In late July, the Voluntaryism in Action team launched our first fundraiser for one of our core causes: Education Initiatives. For this education campaign, we focused on assisting families through the unprecedented difficulties the government created surrounding the COVID-19 debacle. As Frederic Bastiat famously wrote, politicians and unelected bureaucrats didn’t take into account the “unseen” consequences of their hasty and draconian decisions, which disproportionately affected low-income families who weren’t prepared to teach their children at home and who rely on the public school system to provide many school supplies.
VIA was able to raise over $5,000 in direct donations for homeschool and distance-learning supplies for families in need. With these funds, we directly helped 69 students in the United States equip themselves for their educational goals this school year. In addition, we partnered with Kids Compassion Charity in Freetown, Sierra Leone by sending them cryptocurrency to pay for school supplies for local needy children. We are also able to offer our first higher-education grant which will be awarded to the winner and runner-up of our essay contest, which will close on October 31.
This autumn, VIA was awarded a $4,500 grant from the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) to specifically assist the influx of new homeschooling families. The dissemination of this aid is ongoing, and we continue to work with families directly to assess and supply their specific needs. In addition to providing school supplies for homeschoolers, VIA also created resources for families new to homeschooling to help set them up for long-term success.
Even without any kind of crisis to exploit, the government and its associated bureaucrats make decisions all the time that do not take individual difficulties and needs into account. Thanks to our generous donors, VIA was glad to step in and help.