The Elseys
The Impact of One Family's Efforts 

Although located thousands of miles from the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the Elsey family in Bethesda, Maryland, were not unaffected by the plight and struggles of the Darfur people.

"At night, we sit down and watch the news as a family and we see all these kids from other countries witnessing terrible acts of violence and having to walk hundreds of miles for school or get water," Laura, a mother of three, explains. "It makes me think, 'what if that were my child?'"

This troubling thought spurred Laura, along with her husband John and children Polly and Jake, then 15 and 13 years old respectively, to take action.

"We wanted to do something more," Laura says. "One day, we were all talking about what we could do and thought one thing we can all do is walk."

The Elseys organized a "walk" in June 2007 and raised nearly $11,000 for a Counterpart shipment of medical supplies to refugees of the Darfur genocides.

"I'm part of the 'Save Darfur' campaign where you send e-mails to the White House," Laura adds. "But we wanted to do something more than that – something that might fill the belly of a child. We chose Counterpart because we know where the money is going exactly."

The Elseys secured pledges from friends and family for their more than 18 mile walk from their home in Bethesda, through Washington D.C. to Alexandria, Virginia, where friends and the youngest Elsey daughter, then 6-year-old Millie, were waiting. The walk coincided with Jake's middle school graduation from the Norwood School, prompting his classmates to donate money they had raised from fundraisers over the year to the walk. The nearly five hour walk ended at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center in Alexandria, but the lesson did not.

Counterpart used the nearly $11,000 raised by the Elsey family and leveraged it into more than $1 million worth of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and de-worming medicines, to sent through partner organizations to Darfur refugees who fled into neighboring Chad.

"It was amazing for the kids to see that so little can make such a difference," Laura says. "We just got $25 or $50 here and there, but it really added up!"

Photo: Courtesy of the Esley family.