Save. Spend. Give.

Already this year, classrooms from Australia to Canada, and families at kitchen tables around the world have made Watsi part of how they're teaching empathy, kindness, curiosity, compassion, and the magic of human connection✨. We're not surprised to learn that a recent survey on kindness and kids by Sesame Street found that 75% of parents say they talk to their kids about seeing things from other peoples' point of view at least a few times a week.

We believe anyone, anywhere can change a life and we're especially excited when we hear that kids are able to experience this in a tangible way through meeting a patient on Watsi and directly supporting their life-changing healthcare. As Grace, our Co-Founder, shared with Devon Thorpe from Forbes:

"I hope we can contribute to a world where kids hear about problems ... and they know that they actually have a channel that leads directly to all of these people, that they can connect with them and understand their stories and support them. By making the world a little smaller and promoting this idea that people are really more alike than they are different, we actually can solve some of these problems in our lifetime. We're giving people a real tangible outlet to do that in a way that feels really positive."

We recently caught up with early Watsi supporter Marcy Golden. The Golden Family's oldest daughter is leaving for college in the Fall, and Marcy reflected on introducing her children to Watsi and the idea of Save. Spend. Give. when they were young. Marcy wanted them to understand that they have a responsibility and an opportunity to help care for others, in their community and around the world. She told us, "There are few things that give me as much joy as helping those in need, and I appreciate that Watsi gives our family an opportunity to do that on a regular basis."

And, earlier this year when we thanked another donor for their gift, we heard back: "That donation was from our 3-year-old daughter Sophie, she personally picked Naturinda because they're the same age :)." Naturinda's mother shared that he's now doing really well and ever since he woke up from anaesthesia, he's been happy and playing just like he used to.

One of our youngest Watsi Ambassadors is Aviva, the 5-year-old daughter of Rabbi Erica and Mark Gerson who comes to Mark often and says, "I want to help people on Watsi," and then continues to tell the stories of our patients to others she sees throughout her day. (Thank you, Aviva! 📣)

The DeMuth Family (Sebastian (7), Emmeline (10), and Christopher (12)) has supported healthcare for 446 children from Guatemala to Ethiopia to Cambodia and beyond. Chris DeMuth told us, "My kids and I pick patients together and often look for kids their ages... seeing the map and reading their stories helps deepen the connection between patients and donors, especially kids like mine. It builds beyond just money to conversations and really thinking about needs."

On her blog post Top charities to get kids involved in giving, Chelsea wrote, "Seeing the face of another child in need, and then hearing about that child’s recovery can be a very moving experience for your kids." When we asked The Bass Family about their giving to Watsi, they mentioned the importance of connecting with a patient's story too. Their family was kind enough to share how they decided to start donating to Watsi. In case it's helpful as your family explores the impact you want to have in the world, here's a glimpse into their conversations:

"We’ve been talking with the kids over the past year about charities and how they help people in different ways. We wanted to bring them into the process to make it part of our family’s culture and to get their input to decide what we focus on.

As we shared with them some of the different ways charities help people around the world, it quickly became apparent that we’d have to choose carefully because we can’t help as much as we’d like to.

My wife suggested that we each describe what we value most, and that may help us decide which charity (or charities) to focus on. I also told the family about Charity Navigator to see how the charities we were considering spent their resources.

Another thing that came up in our conversations is the importance of the story. We love how Watsi includes the patient’s story in the email, and those stories have had a big impact on us as we learn more about the people involved.

When we learned that Watsi sends 100% of our donations to the patients, that made the decision pretty easy. We knew we weren’t going to be paying for someone’s extravagant lifestyle, but would be having a real impact on the people who need it.

When I told my family about sharing our story with Watsi, one interesting analogy that came up was donating blood. My father gave 26+ gallons of blood over the course of his life. We talked about how if you gave all that you had in one go, you’d only give a fraction of what you could donate over the course of your life, so the conclusion we came to is that even though we feel like we can’t give as much as we’d like, if we stick with it for the long haul, we'll do the best we can.

Given that we are fortunate enough to have our basic needs met, we wanted to help others so they could thrive too."

Watsi is honored to be a small part of each of your families, and couldn't be more grateful to have YOU as part of our Watsi Family.

If you haven't gotten involved yet, with as little as $5, your family can help change a life today. We hope you'll join in!