UEnd:Poverty Blog

We hear it all the time: “How do I know my money is going to good use?” Well, we’ve mandated that we share with you every project that has succeeded or hit a milestone or needs more help. Here we’d like to share with you 12 projects that have seen a major change in their outcome since they started:

1) While only 23 families were targeted to benefit from the original project proposal, 37 families have accessed the micro-credit revolving fund (loans totaling over $6000). Visit this project to learn more: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/140

2) Tony Zelaya, a Miskito youth from the community of Tuburus in the BOSAWAS rainforest is a perfect example of someone who could have benefited from having a high school in his community. Here’s why: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/137/

3) Change for Children’ Manager of Int’l Projects, Lorraine Swift, travelled to Nicaragua in July 2011, where she met with project partners to launch “Food in the Forest” initiative, and Miskito youth video conferenced with North American kids about the farming challenges they face. Read more: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/136

4) Since May 2011, KIHEFO, Change for Children’s partner organization in Kabale, Uganda, has held 2 workshops focusing on improving nutrition in the context of food security and has seen many take part in micro-credit programs. Learn how it’s helped: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/139

5) Although these micro-loans for AIDS orphan caregivers have seen huge success, learn why some haven’t been able to repay their loans: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/142

6) So many great things happening with the Holistic Home Improvements project in Sierra Leone : http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/64

7) How amazing. High attendance rates and good participation in the literacy classes are yielding very positive learning results including a 92% pass rate: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/60

8) Fantastic rates of borrowing and repayment in the Peace Through Business Development project in Sierra Leone: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/67

9) Great things are happening for these women in Gautemala as they learn about leadership and businesses: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/61

10) Five more classes in five more communities were started in 2011, helping women learn to read: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/62

11) 316 participants learned basic business skills and received their first $65 loan to grown their business: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/65

12) Great news coming from CAUSE Canada’s Holistic Improvements project in Honduras that will make you smile: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/63

Project Snapshot

Lives affected: 80

Project cost: $12,447

Dollars raised: $55

Dollars needed: $12,392

Project Description:Classes are offered in family planning, pre/post natal care, exclusive breastfeeding, menopause, nutrition and first aid, as well as financial planning, budgeting, and saving. Students have the opportunity to save money while enrolled in classes. Once they graduate, these savings are matched one to one for up to $100 per student. This money is applied toward a project or item benefiting families or community.

Lives changed
Sierra Leone: Of 89 women participating in the Koinadugu district,Mary stands out. Through this program, she learned about household sanitation and new ways to care for the health of her children. Through the savings match program, she saved money to invest in her palm oil business. She has seven children and a small business to run, but still finds energy to be involved in rebuilding the village’s water system by restoring the dilapidated dam and pipelines.

Guatemala: Cleofa Tomas Perez lives with her husband and ten children in Tulilen,the poorest municipality of Guatemala. Cleofa’s participation in classes has not only affected her life and given her hope, but has uplifted the lives of those around her. “When I go home, I share what I learn in class with my whole family and my neighbours. I don’t want to just listen, I want to do it.”

What you can do? Check out this project’s Page on our website to learn more about it. You can also give a gift card to someone on behalf of this project (say, for Valentine’s Day?) or you can give directly.

Cheers!

Oh Carla… so happy!

Follow Carla’s adventures as she bikes Africa to End Energy Poverty: www.carlabikesafrica.com

Project Snapshot:

Lives affected: 350

Project cost: $7,424

Dollars raised: $408

Dollars needed: $7,016

Twinning is about establishing formal linkages for the purpose of deriving benefits in terms of social, economic, educational and political development of beneficiaries involved. The pilot twinning project established by Healthy Child Uganda in partnership with Faculty of Development was about attaching a student to a village and with the help of a health trainer and the Village Health team, there would be consistent interaction right from needs assessment, planning, design and implementation of an intervention to address the challenge identified. This was a fruitful initiative that provided students with the opportunity of experiencing the process of development in a real life community setting. 

