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Heart to Heart’sExclusive Newsletter

:: Summer 2011 ::

C NNECT [10.2011]

C NNECT20 YEARS IN THE MAKINGAndre T. Butler, CEO

2012 CARE KIT CHALLENGE

CREATIVE PHILANTHROPY: Second Graders Get the Point

VOLUNTEER VOICES: Driven to Serve

TheMobilization Force

The official newsletter of Heart to Heart International | Spring 2012

www.hearttoheart.org

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At Heart to Heart, we’re trying to be as efficient as possible with your charitable dollars (while also working to reduce our carbon footprint) in the following ways:

We’re pushing more of our content to our website (www.hearttoheart.org), blog and social-media sites. We’re also communicating more by email.

Help us “go green” by signing up for our digital newsletter on the Heart to Heart website. Starting this fall, it will have interactive features such as videos, slideshows and living maps. You can also share your email address with us by sending it in the enclosed envelope, along with your donation.

THANK YOU!

GOING GREEN

On May 22, we will observe a special anniversary at Heart to Heart: 20 years of connecting people and resources to a world in need. (We’ll have a larger celebration later this year. Stay tuned for more details.)

Heart to Heart International started as a courageous desire to do something bigger than anyone or any group could do alone, resulting in the Heart to Heart Airlift to Moscow, Russia in 1992.

The same guiding principles—meeting a real need, leveraging partnerships for greater results, mobilizing volunteers to serve throughout the process, and doing everything with quality and efficiency—that navigated our founder, Dr. Gary Morsch, still light the way for today’s Heart to Heart.

My role as CEO is to inspire our staff and volunteers to keep putting those values into action.

One way we’re doing that is by organizing a massive hands-on project that will literally stretch across America and impact 100,000 people around the world. We’re calling it our 2012 Care Kit Challenge (Page 3) and it’s a meaningful way to help people in need.

We show you several creative ways that donors are supporting our cause and ways you can get involved on Pages 4-5.

Our cover story (Pages 6-7) gives you an inside look at how our programs impact lives.

In our Humanitarian Update section (Pages 8-9), we highlight several of our programs and relief efforts to show you how your support is making a difference.

We saved the best for last on Pages 10-11, where we showcase our volunteers and ways that you can serve with Heart to Heart.

Please remember to fill out the enclosed information card, so we know how best to communicate with you in the future. Thanks in advance for supporting us during the past 20 years. The next 20 are sure to be even more exciting!

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF CONNECTING YOU TO A WORLD IN NEED...

TODAY’S HEART TO HEART:

20 YEARS IN THE MAKING

André T Butler, CEO

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the2012CARE KIT CHALLENGEFor the past 20 years, Heart to Heart has been offering supporters simple ways to improve global health. One of the most popular ways people get involved in our mission is through our Care Kit program.

The Heart to Heart Care Kit contains basic hygiene items (see list of contents) for people in need across America and around the world. The Care Kit is often the first line of defense against the spread of germs and disease for people in crowded shelters or evacuation centers. Since January 2010, Heart to Heart has delivered 105,000 Care Kits to underserved people in 20 countries, including the U.S.

For our 20-year anniversary, Heart to Heart opted not to throw a big bash; instead, we decided to do something that mobilized people from coast to coast in an effort to create a healthier world. It had to be something that was both hands-on and fun, something that a lot people (or just a few) could do anywhere and everywhere, while adding value to the donor and recipient alike.

So we decided to create the world’s longest assembly line with a year-long Care Kit campaign. But that wasn’t good enough.

Andre T. Butler, Heart to Heart’s CEO, also wanted it to be bold. “I told the staff that we needed to set a high goal, because demands for our humanitarian services have never been greater,” he said.

The goal: 100,000 Care Kits between May and November.

We have never assembled that many Care Kits in a single year, let alone six months. Not even close. But you can make it happen—and help 100,000 people in need around the world. Here’s how:

•SponsoraCareKitfor$10andwewillrecruitvolunteerstoassembleitforyou.AcaseofCareKitsis$125andapalletofCareKitsis$3,750.

