The Beginnings
Direct Aid International founder and director Jonathan Hoffman began his humanitarian work in 1999 in war-torn Kosova, working as a volunteer in refugee camps and orphanages with the Balkan Sunflowers. Inspired, Hoffman decided to strike out on his own, returning three times with a list of accomplishments that includes:
- Acquiring firewood for eight families, warming 45 people;
- Organizing a neighborhood clean-up and the leveling of ground for a play field;
- Providing 17 goats and 5 sheep to another 10 families, plus purchase of livestock feed;
- Paying for x-rays for a teenage girl struck with throat cancer;
- Developing sister school initiatives resulting in 2 students entering US colleges;
- Giving a flute, violin, clarinet, 5 recorders, and sheet music for a music school that previously had only an old piano.