pat loughery

Today – March 11 – I’m turning 41, and I want your money. I want you to join me in helping others who weren’t born into the lives that I and many of you, my friends and family, were born into.

I am a rabid fan of the work of One Day’s Wages, a local non-profit startup that raises funds to help battle extreme global poverty. The challenge is for each of us to consider simply donating one day’s worth of our own wages to help the poorest of the poor in our world. I am doing that for my birthday this year, and I’d like you to join me. Instead of a birthday gift, I want your money – but not for me; to pool together and to help those who don’t have access to clean water, who are ravaged by poverty or are threatened by the ongoing modern-day slave trade.

Most of you know that I’ve been unemployed for the past 6 months. Money is tight, for all of us. But for many of our global neighbors, what we think of as ‘tight’ is what helps the to survive and to build systems that help others escape extreme poverty.

Please explore the One Day’s Wages website, videos and community. Look especially at the partnerships that ODW is supporting with small, grassroots organizations. I know that you’ll find an organization of integrity and who values relationships with those we are partnering with, rather than misguided attempts to help.

And please join me in giving. I’m giving the wages for my birthday (my 4th day on the job :-)) to One Day’s Wages. My goal is that together, we can raise $4100: $100 for every year I’ve been here on this planet. If you donate your own day’s wages, that’s fantastic. If you can donate $41, that’s wonderful. What kind of impact can your gift make?
Here’s what ODW says:

Yes, a person’s one day’s wages can make a difference. An average working person’s daily wage is approximately 0.4% of their annual salary. Consider the impact we can make for another person, a family, a village, or an organization that is on the ground working to uplift people out of poverty:

• Malaria Net: $10
• Clean Water for one person for 20 years: $20
• Child’s Tuition for Education: $45
• Teacher’s Salary in jungles in Burma: $60/year
• Training & Sewing Machine for one woman: $125
• Machine Drilled Well for a Village: $1400

Together, let’s make a dent in extreme poverty, and to help those who face it every day. Please go to the One Day’s Wages website and donate what you can, and know that I deeply appreciate you and your gift.