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First Posted: 12/9/2013

Jeremiah Faux learned that some children go hungry and he wanted to do something about it. The 8-year-old with a big smile and a wiggly tooth spent a day at the Banks Student Life Center at Misericordia University raising money to help needy children through Heifer International.

Jeremiah is a second-grader at Allied Services DePaul School in Scranton. He lives on the Misericordia campus with his mom who participates in the Women with Children program there. The program supports single mothers with young children so the mothers can attend college.

Mother Amanda Faux is a health care management major and minor in gerontology.

Jeremiah got the idea when he and his mom attended a hunger dinner on campus and were shown a video about hungry children.

“I was shocked!” Jeremiah said of what he learned from the video. “Lots of kids died.”

Jeremiah’s immediate idea was to box up food and send to children in need but his mom guided him into donating to Heifer International, a program which provides training and livestock to poverty-stricken families.

The livestock given by Heifer International provide income for families in poverty. The program is self-sustaining. For each animal received, families agree to pass on the offspring of that animal to another person in need. In that act, families become the cycle of positive change. According to Heifer International, there are some places where 22 generations of Heifer animals can be traced.

Jeremiah’s favorite subject is math and he had drawn a poster with a big thermometer with his goal amount and colored it in as the day progressed. His goal was to raise $850 so that he could buy a camel.

Heifer International provides a scale of gift donations. A gift of $20 will provide chicks, ducklings or goslings to a person in need but a camel carries a big price tag.

Why did Jeremiah choose a camel? “Camels give milk. They give transportation,” he said.

Jeremiah worries about people who live in the desert. “They don’t have much food where they live.”

Katherine Pohlidal, director of the Women with Children program at Misericordia University, was at the start of Jeremiah’s fundraising day to give support.

“The campus community is aware and completely supportive,” she said. “It goes along with our charisms here.”

Charisms are graces given to individuals for the good of others. The four charisms of Misericordia are mercy, service, justice and hospitality.

Pohlidal said the children in the Women with Children program experience a ripple effect. “We encourage our moms to perform community service every semester. And the kids are influenced by this and want to help and give back as well.”

Jeremiah took a day off of school to raise money because his mom felt he would learn from the community service.

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By the end of the day, Jeremiah had raised $291.70, not enough to buy a camel but enough to fund livestock projects for families in need.

While it was far from his goal, his mom said he was pleased with the result.

“I feel like I’m going to cry right now; I can’t believe I raised all of this money,” Jeremiah said.