After a five month hiatus from blogging, I’m back to tell you about an online fundraiser I’m about to launch—one in which I think you’d have an awesome time participating.  

Since my Africa trip earlier this year, I’ve felt moved to try to raise some money for the people I met there, especially the children of this really undeveloped part of Kenya called South Hoor.[1]  Man, the South Hoor kids are so poor, and we easily could have been one of them (see The Incarnation Drawing).  I mean, check out a couple of these little guys.

Imagine you were one of them.  Really take yourself there…  You have no shoes.  You probably don’t even have sandals.  You own just one pair of exceptionally raggedy-looking clothes.  You have no toys.  No books.  No toiletries.  No showers or baths.  No medicine.  You dropped out of school, or just never enrolled, because your family can’t afford the school fees.  And you live in a five-foot high, seventy-five square foot hut made of sticks.[2]  Simply put, you need some serious help, brah. 

All of us, and I mean all of us, are so, so rich compared to them. If we saw and played with them, and put ourselves in their shoes (or bare feet), we’d want to help them.  There’s no doubt. 

Since coming back to the States, I’ve stayed in touch with the guy who persuaded me to take the trip to South Hoor, as well as a Kenyan, college-educated couple who live and serve there.  Through our conversations, it’s become apparent to me that educational assistance is a real need there.  With their help and yours, we’re going to provide some. 

Alright, here’s how the fundraiser will work. Every month, I’ll post a new fundraising challenge online.  The first month’s challenge, for example, will involve grocery shopping.  Every time we do a normal grocery shopping, the challenge will be to (1) abstain from buying a single, unnecessary grocery item, OR to replace that unnecessary item with a cheaper alternative, and (2) then give the money you would’ve spent on that item, or the difference in price between the two items, to this cause (or another one if you feel so led).  The item can be a one dollar can of beans, an eight dollar cake or steak, a three dollar bag of chips, or anything else you want it to be, including a twenty-five cent stick of gum.  And through your smartphone, you can donate the money while you’re right there at the checkout line. 

I’m going to be doing this, too, of course.  I’ll probably drop the unhealthiest snack-like item from my cart so I can reap the additional benefit of leading a healthier life.  During my last grocery shopping session, for example, this would’ve been a package of six M&M’S Ice Cream Cookies.  Three dollars to Harris Teeter, which had sales of $4.5 billion last year, and 1,500+ calories fo’ my mouf.  Next time, it’ll be three dollars to an African kid, who has virtually nothing, and a step closer to a six pack, or at least the prevention of a small buddha belly.  Ha ha. 

If for whatever reason the fundraiser in a given month doesn’t apply to you, don’t worry about it.  Next month’s fundraiser, which may ask you to give up buying your daily Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts’ coffee or other drink just one day per week, probably will.   

I realize many of you already give a lot to charities or just people, friends, and family in need.  But this will allow you to give even more without it really costing you anything.  In fact, it’ll probably make you happier and healthier (and even sexier according to Ashton Kutchar’s recent, inspiring Teen Choice Awards speech).  Plus, it’ll be fun. 

Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll post a link to the online fundraiser on this blog, as well as my Facebook page.  In the meantime, enjoy your restriction-free grocery shopping.   

[1] Earlier this year, two of my friends gave a combined $275 to me to use on these kids.  One of them donated $5 for every pair of shoes she owned, which, as she suggested, would make for a good future challenge.  Haha.  Thanks again, girls. 

[2] Now, some of you may be thinking, as I have before, that these kids don’t know any better—they see themselves not as poor, but as normal, because they are so isolated from the outside world.  But this isn’t the case.  Because of westerners and businessmen who occasionally pass through, and even some very limited internet access in their schools, these kids do in fact know that they are poor as dirt, even by their home country’s standards, and that a better life is attainable.  The vast majority of them, however, won’t attain that better life unless they catch a break from someone like me or you.  This fundraiser is going to give some of them that break.