A Meaningful Morning

More than 200 friends, supporters, corporate partners, and new acquaintances gathered at dōTERRA's global campus on March 22, 2024, for CHOICE's 16th annual Breakfast of Humanitarians.

Held on World Water Day, guests learned about CHOICE Humanitarian's work in water projects around the world and heard from speakers who share our passion for sustainable impact.

The theme was the ripple effect. Access to clean water has far-reaching impact in disrupting global poverty. All of us can be a ripple effect of positive change when it comes to the water crisis, and as we work together, small ripples turn into large waves that change lives.

Thank you to our event sponsors who made the Breakfast possible: dōTERRA and dōTERRA Healing Hands, Diamond Event & Tent, ASEA Advancing Life Foundation, and Lorraine William Creative. 

Browse the event photo album on Facebook.

Inspiring Remarks from Speakers

All of our speakers shared their heart and motivation for being engaged in global good, either as individuals, with their families, or through their companies.

Here are some of our favorite quotes, along with links to read each speakers' fully transcribed remarks on our blog:

• "CHOICE has been an invaluable partner since 2014 in helping us never lose that focus of what's most important." Kirk Jowers, CEO, dōTERRA | read full remarks

• "[CHOICE has] proven to be our most trusted, valuable partner time and time again. Each year they offer community projects that uplift and that impact vast numbers of individuals sustainably. They complete each project on time and within budget and provide full transparency throughout the entire process." Misty Bond, VP of Corporate Relations and Philanthropy, dōTERRA | read full remarks

• "Because of CHOICE, these small villages are learning to build these systems themselves and are creating sustainable ways to make their lives better and allow children like this sweet boy to be kids and have safe drinking water." Shiloh Peterson, Expeditions Participant and CHOICE Junior Board | read full remarks

• "It was shocking to me that just a few hours outside of Mexico City, there were beautiful people...who genuinely have no way to offer their kids a bath or a clean drink of water. As a mother of four daughters, the gravity of this struck my core at a level that words cannot describe." Lisa Peterson, Expeditions Participant and CHOICE Junior Board | read full remarks

• "I want my children to respect the people of the world. I want them to see their goodness. I want divisiveness and contention to go away. I want you to lift others." Eric Pope, VP of Operations, US Synthetic | read full remarks

• "I think that's the reason why there are so many people who have been associated with CHOICE for so many years. It changes us for the better." Teresa Larsen, Board Chair, CHOICE Board of Directors

To read more from our speakers, click the links above for each transcription. You can also listen to the audio recording to more capture the essence of their stories, emotions, and sincerity.

  Listen to the full audio recording on YouTube.

Bring Clean Water to Kenya

The Breakfast program included the opportunity for guests to make a real difference. In rural Kenya, there is the community of Peku, which is where Mgandi and 5,000 of his neighbors live with limited access to clean water.

Mgandi hauls his water from one of the local dams. The small dam contains dirty, muddy, bacteria-filled water. There is a second dam in Peku, but in Kenya's prolonged drought, it's currently bone dry. When these water sources are empty, community members must trek for 3 to 4 hours to reach the next nearest water source.

$20,000 can change all that.

$20,000 can fund a water project that will expand a simple, yet innovative reservoir system, doubling the amount of available clean water. This will be a catalyst in the area that will lead to additional local government funding to establish water collection points for families to get clean and safe drinking water. The water will also be used for troughs for animals and agriculture, expanding the scope of the project.

At the event, we raised half of our goal from generous donations from over 60 guests. We are deeply appreciative of each person's gift of compassion.

We are hopeful we can still reach the entire $20,000 goal and fund this project.

Learn more about Peku in the audio recording, including a video of Mgandi as he carefully walks to and from the dirty water dam.

Join the ripple effect and donate today.