In 1989, while touring India, Marc Gold found himself "thunderstruck" when he realized he could save a woman from a deadly ear infection by paying the $1 for her antibiotics. "I thought you had to be wealthy to do such things," he recalls. Since then, Gold has trekked through Asia, handing out money to the needy in amounts as little as 50 cents and rarely exceeding $500. In Vietnam, a small donation was enough for a widow to buy a sewing machine and start a business. In Indonesia, a fisherman fixed his boat and returned to self-sufficiency. Compared with global aid organizations, Gold's budget is tiny. But he has touched over 50,000 lives.
