gabesaruhashi's comments

Hey y'all again! I am one of the co-founders. Just wanted to highlight that our growth statistics cannot capture our impact. Countless users have reached out to thank us and describe Ameelio’s impact on their lives:

I can't tell you how much difference your organization has made for me and my loved one… my LO gets one 15min call per day... how can you keep a father-child relationship strong with that? it rips families apart... you have been able to help... it means a lot... thanks again.

— Steven

Thank u for everything it really helps cause money is so tight and I can’t afford stamps. I'm choosing stamps to talk to my husband or my heart meds that are expensive. I don't have insurance. — Savannah

I live in Australia and my husband is incarcerated in PA, so obviously communication is a massive part of our relationship, especially in written format. One factor that most USA residents doesn't have to face, is a monetary factor of sending snail mail, for me to send a card or letter from here to him, it's costs me $3.20 AUD, over $2 USD, so Ameelio is such a cost saving thing for us. I love how informed we are of the status of the letter and that I can send a pic every single time. It's helped me hold things together for us as a couple. When the facility was on total lockdown, mail was still getting thru, but letters I'd sent from early April have only just arrived, yet letters I sent via Ameelio all arrived within a week (at worst). It gave hubby peace of mind knowing I was okay out here and that I was thinking of him in there. WIthout those letters, who knows what his mental health would have been like. Thank you Ameelio, we both appreciate this wonderful service.

Hey! I am Gabe and I am currently participating in Mozilla's MVP Lab as part of Ameelio (www.ameelio.org). The mentors and program have been awesome so far. Feel free to ping us if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for your support! This is totally what we envision the next steps to be. Today we had a meeting with Rep. Josh Elliot who's pushing for the free phone call bill here in CT to talk exactly about that.

And thanks for the advice! We'll try to apply for YC's next batch :)

For sure! Shoot us a message at [email protected] We really appreciate your help :)

-Gabe

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.