Fourth-quarter health beneficiary the Foundation for African Medicine & Education (FAME) gave us this report about how they will use the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Foundation members donated $2,285 to FAME last quarter.

On behalf of the Foundation for African Medicine & Education (FAME), we would like to sincerely thank the membership of Foundation Beyond Belief for your incredibly generous support. We deeply appreciate your obvious commitment to making quality medical care accessible to vulnerable populations in rural East Africa. For seven years now, FAME’s focus has been on rural Tanzania, where there is an acute shortage of qualified health care workers and well-resourced medical facilities. In fact, a 2004 USAID/Tanzania report states that eight out of ten children who die, die at home--six of them without any contact with formal health services. Partnering with like-minded organizations, FAME operates an outpatient clinic and diagnostic facility, as well as a mobile medical service in the District of Karatu, a rural area in Northern Tanzania. Further expansion is scheduled for this year, with the opening of a small hospital with operating room capabilities. In 2010 alone, FAME accomplished many things, including the following:

•    Almost 8,000 patients were treated at our small outpatient clinic
•    Patient numbers continue to grow, with our Maasai population increasing tenfold over the last two years.
•    Another 4,800 patients were treated by our Mobile Medical Team
•    Health education and community outreach was delivered to 18 villages in the most remote parts of the district.
•    One medical student and two nursing students were sponsored at educational institutions in Tanzania

Our accomplishments are the direct result of the intentional giving of people like YOU! Your fourth-quarter giving alone, in the amount of $2,285, covered FAME’s costs (salaries, labs, and medicine) to treat 64 children diagnosed with malaria and another 88 children diagnosed with pneumonia. For the same amount, FAME could treat 550 children suffering from intestinal worms. As you can see, your contributions go a very long way. We join with the people of Tanzania in saying asante sana, thank you, for your commitment to making quality medical care accessible to the people of rural Tanzania.

In the five days since Japan was devastated by an 8.9 earthquake and massive tsunami, it has become clear that most international relief organizations would be only marginally involved in the response. Through long, painful experience, Japan has become the best-prepared nation on Earth for natural disasters.

Even so, the sheer scale of the task at hand will require an immense amount of effort and financial resources. As donations poured in from our generous members and supporters, we monitored the situation to determine how best to direct the funds. Today it became clear that our support would do the most good not in international hands, but by direct contribution to the domestic Japanese agency at the center of this massive effort.

Foundation Beyond Belief will forward 100 percent of collected funds to the Japanese Red Cross.

The Japanese Red Cross operates 92 hospitals nationwide and forms the backbone of domestic disaster response in Japan. By donating directly to JRCS, we can be confident that our funds are going where they are needed for the long recovery ahead.

As of Tuesday afternoon, our members and supporters have donated over $8,000 to the relief fund. [UPDATE: As of Wednesday afternoon, total donations exceed $12,000.]

To make a donation to the Japanese Red Cross through Foundation Beyond Belief, click on the orange ChipIn button in the sidebar, or go directly to the ChipIn page. As always, your full donation will go to the beneficiary.

Deepest thanks for your compassionate support for the people of Japan.

Dale McGowan

Executive Director

Three days have passed since Japan endured the largest earthquake in its recorded history -- an event so immense that it widened Japan by 13 feet, shifted Earth's figure axis by six inches, and generated a devastating tsunami.

The scale of the destruction continues to defy description. Entire port cities have been destroyed, and estimates of the dead and missing now number in the tens of thousands. 

International aid organizations are largely in standby mode as the Japanese government has so far requested major assistance only from other governments. As one reporter for Sky News put it, "The international rescue teams are raring to go, but of course they've got to go where the Japanese want them to go."

While these exceptional organizations wait, we wait with them. As of last night, the generous humanist members and supporters of Foundation Beyond Belief have contributed over $5,000 to our relief fund for Japan, and donations continue to pour in. 

Our hope is to disburse those funds very soon. But first we must know that any organization we fund will have an actual presence in this relief effort. And so, along with the organizations themselves, we wait. The need for help, unfortunately, will not go away for a very long time.

If you have not yet had a chance to donate to the fund, you can click on the orange ChipIn button in the right sidebar. 

Deepest thanks for your patience, and most of all for your compassionate support for the people of Japan. 

The FBB Team 

P.S. Unable to see the ChipIn widget? Go directly to the ChipIn page.