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Our Approach

Breaking the cycle of poverty for families is a difficult and complex undertaking that requires a multi-pronged approach. We feed the children daily as if a child is not well fed they will not develop properly, mentally or physically. We then put the children into quality schools, provide them with tutoring, extra curriculars and of course love and support. Through Good Threads, we provide the parents of the children with a quality job to stabilize their household.

Lunch Program- Going hungry is damaging physically and psychologically. If a child is not eating enough they will not learn as well, their brain will not develop as well, they will be shorter, weaker, less attractive and also scarred emotionally. Starving while you know everyone else is eating makes a child feel like they are not a real person and instead some lower class of being. There is a lot of criticism in the development industry towards feeding programs and it strikes me that almost all of that criticism is made by people who have never starved. Feeding a hungry child is a simple good and while feeding them alone will probably not free them from the cycle of poverty they are stuck in but it will help them physically and mentally and is an act of good.

Household Stability

We quickly learned that if we wanted to help our children in the longterm that we had to provide stability to their households. Most of our kids are from single mother households. If their mother has no consistent source of income then it will be very hard to help that child longterm. I started Good Threads, a needlepoint company, in order to employ the mothers of the children with a quality job. Our women get to work from home so that they can work and take care of their household, they get paid more than local nurses and teachers and get to set their own hours as we pay by the piece.

Healthcare

We have directly saved the lives of 3 children, saved the life of 1 adult, treated thousands of skin infections, paid for thousands of prescriptions, provided hundreds of children with dental care, provided glasses for dozens of children. We have also helped with and paid for dozens of hospitalizations, bone breaks, motorcycle accidents, etc. We also extended the life of Neri, the mother of the boys we adopted, for at least 1 year, probably more like 2 or 3.

Education

We have paid 625 years of private school tuition, 125 children a year for 5 years. We have provided uniforms and books for over 1125 school years, 125 a year for 10 years. We have taught dozens of teens and pre-teens, who would not have received any formal education without us, basic math and reading skills. We have provided our children with over 2500 days of tutoring, mostly using a curriculum and teaching methods far superior to those they get in school. We have provided English classes for dozens of kids for years and taught our children about money, business and how to think things through. We have one foundation girl in her 3rd year of studying medicine and have another dozen or so who will hopefully enter college in the near future (inside 5 years) and many more who will hopefully attend college over the next 10 years.

Extra Curricular Activities

Boxing/Wrestling Program and Other Extra Curriculars- Extra curriculars are an important part of a child’s development. We currently run a boxing and wrestling program for the children. In the past we have had English classes, female empowerment classes, and dance classes. The Boxing/wrestling program has gone on for longest and we have some kids who have become quite skilled. It does wonders for anger management, confidence and discipline.

All of these programs work in unison to help our children and families break the cycle of poverty.