I am Marc Gold and I started this small project 21 years ago, in 1989. The idea is very simple. Every year many people contribute to the project and I take the money to Developing Countries and look for the neediest people I can find. I then put the money to work in the most compassionate, appropriate, culturally compatible, constructive and practical manner possible. You put the donation into my hands and I put the funds directly into the hands of the needy individual or family, or a small trusted grassroots organization helping them.
How did it start?
The project began in 1989, when I (Marc Gold) visited India for the first time. I began thinking about going there to help people in 1956 when I was 7 years old, under the influence of my father, Albert Gold. When I finally got to India, I met a Tibetan woman in the Himalayas who had terrible ear infections, and I was able save her life with antibiotics that cost about $1.00. For another $30 I purchased a hearing aid that restored her hearing. I was shocked to learn that something so important could be accomplished with so little. I began raising money among my friends, whatever they could give, as little as $1 or as much as people were able to donate. Then, in 1992, I traveled to India with over $2,200 in donations, with the goal of distributing it as directly and intelligently as possible. The rest, as they say, is history. Funds have been donated in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Tibet, Nepal, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Indonesia, Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Myanmar, Pakistan, China, Angola, Laos, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, Mozambique and Turkey.
Philanthropic Travel Story
Reporter JanSluizer produced this story of 100 Friends about Marc Gold who lives his life as a philanthropic traveler. It was broadcast to over 400 stations in the USA in Westwood One's 'America in the Morning' show with Jim Bohannon in late July, 2009.
