Awarded Grants

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Grant awarded to The Foundation For Tomorrow

The Foundation is pleased to again partner with The Foundation for Tomorrow (TFFT) whose mission is to secure quality education and emotional support for orphaned and vulnerable children so that they may reach their full potential and thrive in their communities. Their new initiative – The Learning Centre – will expand and strengthen TFFT’s commitment to the students, teachers, families, and communities that they have been working with for over 10 years. TFFT has a proven track record in Tanzania, developing sustainable pathways toward opportunity. This Centre is designed in partnership with the local government (Ministry of Education and Social Welfare) and with the support of their most steadfast partners.

The Grant will provide funding for the Higher Education Advisory and Scholarship Centre, an integral part of The Learning Centre. This dynamic community centre will provide multifaceted services, including a space dedicated to guiding young Tanzanians on the path of higher education. Funding specifically from this grant will underwrite the tools needed in this effort, most specifically the costs of constructing this facility within the Learning Centre. Support of The Learning Centre and, more specifically the Higher Education Advisory and Scholarship Centre, will ensure that Tanzania’s best and brightest and most tenacious won’t miss out on their opportunity of pursing their educational dreams due to lack of funding or understanding of the possibilities available to them. The Higher Education Advisory counsellor will be the students’ advocate, mentor and greatest cheerleader in a process that is challenging and stressful to even the world’s most affluent and connected young people. Providing a bridge of support in the form of experienced counselling as well as application and testing assistance on the long path of academic achievement is a highly sustainable undertaking and will yield myriad results. The immediate effect of The Learning Centre intended will have a multitude of initial impacts on the community. The first would be the simple presence of this leading edge facility at the base of Mt. Meru. Designed using the One Planet Framework, the sustainable nature of The Learning Centre is a significant differentiator. This space will transform the way individuals look and think and that includes the building itself. The long-term sustainability of it lies not only in the building itself – the nuts and bolts commitment to the community – but also in the ongoing programs that will provide access to educationally enriching learning opportunities for Tanzania’s youngest learners, young people eager to continue on to higher education and professional pursuits, and adults who seek to expand their possibilities through entrepreneurial endeavors.

 

Grant awarded to Squash Dreamers

The Foundation is pleased to partner with Squash Dreamers.

Positive stories coming out of refugee communities are hard to find. This is particularly true for young girls in Jordan, where cultural norms often prevent them from pursuing as many opportunities as their male counterparts. However, Squash Dreamers is combating that narrative. They are creating new opportunities for girls that will enable them to embark on promising athletic and academic careers. They are instilling confidence in the girls so that they can make greater achievements and make more positive impacts in their communities. By developing more prominent female athletic and academic figures, they hope to give future refugee and Jordanian girls positive role models to emulate.

The funds with be used to:

 Expand the team from 15 to 45 girls of multiple nationalities

 Hire a full-time, permanent country director who can help oversee expansion, manage staff, and apply for grants

 Hire an American fellow and help him move to Jordan

 Provide a bus to transport the girls to practice and English class

 Offer stipends to interns to enable them to come and work in the program

 Send girls to English immersion camp at King’s Academy,

“Why Squash?” This is a natural question given that squash is not one of the world’s most commonly played sports. However, the belief is that squash offers a unique opportunity for refugee girls in Jordan for several reasons: 1) Studies have demonstrated that it is the best workout in sport form. 2) Playing sports in general promotes physical and mental health as well as discipline, hard work, and teamwork. 3) Throughout the United States, and in four other countries, the effectiveness of urban squash programs for under-resourced youth has been demonstrated in programs such as SquashBusters, StreetSquash, and the Squash + Education Alliance. These programs work with over 2,000 students annually, and have helped their participants to achieve a 95% high school graduation and college matriculation rate, in addition to many other benefits. 4) As opposed to sports like soccer and basketball, the professional squash circuit is not nearly as saturated, meaning that dedicated squash players have a greater chance of achieving competitive success. Accomplished squash players can receive scholarships to study in prestigious boarding schools and universities as well as make a career out of competing and coaching abroad.  5) Playing squash enables the girls to bridge the class divide. Squash is typically thought of as a wealthy person’s sport. Not only are they making a sport accessible to them that they would not normally have encountered, but they are also helping them interact with Jordanians from different classes. Thus, bridging both a class divide and a refugee-local divide.

