CHOICE Humanitarian: Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Intercultural Exchange

Great people with a great service helping to end extreme poverty!

I support Choice Humanitarian because they're not just a goodhearted relief organization, Choice has a proven, sustainable model for ELIMINATING poverty that is working! They really understand that poverty is a complex problem and there's not a one-size-fits-all solution. In every village where they work, they spend time understanding the leadership structure and working with the villagers to determine what they need to thrive instead of just survive. I'm just so impressed with what Choice is doing and excited at their potential.

I love Choice's model of ending extreme poverty by creating and promoting sustainable solutions. The efforts of Choice Humanitarian are changing lives throughout the world, and giving people real opportunities to rise out of and above poverty. I've had multiple opportunities to engage with Choice Humanitarian's headquarters and in-country staff members, and can speak for their complete commitment and love for their work. I'm grateful for the vision and work of this organization and look forward to participating in their efforts to end extreme poverty for years to come.

My family and I have been involved with Choice Humanitarian for many years. We love the Choice Humanitarian model that helps the different countries around the world become self developing and self sustaining when Choice Humanitarians organization is gone. I love how the villagers come together and use their own resources to solve their problems and take ownership of their own path out of extreme poverty. The second reason I love Choice Humanitarian is that my children through their service have become lifelong humanitarians. They have worked hand in hand and side by side with members of these villages and have developed life long bonds. After 20 years my children are still participating in expeditions and fundraising efforts with Choice Humanitarian.

CHOICE's model empowers people to create their own path out of poverty by providing hand-ups rather than handouts. There model has been tested and proven over the past 37 years and is truly a sustainable approach. The model that they use gives me confidence in the organization. I went on an expedition to Bolivia and it was incredible to see that the villagers were the ones to own the water project that we worked on. Too often, I have gone on humanitarian trips and seen that it is the traveler's project, not the community's. This was not the case with CHOICE!

This organization has changed my life for the better. I made a decision to go on an expedition 10 years ago and it was hands down, the best thing I have done in my life thus far. They understand the complexities of international development and how they can put the bulk of the responsibility on the village themselves and empower, collaborate, direct and share how extreme poverty can be eliminated. They trust the poor and believe that they can have a better life within their own unique set of circumstances. I have been to 4 of the 7 countries and am a CHOICE supporter for life!!

I've personally associated with the group for the past five years and their mission is strongly defined and honestly carried out. Everything they do is working for the greater good of those they serve.

I first volunteered with CHOICE in 2013, traveled with them to Nepal in 2014, and have stayed involved with the organization since. I have traveled to Guatemala and Nepal with them again since, and hope to visit each of the other countries they work in soon.

The CHOICE Team, both in the US and in each country I've visited, is incredible. Competent, passionate, dedicated, and determined to create real, lasting change. The organization has learned from 35+ years of work, and the scale of impact they make is truly remarkable.

Innovative, but firmed committed to protecting and honoring the culture and traditions in the communities they work. CHOICE is a rare, top-notch NGO. I have never doubted the impact of my work or donations with CHOICE.

I found CHOICE after a tedious internet search for humanitarian organizations I could travel with, and found more than I hoped for: a community of passionate individuals dedicated to eliminating extreme poverty! I knew I had to be a part of this! Since my discovery in 2014, I have seen volunteers, local leaders, community members, staff, and in-country teams join together in the CHOICE model to impact individuals at the village level. These village-run projects include leadership development, education, and utilization of local resources that enable poverty-stricken communities to create sustainable solutions.

As I have laughed, danced, cried, and worked side-by-side with villagers in Kenya, Guatemala, Nepal, and Peru, I have been impressed by the dedication and passion of the local community members. They are empowered to become leaders as they see a need, reach out, and take part in the projects. My personal experiences with CHOICE influenced me to further my education to broaden my ability to impact the world. As I learn about global health, I feel pleased to be a part of an organization that is doing things right in their efforts to eliminate extreme poverty. CHOICE has been a catalyst for good in the lives of thousands of people around the globe, including mine!

I have worked with CHOICE (Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Intercultural Exchange) Humanitarian for 4 years now and I can honestly say they are a remarkable origination. They actually make a real, sustainable, difference in the areas they focus.

CHOICE Humanitarian has a leadership model of development that is changing lives in the most remote villages around the world. I have witnessed their impact first hand and seen the lives changed. Dollars are well managed and they are transparent with all of their dealings!

I believe in the work of CHOICE so much that I've volunteered for over 12 years. It's an amazing organization that instigates real positive change in the lives of tens of thousands of people across the globe - teaching and empowering them to continue the development on their own!

They have fine-tuned & perfected their village-driven methodology over the past 35 years. Their system educates villagers to become self-developing (instead of being reliant on outsiders for a hand-out) and spread the word to neighboring villages. It works!

I've see the work work first hand on CHOICE Humanitarian Expeditions, working side-by-side with local villagers, in Kenya, Bolivia & Nepal. Villagers lives are changed. Expeditioners lives are changed.