•DonatebulkquantitiesofhygieneitemsforCareKitassembly (please read the list of contents carefully).

•AssembletheCareKitsyourselfandsendthem(and$2per kit to cover distribution costs) to Heart to Heart at 1021 Pacific Ave., Kansas City, KS 66102.

Find out who else is accepting the 2012 Care Kit Challenge and how you can get more people involved by visiting our website at www.hearttoheart.org.

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STUDENTS GET THE POINT

PHONING IT IN

LAWYERS DON DENIM

Second graders at an elementary school in Overland Park, KS hadn’t decided on the beneficiary, but with energy that only children possess, they set out to raise money by selling pencils for 25-cents each to fellow students during the course of a school year. After collecting $500, they held their “annual shareholders meeting” and determined Heart to Heart International should benefit from their actions.

Few things are more annoying than a funky ringtone in the middle of a church service. Instead of advising his parishioners to turn off their phones, a local pastor asked his congregation to pull out their phones and put them to good use. As he explained the importance of Heart to Heart’s work, fingers were soon tapping and mobile donations were flying. In a matter of moments, the congregation raised $3,100 for Heart to Heart!

At most law firms, jeans are not the uniform of the day; however, one Kansas City firm gave its employees that option as a way to raise money for Heart to Heart International. A simple email to all 12 of the firm’s national offices encouraged employees to wear jeans to work on a certain Friday, for a small donation of $5 each. The Denim Day netted nearly $1,000 for Heart to Heart.

TEXT “HEART” TO 27722TO MAKE A $10 DONATION VIA YOUR MOBILE PHONE(Message and data rates may apply. Details at mgive.com/a)

CREATIVE PHILANTHROPYGOT AN IDEA? SHARE IT! If you have done something creative or out of the ordinary to raise support for Heart to Heart, tell us about it. We may publish it in a future newsletter. Email your story to info@hearttoheart.org.

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CREATIVE PHILANTHROPYFor many years, Heart to Heart has been providing a new backpack full of essential school supplies to thousands of underserved students in Kansas City, so they had the essential tools to succeed academically. In 2011, we hit a high-water mark in our efforts: 18,000+ students received a new backpack. Much of the growth last year was due to a new partnership with the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools—with whom we distributed backpacks to every elementary and preschool student in the district.

This year, we are once again partnering with the Kansas City Public Schools. But we’re taking it a step further helping 10,000 students not only at the start of the school year, but also all year long through support of a Family Store that provides school supplies, hygiene products and other necessities for students and their families free of charge.

You can help us bring smiles to school children all year. Here’s how:

•SponsoraHearttoHeartbackpack(whichincludesaCareKit)for$20andwe’ll recruit volunteers to assemble it. A classroom of backpacks is $500 and a typical school is $10,000.

•Donatebulkschoolsupplies,hygieneproductsorotheritems for the Family Store.

Spring weather has arrived in the Midwest, and it’s time take your golf game to the next level. Straighten out your drives and get your short game in order, because the 2012 Ewing M. Kauffman Golf Classic is around the corner. The event benefits Heart to Heart’s local health initiatives and hasraisedmorethan$1millionsinceitsinception.

WHAT: 2012 Ewing M. Kauffman Golf Classic [Generously presented by the Muriel

McBrien Kauffman Foundation]

WHEN: Monday, September 17. Registration begins at 11 a.m.

WHERE: Oakwood Country Club in Kansas City, MO

WHY: Improving health among Kansas City’s underserved populations

HOW: Sign up your foursome or sponsor the event by going online at www.hearttoheart.org or by calling us at 913-764-5200.

DUST OFF YOUR CLUBS FOR A GREAT CAUSE

BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO HEALTH

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THE MOBILIZATION FORCE

In 1992, Dr. Gary Morsch and a handful of volunteers set out to do the impossible by organizing an airlift of humanitarian aid to Russia as Communism was crumbling throughout the former Soviet Union. They mobilized their Rotary network to connect people and resources to a world in need. Hundreds of volunteers rallied corporate partners and government contacts to support the airlift. On May 22, 1992, an Air Force C-5A cargo plane filled with 75 tons of medical aid touched down in Moscow. The life-saving aid was distributed to 28 local hospitals. At the time, it was the largest private airlift in U.S. history.

