Vast regions of India and Africa are still reeling under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as normalcy starts to return, thousands of workers have been displaced with no jobs to return to. Government officials in these regions are asking for help.
Indian Revenue Officer Susheela says that residents of many villages have become dependent on donated goats for milk since lockdowns commenced. “Apart from government support, some NGOs have partnered with Math Goats to distribute a regular supply of goats to those in need” she adds. This story isn’t unique to India, Oxfam estimates that since the start of the COVID pandemic, nearly 100M people have been forced into extreme poverty and hunger.
If you haven’t heard of it, MathGoats.org (formerly MathGoats.com) is an organization that donates goats to world hunger causes when users answer math questions correctly. When a user answers questions, they see ads from Math Goats’ sponsors. The sponsors then pay for the goat donations.
In an earlier, interview with Yahoo, site founders Ben Willox, and Michael Klein mentioned that their inspiration for the website came from a WFP article detailing the immense impact one goat can have on a hungry family. Since 2018, Math Goats has helped over ~13K families and is expected to almost double their donations in 2021. The founders have been given multiple awards for their effort, including IE20 (Excellence in Impact Entrepreneurship) from Yahoo.
According to Klein, partnerships with educational institutions such as schools have been a driving factor behind pandemic growth. Math Goats offers custom websites that are tailored to each institutions’ needs. “We’ve seen students’ math skills in everything from multiplication to calculus increase markedly” says Klein.
If this story has left you wondering how to get involved, brush up your math skills, head over to www.mathgoats.org, and do your part in ending world hunger.
