The parents of two children who got help for surgeries on the Chango crowdfunding app used this year’s Valentine’s Day to say ‘thank you’ to IT Consortium, owners of the platform.
One of the children, whose parents pleaded anonymity, needed a Cochlear Implant Surgery while the other, Nelson Aboatey, needed a Leg Surgery because his leg has been badly damaged by a motorbike and that had kept him out of school for seven years.
The Speech and Hearing Centre of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital set up a public fundraiser account on Chango for one of the kids while Focos Orthopaedic Hospital set up an account for the other.
So, all moneys donated for the two kids went directly into the respective accounts of the two hospitals in the names of the children.
In total, Chango raised a little above GH¢70,000 for the two kids within a space of about four weeks, and the good news is that both have gone through successful surgeries and are doing well.
Mother of Nelson said that the boy is now in school, adding: “He started class 1 at age nine, but the school quickly jumped him to class 2 because of his impressive academic performance”.
According to the mother, her son used to be a very sad boy because he could not attend school, but now he is a happy and bubbly boy thanks to the support from Chango.
CEO of IT Consortium, Romeo Bugyei, also used the opportunity to explain that unlike other crowdfunding platform, Chango is country specific, so all the money raised for a project stays in the country where the account for that project was set up, and all settlements are done locally, which then makes it cheaper.
He said currently, Chango does not apply any settlement fees, but that will kick in sometime in the future. One other thing that makes Chango unique is its fraud-proof feature.
Romeo Bugyei explained that no one individual can jump on Chango and start a fundraiser. One needs a credible institution to open the fundraiser on their behalf and all moneys realised on Chango are paid to that recognised institution, and not to the individual.
Chango can also be used by families, school groups, church groups, associations, worker groups and others around the world to raise funds for projects or for monthly dues, and there are clear protocols for transparency and accountability when it comes to cashing out money from such accounts.
He therefore urged various groups, institutions, families and others to download the Chango App from both the Google Play and Apple Stores, sign up and start their crowdfunding accounts.
Currently 12,898 people have signed on to Chango; there are 67 public accounts and 3,174 private accounts. In total, Chango has been used to raise about GH¢5.76million, out of which a campaign called Save a Heart – meant to raise one million people to donate at least GH¢10/month to fund free hole in heart surgeries for kids – has raised about GH¢79,000 so far.
