Sometimes if you want to find a hero, you need look no further than your own back yard.

Murphy’s Corporate Housing Associates is always looking for ways to give back to the communities we serve. In this case, the result was brought to us by one of our own employees.

While reviewing his feed on LinkedIn, Jamie Maslar, MCHA’s Global Account Executive, viewed a video from Susan Marie Sesay, founder of Save the Young Girls Foundation Orphanage. The foundation is dedicated to the education, wellbeing, and empowerment of young girls. He reached out to her and during the next six (6) months of following and communicating with Susan, he learned about her plight to save abandoned and homeless girls. As the father of a teenage boy, this touched him and that is when he decided to take action!

Jamie contacted Ben Cross, host of Love + Relo, a respected broadcast catering to the global mobility industry to pitch his idea of hosting a fundraiser for Save the Young Girls Foundation Orphanage. Once given the green light, Jamie proceeded to organize the day’s event by:

• Inviting global mobility leaders as guests
• Setting the goals and purpose of use for the funds raised
• Ensuring a GoFundMe page was created
• Promoting the event through social media, email blasts, and creating a LinkedIn chat line or group chat for Save the Young Girls Foundation Orphanage
• Co-hosting the event with Ben

The fundraiser was broadcast live on LinkedIn and Facebook on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, at 4:00 PM EST. Links of the video were later re-posted on social media channels and the GoFundMe page was kept open until the following Wednesday.

Goal: Raise $10,000 to purchase land on which to build an orphanage for approximately 31 girls between the ages of 5 – 15.

Beneficiary: Save the Young Girls Foundation Orphanage in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, a Community Based Organization.

Purpose: Construct a safe place for young girls orphaned through illness, war, or abandoned due to other unfortunate circumstances. The orphanage is dedicated to:

• Support, education, and the wellbeing of young girls from the area
• Raise awareness about gender issues
• Enable young girls with skills and training
• Protect the rights of female children
• Improve knowledge on child trafficking and child labor
• Raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases
• Encourage empowerment of each female child
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Result: Murphy’s Corporate Housing Associates donated $1,000 towards the cause as did several other companies, and by the end of the broadcast on the 7th, $10,900 was raised. When the GoFundMe page closed the following Wednesday, July 14, 2021, the total had risen to $12,000.

The global mobility and relocation industry rely heavily on third party vendors to fulfill client requests around the world. Uniting for this event, industry participants both large and small brought awareness of the situation to established partners and customers through conversations shared on various social media platforms. Clients are becoming more aware and taking part in the solution by providing support with their own initiatives.

Positive change comes from people coming together to collaborate and create the means to make it happen. We are so proud of Jamie and his commitment to mobilizing a team that provided significant funds needed to reach the organization’s goals and stimulating others to get involved!