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What People Say About Us

View the Volunteer Interviews

"When I first read the TurtleWill newsletter, I was so impressed with the descriptions of your ongoing successful efforts and the list of new endeavors you were implementing around the world. But it was not until I actually participated in one of your Niger medical missions and saw first hand the fruits of your labors and the 'crops' sown from TurtleWill seed money, that I got a true sense of how much you impact so many peoples' lives with relatively little capital or technology and no middlemen. This is why you have become my number one most deserving charity this year."

-- Robin Shanahan, MD, volunteer physician and donor

"Irma's relentless work has brought education, health, recovery, opportunity and hope to thousands who never before knew that such help existed. Her personal generosity, moral and personal strength and commitment are impeccable. In my travels around the world over the last thirty years, I have never met anyone quite like Irma and her work. To know her is to make your life richer in ways that cannot be counted by the coin. Any and all support given to Irma and TurtleWill will find itself changing and saving lives...lives that matter. Donations go directly to well-identified need...never to support plush headquarters, etc.

"This is a rare opportunity to make a difference and know that that difference is real...it is helping real people to make real changes in their lives so that they can in turn reach out to help others."

-- Carol A Scribner, donor

"During these years of close association with Irma Turtle, I have learned how passionately devoted she is, not only to the welfare and care of the tribal people and their children, but also to helping them maintain and preserve their fragile and endangered cultural heritage.

"Irma is truly an inspiration to all who know her. She is a remarkable woman. It has been a privilege to know and to work with her and I look forward to many more rewarding years of association with her and with TurtleWill."

-- Dell J. Russell, International Children's Outreach Network

"I have been enormously impressed by the simple and direct fashion in which the projects of TurtleWill are created, implemented and monitored. The wheelchairs supplied to the handicapped in Abalak, Niger are made in Niger and can be repaired by local people. The medical missions bring volunteer foreign physicians and volunteers, but also bring the local bush nurses when possible to share educational experiences for both types of practitioners. The sewing and crafts cooperatives teach women and men not only to provide locally usable baskets, clothing and leather goods, but also to participate in the group dynamics and to budget and reconcile accounts. For the medical missions, the school meals projects and the cooperatives, Irma uses reliable local leaders or tribal chiefs whose discretion can be relied upon to encompass the entire community, to provide order and organization, and to assure their entire community benefits. Her international advisors are well-established local businessmen who have years of insight into the successes and failures of large-scale NGO¹s and support the smaller scale and low-tech approach that TurtleWill can provide."

-- Elizabeth A. Jack, MD, volunteer physician and donor

"I feel very fortunate to be able to entrust funds to your wonderful operation. I have a strong belief that there is a true interconnectivity among all peoples. You do so much good with so few dollars. Every life you touch touches dozens of others. Take for example, the women¹s cooperative initiative. You start with a small group in a single community and pretty soon thousands of women have been empowered a generation later. The same is true of funding bush schools in Niger. Each student carries the benefit of education into his or her community. Pretty soon a whole community can enjoy the benefits of better medicine, better farming techniques and better family planning. TurtleWill¹s multiplier is astounding."

-- Steven A Hirsh, donor

"Coming from a long line of charity and philanthropic givers, I am a person who likes to see where my money goes; not off the top, which I learned the hard way. So I went with Irma Turtle to see for myself and have done two bush clinics with her.

"She gives to the nomadic tribes the amount of money they need for grain, food, wells, schools, etc. The tribes take it, she checks it later. They might come back with the report, or a bottle of water from their new dug well. They might bring to a TurtleWill representative the excited child who had successful cleft palate surgery. To me that is the way it should be. Needless to say I will continue to contribute and witness the wonderful work she does. I suggest anyone who really wants to help, to do the same."

-- Lillian Hoffman, volunteer and donor