If the Poverty Busters Giving Circle’s mission is to eliminate poverty, then why did we just choose to donate to Deworm the World?
According to Poor Economics, each year of education increases earnings more or less proportionally. So, if we’re interested in ending poverty, then we’re interested in people getting educated.
In the developing world, enrollment in primary school keeps increasing, but absenteeism is high due in part to treatable illnesses. In fact, over 600 million school-age children are infected with parasitic worms. Parasitic worm infections can cause immediate illnesses, but as the worms accumulate and grow they steal more and nutrients from their hosts causing long-term illnesses and fatigue, too. Children with parasitic infections are much less likely at attend school and to do well in school. And since there is a direct relationship between a child’s education and their future income, keeping children in school helps break the cycle of poverty.
According to Deworm The World, the benefits of school-based deworming are both immediate and enduring. Regular treatment can reduce school absenteeism by 25% and increase adult earnings by over 20%. It is also a program that is very cheap to implement and costs only about .50 cents per child per year. So, our $540 donation will help 1,080 children receive deworming medication.
We liked that Deworm the World worked with the local community structure to administer the medication through the school systems and they partnered with the national governments to design a program that can maintained through the long-term. Since children are constantly exposed to these parasites, continuous treatment is essential to the success of the deworming program.
What’s Next?
We’ll gear up for our next donation cycle. Members can nominate an organization if they’d like, and those nominees will be vetted by the donation committee.
We ask
- Is the program well-designed?
- Will it make an impact?
- Does it cause unintentional harm?
- Does it maintain the dignity of the recipients?
- Are the financial documents reflecting appropriate activity?
- Do they have room to handle more funding?
If you’re not asking these questions before you donate, don’t feel too bad. I wasn’t either. But when you’re part of a giving circle, you can be confident that your hard earned dollars are going to organizations that are going to do a good job with it.
Donate Better. Donate With Others.
You’re invited to be a part of our giving circle and make a big impact with small bucks.