Questions and Answers

 

WHAT IS THE MISSION OF ECHO?

The acronym ECHO stands for END CHILD HUNGER ORGANIZATION.

ECHO Worldwide is PGMI's humanitarian charity, providing relief to victims of hunger and disaster at home and around the world.  ECHO focuses especially on eliminating hunger among children in the world’s poorest countries.

WHO FOUNDED ECHO?  

Originally known as ‘Reach Out,’ ECHO was founded in 1988 by British born Dr. Peter Gammons, to provide a charitable base for he and his friends to finance and build an orphan’s village for 250 homeless children of AIDS victims in Uganda.  Since then it has grown to encompass humanitarian relief projects around the world.

HOW CAN ECHO HELP ME?

ECHO is committed to saving lives and easing suffering, serving humanity and helping you by providing relief to victims of disaster, both at locally and globally, with headquarters in the U.K. and the U.S.A.  In the wake of an earthquake, tornado, flood, fire, hurricane or other disaster, ECHO seeks to be there providing relief services.  Our stratergy is that no child will ever be left hungry.  This undergirds all of our feeding programs.  ECHO engages in community projects and private funding cannot be given to individuals. 

WHAT ARE THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ECHO?

ECHO believes in the dignity of humanity and was born out of a desire to provide assistance without discrimination, relieving human suffering wherever it may be found, especially among children and young people.

IS ECHO A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION?

No, ECHO functions independently of any Government, staying politically neutral and impartial, while working closely with Presidents, Prime Ministers and Government agencies to eliminate child hunger at a local level and to respond during times of disaster and crisis both at home or overseas.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

The most effective way to help is to make financial donations to "ECHO WORLDWIDE":

Please use this link to pay via Charity Choice or post your cheque to:

Dr Peter Gammons
ECHO WORLDWIDE
PO Box 4
Ramsey
Huntingdon
PE26 1BR
UK

All the above are photographs of all children that have been a part of ECHO Worldwide feeding programmes. All of them were sleeping at night on the streets of Manila, the offspring of homeless families. The amount we can do is totally dependant on the level of support we receive.  ECHO has had up to 72 feeding stations at a time across the Philippines, caring for starving children each week. 

We desperately need your support more than ever as we continue to feed starving children around the world and support victims of disasters. Your contributions will make a world of difference to children and disaster victims. So, please send your most generous gift today.

DO YOU HAVE A 'VOLUNTEER SCHEME'?

Sadly, we have needed to limit volunteer involvement. The screening, training, oversight and logistics greatly hamper emergency response.  Our Disaster ‘First Response Team’ and relief workers are local and all pre-trained and equipped to respond immediately and efficiently.   There are, however, a number of openings each year for doctors, surgeons and dentists to engage in our overseas missions (write for details).

WHAT IS THE ECHO ‘FIRST RESPONSE TEAM’?

ECHO seeks to ‘Be There First’ in any crisis or disaster, preparing for action at the first signs of a possible crisis or natural disaster.  Up to half a million emergency meals have been kept on standby, ready to be dispatched at home or overseas at a minute's notice. This has enabled us to respond and start caring and meeting needs days before other relief organizations arrive.

WHY DOES ECHO NOT ACCEPT SMALL, INDIVIDUAL ITEMS SUCH AS FOOD AND CLOTHING – DOESN’T EVERY BIT HELP?

1. Small donations of assorted goods, each with different ‘use by’ dates, hinders emergency response and relief efforts.
2. The financial and personnel costs of receiving, sorting, storing, transporting and ensuring the quality and cleanliness of goods or items donated by individuals is much higher than bulk buying. This also helps us to keep staffing to a minimum, ensuring your gift is used to the maximum on relief projects.
3. Rarely are items donated suited to the major needs ECHO encounters.
4. Each pound/ dollar an individual would need to spend on shopping, combined with the cost of driving to the store, delivering the items to ECHO’S Warehouse and returning home, could be utilized at least FIFTY TIMES more effectively by ECHO in production of the food and supplies needed most. 

ECHO does, however, accept large corporate donations of food, baby formula, bottled water and other items frequently needed by disaster-affected communities.

WHAT ARE THE EMERGENCY MEALS ECHO DISTRIBUTES?

Our unique ECHO EMERGENCY MEAL PACKS™ provide a high protein, highly nutritional, hot, chicken, soy and rice based meal especially developed by nutritionalists, with six vegetables and twenty-two vitamins and minerals.

Other items being distributed by ECHO include:  bottled drinking water, baby food formula, blankets, medical supplies and water purifiers.
 
DOES ECHO OFFER SPONSORHSIP OF A SPECIFIC CHILD?

No.  We have chosen not to do this as up to 70% of a person's donation is spent by some organizations in sending out photographs, letters and administrating such schemes.  Our strategy is to keep both staffing and administration to a minimum so that we can focus on feeding as many starving children as possible.  The same gift you would give to sponsor just one child if we ran such schemes can be used by ECHO to feed more than twenty starving children.