BUENA PARK, California — The faith-based nonprofit Giving Children Hope partners with other organizations in various crisis areas around the globe (either due to the present of high intensity conflict, poverty or hunger) and provides them with the various resources necessary to serve the needs of local families and children. Giving Children Hope primarily offers the provision of basic needs, including nutritional foods and medical resources.
Along with providing aid to organizations already in embedded in the affected nations, Giving Children Hope also plays a large part in developing the physical infrastructure in the areas being helped. Most notably, Giving Children Hope helps develop and rehabilitate under-resourced clinics, hospitals and orphanages in targeted areas.
Founded twenty-one years ago in 1993 by John Ditty, this organization was made in reaction to Ditty’s recent visit to Russia during a famine there in 1992. Witnessing firsthand the extreme poverty that many lived in, Ditty was confronted with scenes of people struggling to survive with only minimal food supplies to do so. Also, at this time there was a general lack of medical supplies leading to the proliferation of treatable in the local areas.
Ditty and his wife subsequently created this faith-based organization to address the needs of the world’s extreme poor by providing either food or medical supplies. Originally the organization’s first projects were financed entirely by John Ditty himself, with his garage being the main distribution center. Giving Children Hope has since grown to distributing $30 million of aid,and using a 43,000 square ft. facility. In reference to this organization’s incredible success and growth, Ditty said, “God birthed this place, and God has grown it.”
Through the aid that Giving Children Hope provides, the organization aims to promote self-sufficiency, family sustainability and economic stability in the communities involved. The ultimate aim of the organization is to help children grow up in stable conditions and for them to be safe from either financial or food concerns that might otherwise impede their development.
They also are widely known for being a green organization, as they often rehabilitate old and seemingly defunct medical equipment that others deemed acceptable only for landfills and make them available for use in free clinics in developing nations around the world.
A consequence of the fact that 99.5 percent of all donations to the organization go directly to projects dedicated to helping the global poor, Giving Children Hope possesses a 4 star rating out of a possible 4 stars with Charity Navigator.Charity Navigator is an online organization which ranks charities according to their financial health accountability and transparency.
One current project the organization is engaged in is providing Lifestraws® to developing nations. A Lifestraws® is a personal portable water purifier that is capable of purifying at least 264 gallons of water before needing to be replaced, while only weighing 54 ounces. BPA-free, it removes up to 99.99999 percent of waterborne bacteria and 99.9 percent of protozoan cysts.
The provision of these filtration devices works to greatly promote access to safe drinking water, a concern for many across the world. Waterborne diseases cause 1.4 million deaths every year, with more children dying from unclean drinking water than wars
Waterborne diseases causing diarrhea are among those prevented, which is highly significant, considering that diarrhea is the second-largest killer of children under five.
Currently, Giving Children Hope is the sole provider of Lifestraws® to nonprofit organizations and mission teams in the U.S. and Canada. They are also working strenuously to promote greater church and individual involvement in financing the sending of these straws developing nations worldwide.
Also in operation is a clinic development program done by the nonprofit. In it they aid clinics and hospitals in developing countries by providing medical supplies and equipment.
Through this program, the organization recently sent a shipment of aid to a rural community called Tema in Ghana. It was filled with various needed medical supplies and equipment for the African community including a CT scanner, a mammogram and an x-ray machine.
Giving Children Hope then is an organization that is, quite successfully, doing exactly what its name suggests. Through its numerous projects in developing nations and its dedication to providing both food and medical necessities to those in need, this organization is giving impoverished children, and people, all over the world hope.
– Albert Cavallaro
Sources: Giving Children Hope 1, Giving Children Hope 2, Giving Children Hope 3, Charity Navigator, LifeStraw
Photo: flickr