Questions and Answers

WHAT IS THE MISSION OF ECHO?

The acronym ECHO stands for END CHILD HUNGER ORGANIZATION.

ECHO Worldwide is a humanitarian organization providing relief to victims of hunger and disaster at home and around the world.  ECHO focuses particularly 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 the homeless children of AIDS victims in Uganda.  Since then it has grown to encompass humanitarian relief projects in more than 70 countries 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 US and the UK.  In the wake of an earthquake, tornado, flood, fire, hurricane or other disaster, ECHO seeks to be first in providing relief services.

Our founding policy is that no child will ever be left hungry.  This undergirds all of our feeding programs around the world.  Private funding cannot be given to individuals.

ECHO engages in community projects.

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 and to respond during times of disaster and crisis at home or overseas.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

The most effective way to help is to make financial donations to:

Dr Peter Gammons
ECHO WORLDWIDE
PO Box 605000
Orlando,
Florida 32860 - 5000
USA

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

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 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 overseas humanitarian 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 one million emergency meals are kept on standby, ready to be dispatched at home or overseas at a minutes notice. This enables 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 encounter.
4. Each dollar an individual would need to spend on shopping, combined with the gasoline 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 bulk purchasing and 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 ECHO EMERGENCY MEAL PACKS™ provide a high protein, highly nutritionally, hot, chicken, soy and rice based meal especially developed by nutritionalists, with six vegetables and twenty-two vitamins and minerals.

At any given time we have up to one million meals on standby in our warehouse, ready to respond at a moments notice to natural disasters or crisis anywhere in the world.

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

We have chosen not to do so.  Up to 70% of a persons donation is spent by some organizations in sending out photographs, letters and administrating such schemes.  Our strategy is to keep staffing and administration to a minimum so we can focus on feeding as many starving children as possible.  The same gift you would give to sponsor one child if we ran such schemes can be used by ECHO to feed more than twenty starving children.