Empowering Communities: The Impact of doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation

Welcome back to Harvesters’ Corner! We recently spoke of the Co-Impact Sourcing initiative and the effects it has on the growers, harvesters, and distillers dōTERRA works with. An important aspect of the initiative is its ability to facilitate the development of an existing community. A vital element which enables this development is the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation, the charitable arm of dōTERRA.

When the company was established in 2008 the founding executives recognized the responsibility of stewardship they were establishing, and the impact it would have in the future. They focused on creating a world-wide community of people willing and desiring to reach out and help all who were around them. What exactly is a community, and why is it so important? Author and lecturer Yehuda Berg gives the following insight:

“A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It’s about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role.” (1)

The concepts of being connected and responsible are key to any community, and helps create a culture within an organization. This is captured through the words of Mark Wolfert, former general counsel, “The culture of dōTERRA really begins through the desire to give, help, liberate and empower others through the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation.” (2) The dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation does this by “empowering people worldwide to be healthy, safe, and self-reliant.” (3)

Self-Reliance

What, exactly, does self-reliance mean? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that it is reliance (or confidence) in one’s own efforts and abilities. (4) Through Co-Impact Sourcing and dōTERRA Healing Hands, people gain the reliance that they can provide the physical necessities of life for their families through their own efforts. The growers, harvesters, and distillers can earn a proper wage to put food on their tables, clothing on their backs, and roofs over their heads.

people sharing emergency aid kits — Wellness Advocates distributing 72-Hour Emergency Relief Kits

My husband likes to look for instances where dōTERRA has established supply lines throughout the world, and within a year or two, has used those same supply lines to bring food, medicines, and shelters into a region devastated by any number of natural disasters. It doesn’t matter if it's an earthquake (Nepal), hurricane (Haiti), volcanic eruption (Guatemala), or drought (Somaliland), the networks forged to bring the oils out have enabled support to reach those who need it most. The dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has also been of help in areas where no oil is sourced. Thousands of 72-Hr Emergency Relief Hygiene Kits were sent to communities in California devastated by wildfires in 2018 and 2019, and again most recently to Lahaina, Hawaii. To reiterate what Yehuda Berg stated above, “Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role.” (1)

Since the early days of its inception, the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has worked through donations. With time, specific products were introduced, where the full purchase price was donated by the company to dōTERRA Healing Hands. One such product is the Rose Hand Lotion, from the Spa collection. The source of the Rose oil is the European country of Bulgaria, which also produces Lavender, Melissa, and Summer Savory oils, along with distilling Frankincense and Myrrh oils from Somaliland.

Bulgaria

Let’s take a moment and look at what the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has done to assist the Bulgarian people. The nation is a member of the European Union (EU) but has not enjoyed the prosperity of many member nations. Prior to the 1990s, Bulgaria was part of the countries guarded and maintained by the former Soviet Empire. The decades after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. were not kind to Bulgaria. As its infrastructure collapsed, many citizens moved abroad to seek better lives. Even today (2023), close to a quarter of the country’s population still live at or below the global poverty rate. This means that one in four people in Bulgaria are surviving on less than $6.85 (US) a day. (5) A brutal fact of life is that there are a disproportionate number of orphans.

people gathered near greenhouses — Wonder Garden

Another program supported by dōTERRA Healing Hands is the Wonder Garden. This social institution is also located in Dobrich, Bulgaria, and is maintained by twenty-two individuals with intellectual disabilities. (7) The non-profit garden is self-sustaining and provides salaries for their workers by selling the vegetables and flowers raised. This, in turn, enables the young people to be able to support themselves with their own work. In 2021 dōTERRA Healing Hands joined with Esseterre, the distillery in Bulgaria, to provide two new trailers to the Wonder Garden. These trailers are being used for storage and administration purposes. (8) Since then, dōTERRA Europe has supported ongoing projects at the Wonder Garden, including the erection of two new greenhouses, renovating apartments for the workers, installing solar panels to improve the Garden’s independence, and purchasing new tools for the Wonder Garden’s tractor.

