Reaching EVERY neighbor: 5 ways your love reaches remote communities

The comfort of your compassion spread across 40 countries in 2023!  

You brought hope to disaster zones, the front lines of conflict and remote communities facing drought and extreme poverty. You go where no one else goes to help those the world has forgotten. 

Did you ever wonder what it takes to get to the hardest-to-reach places? Here are 5 ways your compassion makes its way to those who need it most.  

We included these two modes of transportation together, because cacao specialist Elsa Ospino uses both as she visits farms in Peru.  

Sometimes the road washes out. Sometimes it never existed at all. In Peru and many other places, a motorbike is the most reliable way to reach families who live where cars can’t go.  

Elsa travels through the Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro Rivers, known as the VRAEM region, teaching women cacao farmers how to tackle pests, plant diseases, and other problems that threaten cacao plants. She can’t reach these farms without her motorcycle, and she says riding it empowers her and other women.  

“There's a lot who say women should not be riding motorbikes. I don’t pay attention to them,” she says. “By seeing me, other ladies are also encouraged.”    

But Elsa can only get so far on two wheels. To cross the deep and rushing rivers, she has to take her bike on a ferry to reach farmers on the other side. 

The village of Manakamana is located at the top of a mountain in Gorkha, Nepal. There are two options for getting to the summit:  

1. Hike for over three hours up a steep incline, or 
2. Take a 10-minute ride in a cable car.  

The cable car was built to carry tourists to a popular mountaintop temple for worship. After buying a round-trip ticket for $5.79 USD, our staff use it to reach a small shop at the end of the village. Here, they meet with dozens of women farmers who live on and around the mountain. Your support means these farmers receive training and supplies for growing stronger and more plentiful crops, as well as for making honey, pickles and preserves. After putting these new skills into practice, they sell their products at a fair, guaranteed price through the shop.  

After years of flooding in South Sudan, roads have transformed into riverbeds. Whole communities have become islands surrounded by water. Your generosity bought a motorboat.  

This simple gift cuts a 5-hour journey down to an hour. Women in labor now have access to lifesaving medical care that was out of reach. The boat adds flexibility to the team in Jonglei State that is providing essential services to displaced families. The alternative was using canoes, made of hollowed-out palm tree trunks, to move along the riverways. You make sure we can reach even more isolated areas with critical health, water, hygiene and nutrition services. 

While the boat extends your impact and rushes your support to communities in need, still more families in South Sudan live beyond its reach. That’s why Mary Nyadala Maker travels from house to house on foot, teaching these remote families about nutrition and how to keep their children healthy.

Mary got involved as a program promoter after receiving seeds, nutrition education and gardening support for her own family.

“This project really changed my life,” she said. “All the mothers and children who were malnourished before are better now.” She is proud to share what she has learned with others.