The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back
It all started when 14-year old Hannah Salwen, idealistic but troubled by a growing sense of injustice in the world, had a eureka moment when a homeless man in her neighborhood was juxtaposed against a glistening Mercedes coupe. "You know, Dad," she said, pointing, "If that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal."
This glaring disparity led the Salwen family of four, caught up like so many other Americans in this age of consumption and waste, to follow Hannah’s urge to do something, to finally just do something. And so they embarked on an incredible journey together from which there would be no turning back. They decided to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. At first it was an outlandish scheme. "What, are you crazy? No way!" Then it was a challenge. "We are TOTALLY doing this." Each week they met over dinner to discuss their plan. It would transport them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. Along the way they would inspire so many others wrestling with the same questions: Do I give enough? How much is enough? How can I make an impact in the world? In the end the Salwens’ journey would bring them closer as a family, as they discovered, together, that half could be so much more.
Warm, funny, deeply moving and wholly uplifting, The Power of Half is the story of how one family slammed the door on the status quo and threw away the key.
This book is amazing. Actually, the family behind the book is amazing. To think this all started with the 14 year old girl Hannah Salwen. When I was 14, I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t really think beyond my own little world and how things affected me me me. This girl was worried about people around her, outside of her own world, the people she was with daily.
They sold their house. A mansion in Atlanta. THEIR HOUSE. They then donated half of that to a country in Africa. But they didn’t just donate it. They went there. They wanted to be a part of the process. A part of helping people. They didn’t just want to write the check and have that be the end of their job.
I love their theory behind their donation. It’s just like the old fish analogy.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for the day. Teach the man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
They explain all of the money that has been donated to Africa and why hunger and poverty still hasn’t been alleviated for them. We go in with the western attitude of we’ll fix this for you. You have to teach them to fix it themselves. They have to be able to take care of themselves. Have the resources to continue the process when you are gone.
I loved this book, if you can’t tell. I was discussing it with a friend of mine, actually I’ve discussed it with a lot of people, but this particular friend said, you know, this is what makes me mad. There are people in the United States hungry. The Salwen’s touch on that in the book. They chose Africa because there are a lot of places that American’s can go for a meal at least. In some of these impoverished countries there are no food banks, no homeless shelters, no where to turn.
The Sawlen’s ended up donating enough money, $800,000, to build to epicenters in Ghana. A center that helps make these villages self-sufficient. They have visited Africa once at the time of the publishing of the book and plan to go back to support the people who are building their epicenters. They want to see this through, not just write a check.
That this idea came from a teenager is what impressed me the most. That her brother, after a little convincing, was in it to help too. He was willing to give up his home, downsize to something half the size of what he was used to, to help someone else. I have to say, though they gave up their mansion and downsized to a smaller home, I’m going to guess we have less square feet in our apartment with 4 kids. 
Just something I was thinking of as I was thinking how we could help. Obviously, we don’t have a house to sell. And even if we did, it would be hard to downsize from something we could afford to something half that size we could fit into.
That idea is out.
Hannah gives lots of tips, suggestions, things to do, ways to reflect throughout the book as her father tells the rest of the story. She is very well spoken, again, so impressed!
Joe got involved also in this project with his mom, dad, and sister. He made this video and ended up winning a contest with it:
So impressed with this family. After I finished reading the book I started telling my own kids about it. Then I told my husband about it. We, ourselves, don’t have a lot of money, but we donate what we can to charities that we love, but I wanted to do something similar to this.
We have decided on the first days off Pato has when the kids get out of school (so we can do it as a family), we are going to go through our house, room by room, and get rid of half of our clothes, half of our toys, etc. Pato and I have so many clothes we can’t hang them in the double closet. The kids have the same problems. Christiano’s clothes take up the whole crib (since Alyce’s clothes take up 2 dressers plus part of Kat’s closet, we don’t have room for another dresser anywhere, and it’s not like he uses his crib). We have all decided that we want to take everything down to women’s and homeless shelters.
Then we got thinking some more. I’m on the computer so much and the rest of them are all on their other toys a lot. We should take some of that time and go do something as a family to help. We haven’t decided what, whether it be cleaning a park, donating time to a shelter, what. We’ll decide it as a family.
I could go on and on about how inspiring this book was, but this post would never end. It was excellent. I highly recommend it! Especially if you have kids that are part of this “me” generation we seem to be raising anymore. Show them about how they can reach out and make a difference. Even if you are like us, don’t have a lot of money to give, that there are other ways you can help.
Thank you to FSBMedia for providing me with a copy of The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back. Amazing book! Amazing family!
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last night. He laid there docile-like while Pato put it on him. Of course, that time I had just changed him 10 minutes before Pato got there and he wasn’t poopy yet.
. I wanted something like 2 days ago though, not wait for shipping. Pato found it in tablet form at Wal-Mart last night. The dosage I had found was 1/4 of a tablet smashed up for kids. So, I smashed it up, put it in a little pudding. Nano scarfed it down. 
by Michael Cogdill In the early 20th Century, a pair of North Carolina mountain children sow the seed of a love that becomes their only solace in the hard yet beautiful world they know. They grow it from steep ground of poverty, ignorance, and violence. A landscape so brutal it can kill hope long before claiming life. 