Squash Dreamers matches with the McQuade Foundation’s priorities as both organizations aim to empower young girls who have faced injustices. Both seek to provide for the welfare and education of young girls. Both seek to provide girls with skills that will enable them to succeed in life.

Grant awarded to American Fund for Charities: Project Gateway

Project Gateway has been granted funds for the continuing efforts of their Empowerment Program. The Empowerment Program is run through the Gateway School of Fashion Fusion with Craft and Business Training and Mentoring. Through the Program, over 1000 students have been trained in hard skills such as woodwork, metalwork, electrical training as well as Fashion Design, sewing and craft development. It has also assisted more than 250 developing entrepreneurs in better business practice and mentored the leaders of these groups until they are secure in Business knowledge. Over 70% of the entrepreneurs were still running successful businesses 2 years after their training. Most of the trainees are unemployed women, who are given the opportunity to improve their hard skills of Craft making and / or Fashion Design as well as Business Skills training. This enables them to generate income for themselves and their families.

Funds from this grant will be used to support individuals unable to pay the fees associated with the Program. Learners would under normal circumstances be required to pay a fee structure. While this is built into the budget the reality is that most of the learners are unemployed, out of school, under-educated learners. Project Gateway is a development program and does not offer “hand-outs” as such. The learners are already paying transport costs to reach the center 3 days a week. They travel for over an hour to get there and over an hour to get back home. They desperately need to generate income for themselves and their families and they feel that if they were better qualified in the hard skills of Fashion Design and sewing and had a greater understanding of Business, they would be able to increase their income and build sustainable businesses.

The project is making a sustainable different by addressing unemployment and the lack of skills and business education. By educating and up-skilling 20 – 25 learners per year in Fashion Design and Fusion with Craft and by assisting 90 people per year with the Paradigm Shift Business Training program and encouraging them to go on to the next 2 Modules which tracks their Business growth and success for a period of at least 18 sessions, the organization believes that it makes a difference to the quality of each person’s life. History has shown that most of the learners who study through Gateway School of Fashion continue to generate income at varying levels for a number of years after the course. The Paradigm Shift Course has been offered to over 2000 people in South Africa. Results so far indicate that over 70% have increased their Business Income, and 34% of the people are now saving on a regular basis.

Grant awarded to Humanity Crew

Humanity Crew is a grassroots non-governmental non-religious-non-profit organization founded in November 2015 by Adv. Maria Jammal and Dr. Essam Daod, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who joined a rescue mission to respond to the influx of Syrian refugees arriving in Lesvos, Greece. During the mission they identified the deep threat to the refugees’ wellbeing. In particular they became concerned with mental health of the refugees brought on by despair, loss, pain and fear from the unknown future and flight to safety. During the mission, they development Humanity Crew to deal with these issues.

The Foundation is pleased to again support Humanity Crew for the 3 project areas that were funded last year.

*Violence and Protection – new living conditions that women face when moving to these camps exposes them to unsafe environments. Many of these women were used to strong support systems from family and friends. After joining the camp they quickly realized they did not have anyone to rely on. Additionally, they are at a greater chance of domestic violence from their husbands who once was the proud family patriarch, to someone who is helpless and without purpose. Using this situation to carry out domestic violence on their wives and children.

* Mental Health – Many women in these camps have come from war zones in the Middle East, experiencing trauma, personal loss, abuse and sometimes severe torture. Arriving at the camps women further face security issues and often face symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia and many other symptoms.

* Cultural Gaps and Integration – Throughout their journey, many times the humanitarian aid these women receive is usually received without any cultural or lingual sensitivity by locals and other volunteers who speak different languages and lack cultural understandings. The direct beneficiaries of this project will Syrian, Iraqi and other Arabic speaking women and young girls living in refugee camps in Greece. The indirect beneficiaries are the community of the camps/centers including other refugees, professionals, volunteers and staff.

