Military veterans struggle with crippling medical debt, and many are uninsured, which causes their medical bills to pile up.
McClatchy is hoping to help uninsured veterans by collaborating with the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to launch a campaign called "The War Within Initiative." The goal is to earn $1 million through McClatchy's news websites and print papers and ask readers to donate to the cause.
Digital stories from McClatchy outlets will have a donate button, while the front pages of newspapers and relevant stories will feature a call to action. The campaign will end in January.
McClatchy also created a short series on Facebook Watch called "The War Within", which debuts Nov. 28. It will be about three Afghanistan War veterans and their stories of how they had to accustom themselves to a normal life after war and the challenges they faced.
This cause is important to McClatchy because the majority of its newsrooms are less than an hour away from a military base. Some of the communities that McClatchy papers are based in also have the highest numbers of veterans.