Breaking the Cycle of Poverty with Dignity | E60
How can families make a lasting impact on global poverty without losing sight of dignity, choice, and empowerment?
In this special Podcasthon 2026 episode, host and Catholic financial planner Deb Meyer sits down with Deborah Johns, Chief Growth Officer of Unbound, to explore a radically different approach to poverty relief. That approach puts decision-making directly into the hands of families.
From direct cash transfers to child and elder sponsorship, you’ll hear how small, consistent support can transform not just one life but entire communities.
Why This Episode Matters for Parents
As parents managing your household budget, this conversation reframes giving:
It’s not about how much you give
Intentional, consistent impact matters more
Model generosity and global awareness for your kids
Consider this a way to build your “family impact plan” alongside your financial plan.
Episode Highlights
(01:14) What makes Unbound’s self-directed model different from traditional charities
(05:27) How direct cash transfers empower families to solve their most urgent needs
(09:11) Why supporting mothers creates ripple effects for years to come
(11:43) The often-overlooked need for elder sponsorship and social connection
(16:05) How education, especially for girls, breaks generational poverty cycles
🌍 What Is Unbound?
Unbound is an international nonprofit working in 16 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each year, they provide over $100 million in direct support to children, elders, and families living in poverty.
Their mission is simple but powerful:
👉 Put choice, dignity, and decision-making back into the hands of those experiencing poverty.
Unbound stands out for stewardship:
90%+ of funds go directly to programs
Top ratings from charity evaluators like Charity Navigator
Full transparency with publicly available financials
Visit: unbound.org to sponsor a child or elder
Connect with Host Deb Meyer, CFP®
Founder of WorthyNest®, helping Christian parents build financial plans that reflect their values.
Download your FREE guide | Follow us on YouTube | Take the Financial Wellness Quiz
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:00.626)
For many parents living in American suburbs, poverty isn't usually top of mind and it just seems so far away. So that's why I am inviting Deborah Johns to the podcast. Deborah is the first chief growth officer of Unbound. She has nearly two decades of international philanthropy experience. Deborah, thanks so much for joining us on the Beyond Budgets podcast!
Deborah Johns (00:26.947)
Hey, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Deb Meyer (00:29.244)
Yeah, great. Well, I have had the privilege of sponsoring a young woman named Zuli in Guatemala for over a decade through Unbound. And I know it's a joy to really highlight your organization's work during Podcastathon week. For listeners who aren't as familiar with the organization, can you share what Unbound is and what makes your approach to poverty relief so distinct?
Deborah Johns (00:55.71)
Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you so much for being such a long-time and faithful supporter to Unbound and for the opportunity to be here. For those who aren't familiar with Unbound, Unbound is an international nonprofit. We work in 16 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. And every single year we send over 100 million dollars of direct support to children, elders and their families who are living in poverty.
And so our vision is to build a world that is free from poverty, where everybody has access to the resources and the community support they need, and ultimately the ability to make decisions that improve their lives and uphold human dignity. And we do that through what we call a decentralized approach, as we walk with families and communities worldwide on their self-directed paths out of poverty. And so the two kind of key words there are decentralized and self-directed. Ultimately what that means is that we're putting the decision-making authority into the hands of the families who are experiencing poverty. And...
Deb Meyer (02:09.266)
Mmm.
Deborah Johns (02:10.944)
As a result, you know, it makes for a very personalized approach. So in many ways, rather than being a program that serves 250,000 families, in many ways, we are like 250,000 very distinct programs of which your sponsor child would be one of those.
Deb Meyer (02:32.028)
Yeah, that's really cool. I'm glad you described it that way because I know when I first found Zulis' picture, we were at church one Sunday, many years ago, and they came around, an unbound representative was talking about the need to help serve some of these children in poverty and really not only help them, but help their families. So.
Deborah Johns (02:53.718)
Yes.
Deb Meyer (02:55.048)
just being able to go through and see all these different photos and then pick specifically this child. was quite a...
emotional decision. And at the time, like we just had our one son and we're struggling with fertility issues. And I really wanted a girl, was like praying for a girl. And then when I saw Zulia, I was like, all right, she's similar age to my son, my oldest son. And this would be a great time to, you know, just invest in helping with her future.
Deborah Johns (03:27.134)
I'm so glad that you did because now that she is likely in her teenage years, I can only imagine the impact that your support just over the years has had on their lives. Not only for her, but for her entire family. And really what we see is the entire community.
is uplifted as well just as the result of this type of work. And with Unbound in particular, none of what we do is possible without just the faithful support of individuals like you, like your family, who are making that one-to-one connection with a child or with an elder through sponsorship. collectively, it makes an incredible difference. So thank you.
