The Foundation is pleased to continue it’s support of CoDENI’s Life Projects program.

Founded in 2005, AHALA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of street children in Latin America through education and social services.

Participants of CODENI live and survive in the most marginalized neighborhoods of Guadalajara, Mexico. They are at a high risk of dropping out of school and lack the necessary skills to make improvements to their lives. Due to this problem, these individuals depend on the streets for their needs. A grant from the Foundation will benefit 50 teens and women ranging in ages from 13 to 50. The project will seek individuals who are eager to develop life skills through education and formal employment. Additionally, the project will benefit these individuals’ families, by the participants setting examples of what it takes to obtain a formal education and earn a stable income. By investing in these life projects, AHALA feels all 50 participants are making significant contributions to their efforts of overcoming their dependence on the street, thus making a sustainable difference on their and their family’s lives. The funds will be spent over the two-year funding period, from March, 2019 to February, 2021. This timeframe enables participants to make significant accomplishments in their life projects. They anticipate the graduation of five participants from the program over the next two years, meaning they will have fully overcome their dependence on the streets and are able to fully dedicate themselves to their life projects

The Foundation is pleased to award a grant to Community Relief & Development Action. COREDA is a development driven, non-profit making and non-governmental organization started in 2009 .  The mission of the organization is empowering and sustainably improving the living conditions of children, women, vulnerable youths and disadvantaged rural and indigenous forest communities in the South West Region of Cameroon.

The organization began its mission in 2016 and has since acquired a piece of land for the permanent site of the educational and social centre for orphans and vulnerable children. The organization is continuing its efforts of raising funding for the construction of a permanent structure, the current home based centre has over 60 children and increasing demand. Many challenges have persisted including the lack of financial motivation of volunteer teachers, the need to feed and clothe the children, lack of furniture such as tables, chairs, teaching boards, Laptop/projector to better transmit both audio and video prerecorded teachings etc. It is from the above premise that COREDA intends to bring sustainable solution to the educational needs of children. Currently, they are working with over 80 children and have many more children that would like to enroll, but they cannot sufficiently accommodation them all at the moment. Tiko, with its relative stability, has continued to be a refuge for internally displaced children and educational refugees who flood the community every day. While many privileged children have been relocated to safe francophone zones, the education of underprivileged children is in serious jeopardy. COREDA believes even in the face of crisis, children’s right to education must be sustained. The belief is that if they build and run a school, they will be able to provide long term quality primary education to orphans and vulnerable children in Tiko semi-urban. COREDA’s plan is to build a school of 6 permanent classrooms. They will have an effective enhanced teaching-learning process through these new accommodations and facilities. This will allow at least 320 children a year to acquire adequate literacy and numeracy skills that will enable them to read with fluency, write with accuracy and express themselves with confidence, calculate and integrate themselves into society. These children will acquire a solid academic foundation rooted in STEM that will propel them for further academic pursuit and guarantee a better future for them.

Circle of Health International is an international humanitarian organization founded in 2004 with the mission to work with women and their communities in times of crisis and disaster to ensure access to quality reproductive, maternal and newborn care.

The internal conflict and violence of the past seven years have brought sustained devastation to the people of Syria. With more than 400,000 civilian deaths, 5.6 million displaced peoples (UNHCR), and 13.1 million people in need of emergency assistance (UNHCR), access to sustainable health services is a top priority. Due in part to donor fatigue because of the prolonged violence, medical needs in this emergency situation are at best 40% funded (WHO). Aleppo stands as Syria’s second largest city and one of the worst hit by violence and airstrikes. Providing for a community of over 300,000, the Iman Hospital is the last fully functional health facility in the city. With a focus on women’s and children’s health, Iman offers 24-hour emergency services, free care, and medication, and specialized surgical and female reproductive health procedures. Equipped with one inpatient ward, three child patient wards, and a full pediatric and OBGYN department, the hospital is capable of sustaining the 250 deliveries (65% of which are C-sections) and 120 surgical operations it averages per month. The Iman Hospital is the only center where people in the region can receive such care and is in dire need of the supplies and funding if it is to continue its current operations. In crisis situations women and girls are at a higher risk of experiencing gender-based violence. According to a report released by the UN Human Rights Council in March of 2018, women and girls in Syria have experienced consistent sexual and gender-based violence from all parties involved in the conflict – whether it is male government officers, at a reported 20 detention centers country-wide, perpetrating violence as a humiliation and fear tactic, or terrorist groups doing the same as a means of enforcing an extremist social order. The presence and perpetration of these crimes result in health risks and issues that healthcare staff must be trained in identifying and addressing, both through clinical work and education. COHI’s approach works to support healthcare staff in both areas, as well as to create educational environments that lead to critical awareness of the social determinants of health. In doing so, they are able to work towards having informed communities that recognize and address social issues.

