Help Lift 87 Families out of Extreme Poverty

Thanks to your incredible generosity, every family in Nyarutovu will soon receive cash!

But there’s plenty more need – giving directly through this page helps reach more villages like Nyarutovu.

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Slow Boring, Popular Information, and Jill Filipovic readers:

We’re teaming up to deliver life-changing funds for all 87 families in Nyarutovu, a rural Rwandan village where most residents live on less than $1/day.

Each family will receive ~$1,100 via digital transfer to spend and invest on what they need most. For these families, extreme poverty means struggling to afford:

• Food, as residents typically don’t eat more than 1 meal per day (usually limited to local crops like cassava)
• School, as most parents struggle to afford the ~$19 semester fees to keep their children in school
• Transportation to markets, which costs ~$10 but is essential for families to sell their crops for income and purchase goods
• Safe housing, given increasingly heavy rains that damage mud- and stick-based homes

Here’s a typical house for a family of 4 in rural Rwanda.

Today, residents either have to walk to a nearby river or distant water access point for drinking water. With just ~$200, residents could install water pumps in their homes.

Nearly everyone in Nyarutovu is born into extreme poverty but unable to afford a path to escape. With cash, these families can transform their lives through investments in:

• Farming, which can produce more food and income with better fertilizer and seeds, especially since most soil has eroded from wind and rain
• Livestock, which can improve families’ nutrition (milk, eggs, meat), fertilize crops, and generate income
• Motorbikes, so families can drive to major markets to sell their goods
• Education, so children can access better job opportunities by completing school
• And much more, because families in need know what they need

Giving cash works because it gives families the agency to meet their individual needs and decide how to build their own futures. Hundreds of academic studies show families use cash to increase earnings, health, education, and much more.

Together, we can give Nyarutovu residents the boost they need to escape extreme poverty. More on the impact of cash in Rwanda:

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Frequently Asked Questions

+What if we raise more or less than the fundraising goal?

Any excess funds will help us deliver cash to more people in Nyarutovu, with the goal of funding all 87 families in the village with ~$110,000 total. GiveDirectly will allocate internal funds to make up the gap between our fundraising and the total needed to ensure every family receives funds. No matter what, your donations will end up in the hands of families in extreme poverty.

+How much of my donation will families receive?

We expect that 85 cents of every dollar will be delivered directly to residents. The other costs of delivering transfers are those required to deliver the funds themselves, prevent fraud, and provide customer service to recipients via staff in Rwanda.

+What is GiveDirectly?

GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the world’s poorest, no strings attached. In the last decade, they’ve delivered cash to 1.5 million people across 15 countries.

+Is my donation tax-deductible?

Yes, donations are tax-deductible in the United States. We accept all major credit and debit cards, PayPal, checks, wires, stocks, cryptocurrencies, and more.

If you’re giving outside the U.S., you can still give to this campaign but your gift may not be tax-deductible. You can donate via our international partners to claim tax benefits, but due to partner processing delays those donations may not come in before the campaign ends.

Reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions or for more information on ways to give.