Yesterday, a user of Reddit posted a photo of an African man with a massive scar atop his forehead. The text read:

Meet Omari. Two days ago he returned from the hospital after being hacked in the face by a machete defending an orphanage of 35 children by himself. Think we could raise the $2,000 needed for the remainder of the cement/barbed wire wall to keep both him and the children safe?

My son Matthew, who is a Reddit user, just showed me the photo of Omari and the suggestion.

“Matt, I can’t use my blog to raise money for anybody,” I said.

“No, Dad, that’s not what I’m showing you this for. They raised $65,000 for the orphanage. Once they confirmed that Omari’s story was legit, everybody started giving. Look at this.”

The original Redditor who posted the appeal for the orphanage wrote on the site:

$44,000!!!!!!!!! REDDIT!!!!! I can hardly breathe. I refreshed the page at least twice to make sure it was real. I cannot believe this. I just came back from the orphanage….. Let’s just say many tears were shed, and many hugs were shared. The children were all leaving to school as I arrived, but I will return around 6pm to take a group picture. I am about to upload the picture and video of Omari’s thanks. He’s been reading all of your comments, he said he’ll read every one if it takes him all day. $44,000. Reddit, thank you.

At last count, as Matthew said, they’d raised even more money to help Omari protect these children from thugs. Unbelievable what people can do through the web. Reddit, thank you. ZDNet covers this story, and other good things Redditors have done in this way.