Postcards of Hope

The Challenges

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anxiety and depression prevalence increased by 25% globally during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although quarantine and social distancing measures were effective in mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 virus, they put a heavy burden on people's mental health by limiting their ability to socialize. Global lockdowns introduced increased feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and even depression which in turn increased vulnerability towards negative health behaviors and outcomes.

At the same time, strict government lockdowns which forced businesses to close and people to stay home posed a serious threat to people living beneath the poverty line who earned from mouth-to-hand on a daily basis. In Manila, Philippines, an estimated 3 million people were homeless before the pandemic, with employment as the main cause for homelessness.
COVID-19 lockdown measures added to that number.

“We won’t die from Covid-19 because we’ll die from hunger.”

Sources:

Kupcova I, Danisovic L, Klein M, Harsanyi S. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, anxiety, and depression. BMC Psychol. 2023 Apr 11;11(1):108. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01130-5. PMID: 37041568; PMCID: PMC10088605.

Allen, J., Darlington, O., Hughes, K. et al. The public health impact of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Public Health 22, 1654 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14055-2

Manila's newly homeless tell stories of survival in lockdown (The Guardian, 2021)

The Creative Solution

To deal with her feelings of anxiety and depression over the state of the world, SendToGive founder Jo Bautista started painting images of the coronavirus molecule but with an eye at the center - a symbol for the need for empathy to overcome large, global challenges.

She turned these paintings into postcards, and then built a website where people could send a physical postcard without having to visit a mailbox. They simply had to visit the SendToGive website, write the address and note for the sender, and make the payment. The funds raised from the postcards were used to feed them homeless, provide grocery packs to farmers, and even cover the education stipend for a young boy named Ken.

This project is where SendToGive got its name where you could Send a postcard To Give hope.

The Social Impact

22

countries where SendToGive postcards were sent

1

boy provided with an education stipend

78

primary and secondary level students