UEnd Blog

Project Snapshot

Total Cost: $4,650

Lives Affected: 80

Dollars Raised: $1,989

Dollars Needed: $2,661

Living conditions are very difficult in the Kiribamunagama village, part of the Karunegala District in Sri Lanka. This very poor area has just about 65 acres of Seed Paddy acres combined in storage, with most families having no land at all. Most of these families with almost nothing receive income support under the official ‘Poverty Alleviation Programme’, Samurdhi.

This village and region still remains poor due to high production costs and unstable prices given for the harvested crops. All farming must be done under supervision of local instructors and officials, and must meet quality standard minimums to be eligible for paid harvest. Most often this results in the farmers being in debt due to poor quality crops as a result of many hardships.

That is why this project, headed by ‘The Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation’, is designed on using the funding received for this project to create a Revolving Loan Fund for the farmers to be able to afford the farming process. This should enable most of the farming families to farm efficiently, and as a result, produce quality crops for harvest to ensure that their fair return in pay is received.

To learn more about this project, click here.

Join the UEnd:Poverty movement and help change the world with a $5/month membership to U:Powered. Learn more by clicking here. 

Project Snapshot

Total Cost: $13,500

Lives Affected: 300

Dollars Raised: $797

Dollars Needed: $12,703

This project is designed to empower the women of the Lawra District, in Ghana, through the improvement of their living standards. This is expected to help both them and their immediate families throughout the process.

Our friends at ‘FORDG’ (Friends of Rural Development Ghana) are implementing this project, and the plan is to provide the beneficiary women with micro-credit aimed at teaching them how to farm groundnuts. This economic assistance will help lead to well-balanced meals, improved health care, and the provision of basic needs for them and their children.

In the first year, they will be taught basic value-adding techniques using the groundnuts they produce, and the micro-credit shall be directed at enabling each beneficiary to cultivate one acre of groundnuts. The second year, the group of women are trained how to produce different things using the crop such as groundnut oils and cake. Aside from this, they will also be taught how to efficiently manage their resources since they are limited.

To learn more about this project, click here.

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Total Cost: $10,000

Lives Affected: 4,200

Dollars Raised: $8,361

Dollars Needed: $1,639

Building on the success of other water well projects around the world, ‘Change For Children’ is heading a ‘Drilling for Clean Water’ project in Tonkolili, Sierra Leone.

They are teaming up with a local organization to raise funds in order to drill 5 water wells in the Romano Village region of the nation. After a successful water well project was completed in the area in 2007, there was a huge increase in demand for clean water.

This has made it necessary to prioritize the drilling of five more wells. This is great news as these projects significantly help reduce water borne illnesses in the villages, especially amongst children.

To learn more about this project, click here.

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Project Snapshot

Total Cost: $5,084

Lives Affected: 109

Dollars Raised: $3,629   

Dollars Needed: $1,455

Our partners at ‘True Vision Ghana’ are heading a project in Wa, Upper-West Region, Ghana, to assist those caregivers who must take care of at least one AIDS orphan, aside from their family.

Northern Ghana is the most impoverished region in Ghana, and one of the most poverty-stricken areas in Africa. Most of the caregivers have multiple jobs already and do not have big enough profit margins to receive a loan from the bank.

True Vision Ghana hopes to engage these caregivers in the Economic Empowerment Program by giving them small 200 GHS (approximately 126 CDN) loans for a 1-year term with the purpose of starting or expanding a small business to generate income.

To learn more about this project, click here.

Join the UEnd:Poverty movement and help change the world with a $5/month membership to U:Powered. Learn how by clicking here.

Project Snapshot:

Project Cost: $ 5,500

Lives Affected: 5,000

Dollars Raised: $ 125

Dollars Needed: $ 5,375

Change for Children is teaming up with their partner organization, KIHEFO (Kigezi Healthcare Foundation), by assisting families/entrepreneurs in Kabale, Uganda, who have been affected by civil strife and HIV/AIDS.

This project was initiated as a response to the growing need for financial assistance required by extended family members having to take in orphaned children.

Many families living in the area simply need a helping hand in the form of a small investment for increasing agricultural production or enhancing entrepreneurial skills and abilities. 

To learn more about this project, click here…

Join the UEnd:Poverty movement and help change the world with a $5/month membership to U:Powered. Learn how by clicking here…

Project Snapshot:

Project Cost: $5,000

 Lives Affected: 200+

 Dollars Raised: $2,226

 Dollars Needed: $2,774

$5000 will enable 25 women in a village to take literacy classes for one year, including health, human rights and financial management training. Their savings are also matched for a household project.