Deb Meyer (04:09.714)
Yeah, well, we're honored to do it. And like I said, I mean, just being able to grow alongside her, see her develop, we get notifications through the organization, you know, at least like once a quarter. I'm not always great at responding right away. Sometimes my responses are a little less frequent, but just being able to hear from her, from her family, and then see how she's grown along the way with updated pictures, it's really gratifying for sure.
Deborah Johns (04:38.368)
Well, that's very common. I experienced the same thing too, in terms of just sometimes delay in writing, but the support and even just the encouragement of knowing that there is somebody out there who believes in you and is rooting you on just makes all the difference in the world.
Deb Meyer (04:54.446)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so let's dig into this sponsorship idea a little bit because I know Unbound specifically is, you know, really focused on human dignity and choice. And, you know, as someone who's heard the phrase, help not handouts many times, I love how Unbound really lets families drive their own change. Can you share a little bit more about initiatives like the direct cash transfers and the poverty spotlight?
Deborah Johns (05:23.394)
Yes, absolutely. one of the things that makes Unbound very unique is our direct cash transfer model. And so essentially our program teams will deposit funds directly into the bank accounts or the mobile money accounts of the families in poverty. And it's unique because there's no middle step. There's nobody else who is directing or dictating how those funds are used. It really is the power of choices in
Deb Meyer (05:44.71)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (05:53.32)
the hands of the families who are experiencing poverty. And it upholds human dignity, but really when you think about it, poverty is an incredibly personal situation. So it looks different from country to country. It looks different from community to community. But really it looks different from family to family. So even within the same community, you may have two families who are in poverty. One of them has
Deb Meyer (06:10.664)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (06:23.184)
a dilapidated roof with a hole in it. And so as a result, heat is escaping. Anytime it rains, everything gets drenched. And that might be their biggest priority to solve for, right? Whereas another family may be experiencing some kind of health crisis, needs access to specific medicines. Maybe their children are having a hard time staying in school because tuition fees and things of that nature are just getting unaffordable. And so as a result, they may have a completely different objective
Deb Meyer (06:31.686)
Mmm.
Sure.
Deb Meyer (06:42.588)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (06:53.264)
for walking themselves out of poverty. And so that's where the poverty stoplight comes in. So essentially what it is, is it's this incredible tool. It was created by a gentleman named Dr. Martin Burke, and he wrote a book called Who Owns Poverty? If you haven't heard of it or read it, I highly recommend it. It's really, really good. But so essentially this poverty stoplight tool, it gives families the ability to reflect on and assess their current
Deb Meyer (07:05.384)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (07:13.64)
Great.
Deborah Johns (07:23.024)
experience of poverty. The poverty stoplight tool measures it. It's a color coded system. So there's red, which means extreme poverty, yellow, which means poverty, and green, which means no poverty. So after a family takes this assessment, inevitably there might be a few indicators where they're doing well and they're in that green zone. And there are going to be indicators where they're in the red zone or yellow zone. And so by having that visual
Deb Meyer (07:37.064)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (07:47.304)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (07:52.936)
It really allows them to start setting and prioritizing these concrete and achievable goals of steps that they can take towards walking themselves out of poverty. So it's an incredible tool. Unbound is the largest implementer of this tool in the entire world.
Deb Meyer (08:13.074)
Wow.
Deborah Johns (08:14.286)
As of June 2025, the families in our programs have logged 300,000 achievements. so essentially what that means is 300,000 times they have moved from one of those red or yellow poverty or extreme poverty states into a green no poverty state. it's big number, what is so incredible about it is it represents
Deb Meyer (08:36.744)
That's amazing.
you
Deborah Johns (08:44.42)
very real progress in terms of housing, terms of education, nutrition, health, employment, savings, all of these things that are just incredibly inspirational. So that's a little bit more about our model.
Deb Meyer (08:46.856)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (08:58.632)
Oh, that's amazing. I didn't really even, again, being an individual supporter, I didn't see the impact that it can have on families just collectively. That's awesome. So, all right, let's move on and chat about one of the exciting developments for Unbound. You guys launched a $500,000 Innovation Fund.
Deborah Johns (09:21.974)
Yes.
Deb Meyer (09:22.028)
And I want to hear a little bit about that because I know it's specifically supporting mothers. So can you share a little bit more about that program?
Deborah Johns (09:29.942)
Yes, of course.
