History

“We’re like our biggest enemy – the mosquito. Small in size. Global in range. Fast and agile. Occasionally annoying but spreading like wildfire. They say ‘know your enemy’, we say ‘be like your enemy’.” -Jamie Appleseed, GMin

A Remarkable Organization

Global Minimum (GMin) is an organization that distinguishes itself with its youthful spirit and atmosphere of innovation, its remarkable results and its dynamic structure that allows it to efficiently work with those most in need.

So far, the organization has focused on the prevention of malaria in Sierra Leone, West Africa. On this page, we will narrate the birth of GMin and detail its structure, achievements and future goals.

The Background: A Fruitful Friendship

GMin is the brainchild of a group of four college students. At Red Cross Nordic United World College, an international high school with high ideals near Bergen-Norway, the students representing Denmark and Sierra Leone forged a lasting friendship.

We embraced our very different backgrounds to foster a respectable relationship and our optimistic desire to effect positive change in today’s world. We channeled our energy and creativity into GMin, and our research quickly revealed that the distribution of mosquito nets would be the best project for our new organization and its dynamic structure.

Finally we took the plunge and registered GMin as an official organization in Denmark and have tirelessly kept strengthening the organization from different regions in the world.

Our First Project: Full Coverage

The first major accomplishment of our newly registered organization was successfully undertaking our first project. The idea was simple: provide everyone in an entire village with Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs).

That way we could break the self reinforcing cycle of malaria. Normally you only give bednets to children and pregnant woman as they’re the most vulnurable groups, so our approach differed in that we gave everyone nets. This wouldn’t just protect people but also directly fight malaria.

So in the summer of 2007 we carried out this project in Sahn Malen, Sierra Leone. See the map to the right.

However, getting funds isn’t easy for a new organization. So our fundraising was nothing short of remarkable: a birthday, two grants and a Danish driver’s license. That’s what funded our first project. Mrs. Lennheden turning 50 asked people to donate towards our project, we won a school competition called “The Competition of Benevolence” and later another grant from the Swiss Consulate in Boston, USA, and finally Mathias, one of the founders of GMin, donated money he had been given for a Danish driver’s license (which is actually quite a lot).

The Structure: An Eclectic Group of Dedicated Volunteers

Through an alternative fundraising we acquired the nets and were able to finance the subsequent evaluation and monitoring work of the local health team where we worked. We still had to finance the travel to Sierra Leone as well as our stay ourselves. This was not a problem as everyone at GMin is a volunteer. Furthermore, we try to cut costs wherever possible, and our own airfare and expenses related to our stay would strain our budget unnecessarily. In short, every Cent you donate to GMin will be used for the execution of the project you sponsor.

The Steering Committee of GMin remains the four original members, but we have since then included several important members to our team, and we are always looking for new partners or volunteers to work with. We operate with a horizontal organizational structure, and each member’s opinion is highly valuable.

One of our chief strengths is the local expertise and cultural insight of our Sierra Leonean members, who have proven to be invaluable to our work in Sierra Leone. We try at all times to keep an open mind to new ideas, to be culturally sensitive, and to do the most good for the money that has been donated to us. You can find more information about our core principles here.