The Foundation is pleased to announce the following grants awarded in October and November:

• College Guild, to help incarcerated women inmates receive access to education they otherwise wouldn’t have.
• Divine Foundation; initiatives in entrepreneurship, educational/academic support, social skills and community development.
• Blink Now Foundation’s, KVS Scholarship Program.
• Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont, in NC, their “Smart Girl” Program.
• International Rescue Committee,
• Duke University – Duke Lemur Center, Women’s development opportunities in sustainable agriculture
• Finemind, providing mental health services to women in northern Uganda.

The Foundation is pleased to announce August grants.  Even in these difficult times with COVID restrictions, organizations are finding creative ways to continue their missions.

-Squash Dreamers, Helping girls in Jordan gain access to education through sports.

-Mother2Mothers, trains and employs women living with HIV across ten sub-Saharan African countries as “Mentor Mothers” who help  families access essential services and medical care, initiate any treatment they need.

-Circles RVA,   provides the social network, financial tools and emotional encouragement that activate economic growth in Richmond VA.

-Roots & Wings, providing assistance to Foster youth aging out of the system in NJ.

The Foundation awarded grants in June and July to the following organizations:

-IDE Foundation, Farming Facilitator Program for women in Nepal,

-Hope’s Door, providing domestic violence assistance to women in Alabama.

-FINCA Emergency Response Fund in Uganda due to COVID

-AmericanIndian College Fund, Scholarship Program and Indigenous Visionaries Women’s Leadership Program,

-AHALA Children’s Right Foundation, Life Projects

-ForKids, Inc., Rapid Rehousing and Economic Mobility Programs in Norfolk, VA

The Foundation is pleased to announce grants awarded in May 2021.

• YWCA Central Carolina, Women In Transition, providing housing for single women who suffer homelessness.
• Prevention Council of Roanoke County, The Kindness Project, providing area schools with coping methods to fight hate, violence, stress, anxiety and loneliness for K-8th.
• International Anti-Poaching Foundation, Akashinga (meaning Brave Ones), empowering disadvantaged women to restore and manage a network of wilderness areas as an alternative economic model to trophy hunting.

The Foundation is pleased to announce  grants for April 2021.

-Project Gateway, The Empowerment Program, Gateway School in South Africa

-Polaris Project, Survivor Empowerment Initiative, focuses on human trafficking where 80% of victims are women and children.

-TCF-USA The Citizens Foundation, USA- Their Adult literacy Program in Pakistan

-Center for Livelihoods and Support to Sustainable Development,  to help train women and provide them with small business skills in Cameroon, Africa

We are pleased to read that so many educational programs are continuing even in the face of difficulties due to COVID.  These programs endure due to the passion and need of the participants.

The Foundation is pleased to announce 3 grant awards for March 2021.  We continue our support for the first 2 organizations that do amazing work to better the lives of women and Children.  The third organization is new to the Foundation focusing on education.

1. Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF) : Three programs, : Credit Plus, Agriculture and Agro Business Loan Program, Healthy Periods Initiative and the Girls Decide, Literacy.
2. AHALA Children’s Rights Foundation (CODENI); year 2 of Life Projects
3. TeachUNITED:School Accelerator in Tanzania

The Foundation is pleased to announce Grant Awards for February 2021.  In this very difficult pandemic times, these organizations are still working hard on their missions as well as providing help to bridge the issues developed by the pandemic.  These awards are to organizations previously supported as well as new projects.

-Ace Africa, to train and support 200 women to establish and manage profitable agri-businesses based on indigenous organic farming practices and sheep rearing, to provide long-term income security and self sufficiency.

-Rise International to fund one classroom in a primary school being built in Angola…to educate children, empower communities and contribute to the rebuilding of the country.

-Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to  support the Great Expectations Program for foster youth and support Gerald L Baliles’s Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative.

-The Sunflower Global to support their Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education and Sunflower Early Education and Development Programs.

-The American Indian College Fund to provide scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Native women.

The Foundation is pleased to announce the awarding of grants to the following organization:

• Rukundo International, Expanding Primary School in Western Uganda,
• Rural Development Centre Cameroon(RUDEC) , Agricultural Support for Women,
• Living Goods, Uganda County Program, providing healthcare to women,
• The Women’s Home Residential Treatment Program for mental health and substance disorders.

These organizations are working to assist women and children by battling the issues of poverty through education, training, health care.

The Foundation is pleased to support Hibiscus Children’s Center,  Career Pathways to Independence Program.

Hibiscus Children’s Center is a not-for-profit agency made up of a number of programs serving abused, neglected and abandoned children. The Hibiscus Children’s Village is a group home facility; a more home-like setting to help teens successfully transition to foster, adoptive homes, and independent living at age 18.

Each year Career Pathways provides approximately 150 foster youth ages 13 – 17 with the support, structure, and guidance they need to receive a high school diploma or GED. Additionally foster youth ages 15 – 17 participate in career and adulthood preparation activities. Besides work experiences, the program gives these youths career, literacy and personality testing in order to ascertain their interests, abilities and possible career paths. Career Pathways provides weekly practice and information regarding critical thinking and intelligent problem solving, independent living skills, continuing education options, skills essential for getting and keeping a job and work counseling. Foster youth are assigned adult group mentors, receive adult guidance, direction and counseling, before they turn 18. They are also shown possible work, career and continuing education options available to them. This program curtails the vicious cycle of poverty, hopelessness, abuse and neglect as children develop and acquire skills and the confidence to make informed and positive decisions about their future. The program includes a full-time Career Pathways Coordinator who helps each youth explore their interests and encourages education and college options, arranges weekly seminars led by volunteers on career and life skills topics, as well as places youth in internships and pre-employment training for each youth. A full-time Educational Liaison develops an Educational Plan with each youth, provides daily oversight of their academic progress, and acts as a liaison to the school district and other educational entities. Additionally they are provided a part-time Teacher/Education Expert, whose office is located in our on-site GED Lab. The teacher and volunteer tutors are dedicated to assisting foster youth improve their math and literacy skills.