Time and money invested with CHOICE Humanitarian is always multiplied and never wasted.

We were bit by the CHOICE bug four years ago when we participated in our first expedition to Nepal. It was the eye-opening, soul-stretching humanitarian experience that we'd been searching for–even far exceeding our expectations! Since then we've served in Guatemala, Peru, and Kenya with CHOICE. Our favorite part of it is working alongside the local men, women, and children, laughing and playing, and learning about their village and family life. Bonds of brother and sisterhood are formed quickly, despite our inability to speak each other's language! CHOICE–through experience and proven research–really knows how to help people raise themselves out of extreme poverty. The permanent in-country CHOICE staff (in each of 7 countries) is composed of educated men and women native to the country where they're working. CHOICE doesn't just appear in a village, build something, then leave. Instead, they identify a region of a developing country where the families are highly motivated and committed to change, identify both male and female natural leaders within the community, then implement a sustained training and mentoring program that lasts several years and teaches the people how to lever their humble resources to select and develop smart, sustainable projects that will allow them to achieve self sufficiency as individuals, families, and communities. The volunteer expeditions usually "plug into" projects that are already underway by the locals. That's the way it should be. We are convinced that CHOICE has found the formula to eliminating extreme poverty and are SO grateful to be members of The Village!

I joined this organization on a trip to Nepal and fell in love with their commitment and dedication to building stronger communities, spreading love and peace, and making the world a better place.

I went on an expedition with my company and loved every moment of it. I felt very well taken care of, everything was planned exceptionally well, and even when certain plans didn’t work out, there was so much room for getting to know the community that it made it that much sweeter. That trip changed me in ways I couldn’t even put into words, and still have such amazing pictures and memories of what an incredible trip that was.

CHOICE is a model humanitarian organization, who employs in-country teams and engages communities locally and abroad to bring about sustainable change. I will forever be loyal to this organization and donate regularly.

I was introduced to Choice through my company and have now participated in three expeditions and countless other activities. Their model of development is great and always improving as they learn about what works to help people lift themselves out of poverty. If you’ve ever thought about serving abroad, I highly recommend joining a Choice Humanitarian Expedition. You will be well taken care of and have amazing opportunities to connect with beautiful people.

Raymond "Doug"Las Austin
The Original here to share
THE BEAST OF POVERTY
The Beast Of Poverty rides a Horse called Law as whimsical as may be the devastion lays in it's wake too see.

Choice Humanitarian is incredible. They use every dollar wisely and are truly trying to make a difference for communities living in extreme poverty. Instead of just sending in supplies or money, they have teams on the ground that bring real change to make the communities self-sufficient and stronger on their own, thus allowing them to be independently prosperous. What a great model!

CHOICE Humanitarian is one of the few NGOs working around the world in a constructive, grass-roots way to completely eradicate extreme poverty. Their inclusive model is designed to lift entire communities out of poverty, giving them access to the global economy. They leverage donor funds multiple times through matching grants, government and local participation. Their model has been developed over 30 years of field work and relies neither on simplistic self-reliance or "leave them to weep" training nor on dependency-building donations. This is the one to support.

I've been passionate about gender issues and root causes of chronic persistent hunger and extreme poverty since the late 1970s. CHOICE is one of the very best organizations around that is effective and strategic. CHOICE's model is about empowering its village partners in figuring out their vision for their future and then supporting them through leadership training and other tools, to realize those visions. This model works.

The other thing I love about CHOICE is this: too often people in developed countries think we have so much to offer "poor" people, as if we had a superior way of life. Of course we have access to numerous opportunities and technologies and those scales are unbalanced, but the CHOICE model really allows those of us in developed countries to appreciate the tremendous assets, skills, and rich traditions of our human family who lives in poverty. The most resourceful, creative, and hard-working people I've met are those who scrape together what they need daily to keep their families alive. Often, in developed countries, we seem to lack a deep sense of connectedness to the world, so while our hunger is more of a spiritual nature, we have a great deal to learn from those in other parts of the world. Go on an expedition with CHOICE! Heal yourself. Change the world! CHOICE is doing just that.

Not only is the Choice model of empowerment and village development a great one, but involving donors in expeditions where they have a chance to meet the people who will be benefiting from their donation is actually brilliant! When a person goes on a Choice expedition 2/3rds of the expedition cost actually goes towards the costs of the projects being worked on in that country. After my first trip to Nepal I realized that when a volunteer goes on a Choice Expedition, they are in the target country LESS to 'work on a project' and MORE to 'Make a connection with the people'. When volunteers feel 'connected' to the people of a certain country, as I do to Nepal, they will continue to donate to causes connected with Choice Humanitarian in that country and hopefully continue to go on expeditions as well. The Choice Humanitarian in country staff in Nepal is well educated, professional, enthusiastic, and a model for all other NGO's operating in Nepal. In fact the Nepal in country director Bishnu was invited to meet the President of Nepal who is quite interested in the Choice model and the success that Bishnu and Choice Humanitarian has had in helping to improve the standard of living in rural villages in Nepal. I am blessed to be involved with this organization.

