Poverty, homelessness, and hunger have always tugged at my heartstrings, especially when children are involved. Our children are our future. The least thing we can do for them is help them reach their full potential. Statistics indicate that there are 1 billion children worldwide are inflicted by poverty. This causes them to lack the proper nutrition they need to excel socially and academically.

UNICEF has stated that 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. It’s heartbreaking! A balanced and nutritious diet enables a child to reach their full potentiality, because it’s crucial for physical growth and brain development. Not only this amount of children that live in poverty is staggering, but it’s sad to say that child poverty is continuously on the rise.

Break the cycle of poverty by giving back. That’s why my heart jumps in joy and happiness when there are programs like CARE USA are making it their mission to change and save lives. CARE has been a leading humanitarian organization that has been fighting the ills of global poverty since their inception in 1945. They currently work in 90 countries around the world to support more than 900 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian-aid projects. They’re battling poverty’s underlying causes with programs focused on girls and women.

Samake from Mali went from illiterate to 5th grade in one year. She’d never been to school, but CARE’s special accelerated learning program helped her catch up with her peers. Now 16 and in 9th grade, she has ambitions of becoming a police officer, a lawyer or a doctor.

When you buy a famous brand of Belgian chocolate, you might just be tasting some of Clarisse Zingbe’s cocoa crop. She and her husband have been growing cocoa for seven years in their village in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa.

But the income was barely enough to scrape by. Some months they couldn’t even afford to send a sick child to the clinic.

Then CARE introduced a project to help women in cocoa-growing communities develop new sources of income. Clarisse chose to learn how to cultivate chili peppers on a small plot provided by CARE.

In her first season, she earned over $680, enough to pay for materials to finish work on their new house. It has three bedrooms and an indoor bathroom, she explains proudly.

She’s also paying school fees for her son, a boarding student in junior high school, and three daughters in primary school. And she’s expanded her business by selling shoes to neighbors.

“All my husband’s friends are telling him, ‘Your wife is now a model for all the women in the village.’ He is really proud of me.”

The digital age that we live in has made it easier than ever to help break the cycle of poverty. The power of social media has given us a voice. We can use this voice to create change and influence others worldwide with a click of a button. That is why GoodWorld was inspired to create a social platform in 2014 that used hashtag technology. This has enabled humanitarians to donate seamlessly and encourage others to do the same. Donating is now simple as tweeting or making a comment!

GoodWorld launched the 12 Days of Giving campaign during this holiday season. They’ll be rewarding you for your generosity! During the 12 Days of Giving, make a first time #donation or sign up for GoodWorld and be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 Amazon gift card for your holiday gifting. Additionally, each referral sent out through your GoodWorld dashboard will count as one additional entry to win the $1,000 prize!

You can give to CARE simply by typing “‪#‎donate‬” in the comment block within this Facebook post. Shortly after, Care USA will reply to your comment with a link to complete your donation. It’s that simple! It’s a one-time sign up and then you can instantly #donate to any of GoodWorld’s 1,300 partner charities with just a comment, including the United Way, Save the Children, Humane Society, ALS Association, Greenpeace and the UN Foundation, just to name a few. Here’s a list of their participating non-profit organizations. Once you’ve completed the sign up (it takes less than 60 seconds to complete!), you can give to any of their partner charities just by writing #donate on their Facebook page or at their Twitter handle.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. – Audrey Hepburn