students.



A Challenge For You

Now, if you’ve read a few posts on this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I like talking about goals. Goals, challenges, pushing yourself — all that good stuff. Today, I want to propose a challenge to all who read this blog post:

Choose one little indulgence to give up for one week, and donate the money you save to Freedom House.

Here are some ideas:

Your Starbucks latte on the way to work: $3.75 x 5 = $18.75

Three after-work mojitos: $10 x 3 = $30

Friday night date at the movies: $12 x 2 = $24 (for all my New York readers…and that’s not even counting the popcorn!)



I can personally guarantee that your money will directly benefit these students. And although even a $10 donation helps keeps Freedom House operating, I am proposing this challenge to my community of blog readers for a chance to create strength in numbers.

Click here to make a donation to Freedom House.

[EDIT: If the above link does not work, I've linked below to an organization that accepts donations for Freedom House. Cultural Canvas is another organization here in Thailand, and they will give 100% of your donation to Freedom House if you check the box indicating that you are contributing to Freedom House.]

Alternate link for donations to Freedom House.

I would love to keep track of how many readers participate, so please either let Lisa know on the donation page that you learned of Freedom House through the Essential Prose blog, or leave me a note in the comments below to accept my challenge. I’m very excited to launch this post, and I can’t wait to see who will join in!

Please leave a comment if you plan to participate. Click the title of this post if no comment form is available below.

Bloggers, please comment with links to your Blog Action Day posts!

Other Blog Action Day posts that are well worth a read:

30 Simple Ways to Battle Poverty with Technology @ Skelliewag

How to Get Delightfully Rich (and Still Keep Your Soul) @ Remarkable Communication

People First @ Writing Forward

Tagged as: children, Education, goals, poverty