Women are the backbone of their families. They're the backbone of their communities where we work. And a lot of times they're the ones who are kind of holding everything together. And the reality about where we work in poverty in and of itself is that it really does disproportionately impact women and it hits them the hardest. And so as a result, statistically, women by nature will face fewer opportunities. They'll have less access to education and they oftentimes carry
the full weight of caring for their children and maybe aging relatives that depend on them. And it's all while they're trying to, you know, build a better life, right? And so that's why at Unbound, we really believe that when you put mothers in the center of the decision-making process, it's not only the right thing to do, it's really the smart thing to do. Because when we're empowering women, we're essentially empowering entire communities. So at
beginning of 2025, Unbound launched our strategic plan to get us through to 2030 in alignment with the sustainable development goals. And we measure our progress across five pillars of impact. And so one of those pillars is empowering women. And so in many ways, it really is at the heart of everything that we do at Unbound. And that's where the Innovation Fund comes in. So we set aside $500,000. And this is for the Mothers
in the programs to be able to decide how to invest in their own communities and to see where that biggest need is within their own communities. And so for Unbound, it's about trust, it's about giving people dignity, and it's about creating this leadership and having mothers see that when the...
Deborah Johns (11:23.342)
power to create changes in their own hands, they truly are unstoppable. So what we're seeing is that not only are these funds going towards making a really important and big impact in the communities that uplift the entire communities, we're seeing women who are becoming empowered and we're seeing how it is impacting future generations as a result and just kind of
showing what's possible for future generations. So it's been really exciting to witness.
Deb Meyer (11:59.108)
Yeah, that's great. Well, and I love too how Unbound isn't just strictly focused on, you know, young kids or mothers. They're even looking, I think it's the only major US-based nonprofit that offers the elder.
support as well, which you know it's a really beautiful and overlooked mission most times. So if you think about the elderly population, a lot of them suffer from social isolation and you poverty obviously being the core mission of of Unbound. I'm curious like how how that initiative is supported through through Unbound.
Deborah Johns (12:39.25)
thank you so much for asking. our Elder sponsorship program is something we are incredibly passionate about. It's something that's very unique to Unbound, like you said, and really at the heart of that, at the heart of it.
It's about fostering dignity. It's about making sure that older adults have access to the care and the connection that they need. And it's about that connection as well. you know, the reality is that older adults in poverty are amongst the most vulnerable people in the world. A lot of them don't have, you know, retirement or pensions to fall back on. Right. And a lot of them, too, might have spent their lives in some
Deb Meyer (12:56.593)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (13:13.48)
Mm.
Deb Meyer (13:18.536)
Sure.
Deborah Johns (13:22.83)
what physically demanding work to earn wages. And so as you can imagine, you know, as age increases, health issues increase.
Deb Meyer (13:26.128)
Mmm.
Deb Meyer (13:33.415)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (13:33.902)
energy decreases. And so it's this predicament where older populations, they're maybe less able to earn a wage, their expenses are higher in terms of maybe medical expenses and things of that nature. And so as their income dwindles, these expenses only rise. And then that can be really exacerbated by, to your point, you know, the social isolation. Oftentimes an elder will lose a spouse
and that creates a new level of vulnerability as well. And so our elder sponsorship is really about supporting elders in this phase of life. And in doing so, they get the direct cash transfers. So it gives them a little bit of breathing room when they're facing decisions between the continuous work or the expenses and being able to put food on the table, things of that nature. But then with programming too.
We offer social connection. We offer what we call this psychosocial support. so essentially it is, it is, excuse me. our psychosocial support. So essentially it's helping elders stay active, engaged, and then really valued within their communities too.
Deb Meyer (14:37.32)
So...
Deb Meyer (14:41.437)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (14:58.036)
And I can share one example. It's a really sweet example of a gentleman named David. And so he is one of our sponsored elders in Kenya. He's 78 years old. And like many, he has kind of used all of his savings. He's invested into his children and his grandchildren, you know, being able to allow them to get an education. so Unbound came alongside him, connected him with a group and the psychosocial support.
well and gave him a small business loan. And so what he is doing is he is selling spices now and he is making hand-woven bags. And so as a result, he is generating income that is, in his words, able to give him that independence that he wants and it certainly restores dignity.
Deb Meyer (15:28.935)
Mm-hmm.
Boom.
Deb Meyer (15:49.096)
Sure.
it's not overly demanding on his body because it's spices or yeah okay.
