Hope for a Better World

04/13/2021

We did it! Phase one is done. We raised the needed $5,000 in 30 days which will be matched by a private donor and we are nearly half way to our end goal of having enough to undertake a well construction project with solar power, or planting a tractor within a farming village, or outfitting rural schools with electricity and latrines. These are some of the many projects our partners at Empower Mali are carrying out as often as they are able with the help of partners and donors who provide what we have an abundance of in this wealthy nation, which is resources/money. However, a key element of success that EM employs is local buy in. They only build where there is a will and a desire to empower and be empowered. For example, a village would need to request the desired aid for purposes they line out according to their own community needs assessments, and then they must provide a portion of the funds, the land, the labor, whatever is required, in order for EM to step in. The result is long lasting growth of communities.
Needles to say we are so excited for the opportunity to help them in their work.

Phase two starts by taking this momentum and sitting down with as many local organizations as we can to get them committed to a fundraising goal of their own. If you would like to help with this phase, please let us know. We can have you make calls, schedule appointments, do research on various organizations in your areas, and liase for us and your own relevant contacts.

Thank you to all who donated! I am compiling a list of donors to publish later (for those who give permission to be published that is). More updates coming soon, as well as some important ethical discussions relating to humanitarian aid.

03/19/2021

Many have already reached out with commitments to help. Please add your name to the list, reach out, and help us meet our goal of $5,000 within thirty days!

Help us raise money to benefit the Free Clinic of Pocatello Idaho, and the country of Mali.

Nope, Leadership Not Disbanded, Just Been in Medical School! Brandon March 15, 2021 General A long overdue update of our activities. Obviously during the last four years of medical school, our activity has slowed down significantly. We were able to raise funds to support our partners at Arunodaya Ey...

03/15/2021

03/15/2021

An update for 2021! Please visit our website for the full length post, and feel free to comment or reach out if you want more details. Here is the short version.

Our partners in Mali, namely, Empower Mali, have agreed to a collaborative effort this year. I hope to be traveling to Mali by early to mid autumn, and hope to raise at least $25,000 to help with an infrastructure project aimed at providing clean water and electricity to rural communities in Mali.

In addition, we are committing to helping a local staple, the Pocatello Free Clinic, with donations to help them continue their great work of making sure anyone who needs to see a doctor has the chance.

This campaign is already two weeks in and we have to meet our goal in just two more weeks. Please consider donating, especially if you have been advantaged by the stimulus windfall without having had your employment jeopardized by the pandemic. You can donate on our website, or reach out to us via direct message to ask for a mailing address. Thank you, all!
https://hopeforabetterworld.org/nope-leadership-not-dead-just-been-in-medical-school/

https://hopeforabetterworld.org/donate-here/

09/19/2019

The Tailor Project-
SUPER SHORT VERSION: Help us raise money to buy some sewing machines that will help refugees provide for themselves and their loved ones this winter.

The MEDIUM length version:
What our small group of friends, joined by a new group of friends from California, are calling this latest effort. Our friend and board member, Crystallynn, has had boots on the ground in Greece and surrounding areas for years now, and has provided us this opportunity to help make a difference in the lives of a small group of Refugees.
There is a man who lost not only the use of his leg, but one of his sons in a motor vehicle accident while fleeing his home country of Syria. This burden of physical disability compounds his already substantial plight as a refugee. However, in a spirit of tremendous resilience, entrepreneurship, and self reliance, he has labored to help not only his immediate family, but a small yet growing group of other refugees who share the added plight of physical disability in some way. By bringing to bear his years of experience as a tailor in Syria, he hopes to establish a way of providing income for his people. To that end, we have successfully raised $2,600 to cover expenses for basic sewing machines, real estate in a farmers market, and miscellaneous supplies. The next stage of fundraising is already underway and we will provide more details to come. If you are interested in donating, please reach out. Alternatively, you can make donations on our website which are 100% tax deductible as we are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.

LOOK FOR FUTURE POSTS about the GofundMe campaign we have started as well.