The grant will be used for  Medical Supplies and salaries of  OB/GYNs and Pediatricians

The Foundation is again pleased to partner with the IRC for their “She Leads” project.

TheIRC was founded in 1933 by Albert Einstein to aid Germans suffering under Hitler. More than 80 years later, they are working in over 40 countries helping people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict or disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future.

Adolescent girls in Liberia are vulnerable to all forms of violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). Men in positions of power frequently use their resources and influence to control decisions made by adolescent girls and their parents, which in turn contribute to early sexual relationships, early pregnancy, and school dropout. Having access to opportunities and resources can enable adolescent girls to achieve their goals and reduce vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse. With a grant from the Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation, the IRC proposes to work with the 150 girls from the current and previous cohorts of the Irish Aid-funded She Leads1 project to develop adolescent girls’ social networks and reduce their vulnerability to violence. The IRC will expand on the She Leads Project by providing mentorship to five cohorts of girl groups using its Girls Shine curriculum. The Girls Shine Curriculum is a mentorship model designed to: • Build girls’ knowledge of their own health and wellbeing • Facilitate discussion and reflection on cultural norms that serve as barriers to girls reaching their goals • Help girls develop skills to build self-esteem and self-efficacy.

The IRC Liberia team proposes to utilize funding from the Foundation to build upon the gains made through the She Leads and Girl Empower projects in three specific ways: • Provide ten recent project graduates with academic scholarships and unconditional cash transfers. The scholarships will enable these girls to continue their education at primary and secondary levels. The unconditional cash transfers will allow girls to cover basic living expenses while in school. • Provide conditional cash transfers based on attendance to 150 participants in the next cohort of life skills trainees through the She Leads program, which begins December 2018. • Provide mentorship to five groups of graduates (150 total) from the 2017-2018 Girls Shine cohort to facilitate and lead a Girls Social Network. This will provide an opportunity for them to reach out into their communities to further expand their networks and share their learning with other girls in their communities.

The proposed program will provide mentorship to 150 recent Girls Shine graduates to equip them to serve as mentors to other adolescent girls in their communities under a new Girls Social Network. Participation in the networks will motivate the new mentors to continue applying knowledge gained through Girl Shine and growing their social networks. As prior participants of the program, their experiences and reflections of the Girl Shine curriculum and implementation will add value to IRC as well as to the next generation of girl groups.

The Foundation is pleased to partner with Bink Now with a grant to provide scholarships to children in Nepal.  BlinkNow’s vision is a world where every child is safe, educated and loved. Their mission is to change the world by empowering Nepal’s children. The organization does so by providing quality education, a safe environment and through inspiring others. Their students are the most vulnerable children in Nepal who otherwise would not have access to a quality education. Furthermore, the students’ enrollment impacts their entire family not only by having educated children, but families are also provided resources like medical care, educational workshops, and first priority access for mothers to be enrolled in the Kopila Valley Women’s Center. Their approach is community–based and holistic. The nucleus of the community impact is the school, with additional programs such as their Women’s Center, Girl’s Hostel, Health Clinic, Children’s Home and Futures which collaborate in a symbiotic relationship with the school. Scholarship support and student enrollment is the foundation to our larger community impact. By supporting a student at the school, you are truly impacting the individual, family and community in Surhket.

