A Million Voices provides healthcare & education to impoverished Filipino children. Today they need help keep the doors open.
In 2007, my friend Charlotte Johansen started a new adventure for the most noble of causes: making a difference in the lives of children growing up in poverty in Manila, Philippines. It was that year that she founded A Million Voices (AMV), a Norwegian-based non-governmental organization (NGO) operating solely in Baseco Port Area and Ermita/Malate in Manila.
Over the past 10 years, AMV has provided numerous children with a safe environment, education and healthcare, all services which these children may well have gone without if not for AMV. Today, AMV needs some help from us, the Steemit community, to keep the doors open to these children.
As a non-governmental, non-religious and non-political organization, AMV survives on donations derived from private individuals, scholarship sponsors, fundraising activities, and corporate partners. AMV is currently in a financial situation where they need to raise immediate funding in order to avoid discontinuing some or all of the services they provide, which would thereby remove the safe haven that AMV provides to the children it supports.
I've been fortunate enough to get to know Charlotte during my time here in Norway, and she's even been so kind as to host me for a weekend recently in her hometown of Arendal. So my plan is to post all week both about AMV and about our adventures in Arendal, and use the total accumulated earnings to make a (hopefully significant) donation to AMV.
YOU can help me to help these children simply by upvoting this post. Resteem it if it strikes a chord with you. And stay tuned to my blog, as I will be posting my usual adventures every day this week in support of AMV.
Please read on here for more description of A Million Voices, including an excellent short film documenting the work they are doing, and don’t forget to upvote to show your support!
Why should you support this project?
A Million Voices is an on-the-ground organization that is doing real work for children in need, right now. This is not some theoretical pipe dream proposal – this is a well-established organization with a track record of making a positive impact. They even have a rather lengthy Wikipedia page, so you know it is a serious organization!
I could write up a million reasons to support AMV, but a video can certainly show you much better than I can tell. Please take two minutes to watch this informative film that puts you in the shoes of an AMV scholar for a day and shows what AMV does to support the scholars. It includes clips from an interview with Charlotte as well.
Perhaps the best reason to support AMV is that, thanks to Steemit, it is possible do so with nothing more than a simple click to upvote this post!
Where does the money go?
A common concern with charities and NGOs is that donations end up going to administrative costs instead of where they are most needed. But that’s not the case with AMV. Any money that I am able to donate through this post will assuredly go directly to the programs AMV is operating.
I've asked Charlotte about this, and here is her direct response about allocation of funding:
When donations are made project specific, the donations will go to that purpose, for instance when sponsoring a scholar. For non-earmarked donations, these may go to operational expenses simply because it's a necessity to keep operating. If there are no funds for rent, there is also no way to keep the projects ongoing. With that said, AMV has very low admin costs in the Philippines and has none in Norway to ensure funds are utilized in the best way.
The main areas of focus for AMV are knowledge, health, livelihood and protection. Knowledge primarily refers to education, while protection refers to protection of human rights and meeting basic human needs. The target areas are closely linked with the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.
Even more specifically, some of the programs AMV offers include:
- Medicine and medical consultations
- Vaccinations
- Wholesome scholarship program
- School transportation
- Educational tutorials
- Self-confidence activities
- Field trips
- Health seminars
- Potential upcoming collaborative mentorship program
A Message from A Million Voices
To wrap up this first post, I wanted to open the door for Charlotte to provide a direct message to readers of this post and describe what it would mean for AMV to receive support from the Steemit community:
All contributions help, no matter how small you may feel it is. It only takes one voice to disrupt silence, and you can be part of ensuring that poverty stops silencing the bright young minds that are the AMV scholars.
Join me tomorrow as we promote A Million Voices at Arendal's vibrant International Market! And if you want to learn more about AMV in the meantime, please visit http://www.amillionvoices.no/, where you also have the opportunity to make direct contributions to specific programs should you wish to do so.
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
This is such a great project. Resteemed buddy! I'll get the word out.
Thank you SO much my friend! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!
Too many voices are left unheard. It's so good that this organization attempts to restore balance and peace in their lives, I'll definitely try to make a contribution to them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Thank you so much joakimhjoe! I feel compelled to spread the word about AMV because my friend has worked so hard for 10 years to get it where it is, and it would be such a shame if they were unable to continue. Your support is much appreciated!
Kudos to your friend for working on behalf of so many children, and to you for spreading the word. It really does make a difference.
I am definitely with you on this. I was born in a very small town in the Philippines, and all I can say is that after experiencing it first hand. You cannot help but think "How can I help". I hope you find success in the near future.
Thanks so much for sharing your first-hand experience, vastly! I have not been to the Philippines myself, but I am really impressed by the work my friend has done there and would like to see it continue.
UPvoted for the children!
Thank you so much for your support!
I upvoted and followed you bro I'm from Myanmar and we are asian family
Thanks bro! It's great to see your support for your neighbors! I hope the best for all peoples everywhere.
I like this. We've created tags for things like this, please consider using it. #steemit-charity #steemit-charityph
Upvoted!
Thank you deveerei! I will keep that in mind for the next time.
You're welcome. Changing tags on the 2nd to 5th one is still possible though. Cheers! i hope this post gains traction!
Thanks a bunch! I've gone ahead and changed one of the tags per your suggestion. Hope that helps some! A bit of a slow start so far...
So far our posts like that gets 20-50$ earnings. Not bad really. Any amount helps those in need.
Absolutely! Even $20 can go a long way!
It does! Gob bless you for doing this work. We need more people like you here. People who actually care.
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