Humanity Crew believes they are making a sustainable difference by empowering women and helping integrate themselves into their new communities. Their programs work to provide women with life skills that help them in taking steps towards their own education and career as an active part of the refugee society. Additionally, Humanity Crew looks to involve the whole community, in hopes of educating and then preventing violence against women. Their goal is to create a holistic community based change towards a healthy family life and healthy overall society.

A grant has been awarded to Trickle Up’s Graduation Project for the second year

The Foundation is pleased to again partner with Trickle Up to support their Graduation Project.  Trickle Up helps people in extreme poverty and vulnerability advance their economic and social well-being. They drive large-scale change by partnering with governments, global institutions, and local organizations. Trickle Up’s primary focus and expertise is reaching the most vulnerable and excluded women, people with disabilities, members of indigenous groups and refugees in the Americas, Africa and Asia. They work with local and global partners to implement a program called the Graduation approach to help people take a series of steps in the path toward greater economic self-sufficiency.

The graduation project from 2018 will include:  Jovenes Empoderadas – 700 indigenous young women in partnership with the municipalities of Coban, Chahal, and Cahabon.  Inclusive Ixcan – 350 indifenous young women and people with disabilities in partnership with local organizations FundaLachua and the municipality of Ixcan.  Two new projects to work with an additional 450 indigenous young women and people with disabilities in partnership with the municipalities of Ixcan and El Estor beginning in the coming months.  In Mexico, Trickle Up is working with their local partners to reach 425 indigenous Mayan families in the Yucatan.  In Paraguay, Trickle Up’s partnership with the Ministry of Planning will reach its first 540 families in 2018, with the goal of reaching 3,800 families through the Graduation Approach in the coming years. Trickle Up’s Graduation Approach has demonstrated its validity in improving the lives of the poorest families. Trickle Up contributes to an engaged, well-organized community of practice. Graduation is a sequenced, timebound approach combining careful program participant selection, business and livelihood planning training and one-on-one coaching, cash transfers, and savings groups to build a ladder of support for participants to move out of poverty. The program components work together to increase both the economic and social empowerment of participants.

 

 

Grant awarded to The International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance (INARA)

The Foundation is pleased to  award a grant to INARA. INARA’s mission is to provide life-altering and life-saving medical care for children from conflict areas who have catastrophic injuries and are unable to access treatment due to war. INARA steps in to fill the gaps in access to medical treatment when it is not provided by governments or other humanitarian organizations.

INARA is focusing on children aged less than one year old to eighteen years old that were injured during conflict or while living as a refugee. In addition, a second project was started in early 2017 targeting children suffering from clubfoot. INARA’s medical provision improves physical mobility by reversing disabilities caused by war or while living as a refugee, as well as preventing or reversing disabilities caused by a lack of access to medical treatment. This addresses both the child’s physical ability to accomplish activities such as attending school, as well as their mental health by boosting confidence and self-esteem. As a result, their longerterm impact is to improve the quality of life for both INARA’s beneficiaries and their families. This in turn will build strong and healthy individuals and families who are more resilient in the face of conflict. The proposed program is addressing the existing gap of children with life-altering disabilities in need of specialized treatment and its limited provision. The types of injuries children can suffer in war or while living as a refugee are diverse and there is no one fits-all approach to address their specific needs. Therefore, a very individualistic approach is needed to ensure each child gets the appropriate and best possible treatment. To take on those cases is very time- and cost-intense, hence requests long-term commitment. Public primary health care centers cannot cater for those children, as in most cases, one or even a series of surgeries is needed. The government and the private sector provide the healthcare system in Lebanon. The government only covers Lebanese nationals and therefore, refugees can only benefit from the privatized healthcare system, whose services are mostly not affordable for refugees.

