Faithwire
  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • SCOTUS
  • Life
  • Religious Liberty
  • News
  • Politics
  • Faith
  • Opinion

California Couple Donates Wedding Budget to Feed Children in Africa

Share Tweet
By Faithwire Staff
Editor

February 14, 2017

Poonam Kaushal and Nishkaam Mehta of Santa Monica, California, are getting married today on Valentine’s Day. But instead of throwing a lavish ceremony, the couple is donating the budget for their wedding to feed hungry children in Africa.

“The notion of a big, traditional Indian wedding didn’t really feel like it fit us,” Kaushal told local station KABC-TV on Monday.

Kaushal and Mehta are forgoing the traditional week-long Indian wedding for a civil ceremony so they can put the money toward a cause they care about: Feeding children in Cameroon who have been forced to flee Boko Haram violence.

Boko Haram has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million since launching an Islamic insurgency in northeast Nigeria in 2009. Over the years, the homegrown terrorist group transformed into a regional movement that spread its attacks across the border into neighboring countries such as Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence have poured into nearby nations. Nearly 200,000 people are  internally displaced in Cameroon’s Far North Region, mainly due to the Boko Haram insurgency, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration in November 2016.

Mehta, a pediatrician, said she has seen firsthand the irreversible and devastating impact that hunger has on children, both abroad and in their local community.

“For 50 cents you can give a day’s rations to a child in a conflict zone,” Mehta told KABC-TV.

 

Kaushal and Mehta first met in college in 2003. He popped the question in September 2016.

Last month, the couple launched a campaign #MillionMealsForLove and encouraged their family, friends and the community to help them raise enough money to fund a million school meals in Cameroon by Valentine’s Day, their wedding day.

“We start talking about our marriage and how we want our wedding to reflect the kind of lives we hope to lead. But we couldn’t ignore what was happening all around us,” Kaushal says in the couple’s #MillionMealsForLove campaign video. “2016 was a difficult year for a lot of people, especially children.”

Kaushal and Mehta donated the first 40,000 meals through the World Food Program’s Share the Meal app using their $20,000 wedding budget.

“What money we would have spent on our wedding, by putting it into something that’s not just for one day, these school meals, they’re providing nourishment for a year,” Kaushal told KABC-TV.

Kaushal and Mehta said they wanted to start their life together by helping others and the donation was a way to honor their love. The couple said they hoped their act of kindness has also inspired others.

“Children that don’t have a voice and they don’t have advocates, so to be able to bring awareness to that, for us, has been deeply fulfilling,” Kaushal told KABC-TV. “We have the ability and the choice that we can actually do for others, even with significant life milestones, whatever is within our means.”

 

Latest

  • Entertainment

    ‘The Chosen’ Begins Filming Season 4, Series to Be Translated into 600 Languages: ‘We’re Back’

  • Faith

    Weatherman Reveals Why He Prayed to Jesus On-Air as Deadly Tornado Hit: ‘God Helps People’

  • News

    ‘I Am Beyond Grateful’: Liberty University Names New President in Wake of Jerry Falwell Scandal

  • Faith

    EXCLUSIVE: Famous Activist Prays For Mass ‘Exodus’ of Clinic Workers With Launch of Powerful Good Friday Campaign

  • News

    Actor Mark Wahlberg Reveals Why He Moved Family Out of Hollywood: ‘It’s Really Giving the Kids a Chance to Thrive’


Sponsored
Sponsored

Newsletter
Signup

Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • ‘The Chosen’ Begins Filming Season 4, Series to Be Translated into 600 Languages: ‘We’re Back’
  • Weatherman Reveals Why He Prayed to Jesus On-Air as Deadly Tornado Hit: ‘God Helps People’
  • ‘I Am Beyond Grateful’: Liberty University Names New President in Wake of Jerry Falwell Scandal
  • EXCLUSIVE: Famous Activist Prays For Mass ‘Exodus’ of Clinic Workers With Launch of Powerful Good Friday Campaign
  • Actor Mark Wahlberg Reveals Why He Moved Family Out of Hollywood: ‘It’s Really Giving the Kids a Chance to Thrive’

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016

Categories

  • Christian Persecution
  • Coronavirus
  • culture
  • Culture
  • Entertainment
  • Faith
  • Faith
  • Family
  • George Floyd
  • Go!
  • Israel
  • Life
  • Life
  • Lifestyle
  • Media
  • Men
  • Mission Haiti
  • News
  • News
  • Opinion
  • P.O.V
  • Politics
  • Politics
  • Roe
  • Sponsored
  • Sports
  • Virtue
  • Women

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Navigation

  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Staff
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Sign up to get our newsletter your inbox every day.

Newsletter Signup

Do you want to read
more articles like this?