How You Can Help

Help Parents Cultivate the Seed of Their Children’s Potential

Dear Friend,

One of my favorite rites of spring is planting gardens in my back yard. Whether fruits, vegetables or flowers, I never tire of watching the amazing process as a seed first reveals the hint of an emerging stem that supports its gradually developing leaves, eventually reaching maturity and productivity, and contributing beauty and nourishment to the world around it. Like my garden, children need a combination of elements to grow and thrive: the warmth of a nurturing family, clean water, nutritious food and a stable environment to help them achieve the full promise of their potential.

Just like the evolution of my garden each year, I see the process of transformation among families within the communities where INMED works. And just as all the right elements must be present for a garden to grow successfully from seeds to plants—sun, water, nutrients, a healthy environment and careful cultivation—a similar continuum of care is needed to help children develop into strong, healthy contributors to their families and communities.

Will you make a donation to support INMED’s programs that give families and communities around the world the knowledge, skills and resources to help their children realize a healthy future? Consider all of the ways your gift can make a difference:

• Planting seeds of change: For children from the shanties of South Africa to the streets of South Los Angeles and homeless shelters of Virginia to the jungles of Peru and the favelas of Brazil, INMED’s programs help bring about real transformations in their lives and futures. We work directly in these communities to improve health, nutrition and education, build stronger families and safer communities, preserve the natural environment, and holistically address the root causes of the challenges families face. At the same time, we build partnerships and systems that help communities sustain these positive changes over the long term.
• Helping children blossom: We equip parents, teachers and other caregivers with the tools and strategies to cultivate children’s potential for lifelong success. We do this by strengthening parenting skills for young mothers like Rita, who didn’t know how to cope with a disabled child; by helping families and communities provide environments to support optimal child development, even in homeless shelters or transitional housing; by improving basic education in the poorest public schools in developing countries; and by providing positive youth development programs, like mentoring for children of prisoners, that help the most vulnerable children build self-esteem.
• Improving nutrition from the ground up: INMED’s school and family garden programs dramatically improve children’s nutritional status by supplementing school lunches—for many children, their only meal of the day—with healthy produce, and by helping low-income families build food security through their own household gardens, which provide not only nutritious food for their own consumption, but also income generated from the sale of any surplus. Families who receive seeds, tools, gardening training and nutrition education through INMED then pass along both seedlings and the knowledge they have gained to other families in their neighborhoods.
• Reaping the fruits of our labor: The reward of our work—and your support of it—is in the healthy, happy and educated children who develop through their active participation in INMED’s programs. The process of transformation that begins with a child carries over to his family and community, creating real, meaningful, sustainable change that crosses generations and breaks the cycle of poor outcomes.  
• Helping hope take root: For too many children around the world facing poverty, poor health and lack of education, living in broken families and violent communities, hope is a scarce commodity. Because INMED is working to achieve long-term, generational change, we can’t see all the positive changes yet to come. But the real improvements being made day by day in children’s health and well being are enough to inspire children, families and communities to believe that there is hope for a brighter future.

We appreciate your interest in learning more about INMED and our programs. Will you join us now by making a contribution to help parents nourish the seed of their children’s potential? Like a single seed that yields multiple fruits, your gift to INMED will grow, by helping us leverage matching funds from our grantmakers and donated goods and services from corporate partners.

I’m proud to report that for the third consecutive year, INMED has received the highest rating for sound fiscal management from Charity Navigator, America’s leading charity evaluator. Our four-star “exceptional” rating demonstrates that INMED “exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.” You can be sure that your contribution will be responsibly and effectively invested in our work in the U.S. and around the world.

I hope I can count on you to make your tax-deductible donation today, by clicking here to donate online, or by mailing a check to INMED at 20110 Ashbrook Place, Suite 260, Ashburn, Virginia 20147.

Thank you in advance for your generous support!

Warmest regards,

Linda Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
President and CEO