An 11-year-old's $5

How neighboring turns all-we-have into abundance.

Y’all, I am simply blown away at how you have neighbored my team. In this week’s Neighbor Tuesday, I shared (a bit hesitantly) that my team had finally been hit by the recent DOGE changes to NIH. And, oh boy, did you all come out strong in neighboring when I asked for some help! The FIRST donation was from a Lutheran church in Michigan that I spoke at a few months ago. They gathered up money after my talk and sent a check. (Hi, Trinity!).

Then, one of the first donations to come in after that was for $5. And, the sender was “An 11-year-old”. Y’all, I lost all of my non-waterproof-mascara when I saw it. Some sweet 11-year-old sent in $5. Where did that kid live? Did a parent talk about my team in Tanzania, and the 11-year-old decided to step in? What was in that sweet little heart to make a tween do that? I don’t know any of those details except what was in the heart of that kid. Neighboring.

And, that’s what was in the heart of 122 others who donated too. This week, my email inbox has been pinging, pinging, pinging with notifications that a donation has been made. 90 of the donations were made within 12 hours - so that day was like a joy-bomb of hope. I usually have my notifications turned off on my phone (except for when my family calls). But, I turned it on LOUD on Tuesday. Because you all were showing up in force - as neighbors - to my team and me. I just don’t know how to express what it felt like. It was joy and hope, you bet! But, it was also something deeper that made me cry most of the day. It was neighboring. ‘Neighboring’ as a verb instead of just a noun. It was collective neighboring. To my team. It was a strong resistance against selfishness and unfairness and injustice towards collective solidarity. It was joy, yes. But more than that, it was a firm ‘No’ to injustice. I don’t think I can find enough words to say ‘thank you’.

Except to tell you that the ~$21k that came in will keep most of the team in Tanzania afloat for 9 months. And, helping children with cancer at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania will continue.

I’m simply gobsmacked. Not at the amount (although I certainly am at that!). But, that we got there by $25 here and $50 there. Some donated $10 while others did $100 or over $1,000. But most were in the smaller amounts. Oh boy, though, friends. Those add up. I know money is so tight for many, many families right now with inflation, tariffs, lost jobs, etc. LOTS of you who follow me have lost jobs or are losing their teams because of DOGE NIH cuts. So, the “smaller” donations are not actually small at all. But, rather they are made in solidarity and neighboring.

In other words, $5 is more than enough because neighboring changes that into abundance.

Welp, here goes the tears again. I’m just so thankful. There are so many people affected by administration’s/DOGE cuts here in the US and abroad that need our help. This week has been tough, on top of the other tough weeks, and I’ll write about that in this coming Neighbor Tuesday. But for now, I want to tell you that $5 from an 11-year-old (and all the other neighboring donations from you all) this week fought against the despair. Neighboring is magic like that, isn’t it? It can push back against a reality that looks like it’s un-push-backable. And, make it anew. Neighboring helps make our ‘all-we-have’ into abundance when we do this together. For that, I am so grateful.

In solidarity,

Emily

PS: If you want to still donate, you can here! We set up a fund through Duke so all donations are tax-deductible.

Or you can donate with a check or QCD:

If sending a check, please make the check payable to Duke University, but include “Emily Smith - Global Children's Cancer Fund - 391001207” on the memo line or in an included note. You can send the check to:

Duke Children's Development (Duke Children's Hospital)

300 W. Morgan Street, Suite 1000

Durham, NC 27701

If donating via QCD, Duke’s tax EIN is 56-0532129.

For any questions, you can email globalhealth.giving@duke.edu and emily.smith1@duke.edu and we can help get your donation to the right place.

PSS: I also know that many of you mentioned you can’t donate right now, and I totally get that! Neighboring is sometimes donating, but most of the time it is just living life with others in a way that reflects dignity. We can do that through love, action, and standing with others in times when we can’t donate. So, thank you for those of you doing that too!