So earlier this year I interviewed a woman about a non-profit organization she created in Africa.

I really had no idea what to expect when I booked her for the show. 

You see, I had travelled to Uganda many years ago and loved the country and the people there, one of the best trips of my life.

But when I was setting up this interview it was not so much about the non-profit organization itself, it was more about her and what it would take to start something like this.

This really fascinated me.

There were other things that drew me to have her as a guest, for example, the fact that she had lived in Nicaragua for a number of years, that she was an entrepreneur and her and her family are very libertarian.

There were a lot of things that resonated with me.

Anyways, I did the interview with her and I was literally in tears. 

I remember I was staying at an Airbnb in Brazil after my son was born and I am doing the interview with her and I had to stop at least 5 times because I needed time to pull myself together. 

The whole thing just hit me like a ton of bricks. 

How wrong I had been about charitable giving, like, literally everything that I was worried about we talked through in the interview and it all fit together. 

I did the interview and talked to my wife afterwards and together we decided to become monthly donors. Then I had another gentleman on the program to help fill in my gaps of knowledge on the situation and how to go about charitable giving. 

He had created a platform to help match donors with ethical charities around the world and try and fix the entire experience of giving.

I cried a little less in this interview, but it was still really heavy.

So I decided to connect these two people and they started working together. That was amazing to see.

From there I started getting involved in individual projects as a donor and supporting them with my own money.

Then I started volunteering my time to help from the admin and marketing side.

And after that, I started donating my staff’s time (I paid their salaries and instead of working on my podcast and website, I had them work on things for the non-profit).

Eventually, I started taking twice-monthly calls and consulting with them on how to grow faster and raise more money.

Something I am very good at. 

Well, a month ago I got invited to sit on the Board of Directors for the non-profit. 

All from a guy who has never participated in anything like this before and was a massive skeptic. 

Kinda wild how one interview can change your life so much. 

When I was sitting on a Board call recently, I put forth the idea of doing a big project, something that just my community could get behind, something we could all fund together, something that would really speak to the things that we stand for as a group, that falls in line with the things we support and believe in.

After a lot of brainstorming, we decided on helping our teen mothers in Uganda to read and write. 

So simple but so important don’t you think?

You have these girls, 14, 15, 16-year-old girls, living in the slums of Uganda, and everything was going fine, then covid came and the lockdowns took place, and everyone was shut up at home, no one could go to work. 

The girls had no families, a lot were already orphans. And the girls turn to sex work so they would not starve. It might be traditional prostitution, and in other cases, it was spending a night with someone for some chicken and rice.

Crazy to even think about, but that’s what has been happening.

Well, lots of these girls then got pregnant, and they have nowhere to go, they are living on the streets, pregnant, no family, no nothing.

So we brought them into our halfway house, fed them, gave them clothes, a roof over their heads and helped them with counselling, and put them in projects to teach them entrepreneurship like sowing or hairdressing.

Skills so they could provide for themselves. 

Amazing right?

But a lot of these girls are still illiterate. 

So they cannot teach themselves yet and upgrade their own abilities, they cannot take charge of their own education. 

With the help of the group, we developed a full program that will run in 2022. Our goal is to take 60 girls and teach them how to read and write so they can care for themselves and their babies.

From this, they can be more independent and care for themselves and can teach their babies when they are older, plus they can teach their community, that is a big impact. 

We wrote about the whole initiative here

https://donorbox.org/expat-money-year-end-fundraiser-literacy-class

And there is a full complete breakdown of where every penny goes. You will see 100% of your donation goes to support the girls and to make a difference in their lives.

I am super passionate about this and it would be so exciting if you could participate.

The organization, Ten Eighteen Uganda, is a US Section 501(c) (3) charitable organization. 

So this is a solid strategy to legally reduce your tax obligations this year. 

I hope you will support this initiative and help teach 60 girls how to read and write in 2022. Learn more about what we are doing and see if it is in line with your values and your goals of giving:

https://donorbox.org/expat-money-year-end-fundraiser-literacy-class

Thanks so much,

Mikkel