CiC introduces: Hope Abides
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From the desk of Brent Adams, Founder/President, www.hopeabides.org
Hope Abides is a U.S. based 501(c)3 organization founded in 2010 whose mission is to provide help and hope to orphaned and destitute children in the Indian sub-continent. Not only is our ultimate goal to help these children with their immediate needs, but to work towards providing them the ability to grow into independent and productive adults.
We believe that an education is the best tool a child can have in order to escape poverty; however, in order to get an education a child first needs the necessities of life such as shelter and food. The mission of Hope Abides is to work with existing orphanages and organizations in India to make sure that basic needs are provided and children have the opportunity to go to school.
Hope Abides also understand that poverty, hunger and illiteracy are not limited by gender or religion; accordingly, we help children regardless of their gender or religious background and seek help from all regardless of nationality or faith. We are proud to say that our leadership team is comprised of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.
Program description:
We have developed a three phase strategy to reach our goal of lifting these children out of poverty:
- In our first phase, we will partner with existing well-run orphanages in India to help with the funding of priority necessities. This phase is happening in 2011 and 2012. The first region we are focusing on is Andhra Pradesh.
- In our second phase we will take our lessons learned from the previous phase and help struggling orphanages with funding, operations and other issues. This phase will start in 2013.
- The third and ultimate phase of this program will be to expand the operations of our partner orphanages or plant new orphanages so that we can increase the total number of orphans being helped. Hope Grows will likely begin in 2015 or 2016.
Why are we unique?
The approach of Hope Abides is unique because one of our main goals is to work towards a mentoring relationship between well-run and struggling orphanages. This will allow us to maximize each dollar spent since each orphanage with whom we partner will be expected to pay-it-forward to subsequent orphanages. We are scalable so that with $10,000 we can reach dozens; with $100,000 we can reach hundreds and so on.
Project budget:
Our phase one work, which takes place during 2011 – 2012, is currently budgeted at $40,000. We hope to achieve this goal through a combination of donations, grants and fundraising dinners. Ideally, we will also obtain some corporate sponsors. We strive to keep overhead costs as close to zero as possible; consequently, all administrative costs (with the exception of fees for fund transfers) are paid via product donations or out of the personal funds of Board members.
Summary:
I hope I have struck a balance between too little detail vs. too much detail about our organization and mission. If you would like more information about us, please feel free to call or email me. One of the reasons I joined NetIP was to spread the word about our goals and to garner support for our work, I appreciate the chance to tell you about us.
As you might know, the vast majority of all grants in the U.S. are used for domestic purposes, so raising funds and support for this type of work is challenging. That being said, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward. I know many opportunities will be available within India in the years ahead and I am excited about the possibility of allowing these children a chance at some of those opportunities.
Thanks again for learning about Hope Abides and I look forward to hearing from you.
