NOVEMBER MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Friends,

I love food. I love to eat it, to bake it, to grow it (with varying degrees of success). I love to watch cooking shows about how ingredients are combined to make something new and weird and wonderful. I love how sharing a meal can bring people together, and nourish our bodies and also our souls. Making a meal together can be a way of passing down family traditions from generation to generation, and it can be a way of exploring a new culture and learning another history. Sharing food can unite us all.

The absence of food—hunger, malnutrition—is a threat to our common humanity, wherever we may find ourselves in the world. Self-Help’s teams of trained professionals work side by side with families every day to ensure they’re not dependent on others and can achieve financial independence and food security. Your investments help ensure that when the unexpected happens, there’s still food on the table, a roof overhead, and enough to pay school fees. During this season of giving thanks and sharing our bounty, let us all find ways to give generously to support our neighbors whether they’re next door or around the world.

Self-Help remains a small organization doing what we can to make a difference in the world—and it’s working! I want to sincerely thank everyone who donated in September during the Board of Directors matching campaign. The funds raised are making an immediate, direct impact on the people we serve for communities, like El Jícaro in Nicaragua where 115 homes now have safe drinking water, for children in the Ullo Traditional Area in Upper West, Ghana who are now recovering from acute malnutrition, and for farmers in Nicaragua like Pedro who are increasing their yields. You can read more about these results in the 2025 Fall Newsletter.

While we’re making progress, there’s more to do, and the Board of Directors has set some lofty goals for us to achieve by 2030 to further our mission of alleviating hunger by helping people help themselves. As we turn the page on the calendar into November and this season of giving thanks, I’m particularly thankful to:

• Our dedicated staff in Nicaragua who are constantly going the extra mile and jumping higher and higher to clear each hurdle as they carry out Self-Help’s mission every day in a challenging environment—and persevering!
• Our Tour de Ghana participants, particularly Keith Swanson, and the staff in Ghana for bringing the inaugural Tour de Ghana to reality this past month—a feat that’s been a year in the making that we hope to make an annual event.
• Our new team members in the US who will help us scale our fundraising efforts to scale our global impact.
• Each one of you who enable us to carry out our mission day in and day out through financial contributions, programmatic advising, and moral support.

As you consider the philanthropic impact you want to have in the world this year, Self-Help International would be honored to be among your chosen partners in making that impact.

With gratitude,

Nora Tobin
Executive Director

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