Deborah Johns (15:54.382)
It's not overly demanding on his body. Exactly. Exactly. And so it's really just helping to sustain his and his family's future. And so, and that's really what the Elder Program is all about. So it is the independence, it's restoring dignity, and then really just recognizing that at any age, everybody's a very valuable member of the community.
Deb Meyer (16:07.845)
awesome.
Deb Meyer (16:20.114)
Yeah, that's great. Well, and especially not only giving the financial support, but like you said, that social isolation, really trying to get them in more community partnership with others. both of those pieces just seem integral to helping. All right, so let's talk a little bit about education. I know that's one of the organization's five strategic pillars.
and you guys have provided millions in scholarships worldwide. Can you speak to education, especially for girls and young women, how that really changes the trajectory of the family or the community?
Deborah Johns (16:47.79)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (17:00.64)
Yes, absolutely.
So education, like you mentioned, is one of our five strategic pillars, advancing education. And the reason that we prioritize it is because it's one of the most transformational ways to break that generational cycle of poverty. it truly does. It doesn't just break it for the individual, but it really impacts the family level and the entire community as well. And we all know that education opens doors, but it gives young people an
in addition to the education that they're receiving gives young people confidence to be able to believe in themselves and really see a path for it as well too. And I think just that visualizing a path out of poverty can be infinitely powerful in and of itself. And so, you know, that's what education provides. And so, you know, for children, and girls know that it's so much more about than just the learning experience, but it also offers in particular, in student’s structure. It offers them to be friends and it offers them a connection to a wider world, right?
Deb Meyer (18:13.0)
Yeah.
Deborah Johns (18:14.306)
More than anything, it's also giving them an opportunity that can sometimes be a luxury in these communities, right? Gives them an opportunity to really discover what they're passionate about and to see and really come to know what they're capable of. And so the challenge though, is that as kids get older and they become youth and young adults, staying in school can present a lot of challenges, specifically because the cost to afford
tuition, afford school supplies, school fees, things of that nature, you know, continues. And oftentimes, you know, they can feel a sense of pressure to drop out of school to be able to start financially supporting their families immediately. And so our scholarship program basically bridges that gap. It just allows that extra breathing room and it keeps those doors to education open. With women and girls in particular, we know that educated girls directly relates to increased health. We know that educated girls will earn a higher wage. Educated girls are likely to marry young and educated girls in particular has a direct correlation to their children's health and longevity of life as well as their children's education. And so not over prioritizing girls than boys, but really giving them an equal shot in communities where sometimes they don't always have that.
By doing so, we really feel like we are not only investing in their lives, we're investing in their families' lives and then investing in the community as well. And one of the things that we hear too, over and over again, is just immense gratitude from the children and youth in our programs who get to go to school because they recognize the gift that it is and they take it as really a responsibility to not only kind of forge this new path for themselves and for their families, but they really do step into a responsibility of really wanting to bring their entire family with them and continue supporting their family as after they educated since.
Deb Meyer (20:36.776)
Okay, well I'm curious too, just to go down this rabbit hole a little bit. So like on the scholarships themselves, is it going through the end of high school or are we talking about college scholarships potentially? Like what at what age are most of the you know young boys or girls choosing, hey I'm gonna go help my family now and earn a wage rather than go to school? Is it usually like
middle school time or 13, 14, what's typical there?
Deborah Johns (21:10.562)
That's a great question.
So it depends a little bit from community to community, country to country. And so when we talk about, you know, our pillar of education, of advancing education, we're talking about a couple of things. So with Sponsored Friends in particular, one of the requirements for sponsored children is that they are in school. And so as a result in our sponsorship program, all of our all of the sponsored friends, children are in school. And what we're seeing is that the sponsored
Deb Meyer (21:17.17)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (21:42.368)
children in our programs have a higher national average than others in their countries in terms of the number of years that they're completing in school. And so that's through a sponsorship, but then through our scholarship, it's a little bit of a word puzzle, sponsorship and scholarship. But through our scholarship program, we're really talking about post-secondary education. And that extends not just to our sponsored children, but it also extends to other children in their community as well.
Deb Meyer (22:17.134)
Okay, so it's not just about educating from kindergarten to 12th grade, but okay, let's look at these scholarships options beyond that and really empowering not just the sponsored kids, but all kids in the impoverished communities collectively. I love that. That's neat.
Deborah Johns (22:32.479)
Yes. Yes.
Deb Meyer (22:41.372)
Bridge. Yeah, I know with Zuli, she's quite a bit older now and she has some medical conditions, but just with her continuing to maintain an education has been really helpful just seeing the fruits of that too. So yeah, I'm glad to see the mission just continue to live out. All right, so.
