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My name is Gabe and I am one of the co-founders of Ameelio. Though we only launched 4 weeks ago, we have over 1,250 users that collectively sent >3,000 letters
by gabesaruhashi 6y ago
My name is Gabe and I am one of the co-founders of Ameelio. Though we only launched 4 weeks ago, we have over 1,250 users that collectively sent >3,000 letters across the entire country.
While it’s free for us to videoconference on Zoom and Facetime during quarantine, it can cost up to $25 to make a 15-minute phone call to an incarcerated person.
Some of you might be thinking: “Is it just a letter mailing service?” Though for many stamps might not seem expensive, costs add up. Many of the families lost their jobs during the crisis. One in three families with incarcerated loved ones is forced into debt by the cost of visits and exorbitantly priced calls.
In the past weeks, we’ve learned first-hand from our users about the challenges of staying connected.
* Carol is completely blind and finds it too difficult to send physical mail but has now been able to connect with her incarcerated nephew using Ameelio
* Ellie is stuck in Norway and mail would normally take weeks to send to her incarcerated husband Kasey who is in the US, but with Ameelio she can send mail in 4-6 business days
* Nikki explained to us it is much more meaningful to “read and hold” a letter “close to them” than to send a text message or scanned letter - her husband calls Ameelio letters “little treasures”
* Samantha shared with us that she cannot afford stamps to talk to her husband
Our vision is to keep reconnecting those that are impacted by incarceration through free technology.
- rsweeney21 6y agoThis is awesome. Thanks for building this.
- Kronopath 6y agoHow does your company handle the costs of mailing or delivering the letters?
- Zoorchingwa 6y agoMy name is Zo, I'm one of the co-founders of Ameelio. We are completely self-funded at the moment, so we need all the help we can get! We were recently accepted into one of Mozilla's accelerators, so this will provide us some additional funding. As a 501c3 we're eligible to receive grants and donations, so we're furiously applying to grants and reaching out to foundations. 34% of families with a loved one in prison fall into debt trying to pay for phone calls and visits alone (https://bit.ly/2YrmyPV https://bit.ly/2YrmyPV), so we're committed to keeping our services 100% free.
- gavinray 6y agoYou guys are incredible.
- huntermeyer 6y agoAre you looking for a contributor? I would be happy to volunteer my time. I'm a software developer and am pumped about your mission.
- jessehorne 6y agoWe'd love to have some help with development. Please reach out to us. team@ameelio.org
- kyawzazaw 6y agoMy college (Macalester) will definitely have some cs majors willing to volunteer. I suppose you can have them work on some minor/nonurgent tasks. Is this something you'd be open to?
- gabesaruhashi 6y agoFor sure! Shoot us a message at team@ameelio.org We really appreciate your help :) -Gabe
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoActually, if you're open to it, hell yeah... sending an email.
- pkphilip 6y agoWonderful work, Gabe! Much thanks to you and your team!