GRAND Magazine - July/August 2017 - 23

grandsrising

Link your gift, change the world
BY DIANA MCDONOUGH

n 2004, I received the wonderful gift of a granddaughter and then a second in 2007. I enjoyed
being a grandmother more than I had ever
imagined but one part of my granddaughters' lives
bothered me - the volume of "stuff" they owned.
My granddaughters' rooms were packed with more
games, books, dolls, and toys than could actually
be enjoyed. In a world beset with so much poverty,
this excess made me uncomfortable.
I researched and learned that, of the seven billion
people in the world, one billion are drowning in "stuff,"
while one billion are living on less than $1.25 a day!
The contrast between our grandchildren in the top one
billion and those born into the bottom one billion often
dying of malnutrition or disease is stark.
Pondering this imbalance with a few friends, in 2011
we created Global Grandmothers, a grassroots organization whose members commit to supporting children
worldwide through charitable giving.
One of our action plans addresses this inequity more
directly than others. It is - "Give to a child in need when
you give to someone you love." Buy your granddaughter
a birthday present; donate for a child's education in Nepal.
Give a Mother's Day gift; contribute to an anti-trafficking hotline in the U.S. It's like self-matching, but we call it
"linked giving."
To help make the "giving" part easy, Global
Grandmothers investigates the world of highly-rated,
child-centered charities and selects a handful we can
recommend wholeheartedly.

23 GRAND

JULY AUGUST 2017

You can find them on our website at www.
globalgrandmothers.org.
Here are two examples of the nine charities
currently recommended:
Room to Read works in ten developing countries in Asia and Africa, hiring local authors and
illustrators to write children's books in the local
language. They have now published more than 1100 of these unique creations.
Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is based in the U.S., and provides
low income, first-time moms home visits by a registered nurse - weekly or
bi-weekly - from pregnancy to the baby's
2nd birthday. Its statistics show its incredible effectiveness: for every $1 spent, $5
are saved in government spending! NFP
currently sees more than 130 moms here in San Mateo County.
Giving to kids in need here and abroad has expanded our world and
afforded us the opportunity to leave a legacy beyond our families.
Our simple idea has grown to more than 150 members in 21 states, plus D.C,
and two countries outside the U.S. We're proud to have been recognized in the
book A Path Appears, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.
Best of all, you don't have to be a grandmother to join us in supporting children
in need.

Of the seven billion people in the world, one
billion are drowning in "stuff," while one
billion are living on less than $1.25 a day!

Diana McDonough, president of Global Grandmothers
is a proud grandmother of eight -all living near her in
Northern, California. She is a retired attorney for public
schools,

https://www.facebook.com/GRANDmagazine/ https://www.twitter.com/grandMmagazine http://www.globalgrandmothers.org/ http://www.roomtoread.org http://www.globalgrandmothers.org/ https://www.roomtoread.org/ http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/ http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/ http://www.globalgrandmothers.org/ http://www.globalgrandmothers.org/

GRAND Magazine - July/August 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - July/August 2017