Match Program

women gathering water in a pond — Water source for a village in Kenya

In order to reach out to even more people, the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation has initiated a matching grant program called the Match. This program allows dōTERRA Wellness Advocates to work with a non-profit charity of their choice to support a specific humanitarian project. After it’s approved, the Wellness Advocate who submitted the application begins fundraising, as they are responsible for raising half of the estimated cost of the project. Once fundraising closes, the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation matches the funds raised up to the approved amount, and the project then begins implementation. One such program was undertaken after the 2023 Co-Impact Sourcing trip to Kenya. On this trip Wellness Advocate Michelle Weaver met Lena, a local woman who was forced to gather water from a muddy pond shared with cattle and wild animals. “This is the only source of water,” Ms. Weaver related, “so they deal with what they have, to the best of their ability.” (9) The water then needed to be purified prior to being used. Ms. Weaver decided to do something to help and completed her own Match fundraiser to install a well near Lena’s village. Work is now underway to drill a new well. Once drilling is completed, the well will be connected via a solar-powered pump to a storage tank, and is able to support, on average, 3,000 people. Once finished, the well will provide clean, fresh water to people like Lena in Kenya.

two women showing care — Emily Wright and a Nepalese woman

Another example of the Match in action to place recently in Nepal. Much of the country continues to live under impoverished circumstances, and the effects of the pandemic compounded many of those circumstances. As a result, close to seventy percent of youth were dropping out of school. Families were not able to pay the costs of tuition, or supply the funds for uniforms, books, and other necessities needed for school. Wellness Advocate Gina Truman chose to create scholarships for the Nepalese youth. Through Match, she raised the needed funds to create educational opportunities for 130 children. These children can learn how to break poverty cycles and bring prosperity to tier families through education. (10)

Programs like the Wonder Garden in Dobrich, Bulgaria, and the Match Programs are two examples of how the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation promotes self-reliance in the various regions where the growers, harvesters, and distillers are a part of doTERRA’s global network. Another program that impacts lives in a different way is the 72-Hour Emergency Relief Hygiene Kits.

72-Hour Emergency Relief Hygiene Kits

products in the 72 hour emergency relief kit — Contents of the 72-Hour Emergency Relief Kit

Over the past decade we have seen an increased frequency of natural disasters. At the time of this writing, the wildfire at Lahaina, Hawaii is still a fresh memory, and the island nation of Iceland is dealing with an ongoing volcanic eruption. All too often people find themselves fleeing their homes with just the clothes they are wearing. With this in mind, the dōTERRA 72-Hour Emergency Relief Hygiene Kit was developed. Each kit contains small packets of essential oil-enriched shampoo and conditioner, packets of dōTERRA On-Guard Toothpaste, a toothbrush, several adhesive bandages for cuts and scrapes, a roll-on bottle of Tea Tree Touch essential oil, a towel, some packets of Deep Blue Rub, and some dōTERRA On Guard Hand Sanitizing Wipes. These kits have been received with grateful hearts at locations worldwide as people start to piece their lives together following fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, to name only a few crises. Recently, 8,300 kits were distributed on Maui following the devastating fires. (11)

As this blog grows, we will continue to provide examples of ways in which dōTERRA Healing Hands helps areas recover from natural disasters. Are you interested in supporting dōTERRA Healing Hands? You can rest assured that every penny donated will go to the programs, as dōTERRA International covers all of the foundation’s operating expenses. Click here to donate to dōTERRA Healing Hands. You can also click here to check out the 72-Hour Emergency Relief Hygiene Kit. Be sure to buy some kits now, so they will be available for people who are in need when the time arrives. Join us next time at Harvesters’ Corner, where we will look at the Queen of Oils, Rose (and just in time for Valentine’s Day!). Until then, stay safe and keep sharing oils!