Donation Appeal Letter for Project See Again by Penny

Dear Potential Donor:

For those of you who do not know me yet, my name is Pham Thien Tam, a 15-year-old 10^th grader at the Saigon South International school in Ho Chi Minh City. I am also known as Penny. That nickname was given to me in remembrance of a bighearted elder lady in Colorado who was so helpful to so many young people, including my Dad. I am a lucky girl with that legacy name.

By writing this letter, I’m asking you to join me in a fight to restore sight to blinded cataract patients in Vietnam. These are poor people who cannot afford 35 USD to pay for a cataract implant surgery. They used to see the world and can see again with an eye surgery that costs only 35 USD

That small amount of money has the power to put a parent back to work, a student back to school, and a mother back to raising her children again. These blinded people need your help, and you hold the power to get their lives back on track.

The normal cost for a cataract surgery in Vietnam is about 500 USD, sometimes reaching up to 1,500 USD in select clinics. Thanks to volunteer doctors at a local hospital, the cost to our program is only 35 USD per patient. (That is less than 10% of the typical cost). There is no profit motive in this initiative.

To make your donation even more powerful, through the non-profit Vietnam Foundation, I have secured a commitment from an anonymous donor to match every dollar donated by you. For every 1 patient you help, you actually help 2. For every 5 patients you help, that means 10.

The first deadline for this campaign is January 30^th. By that date, I hope to raise enough money for 200 patients. At the end of the campaign in June, I aim to collect enough donations for 1,000 patients. Together with the matching donor, we will help 2,000 patients before the end of this year. That is my dream for 2018 and I am asking you to help me achieve such dream.