Thanks for reading this and giving us the opportunity to share a glimpse of who we are and our vision for One Day’s Wages.

We’re an “average family.” We live in Seattle. We fell in love and married in 1997 and have three kids. We’re neither poor nor rich. We’re simply a middle class family with privilege because we have so many opportunities that many in the world do not have.

We’ve always known of the disparity in the world; always knew the statistics.  In fact, we’ve memorized them and know the statistics by heart. But it was traveling to a few places and seeing with our own eyes the faces, stories, children, and families behind the numbers that disrupted our lives. It was seeing organizations and women, men, and children doing amazing and arduous work to uplift themselves out of poverty–if only given respect, dignity, and opportunities. It’s by far more complex but it’s also very simple:

It shouldn’t be this way and doesn’t have to be this way. We have the capacity to end extreme global poverty.

These are some of the reasons that compelled to make some life decisions and start One Day’s Wages. We made a decision to donate our 2009 income ($68,000) to the cause of fighting extreme global poverty. That decision was made through three years of saving, simplifying our lives, and selling off things we didn’t need. But we didn’t want to stop there. We also wanted to invite our family, friends, and the rest of the world to consider donating just their “one day’s wages” and be part of this global grassroots movement – and then to renew that pledge monthly, quarterly, or at least yearly.

While we’ve received our share of questions and criticisms, we decided to make our donation public, not because we wanted attention or pats on our back, but to let people know that

we are not asking others to do something we aren’t willing to do ourselves.

Money isn’t the solution–at least not by itself. The greatest resources are people. Our voices matter. Our donations do make an impact when invested properly through organizations that are transparent, efficient, and strategic in not creating dependency but rather, creating opportunities and empowerment. Our pledge is that 100% of all your donations (minus credit card fees) go directly to projects and partnerships doing amazing work to fight global poverty. 

Our goal is not to re-invent the wheel. There are some incredible organizations and individuals doing amazing work; our goal is to partner and collaborate. We are certainly not the first and thankfully, we are not the last to care about these issues.

Thanks for inspiring us and joining the movement of One Day’s Wages.

With gratitude,

Eugene & Minhee Cho

   

Check out Eugene’s two books:
Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian’s Guide to Engaging Politics (2020)
Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World Than Actually Changing the World? (2014)