I blog a lot about food. Food I cook, and food other people cook for me to eat in restaurants. And then there are the food festivals and the foodie groups and the best places to find the ingredients for the next food creation we’re planning to make.

So it’s hard me…and for many of us… to get our heads around the idea that right now, there are places in the world where a gift of some flour or oil or milk could make a life-or-death difference for women and kids. That information was my introduction to HOPE for Senegal — and their campaign to provide mothers in war-torn regions with the very basics of food for survival.

That campaign saved lives. It’s still saving lives. But they have a new campaign in progress now.

Before I share that, I want to tell you a little bit about the woman behind this world-changing campaign, Yasmin DialloTurk.

I learned about the HOPE for Senegal project when I met its Project Director Yasmin Turk at MomCom, here in Austin.  As a mom of three, I was drawn to her campaign’s goal of providing food and medical care to mothers and children in the most at-risk areas of the world.

But there’s more to the story. Yasmin has experienced hard times, too.  At one point, this woman who is now on the verge of earning her PhD was a single mom with GED who needed to take the next step to make her own dreams come true. That early struggle is probably part of the reason she so empathizes with those moms who have lost almost everything — except their love for their children.

These days, HOPE for Senegal has is focusing on its core goal: education. They’re working to make literacy and education available to children and women in high-risk region. Right now in Senegal, less than 3 out of 10 girls can read. Boys are not much better off.  And without literacy, there is little hope to break cycles of poverty, exploitation and abuse.

They have made significant progress…but there is so much more to do.

The project has a target goal of $22,500 to provide needed resources to help educate over 4,000 students. But with only 4 days left in the campaign, they are only about 10% funded.

Can you imagine the difference education can make in the lives of these children? So here it is….your chance on Make a Difference Monday.  Click over. Donate what you can. Change lives.

(If you’d like to hear Yasmin speak about the project and its goals, be sure to register for MomCom 2014, coming up on January 24-25th right here in Austin — she’s one of many speakers at the event who can help you make a difference in the world…or just in your corner of it!)