5 Types of Charities Your Family Has Never Heard of

You’ve likely heard of many of the charitable organizations that have been established to help those who are in need. Many of these charities are devoted to causes, such as feeding the homeless, supporting education and helping the environment. However, there are other types of charities that you’ve likely never heard of that raise money to support other causes that are usually overlooked. You and your family have probably never heard of the following five types of charities, but donating to one of them can help people in more ways than you can imagine.

Malaria Prevention

Malaria is a disease that’s caused by mosquito bites that kills around one million people worldwide each year. Mosquitoes can transmit a specific parasite through their bites that causes malaria to develop. Certain charities work to provide treatment to malaria patients in third-world countries to try to prevent deaths that often result from the disease if left untreated. Other charities provide bed nets that have been treated with insecticide to protect people from mosquito bites while they’re sleeping. Some of the charities that provide these nets also send experts to recipients’ homes to make sure that the nets are being used correctly and replaced whenever needed.

Pregnant Women in Crisis

Not all pregnant women are fortunate enough to be in safe and healthy situations throughout their pregnancies, and certain charities have been formed to help pregnant women who are in crisis. Pregnant women can receive counseling, additional education and job skills training to help them succeed in supporting themselves and their children. As CareerBuilder.com points out, pregnant women should know how to conduct themselves in certain ways when seeking employment, and a reputable charity can teach them job interview skills to help them get hired with a greater success rate. Pregnant women can also receive training on how to raise children during each stage of life. Some women also benefit from the maternity and postpartum housing that certain charities provide.

Car Donation

Instead of junking your old car, consider giving it away to charity. Some charities accept old vehicles that are then given to people who may not be able to afford one of their own. It’s also possible to find reputable car donation charities that give used vehicles to people with kidney problems and other medical conditions to use for driving to doctor’s appointments and going to other places. Even if you think that your old car is beyond repair, a charitable organization may be able to repair it so that it can be driven again by someone else. There are many well-trusted car donation charities that provide gift receipts that are tax deductible, and this can reduce what you owe to the IRS.

Monkey Assistants for the Disabled

Certain types of monkeys can be trained to do tricks and perform other human-like tasks, and some clever experts have found ways to train service monkeys to help people who have disabilities. There are charities that are devoted to teaching monkeys how to fetch telephones, take out garbage and perform other household tasks to make mobility-challenged individuals’ lives easier. Monkeys are matched carefully with people and are given time to adjust to their new human companions so that they’ll be more likely to perform each assigned task. Charities also work to ensure that each monkey receives the appropriate medical care and dietary support that are needed to do its job sufficiently. In addition to performing all the assigned tasks, service monkeys can give people with disabilities more companionship and help prevent loneliness.

Rare Diseases

There are many rare diseases that you’ve likely never heard of, and some charitable organizations have been established to raise funds for treatment and prevention. You can find charities that strive to help people who’ve been diagnosed with conditions like Huntington’s disease or scleroderma. A medical condition known as xeroderma pigmentation (XP) causes sufferers to experience severe skin damage when exposed to sunlight, and you can donate to a charity that raises funds for research. There are also charities that devote their efforts to finding cures for rare forms of cancer.

As seemingly obscure as these types of charities may be, they shouldn’t be ignored. By supporting one of these charities, you can help more people who are overlooked by society and make it possible for them to live better lives.