UEnd 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

You may have noticed as you browse through our projects that there are tabs at the bottom of the page and updates added to the landing page on a quarterly basis. We call this proof of impact here at UEnd.

What is proof of impact? We want you to see the impact of your gifts on the projects that you have given to. We believe that if you can see the impact, you will be more likely to get involved and understand that your gifts no matter how small really do make a difference in places where extreme poverty exists.

Think of a pebble thrown into still waters, the ripple keeps spreading out inpacting the entire surface of the water. The same is true for international development work when done the way that our partners do.

You have heard a few stories over the last couple of weeks. Using The Post Hurricane School Construction Project run by Change for Children as an example, let’s dig down into a project to collect the information you need to make an informed decision.

The front page will show the latest updates from the field- or proof of impact for your dollars spent- in this case building a school for the local community. There are two updates one from Jan 09 and another from June 09. At the bottom of the page you will find a tab for Photos. Click on this to see photos of the project and the community. If the community has good internet access we can get videos but extreme poverty and internet access are not usually synonymous. You will see this is the case here but there are some great photos.

When you go through the project page, you will see that Change for Children’s approach to projects is a truly sustainable community development one; by which we mean that the solution is developed by the community with the aid of the program taking into account local capacities, culture and causes of the issue/s. To find out more about the organization you can go to the folders on the right side for fast facts or click on the link in the project title for more information.

For information on the town of Comitancillo, Guatemala click on the link below the project title for the town name. Once there you will see that Change for Children has several projects addressing different aspects of the local community. This means that Change for Children is practising good international development approaches as they are impacting more than just one group in isolation. In fact they are workiing on literacy for women and children, the lack of a school, women’s empowerment and leadership development.

If you want information on the Country of Guatemala, click on the country link.

For quick facts on the specific project go to the right side of the front page. There you will find number of people impacted, project budget, and start date. For more information on what the organization hopes to achieve through the project, go to the bottom of the page and click on the tabs. the best one is the intended outcomes. When you read the intended outcomes, the field updates often make more sense.

That is pretty much the map for ferreting out all the information on a project that our website can give you. Now do your own searchs on projects that interest you.

Thanks for helping to change the world!

This post will continue the focus on UEnd projects.

Last week we focused on one particular project and why it was effective from a sustainability perspective. This week we will continue to speak to this but come at from the perspective of the project, in their own words. UEnd calls this proof of impact. It is what makes UEnd different from other agencies. We ask all of our projects to give us quarterly impact statements from the projects. We believe that it helps to hear from the people receiving the funds. It puts a face on the people and their efforts to get out of poverty. It also helps to put a context around what seemingly small budgets can do in a place like Africa.

This time we will look at the Care and Aid Program for AIDS Orphans. It is a True Vision Ghana (TVG) project.

The context:
- This project works with children living with HIV/AIDS and orphans of AIDS. TVG believes that these children deserve to be treated with equality, dignity, and respect.
- The reality is these children are often the victims of marginalization and stigmatization in their communities through no fault of their own. They were/are the children of parents with AIDS.
- The Care and Aid program is one part of a multi-pronged approach working to reduce the stigma as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS in Northern Ghana. For this project, we will provide opportunities for these marginalized children to integrate into the wider community by supporting their basic needs, education, and strengthening their ability to build relationships through other recreational activities.
- Although all 40 orphans supported by the project are currently living with extended relatives or other caretakers, they are not receiving sufficient support to meet basic needs such as food, medicine, and access to education.

About Ghana:
Northern Ghana has higher rates of poverty than southern Ghana and the Upper West Region in particular is one of the most impoverished regions in the country. In Northern Ghana, approximately 65% of the population lives in the poorest quintile, reporting annual expenditures of less than 40 cents per day in 1999 (Mazzucato et al. 2008).

The project impact from a participant’s perspective:
This is Diana’s Story. I am Diana Boyiri who is ten years of age. I come from Tizza in the Jirapa-Lambusie district of the Upper West Region. I am the second born of five children. I attend school at Fongo E/A primary school in the Wa municipality and I live in Dokpong with my aunt Prospera.
I was seven years when my dad died and a year after that I lost my mum too rendering me an orphan. I was told my parents died of strange illnesses which was suspected to be AIDS. After their death, my siblings and I were left alone with nobody to care for us. By then my elder sister was in junior high school and she used to skip school in order to work as a labourer for people to get some income for us to survive on whilst attending school.
Diana (right) with her 3 younger siblings. All are orphans in the TVG program.

This is how we survived until the intervention of our only concerned relative (an older aunt who had a better job). Unfortunately she fell ill of breast cancer and died. After her burial in Accra, Aunt Prospera , our younger aunt who was taking care of our sick aunt came to Wa to take care of us.

Aunt Prospera, though not a high-income earner, has been catering for us all this while. She works as a domestic cleaner in a hotel/restaurant in Wa. She has been doing her best but we sometimes have to cope with what she can afford and we are left alone sometimes without guidance because our aunt has to work long hours to earn income. Aunt Prospera could afford to put only myself and two of my siblings in school. The other two were not in school and TVG helped put them in school this academic year.

Editor’s Note:
Questioning Diana on what she aspires to become in future and also her thoughts about TVG, this is what she said: “I want to pursue nursing as my future career and so I aspire to be a nurse in order to help people get cured of their illnesses and don’t die like my parents did. TVG is very beneficial to me and my siblings because it is helping us realize our future dreams.”

Diana’s story is inspirational. She went from being orphaned to being put through school (as opposed to being forced to work to get food for the family) and dreaming of helping and educating and others so they do not have to survive through the same hardships. If you do the math it is only $105.00/ child to give them a bright future with hopes, dreams and poosibilities of not living in poverty. We believe this is a good investment of donor funds, do you? We certainly hope you think so. Stay tuned as we will bring more of the stories and updates from the field to show you the impact of even small donations.

To see the full update from the field in Dec 2009 click here.
To see some photos from the field click here

1. Microcredit extends small loans to the poor who can’t get regular loans, pulling themselves from poverty becoming self sustaining families giving back to the community.
2. Help a child sick through building a water project results in a healthy child, parents return to work, a better future for family, support for other community members
3. School lunch program in Sierra Leone- kids learn to grow and care for vegetables, improve their diet, their health, teach their parents and other community members
4. A school readiness program- kids not able to stay in school are taught basic literacy skills by women from the community trained to be teachers

Take anyone of our projects as an example- they focus on the skills needed to help the community help itself out of poverty so once the funds are gone the community continues to grow.