Craig Kielburger was our keynote speaker at the UN Summit. Meeting him in person was very inspiring. Craig and his brother, Marc, were child advocates, starting Free the Children at age 12. It is now one of the largest and most respected organization for social advocacy on behalf of children around the world. We learned many things about child labor and the effects or poverty and war on youth around the world.
The Kielburgers’ book, Me to We, inspired us to implement a new charitable program called Dollars for Dessert:
The elementary students are launching a new program to give to people in need! Here’s how it works:
•Each Friday, all RMA children are invited to come to school in jeans and may pack a reasonable sized dessert to eat after lunch.
•In return for these privileges, the children work at home and earn money to donate to the RMA non-profit arm. Minimum donations are $5, and more is welcome. These donations are tax deductible.
•These funds will be managed by the elementary students through modestneeds.org. Our students will be able to select families in need that THEY choose to help from a pool of pre-screened applicants.
•The elementary students will publish our choices in our monthly newsletter, RMA Today, so that everyone in the community can see what a difference we will make in many people’s lives!
The goal is to start a permanent means of charitable contribution and philanthropy in the elementary community. Over time, the students will research and investigate ways of making a difference in the world that they feel are most effective, establishing philanthropic habits which will last a lifetime.
More on ModestNeeds.org:
Founded in 2002, Modest Needs is an award-winning public charity with a simple but critical mission: working to stop the cycle of poverty BEFORE it starts for the low-income workers whom conventional philanthropy has forgotten.
Modest Needs does this by empowering compassionate members of the general public to safely and securely help hard-working, low-income households to afford the kinds of short-term emergency expenses that we've all encountered before: the unexpected car repair, the unanticipated visit to the doctor, or the unusually large heating bill, for example.
Since 2002, by working together in this very 'modest' way, Modest Needs' donors have stopped 4930 low-income individuals and families from entering the vicious cycle of poverty and a lifetime of dependence on the public welfare system for their survival.
And, in the process, with 'small change,' we've freed up millions of dollars in state and federal funding that would've been used to support these people - our neighbors - had we turned our backs and done nothing to help them in their times of short term crisis.
Discover your power to instantly change a life. Please join your friends and neighbors in supporting Modest Needs.
Because Modest Needs has earned the highest possible charity ratings from both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, you can give with confidence, knowing that we won't abuse your kindness.
But more importantly, together, we can make sure that no hard-working person is ever forced to choose between taking a child to the doctor and putting food on the table.