Upon entrance, the organization strives to teach each of the children the importance of becoming a change maker. From sharing hygiene and basic nutrition best practices with their families at home to becoming critical thinkers instead of learning through repetition, the ways students are growing highlight the big and small changes across their lives. In most cases, this will be the first time students will have access to uniformed clothing, furniture like chairs and desks, and healthcare. They look at their graduating students pursuing their next steps, while simultaneously thinking how they plan to return to Surkhet and leave an impact for the next generation. With these students often being the first in their families to receive formal education, are goal is challenging and motivating them to be leaders within KVS and even more importantly, beyond.

BlinkNow envisions a world where every child is safe, educated and loved. They also know investing in women is one of the fastest ways to break the cycle of poverty and make positive community change happen. They realize that talent is distributed evenly, but opportunity is not. They are providing opportunity to the future change makers in Nepal through a quality and free education. They are also providing opportunity for many women in the community to shine bright and have their voices be heard today. The Kopila Valley School is the foundation of their work—-where all of the other programs stem—- and support for students at the school is the best way to also impact the entire community.

The Foundation is pleased to again support TechnoServe with a 2 year grant.  TechnoServe’s mission is to work with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. Their success is measured by increased financial benefits for the people whom they engage. These benefits enable them to improve their resilience and reduce their poverty.  To guide their efforts TechnoServe released a Gender Policy in 2015 which commits them to ensuring that their work engages, empowers and benefits both females and males with the aim of transforming gender relations to achieve gender equality.

The effectiveness of the current Gender Practice is exemplified by the growing internal and external requests for the Global Gender Director’s time to support program development and implementation. Programs throughout their portfolio are requesting technical assistance from their practice and their donors are, in part, funding the practice lead function for institutional capacity building activities, staff training, and strategy and design workshops. The goal is for TechnoServe to become a distinctively effective catalyst of gender transformative development. Both through optimizing their own programming and enabling impact at scale through adoption and replication by third parties. To this end, the gender practice is responsible for achieving the following objectives: 1) Improve gender practices across TechnoServe’s programming. 2) Increase TechnoServe’s influence on gender transformative development. 3) Increase and diversify funding for TechnoServe’s gender initiatives. 4) Establish a sustainable funding model for the gender practice’s leadership.

With the Foundation’s support TechnoServe can continue to make substantial improvements in gender practice and the development of more effective interventions to lift women out of poverty.

Butterfly Effect Center is addressing the problem of providing education and supplemental food to Syrian children in refugee camps in Lebanon. This grant will benefit the Syrian refugee children in the Siknaf and Khalaf camps in the Bekaa Valley. These children have a huge gap in their education and have nothing to do in these refugee camps. These funds pay for transportation to the building where educational classes are held and supplemental food is provided for them. This grant will cover this year’s spending costs. The impact that it will make on the community is allowing the children to learn computer programming as well as reading, writing, math and other skills that will allow them to pursue a better life when they get out of these camps. Progress is measured through how the kids progress in their basic skills, motivation and behavior. Education and supplemental food allows for these children to grow physically, emotionally and intellectually so that their future is better and they can assist their families.

SID was founded for the purpose of finding better strategies for reducing rural poverty. In 1996, they began working in the Altiplano region of Bolivia, helping dairy farmers reclaim land and increase productivity and income. They then helped quinoa farmers do the same. In 2000, they began a program in the Sierra Sur of Perú to help local NGOs achieve environmental and agricultural goals in the same project. They currently help dairy farmers near Lake Titicaca increase their cows’ productivity and reclaim pastureland, while also providing small loans to dairy farmers and cattle fatteners.

(SID) addresses two problems: the poverty of women farmers in developing countries and their inequality. Small farm families in developing countries are 75% of the world’s poor, and women farmers bear more than their fair share of this poverty. They share the farm labor, but they also do most of the rearing of the children, cooking and household chores. In addition, men die younger, they often leave the family farm for salaried labor in cities or other countries, and sometimes they just leave. As such, there are more women single-head-of-household family farms.