The goal of INARA’s work is to reach as many children as possible affected by conflict, having life altering or life-threatening injuries or disabilities and requiring medical treatment. Aiming to help the children overcome the barriers of lifelong consequences of their disabilities, and give them back the same opportunities as all other children and through this building strong and healthy individuals and families who are more resilient in the face of conflict. This grant will help provide INARA the security to sustain and expand its operations until the end of the year without constraints related to program support expenditures.

Grants awarded to Help protect Women and Children Immigrants

The Foundation has awarded grants to 3 organizations to help protect and promote the best interests of immigrant children in the United States who have been separated from their families.  I am greatly saddened by the horrible treatment families are receiving at our Borders.  I can not support these practices and will help defend and protect the human rights and dignity of these families.  The following organizations will each receive a $10,000 award.

Women’s Refugee Commission: 

The Women’s Refugee Commission improves the lives and protects the rights of women, children and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. We research their needs, identify solutions and advocate for programs and policies to strengthen their resilience and drive change in humanitarian practice. Since our founding in 1989, we have been a leading expert on the needs of refugee women and children, and the policies that can protect and empower them.

Our vision is a world in which refugee and internally displaced women, children and youth:

  • are safe, healthy and self-reliant;
  • have their human rights respected and protected; and
  • inform and drive their own solutions and development
KIND Kids in Need of Defense:

KIND will achieve our vision by:

  • Ensuring that no child appears in immigration court without high quality legal representation;
  • Advancing laws, policies, and practices that ensure children’s protection and uphold their right to due process and fundamental fairness; and
  • Promoting in countries of origin, transit, and destination durable solutions to child migration that are grounded in the best interests of the child and ensure that no child is forced to involuntarily migrate.

Young Center, Immigrant Children’s Rights

The Young Center is a champion for the rights and best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children, making sure that wherever they land, whether here in the U.S. or in their home country, they are safe.

  • We Serve: Unaccompanied children who are fleeing violence, trafficking, abuse and extreme poverty. They are all alone.
  • We Advocate: For the safety and well-being of each child, while they’re detained and throughout deportation proceedings—every step of the way.
  • We Stand: For the creation of an immigration system that serves children.

Your Hands Africa awarded Grant

The mission of Into Your Hands Africa is to empower youth and families in rural Uganda through education and enterprise development. For 19 years, Into Your Hands-Africa has been working with students, families and communities in rural Midwestern Uganda, supporting community empowerment and economic sustainability through education and enterprise development. Activities to meet the mission of the organization include, providing “hand-up” assistance to families to develop their own revenue system, assisting youth in attaining a secondary education, empowering women with tools to attain economic self-sufficiency and creating opportunities for communities to develop stronger ties amongst themselves.

With 19 years of experience, IYHA has learned that education alone will not create a sustainable economic change in rural Uganda. As a response to this need, IYHA is implementing an entrepreneurial and professional development training program that combines education with entrepreneurship. This new program, Life Skills, includes in-class lessons, exposure visits and a livestock project to support students in self-funding their own education. This meets their immediate needs by funding the student’s secondary education while bringing long-term benefits of residual income, food security, and best practices in animal husbandry and economic opportunity for the local economy. Funding provided by the Kathryn B. McQuade Foundation will bridge the enrollment gap by meeting the immediate needs of 60 senior one students and St. James Secondary School. Funding support will provide each student with an education stipend and program admittance in the Life Skills program. In addition, they will receive ten workshop lessons focusing on emotional intelligence, professional development, exposure visit to demonstration farms, technical application and motivation. Year two funding includes three career development and employability lessons including career planning, resume writing, and personal budgeting in addition to three practical workshops. Life Skills senior two students are also gift with a livestock project to begin their business. Year three content includes two workshops on professional development and four practical lessons on running and managing livestock business and understanding the importance of ethical business practices. IYHA staff members visit each student’s home on a monthly basis to review project progression. Year four content includes an ongoing mentorship and group support that is facilitated by IYHA’s partner school. IYHA measures Life Skills program success by meeting these 5 objectives: 1. 60% of participating students continue their personal savings plan from year two through year 4. 2. 90% of participates will demonstrate a 50% increase in business knowledge as indicated by pre and post assessment tests. 3. A minimum of 75% of all pass-on enterprise projects will be completed within 18 months of original enterprise handouts as indicated by the total number of livestock pass-on projects collected by the IYHA’s field officers and Youth and Enterprise Program officers. 4. 50% of students will be able to self-fund at least 50% of their tuition fees with one and half years of project implementation. This is measured through an annual baseline assessments and monthly home visits. 5. Life Skills program will positively fight against gender inequality. Partner schools will demonstrate a 20% enrollment increase among female students at the end of year one. The Life Skills program puts students in the classroom. IYHA’s distinctive approach of incorporating classroom education, vocational training and business classes, along with ongoing support from on-the ground staff; all work in tandem to support student success while improving the local economy. The outcome produced from the Life Skills program includes more girls in schools, increased confidence among Life Skills students, parent support and buy-in, increased English comprehension among students, lower pregnancy rates, and a knowledge transfer in professional development and emotional intelligence.