Over the past 20 years, we have embraced our identity as mobilizers and success has always followed. Today, Heart to Heart International is recognized as one of the most efficient nonprofits in America (ranked #15 by Forbes.com).

We are ranked as one of the 400 largest charities in the U.S. (#237 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy). Our Care Kit has been listed as one of the five

best ways to help disaster survivors (“Impact Your World” at CNN.com).

We didn’t make any of that happen by ourselves; these accolades were made possible through our mobilization force—a highly efficient network of global

donors, partners and volunteers who are helping us move communities from survivability toward sustainability.

In 2011, we formalized the Heart to Heart Mobilization Model (see Figure 1). It synthesizes everything we have been doing over the past 20 years and help guide our humanitarian response—whether we were addressing an ongoing health concern or leading a medical-relief effort in a disaster zone.

Over the past 20 years, we have embraced our identity as mobilizers and success has always followed.

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LOCAL PARTNERS ARE KEYHeart to Heart works with local partners that are firmly established in communities we’re serving. Local partners know the people and the factors affecting healthcare. Their local networks are often poised to accelerate our work and move the community to the path of sustainability much faster than we could alone.

People often ask why we don’t bypass the local partners and do everything ourselves. Our answer is that we aren’t wired that way. Local partners are the primary implementers. Our job is to empower them by delivering targeted resources, providing technical assistance and deploying volunteer support that ultimately leads to better community health. Plus, working with local partners doesn’t require a large national or global infrastructure; instead, we get the job done right with a lean staff and low overhead.

WHAT WE BRING TO THE TABLEBecause Heart to Heart has a deep bench of volunteers and a diverse funding base, we are flexible enough to tailor our humanitarian response to help address health concerns through our local partners. We bring the following competencies to the table:

•Access to essential medicines: We have established strong partnerships with companies who annually donate $70million-$80millionworthoflife-savingmedicines,supplies and diagnostic instruments—which support our global-health initiatives in 50+ countries, including the U.S. Our logistics systems are strengthened through a leading partnership with FedEx, which provides free shipping of our humanitarian cargo.

•Building local healthcare capacity: We work with medical associations and academic centers to advance the learning base of local physicians, nurses, mid-level providers and community health workers, so they in turn can provide the best care possible to their patients.

•Mobile health outreach: We connect underserved families and individuals to affordable healthcare options in the United States through community health events and child immunization programs using our mobile clinics and medical volunteers.

•Disaster readiness and response: We are in a constant state of disaster readiness, because we are honing the above competencies through our ongoing programs. When disasters strike, we accelerate and intensify our operations to meet the most pressing needs anywhere in the world.

A VAST RESOURCE NETWORKWhen you support Heart to Heart, you are helping us reach as far as possible in addressing millions of underserved people around the world. We are able to accomplish all of the above activities with the support from:

•CompanieslikeBD,whosefunding,in-kindsupportandvolunteer engagement are helping us establish protocols for a national laboratory system in Haiti

•PartnersliketheAmericanJewishJointDistributionCommittee, which is helping respond with targeted aid in times of disaster.

•AcademiccentersliketheUniversityofKansasMedicalCenter, which is working with us to increase access to basic medical services and build healthcare capacity through local and global health initiatives.

Please consider supporting our ongoing work with a generous donation. Your gift will ensure that underserved people across America and around the world have better access to essential healthcare services and a brighter future.

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Figure 1: Mobilization Model

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MAKING PROGRESSThe 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 turned the world upside-down for more than 2.5 million people. Relief efforts were complicated by a national outbreak of cholera less than six months later. Despite these challenges, Heart to Heart has been there to help the Haitian people recover. Over the past two years, Heart to Heart has led a quality medical response by working with local partners to develop healthcare capacity in several affected regions.