SID is now scaling up it’s coffee program to the three major coffee-growing municipalities of Alta Verapaz. There are 18,380 coffee-farming families in the three municipalities, and the coffee program will give them a chance to learn the practices they need to adopt to graduate from poverty. In addition, farmers in at least 50 communities that agree to adopt all the practices will receive twice-monthly technical assistance in doing so. This is the only technical assistance available in building family-farm enterprises in these municipalities. It represents a wonderful opportunity for women to build businesses, either with their husbands or by themselves. As such, SID wants to scale up the women’s program. The beneficiaries of this new women’s program are at least 1,200 women in the 50 communities who will receive monthly assistance that ensures they participate equally in the technical assistance and building family-farm enterprises. Also, one woman in each of the 50 communities will have a part-time job in providing the technical assistance in adopting the practices that increase productivity, price, and income from coffee. In addition, the women in 18,380 coffee-growing families will have a chance to learn the practices by which they can graduate from poverty.

The indirect beneficiaries are the children of these women. Studies show that women are more likely to use additional income on behalf of their children, especially their health and education. Also, women with more confidence, leadership, empowerment, and equal participation are more likely to encourage the same in their children and especially their daughters. And they are role models for their daughters (and sons) to follow. Also, at least 10% of the households are single women head-of-household, and their children rely exclusively on them for their support.

A.W.P.E.D, under the Global Fund for Women, is a local feminine organization which supports woman, young girls and children in hard situation in South Kivu Province, the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The organization was created by the militants’ woman in October 16th, 1999 at Kiliba, City, Uvira Territory, DR CONGO. Their mission is to encourage the women autonomous efforts relative to the protection and the promotion of their human rights in general and to the improvement of their social, health and economic situation.

This grant will benefit Women that are victims of sexual violence living in Uvira city and villages around the city for the next 2 years. In Uvira city, there is no facility or center to provide these women with psychological care, which can teach these women skills like reading and writing, assure their socio-economic reintegration and help contribute to educating them about these women’s rights. Victims of sexual violence are only able to get medical care after they are abandoned by their families. These women are faced with rape and illiteracy, traumatization, poverty and rejection. Due to these horrible circumstances, this situation is often the cause of these women committing suicides.

The funds will be used to build and equip a women’s psychoeducational center in which victims of sexual violence will be able to learn to read and write, get psychological support and learn income generating activities and their human rights. It will also pay for the training and educational fees for women and girls over 2 years. Buy materials and tools which will be used in the women’s psych educational center, while also paying salaries to the center’s workers.

Haritika works with people whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty, illiteracy, disease and other handicaps. With multifaceted development interventions, Haritika strives to bring about positive change in the quality of life of the poor people of Bundelkhand, India.

Bundelkhand region is presently classified as a region with low agro-productivity, that has a lack of sustainable livelihood sources, a low literacy rate, recurring drought and stagnant economic growth. Agriculture has decreased due to the low yield, degrading soil, low aquifer level and low water retaining capacity that is due to rock and sudden climatic variation. This has lead to diseased livestock, lack of proper treatments, decreased human health, a weakening economy and frequent death/droughts. The proposed grant will benefit the two villages of ChakRamsagar and Nichroli of the district Datia MadhyaPradesh, India. Haritika is working with various intuitions to research the issues of Natural Resource Management, Agriculture and allied business support. This is to improve the productivity and sustainability of fruit and vegetable productions systems that meet market demand. In addition, they aim to develop new approaches to human capital development that is driven by technology dependent economic opportunity and entrepreneurship within the horticultural sector in various villages. These programs also help with workshops for training. A mobile based program for dissemination to farmers to help boost productivity, diversify crops and vary income. In rural production areas, a network of agro-entrepreneurs is setup to help the farmer with crop inputs and ICT based advisory for growing nutrient rich crops. For model vegetable farms, it is used for renewable energy, creation of model school, fruit orchard development and agriculture resource tools.

The project proposed will ensure improvement in the life of women and children’s education. The project will decrease cases of water-related diseases by 50%. Other health impacts specific to women include a reduction in urinary infections, reduced incidence of back pain by not having to carry water long distances, reduced mental stress, and less sick infants. The project will decrease the amount of time women spend collecting water. They’ll be reduced from 1-2 hours to 15-20 minutes. This will allow women to pursue other activities such as farming. This will result in a much better and sustainable life for women and their families.