S.O.U.L Foundation awarded grant

Supporting Opportunities for Ugandans to Learn (S.O.U.L.) Foundation is grounded in community driven development and is committed to fostering sustainable partnerships with rural Ugandans in the areas of education, maternal health, women’s empowerment, and food security in eastern Uganda. Foundational to S.O.U.L’s inception and operations is the belief that all people have dignity and worth, and that together we can transform society to ultimately create a better world. S.O.U.L. works in direct partnership with community members through four program areas, education, women’s empowerment, food security and maternal health.

Understanding these challenges, S.O.U.L. has developed unique educational programs designed to target the underlying barriers to learning for girls. First, S.O.U.L.’s student sponsorship program partners with Ugandan families and 39 schools in the Jinja and Iganga Districts to help families afford quality education. Their Peer mentoring, particularly for girls, results in improved school attendance and retention, positive self-esteem, and healthier life choices. S.O.U.L.’s secondary-level mentorship program pairs older students with younger students, guides them through a curriculum that gives them a valuable support system. In addition, there has also seen a large gap between the technological skills of rural students in comparison to their urban counterparts, and few Ugandan schools in Jinja or Iganga districts, where S.O.U.L. operates, have the resources to overcome this divide. The requested funds will be used specifically for the following activities: 1) Student Sponsorship: Three female university students, four female vocational students, and 11 female secondary students will each receive an academic sponsorship in partnership with her family and a vetted Ugandan school. S.O.U.L. will be financially responsible for half of the costs and the family will be responsible for the remaining half. The sponsorship will include tuition fees, workbooks, a daily hot lunch, and in some cases, boarding. In the Jinja and Iganga districts, there are a limited number of secondary schools within a reasonable walking distance so boarding schools are safer, more cost and time efficient, and generally offer a higher quality of learning. 2) Mentorship: 150 young women in secondary school will be each paired with an older female mentor and will meet with her mentor weekly. Additionally, each participant will be taken through S.O.U.L.’s innovative mentorship curriculum where she will have access to weekly lessons and local guest speakers on relevant life topics. As she gets older, she herself will become a mentor to another girl entering the program, thereby creating a multiplier effect. 3) Technology Training: 150 female participants will be taken through a two-month computer course where she will learn vital computer skills that will help her in school and in the workplace. Upon successful completion of the current level, she will advance to the next level of training the following year. 4) Career Readiness and Entrepreneurship (CRE): Upon graduation from secondary school, vocational studies, or university, each sponsored student and those participating in the mentorship and technology programs will have access to the CRE program which assists young women in finding and getting a job or starting their own business. S.O.U.L. anticipates that 80% of female students in 2018 who graduate from secondary school, vocational school, or university will attend this program. To measure its impact, S.O.U.L. will take an initial baseline survey of each school and participant to gauge their starting point. At the end of each school semester, school year, and mentorship cycle, another survey will be conducted to track growth and outcomes. The surveying tools will track the mentorship relationship, academic performance, skills and learning development, career readiness, community relationships, household economic and social performance, and overall student progress.

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