You can read all about it in our Two-Year Haiti Progress Report online at www.hearttoheart.org. If you would like a hard copy mailed to you, please call us at 913-764-5200.

HAITITwo years after a devastating earthquake, Haiti is still recovering. Heart to Heart is helping rebuild a fragile healthcare system.

In these two years, Heart to Heart established a long-term presence in Haiti to provide healthcare to a largely underserved population reeling from the quake’s devastation. In 2011, nearly 200 volunteers staffed our partner clinics providing aid to patients in areas both urban and rural.

HHI is now dedicated to moving communities toward sustainability. Employing our Mobilization Model, HHI is strengthening healthcare capacity at the community level, by working with local partners with technical expertise to provide product and direct patient care.

JOPLINMay 2011 saw the most catastrophic single tornadoinmorethan50yearsstrikeJoplin,Missouri. We responded within hours of the EF-5 twister, rapidly delivering medical aid to a shell-shocked community. In the days to follow, we used the Mobile MedicalUnitasourbaseofoperationinJoplin,providing first aid and immunizations to more than 5,000 residents and volunteers as the clean-up began. We also committed to a long-termpartnershipwiththeJoplinCommunityClinic. We are helping to build local capacity by providing healthcare to those who remain in need inJoplin.

UNITED STATESHeart to Heart is committed not to just improving health globally, but closer to home as well. We have continued to work with local community groups, colleges, and domestic violence shelters to provide health and vision screenings to a broad, underserved population.

In addition, we are working with the University of Kansas Medical Center to make essential health services more accessible for Kansas City children from refugee populations. Utilizing the Mobile Medical Unit and volunteer medical staff, we seek to provide immunizations to children under the age of 5 and raise their level of health to meet the standards of their new hometown.

HUMANITARIAN UPDATES

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United States of America

Haiti

Mexico

DominicanRepublic

Ghana

Nigeria

Cameroon

Sudan

Ethiopia

Kenya

Uganda

Pakistan

India

Nepal

Burma Cambodia

Papua New Guinea

Israel

Turkey

Afghanistan

Uzbekistan

Ukraine

Kyrgyzstan

Rwanda

Malawi

Swaziland

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Jamaica

Honduras

Belize

Guatemala

El Salvador

NicaraguaPanama

Ecuador

Peru

Volunteers

Ready Relief Boxes

Medical Aid

Care Kits

Heart to Heart’s Global Reach

GLOBAL IMPACT Your support of Heart to Heart International helped communities move from survivability to sustainability in the following countries over the past six months. Whether it was delivering medical aid to a rural clinic, responding to disasters, or volunteering to improve health, your generosity continues to impact millions of lives through Heart to Heart’s global work:

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DRIVEN TO SERVEGrowing up on a farm in western Kansas, Warren Okeson remembers helping his church create care packages of bandages to be sent to Africa. That spirit of helping others sticks with him to this day.

Warren says he had kept an eye on Heart to Heart International for a few years and determined he wanted to be part of it. Upon retirement from a local phone company, Warren signed up. “Volunteering for Heart to Heart has been a dream come true,” he says.

Warren began volunteering at the Global Distribution Center (GDC) at a very busy time in mid-2007. A tornado had nearly swept Greensburg, KS off the map and Warren found himself working daily at our GDC, handling donations of product that came pouring in bound for those in need in central Kansas.

Not long after, Warren says he was asked to ride along on a trip to Chicago on the Mobile Medical Unit (MMU). Little did he realize, as he recalls now, “It was my driving test!”

From there Warren became our Volunteer Fleet Manager and primary driver of the MMU, a rolling Emergency Room. He’s logged more than 25,000 miles at the wheel and traversed the

U.S., taking the MMU to health fairs, conferences and natural disasters from San Francisco to Orlando and from Houston to Fargo, ND.

In April 2011 Warren drove to tornado-ravaged Alabama. “I thought I was mentally prepared for Alabama,” he says. “Driving in, cresting a hill… the whole town was wiped out. Almost took my breath away.” It’s a memory seared in Warren’s mind, but what really moves his heart is the idea that he is there to serve.