The one year period of engagement with the community enlightened the students to the reality that once a community is mobilized and empowered to benefit from the opportunities in their environment, they can give birth to sustainable initiatives with minimal support from government.

What you can do

Check out the Students For Change project and learn more about why you might be interested in supporting it, giving a gift card or donating directly.

Friday Photo

Micro-Credit For Families Of Malnourished Children

As part of Change for Children’s Agriculture & Micro-Credit to Combat Infant/Child Mortality Project, the micro-credit loans component has the potential to make lasting and sustainable change in the region.

Visit this project http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/140

Give $5 as a gift card to a friend http://www.uend.org/dt/gifts/new?project_id=140#

Project Snapshot

• Lives affected: 300

• Project cost: $13,500

• Dollars raised: $793

• Dollars needed: $12,707

Project Description:

This project will empower women through the improvement of their living standards. This is expected to impact not only their own lives, but the lives of their immediate family as well.

The intention is to provide beneficiary women with micro-credit aimed at helping them get into farming of groundnuts. This will hopefully provide the beneficiaries with economic empowerment that will lead to well-balanced meals for their families, improved health care, and provision of basic needs for both themselves and their children. The project will be for an initial three-year period.

Participants will be taught the best practices in groundnut cultivation for high yields. They will also receive training on how to undertake some simple value-added processing activities using the groundnuts they produce. In the first year, each of the 100 beneficiaries will be given the micro-credit facility to enable her to cultivate one acre of groundnuts.

In the second year, the first group of women will be given training in groundnut oil and groundnut cake production while a new group of 100 women will be selected to benefit from the micro-credit facility. In all this, women will also gain some training on how to effectively manage their resources for maximum benefit. This is necessary since resources are always limited.

What you can do

Follow this project on the UEnd.org website and if you feel like this is something you’d like to donate too, please do. Or if you have a special occasion coming up like a family member’s or friend’s birthday, send them a UEnd gift card for this project.

POTW: Vocational Training for Women - Phase Two.

Project snapshot:

• Lives affected: 35,000

• Project cost: $10,000

• Dollars raised $5,102

• Dollars needed: $4,898

• Cause Sector: Economy - Gender Equality

Project Location: Chipursan/Pakistan 

Project Description: 

The Chipursan valley is located in north Pakistan at the border of Afghan Pamir. Three thousand people live in this remote area and suffer from a harsh climate, inaccessibility, limited cultivatable land, and a short growing season. With people dependent on subsistent farming, livelihood opportunities are very limited especially for women.

Currently there are eleven women’s organizations (representing 300 members) working with the women in the region, 30% whom are literate. Creating livelihood opportunities for the 1500 women remains the primary challenge of these organizations. The goal is to develop vocational training and production centers where women can learn how to use local resources to produce and market various handcrafts.

Each family owns several sheep and the production of products made from the wool of these sheep is a potential income generating activity for women. Traditionally women have been using traditional skills and rudimentary tools to make woolen jackets, caps and other products for home use.

The project aims to upgrade the skills of those women who are already producing woolen garments to put them more in alignment with market needs. This will require the use of improved technologies. Groups of 10 women from each village will be trained to create improved wool products with each village group focused on one specific product. Each group will be provided with basic tools and equipment who can then involve other women to establish a village level business.

UEnd:Poverty, in partnership with HiMaT Indigenous Leadership and Development Centretwishes to continue to assist Guatemalan women and their families in their growth and knowhow, enabling them to become self-sufficient, through education and their own, assisted business development efforts.

Your donations to this project initially touch the lives of a few but the ripple this causes affects generations. With projects like this it is easy to see how a little can turn into a world of difference for someone else and bring us steps closer to ending world poverty.

How can you help? Follow this project on the UEnd.org website and if you feel like this is something you’d like to donate to, please do. Or if you have a special occasion coming up like a family member’s or friend’s birthday, send them a UEnd gift card for this project.

This photo is from a CAUSE Canada project:

To build the capacity of indigenous Mayan women to lead their families and communities to increased well-being, including better health and higher incomes, through microcredit access and business management training.

Visit the project page