-The HBW Team

03/31/2019

Here is a super duper crazy simple way to support our charity- amazon smile. Every time you buy anything from amazon, THEY, that is, Amazon, donates a tiny amount to whatever charity YOU choose. YOU don’t pay any extra, it’s not a rounding up of your taxes, you literally pay nothing extra but amazon donates a small % anyway!
We have a few members of our board who do this regularly and we have generated 30$ this year with just these few people. Imagine if we had a few hundred people using amazon smile or a few thousand! Please take a minute to register Hope for a Better World as the charity you want to support! then every time you shop, if before you checkout, you remember to punch in smile to your web-browser and let its memory take you to smile.amazon instead of plain old amazon.amazon, your shopping cart will stay the same but clicking checkout FROM smile.amazon will generate those funds! Super cool, please help 🙂

02/24/2018

we have had some interesting "troll posts" about this. some people really are against helping refugees, especially if their religion is Islam.
for me, this just makes me want to help even more! :) share if you feel the same.

The Hope Project In fall of 2016 a small crew went to Greece to ask refugees and those involved in the refugee crisis what they hoped for. This is what they said. Brett May 21, 2017 Greece, Projects Permalink

02/20/2018

if you haven't seen either of the 2 videos we have released so far, please check them out. then consider contacting your local political leaders to let them know you are in favor of helping the worlds refugee population

The Hope Project In fall of 2016 a small crew went to Greece to ask refugees and those involved in the refugee crisis what they hoped for. This is what they said. Brett May 21, 2017 Greece, Projects Permalink

11/05/2017

Using technology available to smart phone users, Wwami Idaho Medical students from UWSOM entering class of 2016 and 2017 helped to raise enough money to sponsor another mobile medical clinic for our friends at Arunodaya Deseret Eye Hospital in India. The crazy part is, no individual participant had to donate anything other than their time, and were still able to generate the needed funds to make this possible! Thanks to their individual efforts, and the technology that made it possible, hundreds of patients will get the eye screenings and operations needed to reverse preventable blindness. We will post more follow up pictures once the clinic has been carried out. For more information about the eye camps visit hopeforabetterworld.org/projects or actforvision.com.

If YOU have access to a group of about 30 people, in a class, church group or work group, you can raise enough $ to sponsor a mobile eye clinic. And here is the most unique part, it won’t cost any of your participants a dime! Contact us to find out how!

10/02/2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZKqX97IqAw
Exciting News!! This is the 2nd video release in our multi-part series about the refugee crisis. Hope For A Better World has been working really hard to bring more awareness to this world crisis and get more people involved. Subscribe to our youtube channel and share videos at https://www.youtube.com/ch…/UCmyUa0sfs_9tGF0l21aWQJw/videos… or check us out at hopeforabetterworld.org

This video was hot in fall of 2016 and highlights one of many Afghan refugee camps in Greece. Afghan refugees make up the second largest population of refuge...

05/22/2017

Dear everyone,
The first of what we hope to be a few different awareness videos is finally ready to publish. We have had a great crew working on this so far and we are grateful to all those who donated time talents and money to help this come about. Please take a minute to both share the video and post what you hope for.
In this post I'll speak to one specific hope I have. I am proud to be an American, and more important than that pride is the recognition of extreme privilege i have been given. I personally feel that our country needs to do better, no matter how much we can claim to have done. If we really want to be great, we won't accomplish it by closing our borders but by enlarging them, opening them. Take all of the nuance of this message and distill it into the words Kadee Willie uses in this short video and therein lies my hope- "I hope that love conquers fear."
We want to continue to send volunteers to Greece to work in refugee camps where far too many people are waiting, endlessly it seems to most, to be relocated to a safe country, where they can attempt to start again. For all of them, their trials won't end with relocation but at least it will be the next step. We have at any given time one or two board members who are willing and able to accompany volunteers to see first hand what it is like for them there.
If you are interested in planning a trip with friends, family or colleagues, or if you want to be added to another group, contact us and we can make it happen.
Thanks for reading and thank you for sharing!

In fall of 2016 a small crew went to Greece to ask refugees and those involved in the refugee crisis what they hoped for. This is what they said.

04/27/2017

Join us this summer for a volunteer trip Greece to work with refugees stuck in Greece waiting for asylum or relocation .