The average interest rate on a savings account currently is .05%. Using some quick math, if you put $100 in a savings account today, in a year that $100 would turn into $100.05. Ouch!

There is an investment that can provide you with much better returns.  In fact, it yields a three hundredfold return on your money.

Allow us to explain. Every year, Esperança sends a 40 foot container packed full of donated medical supplies to Latin America. This year it will go to Nicaragua. This container holds 450 boxes of assorted medical items ranging from scalpels and sutures to autoclaves and x-ray machines. We scour the US looking for partners that are willing to donate items that would otherwise go to waste. When all is said and done, the total value of each container ranges close to $2.5 million! But that’s not the best part.

Here is where the three hundredfold return comes into play. It only costs $8,000 to ship $2.5 million of critically needed supplies to Nicaragua. We’re able to do this because of all the cost cutting measures we have refined over the years.

Here at Esperança, we work hard to stretch every dollar. This means that we catalog, pack and store every donated item we receive right here at our office to save on warehousing costs. We load each container with the help of generous volunteers and our staff to save on moving expenses. We even coordinate the overseas shipping to Nicaragua and have a truck waiting to drive it to our medical supply storage in Managua.

The contents of the shipment are then distributed to our medical partners and really do save lives.  Last year our container arrived just in time for a hospital that had lost its only anesthesia machine – we happened to have one in the shipment! Without something so vital, it is likely that many lives would have been lost waiting the months it would take to find a replacement. In fact, every time we deliver one of these 40 foot containers, doctors across the country find specialized instruments and supplies that they had given up hope of finding or affording. Even our own surgery teams we send benefit from these supplies!

As you can see, this program presents a huge opportunity to ease the suffering of thousands of people for a very small investment. Consider making an investment in Esperança that will provide the return of a better life for the less fortunate!