The one negative reviewer of Choice doesn't understand that the labor contributed by US expeditioners is not intended to be a primary factor in getting projects built -- it is to give expeditioners an on-the-ground feel for the quality, importance and philosophy of the work being done, with the hope that will lead them down the path to becoming future financial supporters, not to provide an exotic vacation. I am also amazed at the comment on excess staffing. I have been intimately familiar with Choice's staffing levels for over 10 years, find that their lack of adequate staffing limits the amount good that can be done under their unique development philosophy and am very impressed with the amount of volunteer effort that makes up much of the Choice work. The overwhelming focus of Choice's funding is on showing indigenous peoples how to build self-sustaining health, educational and small business projects and develop local leadership in the process so that those local leaders can lead their villages and regions toward further independence and well-being without continuing support from donors.

Everyone at CHOICE has the highest priority of outreach and helping others become self reliant. It is an organization run by love, compassion, hard work and dedication to help others. They are highly experienced and organized. I could not recommend any Humanitarian Organization more highly.

Choice is a decent organization with a great philosophy for sustainable development (teaching villagers how to tackle big projects so that they can progress on their own).

However, I disagree with how Choice utilizes (or rather, underutilizes) expeditioners.

Choice Humanitarian teaches that it's about the villagers and the journey, and that we need to immerse ourselves in "village time" as part of our experience. The conclusion that they make is that we shouldn't impose developed world processes, urgency, efficiency, and increased production to projects. For example, we're told not to form bucket lines passing materials one to another and saving the energy of trekking back and forth, because the villager way of doing things is to plod along the entire way. Others tell stories of jumping into projects and generating a flurry of activity and progress, only to be asked by Choice staff to step aside and allow villagers to work at their own pace, and using their own methods.

While I agree that it needs to be about the villagers, and that experiencing and gaining an appreciation for "village time" is valuable, I don't agree with their conclusion of not helping the villagers to apply developed world processes, urgency, efficiency, and increased production. Using that philosophy, expeditioners become tourists — dead weight. We're there to experience, and to fund, but not to improve. The villagers do 80% of the work, and the soft foreigners gamely do our best but can't hope to match the villager hardiness and endurance. The end result is that Choice involves expeditioners for the purpose of making them tourists and to get them to fund projects. We're no more than dead weight pocketbooks. We're just there on a REALLY expensive vacation. Additionally, this pigeon-holes villagers into the role of "gentle savages" who can only learn so much, and achieve so much. Choice tells us not to expect too much from them.

LDS senior missionaries, on the other hand, are sent on service missions specifically to help developing nations improve their processes, efficiency, and productive capacity. Industrialized techniques and technologies are taught to those in developed areas. This opens up entirely new possibilities to them.

There are many projects and achievements which villagers believe to be impossible, because with their current processes such achievements WOULD be impossible. If we can teach them new ways of doing things, then we can open up to them new possibilities and accomplishments. Instead of capping their progress, we can make it equal to our own.

The cynic in me says that Choice may intentionally limit progress in order to minimize the actual amount of work that they have to do. Building relationships with villages is difficult, time intensive work, and if villages progress too quickly, then Choice has to spend more time developing those relationships rather than focusing on fund raising, which is what Choice would rather be doing. The idealist in me, however, just hopes that its a case of Choice drawing the wrong conclusions from their philosophies on village interactions.

The other aspect of Choice Humanitarian that I find troubling is how many paid staff they have. I know a lot of people who have worked extensively with Choice over the years, and almost all of them left because of what they viewed as waste, and excessive overhead. There are more cost efficient organizations out there. The Choice philosophy about this seems to be "We're doing great things so we deserve to reward ourselves and our staff" rather than "We're doing great things and we're willing to make personal sacrifices in order to achieve them."

A good organization for family volunteerism. CHOICE partners with motivated village leadership to choose self-sustaining projects in poverty striken areas. Expeditioners are then brought in to work side by side with entire communities building schools, clinics, and water sources.

CHOICE is an organization that creates opportunities for everyone to get involved! They wisely use their resources and efficiently engage community members to donate their time and talents to the organization. By doing this, they save money on administration and in turn focus funds on the projects. After seeing this model of administration, I was quickly impressed to get involved.

I first stumbled upon CHOICE through one of it's sister organizations. I did my research of how the organization worked and instantly fell in love with it. CHOICE encourages people everywhere to make a difference in their own lives and of the lives of those around them. It is an upward spiral of teaching, learning, and doing.

For example they have expeditions that send out anyone willing to participate for a few weeks in one of the 5 different countries they work in. One of my friends went on an "expedition" last year and loved it so much is going again this year. You work side by side with the villagers, learning from them and their humility. Reminding us of how fortunate we are. It truly changes lives.