This year’s Food for Thought campaign is coming to a close and we’ve been blown away by people’s creativity and determination to make a difference. From drinking nothing but water for a month in ‘H20nly’ challenges to ‘bake-mails’ (hand-delivered packages filled with baked goods), Food for Thought events across the country have raised much-needed funds to equip community health leaders in India with life-saving knowledge in health, hygiene, nutrition and sanitation.

One of these health leaders is Nisha (pictured below left). A mother-of-three from a small village in the south of Bihar – India's poorest state – she used a small loan to purchase a buffalo and start producing milk. The income she earned meant she was able to send her children to school and build an extra room in her small house. But Nisha and her family kept getting sick, meaning that her children often had to miss days at school.

Thanks to the support of someone like you, Nisha was able to train as a community health leader. She learnt why it was important to build a toilet in her home and not practice open defecation, why using sanitary napkins instead of leaves or rags meant she and her daughter would stop getting urinary tract infections and how cooking nutritious meals would help her family stay healthy. Since she trained as a health leader she has educated hundreds of families on basic health principles, illness prevention and nutrition and has even helped 200 families build toilets in their homes. The funds raised through this year’s Food for Thought campaign will go towards educating more health leaders who, like Nisha, will help change the lives of thousands in their communities.

So far this year’s Food for Thought campaign has raised $41,367, meaning thousands of lives can be transformed. Want to host your own fundraiser? Head over to our Start a Fundraiser section now.