Eugene Cho: Giving one day’s wages

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Eugene ChoOne Day’s Wages Founder Eugene Cho challenges people to donate a day’s pay to end extreme global poverty.

The World Bank estimates, in 2012, more than 12% of the world’s population lived in “extreme global poverty,” meaning they lived on less than $1.90 a day. But there is hope this percentage will drop to zero within a generation.

Eugene Cho is leading a grassroots movement to help tackle this global problem while also supporting sustainable development and emergency relief, worldwide. He’s the founder of the nonprofit organization, One Day’s Wages.

“We set out to start One Day’s Wages to change the world, and I know that’s a cliché phrase, but there are a lot of people that have that idealism. They want to change the world,” Cho said. “What I did not know is how much this experience would change us.”

Eugene Cho: Giving one day’s wages

One Day's Wages Founder Eugene Cho talks about his grassroots movement to end extreme global poverty.

For three years Cho and his family prepared so they could meet the challenge of sacrificing a year’s worth of their income in an effort to help inspire others to join the movement to end extreme global poverty.

“If I knew how difficult that three-year journey was going to be, I don’t think we would’ve done it,” Cho explained.

One Day’s Wages encourages others to simply donate one day of their wages to the less fortunate living in areas like Sub‐Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

The organization has engaged in nearly 90 projects in more than 30 countries around the world and has raised more than $3.5 million in donations since 2009.

Eugene Cho joined May Lee in our Los Angeles studio to talk about his work to end extreme global poverty.