YouTube link to Brian Kluth’s 9-minute poverty solutions TV interview
Research shows that most people would like their charitable donations to make a real difference in helping to end poverty, sickness, and hunger worldwide. But most donations are quickly spent with little or no lasting impact. For the past twelve years, Brian and Mary Ellen Kluth from Denver, Colorado, have been taking annual trips to Uganda, Africa, to determine the world’s best products and solutions to fight poverty, sickness, and hunger in developing nations. They have discovered, tested, and proven poverty solutions to leverage people’s generous donations to have an exponential 25 to 50-fold impact on the homes, finances, health, and environment of needy families! They have found the best charity gifts that keep on giving for many years to make the lives of givers and receivers brighter and better forever.
Learning first-hand the causes of extreme poverty in the world
Through home visits with many needy Ugandan families over the years, the Kluth’s discovered that the most significant causes of sickness and extreme poverty came from families drinking dirty water, the dirty smoke from their open-fire cooking, and using kerosene lamps and candles for light, they also discovered that many families earn less than $2 per day and try to survive by growing their food. However, ineffective farming methods leave many families without enough food to eat.
Once they understood the problems the people they cared about were facing, they prayerfully set out to find the world’s best and most affordable products and solutions to help make people’s lives brighter and better forever. The Kluth’s founded HealthyCharity.org and tested different products and solutions that, with generous donations, have helped nearly 100,000 people so far.
Finding and testing the world’s best poverty solutions
The Kluth’s discovered the main things a low-income family needs to begin to thrive. The first thing they need is a solar lamp for light. This will replace their toxic, dim, smoky, expensive, and dangerous kerosene lamp or candles. The SunKing solar lamp they found and tested is smokeless, safe, bright, and durable and provides free light every night by simply recharging it in the sun daily. With this solar lamp, families can enjoy evening meals, students can study, and family activities can be done with bright light every night without the cost of kerosene or candles, which can take up to 10-25% of a family’s income.
The second solution they found was water filters that purify water from any source and make it 99.99% pure, safe, and clean for drinking. The Kluth’s have used four different water filters by Sawyer, Spouts, UpEnergy, and Vivoblu that can provide clean water and stop all kinds of diseases. Filters have lasted five years and longer to provide clean drinking water in homes and schools.
The third affordable solution they found was the world’s very best low-smoke cookstoves by BURN Stoves in Kenya. These #1 rated stoves produce 80% less smoke and require 61 to 80% less charcoal or wood. What families spent in one day on wood or charcoal will now last 5 or 6 days. Women who would go out to collect firewood 3 hours per day (21 hours per week) now only go out 3-4 hours weekly to collect firewood. Daily cooking that causes women and children suffering, sickness, and many hours of hard work is replaced with physical and financial health and happiness with a low-smoke cookstove.
For families who have land and can grow their food, the fourth solution is #FarmGodsWay training developed by FoundationsforFarming.org with training centers worldwide. These proven conservation farming methods allow a family to spend less time farming but increase their crops by two to three times. With a garden plot, a hoe, and seeds, they can grow enough food to feed their family and have crops left to sell for extra family income.
Providing exponential impact for generous donors
The Kluth’s discovered that donors can create an exponential life-changing impact with their generous giving. Usually, the money a donor gives is spent with little or no long-lasting effect. But the Kluth’s have proven that a gift of a $10 solar lamp can have a $500 impact on a needy family’s finances over the next five years with decreased expenses, less sickness, and improved productivity. This is a tangible 50-fold return for every dollar that is given! For cooking, they learned that every $40 that helps provide a low-smoke cookstove will positively impact a family’s health and improve their finances 25-fold by saving a family $1000 or more over five years. The woodstoves exponentially impact local deforestation and climate change because they require 61-80% less wood or charcoal. A $50 donation for a clean water filter has improved everyone’s health and happiness every day for many years. So, for every $100 in donations, a needy family can receive all three products, and their lives will be brighter and better forever. Plus, with #FarmGodsWay training, a family with available land can learn to grow enough food to feed their family daily. These four simple yet affordable solutions can exponentially impact a needy family’s home, health, happiness, and environment.
Incorporating the Gospel in Word and Deed
In the fall of 2023, Brian Kluth attended the Pan African Christian Economic Forum and a global leadership conference hosted by the World Evangelical Alliance. At these conferences, Brian was challenged to think about how the global poverty solutions he and Mary Ellen discovered could help advance the Gospel message by sharing God’s love with people in both Word and Deed. Through prayer and consultation with others, Brian and Mary, with their HealthyCharity.org team in Uganda, beta-tested 14 SharetheLightUG.org gospel events in March of 2024. These events at churches, schools, universities, and ministries showed how kerosene lamps, dirty water, and smoky cooking portrayed a life without God and without hope. They then shared how the solar lamp, water filter, and low-smoke cookstove portrayed life with God’s love and light. Thousands attended, and 3,600 families received the gift of a free $10 donated solar lamp. The people were told to let this solar lamp remind them every day to shine brightly for Christ to those around them and to recharge their spiritual batteries in God’s Word and prayer.
Families were also given the opportunity to pre-order water filters and low-smoke cookstoves that dramatically improved their family’s health, finances, and happiness. They also received information about #FarmGodsWay training opportunities in their country.
The total in-country budget for the 14 Ugandan events that served 3,600 families (20,000 people) was $40,000. But the direct life-changing exponential economic impact on the lives of those 3,600 families will be over $2 million dollars in the next 5 years! Brian was interviewed on national TV in Uganda about the #SharetheLight Gospel events. Here is a link to the 9-minute interview on YouTube video.
Taking it to the next level in Uganda, Africa, Asia and Latin America
Brian and Mary Ellen Kluth firmly believe the products and solutions they have tested and proved can serve needy people worldwide to make the lives of impoverished families brighter and better forever. They also feel that the SharetheLightUG.org Gospel Events could be adopted and adapted by faith-based organizations and generous donors to exponentially impact their charitable giving to spread the Gospel in Word and Deed. Those who want to maximize the impact of their giving through the exponential charity work the Kluth’s are doing in Uganda can learn more and donate at HealthyCharity.org. For others who want help purchasing the world’s best poverty solution products for the people they serve in other countries, they can visit PovertySolutions.Global. Those who want to spread the Gospel in Word and Deed in organizing and funding their own Gospel events anywhere in the world can receive Brian’s assistance by contacting him at the SharetheLightUG.org website.
