PickYourCause.com

Country Comparison	Democratic Republic of Congo	United States
Population	55.8 million	295.4 million
Land Mass	875,525 sq. miles	3,537,439 sq. miles
Life Expectancy	44 years	78 years
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000)	129	7
Literacy Rate	65%	97%
Primary School Enrollment	52%	92%
Access to Safe Water	46%	100%
Average Annual Income (GNI per capita)	$120	$41,400

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic.
• Helping farmers increase their yield by providing training in agricultural and animal husbandry techniques.
• Ensuring that sponsored children receive basic health care and immunizations against common childhood diseases.
• Providing children with school supplies, learning materials, and tuition fees needed to attend class, and organizing workshops that equip teachers to support their students’ success.
• Offering vocational and technical training to help parents better provide for their families.
• Partnering with local churches to develop Christian leadership courses and strengthen outreach ministries.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and other vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by HIV and AIDS.
• Providing tuition and school supplies so that school-age children have access to a good education.
• Offering much needed medical care to ensure the health of children.
• Developing water sources to provide families with safe, clean water.
• Helping farmers increase their yield by providing seeds, equipment, and training.
• Helping families establish and operate small businesses so they can better provide for their children.
• Partnering with churches to conduct Christian leadership workshops.
• Offering vocational workshops to teach adults and older children skills to increase family income and build self-sufficiency.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and other vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic.
• Providing tuition, uniforms, and learning supplies to ensure children’s ability to attend school.
• Offering health check-ups for boys and girls and helping to establish pharmacies to provide essential medicines at low cost.
• Locating sources of clean, safe water for drinking and cooking; educating families about the importance of personal and household hygiene in reducing waterborne diseases.
• Teaching mothers about nutrition and disease prevention to improve child health.
• Supplying farmers with seeds and fertilizer to help increase food production.
• Providing local churches with hymnals and Bibles.

• Providing improved educational facilities by constructing and furnishing new classrooms.
• Immunizing children under age five.
• Improving health services for pregnant women and mothers by training community health workers.
• Ensuring that children and their families have access to basic health care.
• Training women in small business development to increase family incomes.
• Offering literacy classes to help parents learn to read and write.
• Repairing local wells to ensure families have access to clean, safe water.
• Training farmers in new agricultural techniques and giving them seeds and tools to improve food production and their family’s nutrition.

• Increasing educational opportunities for children to improve their chances of earning a secure livelihood.
• Ensuring children and families have access to adequate health care to maintain well-being.
• Training community health workers and equipping medical facilities.
• Helping families secure dependable sources of year-round food through training in agriculture and animal husbandry.
• Providing access to appropriate seeds and tools.
• Offering microenterprise development loans and business coaching to help hardworking families break free from poverty.
• Partnering with local churches to develop Christian leadership training courses and strengthen outreach ministries.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by HIV and AIDS.
• Conducting immunization campaigns to protect children from deadly diseases.
• Establishing tutoring programs to help struggling students and reduce the dropout rate.
• Organizing AIDS awareness workshops.
• Providing farmers with new seed varieties, tools, and agricultural training to help them grow more nutritious food for their families.
• Organizing Bible studies to nurture Christians in their faith.
• Constructing public latrines to improve sanitary conditions.
• Offering vocational workshops and helping families start small businesses to increase family incomes and build self-sufficiency.
• Partnering with local churches to share God’s love with families throughout the area.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic.
• Providing communities with the necessary resources so that school-age children have access to a good education.
• Offering much needed medical care to ensure children’s health.
• Encouraging local leaders to fully support child sponsorship activities to help their community reach its goals.
• Conducting workshops to teach adults and older children vocational skills that can increase family income and build self-sufficiency.
• Helping families establish and operate small businesses so they can better provide for their children.
• Supporting local churches in their outreach efforts.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by HIV and AIDS.
• Constructing new classrooms to create a positive learning environment for sponsored children.
• Providing school uniforms to enable children to attend school.
• Conducting immunization campaigns to protect children from potentially deadly diseases.
• Developing water sources to provide families with safe, clean drinking water.
• Teaching mothers about the importance of hygiene, nutrition, and disease prevention in safeguarding their children’s health.
• Working with local churches to nurture Christians in their faith.
• Helping farmers increase their yield by providing seeds and training in new agricultural techniques.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic.
• Constructing new classrooms and providing school supplies to increase children’s chances of educational success.
• Promoting adult literacy by teaching parents how to read and write.
• Developing water sources to provide families with safe, clean drinking water.
• Installing latrines to improve sanitation throughout the community.
• Teaching mothers the skills necessary to improve children’s nutrition and health.
• Training farmers in agricultural skills that will help them grow more nutritious foods for their families.
• Partnering with churches to establish Bible studies and Bible camps for children.

• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic.
• Teaching farmers to use newer and more productive agricultural methods in order to increase food supplies in the region. Enhancing medical care for mothers and children by training community health workers, conducting health-related education courses, and carrying out an immunization campaign.
• Digging wells to provide more families in the community with access to safe water.
• Helping households adopt better sanitation practices to reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases.
• Providing sponsored children with the school uniforms and fees they need in order to receive a good education.
• Developing the leadership skills of community members who want to teach the Word of God.

• Improving household food and resource security so children are able to attend school and receive medical attention
• Subsidizing tuition and providing school supplies so children are able to attend school and enjoy academic success
• Equipping families and communities to care for orphans and vulnerable children while providing life-skills training to those affected by the AIDS pandemic
• Conducting clean water campaigns to provide families with safe water and reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases
• Teaching mothers about the importance of hygiene, nutrition, and disease prevention
• Increasing food production to improve the growth and development of children
• Installing irrigation systems to help families increase food production and income
• Training families in marketing techniques to more successfully sell farm produce
• Offering Christian literature to support the spiritual development of children

The “Make it Matter America” Core Cause Campaign created by PickYourCause.com is intended to help raise money primarily for children and families in the United States who need help feeding their families or providing the basic necessities of life for their children.  PickYourCause.com will contribute a portion of the sale proceeds ($2 from the sale of every PYC offering) from this piece to its charitable partner Feed The Children.

More than 12 million children in the U.S. suffer from hunger, more than 3 million chronically.

As many as 1 in 5 American children go to bed hungry.

Around the world, 30,000 children die each day from hunger and other preventable illnesses.

Hunger and malnutrition are the underlying causes of more than one-half of all child deaths.

Hungry children are more likely to get sick, and hunger makes it harder for children to concentrate and perform well in school.

Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty, or natural disaster.

What We Do

During our 28-year history, Feed The Children has grown into one of the world's largest private organizations dedicated to helping hungry and hurting people. Last year, Feed The Children shipped 129 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and families in all 50 states and in 43 foreign countries, supplementing more than 730,000 meals a day worldwide. Since our founding in 1979, Feed The Children has reached out to help children and families in 118 countries around the globe.

U.S. Programs

The heart of Feed The Children's U.S. program is distributing food to families in need. To do this, we work closely with caring corporate partners that donate surplus food and other supplies, as well as with individual donors who help defray the cost of transporting the product donations.

Feed The Children's wholly-owned subsidiary, FTC Transportation, Inc., picks up in-kind contributions from corporate warehouses and brings them to one of six Feed The Children regional distribution centers. Some of the donations are then distributed in bulk and others are processed into individual relief boxes.

International Outreach

Feed The Children's international programs focus on providing food, medical assistance, emergency relief, and creating sustainable development.

Since 1979, we have provided food, clothing, medical assistance, and educational opportunities to those in need in more than 118 nations around the world. Through schools, orphanages and church-related programs, Feed The Children touches the lives of millions of children. We also provide assistance to orphanages, schools, and other charitable groups in these regions.

A key goal is to help families in need move past needing help and into becoming self-sufficient members of their community. Through long-term, self-help development programs funded by grants and individual donors, thousands of families in countries around the world have increased their ability to be self-sufficient by learning and applying new, marketable skills. Find out how you can be a part of the solution to the problem of child hunger around the world.

Once winter strikes, parents getting by on threadbare budgets must make a painful decision – heat their home or feed their children.

For more and more families, there's just not enough money for both.

Winter is the most punishing season for the working poor and their children.

Feed The Children doesn't provide heat... but we can make sure poor children have food on the table to eat!

It takes just $7 to send 50 pounds of shelf stable nutritious food to a family who will need our help this winter. That's enough to feed a family of 4 for 2 entire weeks!

When you help provide food for the children... more families will be able to heat their homes when the cold winds blow and the thermometer heads toward zero.

Helping hungry children and their families by focusing on good stewardship and transparency

Accountability

At Feed The Children, our pledge to you is to be effective in our outreach to those in need by being good stewards of the funds entrusted to us. We are audited yearly, and the information below is summarized from the consolidated financial statement.

Distribution Percentages

During FY 2006, Feed The Children committed $582,212,599 to program services.

Here is the percentage breakdown of expenditures:

At Feed The Children, our pledge is to maintain effective outreach by being good stewards of these funds entrusted to us. Feed The Children is audited by the accounting firm, Capin Crouse, LLP. Financial data presented here is summarized from the consolidated financial statements of Feed The Children, Inc. for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006. Contributions to Feed The Children are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Full Audited Financials

Feed The Children's Annual Report, Audited Financials and IRS Form 990 are available for viewing or downloading in Adobe PDF versions:

Charity Evaluators

Read Feed The Children's profiles and ratings by leading charity evaluators: