For Her 30th B-day, This Woman Raised $30K For 30 Women In Need

This woman celebrated her big 3-0 by raising funds to support other women.

Mallory Brown traveled to Ethiopia for her 30th birthday with the goal of raising $30,000 in one day, as part of CrowdRise’s 24-Hour-Impact challenge. The funds would go to providing job training and materials for 30 women in the rural village of Chapa, Ethiopia, to start their own businesses.

“I’m celebrating my 30th birthday today, not with my friends toasting over champagne or dancing until dawn, but with 30 women I’ve just met in Ethiopia,” she writes in a blog about the fundraiser. “During my travels, I’ve felt more and more connected to women. Women are mothers, teachers to their children when they can’t afford school, and doctors when there is no hospital. Helping a women will help her family, which in turn, will help her community.”

Brown blew past her target, with more than $36,000 donated so far, and counting.

Around one in three people in Ethiopia is living in poverty, according to the World Bank. In Chapa, families are living on less than $2 a day, writes Brown.

The funds raised by Brown will serve to kickstart three businesses, which 30 women will run themselves, according to a video on the CrowdRise page. A livestock business will breed farm animals to sell their products on the market; a mill house will process grains into food products for the women to sell; and a beauty salon will provide haircuts to men and women in the community.

To sustain the projects over the long-term, Brown is partnering with local nonprofits Begin with One and Children’s Hope Chest, who will help provide training and supplies to the women involved, according to her blog.

Brown co-created the 24-Hour-Impact challenge with CrowdRise, and this is her fifth 24-hour fundraiser. Her previous campaigns include raising more than $27,000 to fund a barbecue serving homeless individuals in Detroit, and $15,000 to provide eye exams to people in Kro Bei Riel, Cambodia.

"I’ve struggled like every millennial has to find connection and meaning," Brown writes in the blog. "I’ve never questioned that my efforts, while they may be small in scale, are massive for the individuals they impact."

To support 30 women starting their own businesses, donate here:

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