“When you realize you’re there to help, it’s humbling,” Warren says. And once over the shock of what has happened, he says there’s no waiting around, there’s work to be done, preparing the MMU for the en route volunteer medical staff.

Warren says the volunteer spirit he sees all around inspires him. His work for Heart to Heart, he says, takes him back to his roots of community service in the farm country of western Kansas. As Warren tells it, when he retired, “I didn’t want to sit and do nothing. I wanted to do something interesting and worthwhile.”

“And I have a hobby my wife can’t complain about.”

PURSUING A DREAMToluwalase Ajayi has always wanted to practice medicine overseas. A volunteer trip to work in a Heart to Heart partner clinic in Haiti reaffirmed that choice.

Lase (L’shay), as she’s known, moved to the U.S. with her family from Nigeria when she was a child. After a short time in New York, the family moved to Lawrence, KS. Lase was eight years old. And even from that young age, Lase says she knew she would one day be a doctor.

Now she’s in her last year of residency as a pediatrician at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In 2011, knowing international medicine was her dream, a faculty member suggested she go with Heart to Heart to volunteer in Haiti.

“It was an amazing, eye-opening experience,” says Lase. “We’d thought we’d seen poverty, like you know what to expect. But going there and being the doctor…was daunting.” But the trip was rewarding as well and left her with a feeling of pride.Lase says of treating people, some who had never seen a doctor before, watching as they lined up, many wearing their finest clothes, “they had such faith in you, you wanted to do right by them.”

Her volunteer work in Haiti with Heart to Heart was life-changing, but she says she’s not done. “I plan to go back.”

VOLUNTEER VOICES

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VOLUNTEERING GLOBALLY IN 2012YEAR-ROUNDVolunteer for seven (7) or more days in Haiti, serving at our Mobilization Center or in partner clinics in three parts of the country.

MAY 1-OCTOBER 27Help us assemble personal hygiene kits as part of our2012CareKitChallenge.JoinusonOct.26-27inKansas City as we attempt to assemble 20,000 kits.

JULY 16-27Help us assemble backpacks for elementary students of the Kansas City, MO Public Schools. See Page 5 for more details.

SEPTEMBER 20-30Jointhedelegationofour“anniversaryairlift”toMoldova in the former Soviet Union.

ANNIVERSARY AIRLIFTTwenty years ago, Heart to Heart started with an airlift from the heart of America to the heart of Russia. The Heart to Heart Airlift set in motion a world-class organization that today is helping millions of people gain access to a healthier life.

This fall, we are organizing an “anniversary airlift” to Moldova, commemorating our first project to the former Soviet Union. We are recruiting volunteers to travel with us, Sept. 20-30, to provide medicines and a healing hand to the people of this underserved region.

Volunteers will help deliver medical aid to hospitals that serve the poor, participate in medical-education activities in the capital of Chisinau and in rural areas, and renovate and support two palliative-care facilities.

Supported through a grant from the U.S. Department of State, this “anniversary airlift” promises to be a life-changing experience for everyone involved.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining the airlift delegation, please call us at 913-764-5200 or email us at moldova@hearttoheart.org.

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401 S. Clairborne, Suite 302Olathe, KS 66062

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MAY 22Heart to Heart Founders Day; Unity Walk in Joplin, MO (Info on page 8)

MAY 24Kick-off of summer concert series with Last Chance Flight (see website for more details)

SEPT. 17Ewing M. Kauffman Golf Classic at Oakwood Country Club in Kansas City, MO (Details on Page 5)

OCT. 2620-year celebration event in Kansas City (see website for more details)

OCT. 26-27The World’s Longest Assembly Line – assembling 20,000 Care Kits for people in need (Page 3)

UPCOMING EVENTS

I N S P I R E D B Y2 0 Y E A R S O F C O N N E C T I N G YOU TO A WORLD IN NEED

www.hearttoheart.org