Deborah Johns (23:00.056)
That's fantastic.
Deb Meyer (23:09.252)
I really love to get more personal stories because we hear a lot of big numbers in nonprofit work and, you know, unbound in particulars about that deep personal connection. So could you share a story of a child or a family whose life was really changed through sponsorship and how that's evolved over time?
Deborah Johns (23:29.966)
Sure. So I'll share the story of my own sponsored friend. so this one in particular, I've been only sponsoring her for a year and a half. And a little bit of the story behind it is I went to Guatemala and happened to find her little profile that she was waiting for sponsorship. There were just a handful of them. And I noticed that she had our same name, I noticed that her name was Deb.
Deb Meyer (23:41.512)
Okay.
Deborah Johns (23:59.726)
And so I just thought, oh, I got to sponsor her and I did. And as a result, I was actually able to meet her on that trip. So just a couple of days later, I got to meet her in person and I got to know their family situation. And essentially it was a very vulnerable situation. They were living in a home that was just kind of four walls. So it was one room of a home and the family was in a difficult position.
of having to start selling off parts of their home just to be able to put food on the table. And so they didn't have a front door. so I'm meeting this little, beautiful little girl and her older sister and recognizing what an incredibly vulnerable situation it is. And I got a chance to meet her dad and her mom. And what I saw were two people that deeply loved their children.
that deeply wanted what was best for their children and that would do whatever they could to be able to provide for them, support them, and protect them. And they were living in a very vulnerable situation. And what I learned in that moment...
is that they had been waiting to be sponsored for over a year and they had been praying every single day that somebody would just come along and sponsor them. And here, know, kind of in this moment, you know, I see a connection and I think, sponsoring and little do I know that just in that little interaction that I had got to use me as an ability to be an answer to their prayer, that they had been pretty significantly for an entire year.
Deb Meyer (25:40.712)
Mmm.
Deborah Johns (25:44.576)
And so anyways, so I meet this family and it's been a year and a half has passed and I'm getting these updates, right? From their pictures and from their letters. And it has kind of blown me away because within about three months, they're saying, hey, you know, we were able to get a door on the house. And I'm thinking, oh, you know, thank goodness, you know? But then they send another update and oh, you we've got seeds for our gardens and we're excited to see our first harvest and all of this type of stuff.
Deb Meyer (25:58.962)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (26:06.631)
Yeah.
Deb Meyer (26:13.884)
Aww.
Deborah Johns (26:14.56)
It's it's so exciting just to see their progress. Well, so anyways about a few months ago I get this email or this letter from them and they are literally building on a second room to their house So they're so the little groups have their own bedroom and I'm you I mean, it's only been a year and a half and in the back of my mind I'm thinking how was this money going that far? I mean, it's absolutely incredible What I'm seeing is that you know, just this little
Deb Meyer (26:25.212)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (26:30.096)
Wow.
Aww.
Deb Meyer (26:39.973)
Right?
Deborah Johns (26:44.4)
little hand up, you know, they are just off and running with it. And it has been not only it's been incredibly gratifying just to see the progress that they're making in their own lives. But for me, personally, it's been really humbling, just to know that I would have the privilege to get to play just a little role in that. And, you know, one of the things that after that experience, I feel like I can almost guarantee is
Deb Meyer (26:57.106)
Mm-hmm.
Deborah Johns (27:14.32)
that when, you know, maybe it's your listeners, maybe it's anybody who goes to our website and looks around at just different, you know, children or elders who are awaiting sponsorship. What I can guarantee is that many of them have been waiting and hoping for a really long time just that somebody would say yes. And there was nothing, there's nothing special about me or what I did. I was just willing and available and recognizing, you
Deb Meyer (27:42.247)
Yeah.
Deborah Johns (27:44.242)
when we're willing and available to respond to something like that, it is really, it's hard to fathom the impact that it can make in another person's life, in my life included, I'll say that too. And so it's been really rewarding. Thanks for letting me share that story.
Deb Meyer (27:57.628)
Yeah.
Deb Meyer (28:01.232)
that's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. It's, I mean, I've never had the privilege of going and meeting Zulie. I'm hoping maybe in 2026, I'll be taking the excursion there to Guatemala, but I can only imagine just visually seeing that difference of, hey, this is where it was before and here's where the family's at now. That's so gratifying. beautiful.
Deborah Johns (28:04.974)
Thanks.
Deborah Johns (28:16.93)
We have sufficient.
