Generous Donors Help Food For The Poor Top #GivingTuesday Goal
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Dec. 2, 2016) Generous donors propelled Food For The Poor far past its goal on #GivingTuesday and raised enough money to build homes for 142 destitute families in Haiti.
Food For The Poor aimed to raise enough money for 24 homes in 24 hours on #GivingTuesday. The goal was part of a larger campaign by the charity to build 1,000 new housing units in 100 days in Haiti to help the struggling country recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
But donors saw the need of desperate families, many left homeless and vulnerable after the violent storm on Oct. 4, and they answered the call in the spirit of the holiday season.
Generous friends of Food For The Poor offered to match any gift received to build homes in Haiti through #GivingTuesday. This means that every gift received to build a home in Haiti was matched dollar-for-dollar.
Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma thanked compassionate donors for making a difference in the lives of those living with such dire needs in Haiti.
"Can you imagine the joy in Port-au-Prince and in Haiti when 142 families find out that they will be getting a brand new home? That they will be living in a home with concrete floors and concrete block walls, windows that open and close, and corrugated metal for the roof," Aloma said.
"That they will no longer have to huddle in a corner when it rains. That almost 1,000 people will be living in those better conditions because of your great generosity, because of your great compassion, because of your love for the poor. #GivingTuesday has been a success where you hit the ball way out of the ballpark."
When teams arrived to assess the damage from Hurricane Matthew, most of the buildings still standing were homes and schools built by the charity. Grateful residents shared how they had taken shelter in Food For The Poor buildings during the storm. But now hundreds of families in Haiti will soon have permanent homes built by Food For The Poor.
This is the fifth consecutive year Food For The Poor has participated in #GivingTuesday.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor primarily 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.
Michael Turnbell
michaelt@foodforthepoor.com
On #GivingTuesday, donors raised enough money to build homes for 142 families in Haiti.
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