The humanitarian organisation ADRA Czech Republic presents a new and unique donation project over the Internet. It goes by the name eDonation and its goal is for each person to choose themselves the cause they want to contribute to and how much. On the web, they can find out how their money is actually used. By clicking on the Internet site www.edonation.cz, anyone can support some of the development projects which ADRA implements. For example, you can buy bricks to build a school in India, seeds for farmers in Mongolia or pots for the kitchen of a Uzbek sanatorium for children.

Since 1992, when ADRA started its activities in the Czech Republic, it has collected around half a million Czech crowns and has been distributing that money for humanitarian and developmental causes. ADRA's principle is to help people in need so that they take control of their own lives and can use the resources available to them. The most extensive help ADRA has offered was to south-eastern Asia, devastated by a tsunami in 2004. In Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and India, ADRA has carried out twenty projects to provide immediate relief to the affected people, as well as long-term developmental assistance. To help the victims of the tsunami, ADRA has popularised a new form of donating - donor SMS, or DMS. ADRA has received 1,5 million DMSs and collected over 50 million crowns.

eDonation, our newest fundraising activity, reaches out especially to those who want to support a good cause in a specific and direct way. "The eDonation project was born from the belief that people and companies want to know or find out by themselves how their resources will be employed. We direct them to our Internet sites with ongoing developmental projects. People choose the projects they want to contribute to," explained Martina Součková, coordinator of foreign projects, who helped midwife eDonation.

The first project for which ADRA is raising funds is the construction of school classes in the Indian province of Nellore. With one click, people can contribute, for instance, to the purchase of construction material, windows, boards or other school supplies which pupils will use in the class. Other projects which you can contribute to are the support to farmers in Mongolia and the construction of a kitchen in a Uzbek sanatorium for children. "We don't really know whether this eDonation project will be successful. But my colleagues and I believe that it will appeal especially to those who understand that developmental help can improve living condition in the long run because it helps people stand on their own feet," said ADRA's executive director Jan Bárta. He also highlighted that people do not contribute to a project as such, but to a specific initiative within the project. Everyone can decide to what exactly they will be contributing and they now know where their money is going.