CBN Taking Part in Giving Tuesday by Joining Forces with Missionary Doctors in Africa
Cyber Monday is all about buying but Giving Tuesday, which takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is about helping charities and ministries change peoples' lives.
From the American Red Cross to the Salvation Army, groups are challenging people to help them reach the sick, the needy and the lost.
This year marks the fifth annual Giving Tuesday since leaders from 92nd Street Y, a non-profit cultural center in New York, started a campaign to highlight charitable giving during the Christmas season.
The Christian Broadcasting Network is joining the campaign by partnering with Jewish entrepreneurs and philanthropists Erica and Mark Gerson to help missionary doctors save countless lives across Africa.
Gerson's work, through the African Mission Healthcare Foundation, which he co-founded with an American missionary serving in Kenya, has been featured on CBN News.
The goal of the partnership is to provide a matching grant for up to $1 million that CBN raises for Christian medical missionaries in Africa.
"You can help the lame to walk, help the blind to see, give hope to a desperate parent and help raise up a new generation of medical staff," according to the partnership's website.
The site says, "100% of your gift goes to the field to cover medical care where it is needed most."
"It's an honor and a privilege to partner with these medical missionary heroes," said Gordon Robertson, CBN CEO.
"These courageous souls have sacrificed comfort and career to move their families to some of the most remote places in the world to serve the overlooked. They believe human life matters, and very life is worth saving."
World Vision is also taking part by inviting volunteers to help pack hygiene kits at its pop-up shop in Bryant Park Holiday Market in New York City. Visitors are also able to view exhibits that give people a sense of the needs in Africa.
Even children are participating in the day of giving.
Eleven year old Malina Costello is using her business to help others by donating 50 percent of her revenue to charity. She makes homemade jewelry, bath bombs, soaps and perfumes
And 12-year-old Ethan Moran couldn't wait for Giving Tuesday to arrive.
He and his mom, Allison Bulkholtz, will be volunteering their time at Stepping Stones Homeless Shelter in Rockville, Maryland.
There they'll be reading to the kids and sharing a meal with families living there.
The seventh-grader said the consumerism of Black Friday should be countered by the generosity of Giving Tuesday.
"All of us on Black Friday just think about ourselves and we don't think about the people who don't have the things we have," said Ethan who lives in Potomac, Maryland.
"It's important to participate, especially in a homeless shelter because you get to give people something you have, instead of just getting something for yourself," he said in an interview with NBC News.