This five-year project will improve the quality of life and standard of living for families living in marginalized communities through the promotion of

1)   Education

2)   Leadership

3)   Health

4)   Economic development

Students will be given the opportunity to accumulate savings in a formal financial institution during their participation in classes as part of financial training.

CAUSE Canada is an organization focused on the implementation of responsive, integrated community development in parts of the world where international assistance programs are under-represented.

To learn more about this project, click here.

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Snapshot

Project cost: $4,900

Lives affected: 2,640

Dollars raised: $377

Dollars needed: $4,263

The sorry state of most villagers’ teeth, both in terms of caries and gingivitis, attest to the real need for low cost dental services, oral hygiene education and better nutrition. There are various reasons for the deteriorated condition of people’s teeth:

1) Their level of poverty, which doesn’t allow them to receive dental care

2) A general lack of knowledge about oral health care

3) Increased intake of foods high in sugar content

4) Chronic exposure to metal toxins from water and soil

Atzin, an organization working in Mexico since 1997, has set up a dental clinic and have been training hygienists since then. Costs are kept low for regular adult visits and free for impoverished elderly and children under 13. Results have been excellent and Atzin looks forward to training more dentists and helping more people.

To learn more about this project click here »

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This week’s Project of the Week is UEnd Poverty’s very own U:Powered project. It’s a project near and dear to our hearts and is ultimately what will help UEnd stay afloat.

See, every dollar donated to a project through UEnd goes to those projects, leaving administration costs up to private donors and our U:Powered membership.

$5/month is all it takes to help change the world.

For more information about U:Powered and to learn about some other great benefits to becoming a U:Powered supporter (like a trip to Africa), click here.

Project Snapshot

• Lives affected: 1750

• Project cost: $10,000

• Dollars raised: $893

• Dollars needed: $9,107

Here is a project that might pull at your heart-stings. In parts of Bangladesh, men make a living working in the mangrove forests of Sundarbans; something they’ve been doing for centuries. However, these parts are also the habitat of Royal Bengal Tigers, which presents a real danger to the men. Thousands of men have been killed over the years and leave their widows to fend for themselves. (watch this short YouTube video about the relationship between Tiger and worker)

In most cases, these widows are seen as bad luck, often blamed for their husband’s deaths.  They also cannot marry again because of this labeling, are not welcome into their family’s homes, and chastised like this for the rest of their lives. Even the government wasn’t willing to help.

LEDARS, Bangladesh has stepped up to help these women by: setting up self-help and support groups for victims; lobbying against the government to improve human rights; teaching fishing techniques to improve food quality and boost commerce; training women to tailor clothes and create small businesses; setting up children’s learning centres and providing free education for victim’s children; handing out micro-finance loans to enable women to create businesses; and building better drinking water facilities and sanitation facilities.

This project needs your help.

Seriously, they are in need of $10,000 to fully fund this project. To date, they have raised only $893, leaving $9,107 left. We need to see this project raise more funds.

If you can, please help by:

1) Donating directly or by giving a gift card » HERE

2) Raising awareness of this cause by Tweeting it or sharing on your Facebook wall, this link: http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/82

3) Making this project your gift of choice for an upcoming birthday, wedding or special event (this can be a fun way to see major funding toward a project).

4) Joining U:Powered Membership for $5/month so we can continue to raise awareness and funds for projects like this.

LEDARS website: http://www.ledars.org/livelihood_security_program.php

Snapshot:

• Lives affected: 156

• Project cost: $4,100

• Dollars raised: $441

• Dollars needed: $3,659

Boraluwewa village in the Kobeigane Divisional Secretary’s Division in the Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka, has 30 families who work for a producer supplying coconut husk chips to an exporting firm in the district. There are several such producers but there is a large unsatisfied demand for these chips at present. There have been several groups of women who have been working on a piece rate basis for these large producers who have started producing chips on their own for these agents of the exporters with support from banks.

Today, a small team of entrepreneurs have gone out on their own. BUT, they need machinery and monetary support.

Check out our update from the field posted November 2011.

So what can you do?

Learn more about the project. Learn a bit about the South Asia partnership with Canada. Give as a gift card or share with a friend.

Want to do more?

We’re looking for cross-Canada representation. Interested in becoming a City Director for UEnd:Poverty? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us to learn more about making a difference in your city and the world.

Also, if all you can spare is $5 per month to help make the world a better place; that’s awesome. We’re looking for 5,000 people to help support UEnd operations by joining U:Powered for just $5 per month. Oh and you can win a trip to Africa. Learn more here.