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Welcome to Charity Begins, a non-profit organization that helps socially-conscious travelers benefit the communities they’re visiting.
Started in November 2006, Charity Begins has delivered school supplies, shoes, and clothing to orphanages, schools, refugee camps, and women’s shelters throughout the world. By making these deliveries via vacationers, business travelers, backpackers, and other independent travelers, the cost of shipping is eliminated and 100% of every dollar goes to helping people living in poverty.
How it Works
You tell us when you’re traveling to a developing country, and we’ll do the rest.
We’ll research your destination, identify a local non-profit, collect the needed supplies, deliver them to your door, and arrange for you to meet the non-profit upon arrival so you can deliver the supplies. If you run out of extra luggage space, we’ll even give you an extra, disposable, piece of luggage. It’s that easy. To volunteer as a traveller, click here.
To donate supplies, click here.
To add a non-profit to our data-base, please contact CharityBeginsInfo@Gmail.com.
Recent Accomplishments
November 2006
Delivery of 50 pairs of new children's shoes to a non-profit in Lima, Peru.
March 2007
Coordinated the delivery of 100 pairs of boots to a porter's union in Nepal.
April 2007
Delivery of school supplies to BrucePeru.org in Lima, Peru.
April 2007
Delivery of assorted supplies to Kibera Community Youth Program in Nairobi.
May 2007
Delivery of school supplies to Amani Children's Home, a residence for orphans and street children in Tanzania.
August 2007
Delivery of two cases of shoes to several charities in Brazil.
October 2007
Presently CharityBegins is collecting baby clothing, french reading books, school supplies and toys for a grassroots foundation in Haiti. If you have anything to donate, please contact us.
November 2007
Charity Begins delivered children's clothes and babies clothes to Foundacion Diarq in Mexico City.
December 2007
Children's clothes, women's clothes, and shoes were delivered to the Thailand/Myanmar border to assist the thousands of people seeking the relative safety of refugee camps.
February 2008
Charity Begins is kicking off the New Year with a special delivery to Shelter Don Bosco in Mumbai, India. The shelter has been rescuing children from the streets of Mumbai since 1987.
February 2008
Two heroic travelers are on their way to Kenya and will be delivering children's clothes and shoes to a non-profit based in the Kibera slums. If you've been watching the news you know that Kenya has been wracked with violence since the disputed December presidential poll and many of the slums have been set on fire in the unrest.
March 2008 Bruce Ecuador, a non-profit based in Quito, Ecuador will be receiving children's clothes and shoes in early March. Bruce Ecuador helps "at risk" children receive an education. http://bruceecuador.com/
Early 2008 Several travelers have contacted us about trips to India, Tanzania, Ecuador and other developing countries. If you, or anyone you know, is affiliated with a non-profit in a developing country who could benefit from our support and supplies, please have them contact us at JMahran@CharityBegins.org
Thanks to Soles4Souls.org, CharityBegins was able to deliver shoes to
children in Peru (top row photos), and porters and guides in Nepal (bottom row photos).