Deborah Johns (28:27.562)
It is. It really, really is.
Deb Meyer (28:31.816)
So one thing I want to highlight too, and again for me like sponsorship is important, but it's also important whatever organization me or my husband support financially, we want to make sure that you know there's prudent financial stewardship of those dollars.
Deborah Johns (28:50.626)
course.
Deb Meyer (28:52.296)
I personally appreciate that Unbound has 90 % of, over 90 % of their expenses going directly to program support. So, you know, if people are cautious about giving or especially if money is really tight right now, how does your organization really ensure that there's transparency and accountability, even long-term effectiveness when delivering these services?
Deborah Johns (29:18.626)
No, that's a great question. And you know, we definitely recognize that there's a lot of need in the world.
There's a lot of organizations that are doing really good things. And when people entrust their resources to us, we really do receive that as a sacred trust. And we do hold ourselves to truly the highest accountability possible for that transparency as a result. So you had mentioned that 90%, approximately 90 % goes to our programs directly where it needs to go. And it's a strong commitment of ours to make sure
that our costs are down as much as possible so as much can go where it needs to go in the first place. so transparency is a really big deal to us. And as a result, we have everything online. So if you go to our website, you'll see we're totally open book. Our IRS filings, our audits, our financial statements, you can see everything there. But then the other thing that I would encourage listeners to is
Deb Meyer (30:03.367)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (30:22.856)
Okay, great.
Deborah Johns (30:26.288)
there's a lot of really great independent charity evaluators. so look up Unbound. We consistently get the highest possible rating. So Charity Navigator, four out of four stars consistently with a perfect score in transparency and accountability. this is a good one. So Charity Watch. We are the only child sponsorship organization to get an A plus rating, their highest standard.
And so just a reflection of the efficiency and effectiveness of our organization. We are rated a top rated nonprofit by great nonprofits and the list kind of goes on, but it's a really important thing to us because ultimately we really want people to feel confident that when they entrust their resources to us that we will be good stewards and really ensure that it's going where it needs to go to make the biggest impact for children, elders and their families.
Deb Meyer (31:27.282)
Great. All right, so I'm sure a lot of families listening to this right now are probably very inspired by this conversation and whether they're looking to sponsor someone or even just support a specific initiative, maybe learn more about the organization. What would you say is the next best step for them to take to get involved and really be advocates for Unbound?
Deborah Johns (31:49.517)
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much for asking. So go to our website. It's unbound.org. There's a lot that you can kind of view and see there. If you're interested in learning a little bit more, I would encourage you to check out our strategic plan that gives a really deep insight into how we're working, what we're doing, our goals for the future. Also our news and stories. You'll see some really beautiful stories about just the transformation that's taking place in our communities around the world.
would like if you're ready to get involved maybe in sponsorship, take a look at our Child and Elder sponsorship. So you can look and see the profiles of kids and elders who are currently awaiting a sponsor and you can on their profiles, learn a bit a little bit more about them. If it's something that you're wanting to engage your family in doing, it can be a really great way just to live out your values as a family and find who you're connecting with. So maybe it is somebody who shares the same age as
Maybe it is somebody who has the same birth date, the same hobbies or interests. But all of that to say, it really does make an incredible difference in the lives of these families and we would love for you to join the Unbound community through sponsorship.
Deb Meyer (33:11.45)
Awesome, great. Well, thank you so much. Any closing thoughts as we tie up today's episode?
Deborah Johns (33:19.086)
Only that I'm excited. I think we should go to Guatemala, Deb. That's my closing comment.
Deb Meyer (33:23.528)
I think we should, too. I just need to get my husband and kids on board. I want to take a family mission trip. So it's not just me benefiting from it.
Deborah Johns (33:30.156)
Yeah, there's a few little details to sort through. Thank you so much for the opportunity. It's an absolute pleasure. And thank you for just being such a faithful supporter to Unbound over the years. We really appreciate it.
Deb Meyer (33:46.642)
Yeah, thank you. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing more about the organization, even just how it's evolved. I know when I first started donating, I think it was strictly for children's support, and now I think they added on elders sponsors since then. So I didn't even know that was a thing until I said, hey, I want to make sure we feature on down for podcast at the time.
Great. Well, thank you again. Yes, for listeners, I hope you guys glean some really valuable wisdom here. We think you should consider supporting Unbound. I'm not getting any kind of financial incentives to promote them; I just think they're really great organization. So, all right. Take care.
Deborah Johns (34:29.781)
Thanks!