Zimbabwe
Batsiranai Craft Project: Harare, Zimbabwe
Batsiranai is a women’s handicraft project that supports mothers with severely disabled children living under challenging circumstances in Harare, Zimbabwe. In addition to living with extreme poverty, these families often suffer from stigma related to local beliefs regarding the origin of disabilities. In addition to stigmatization, 25% of the Zimbabwean population is living positively with HIV. The women create greeting cards, dolls, aprons, baby products, jewelry and bags. They use local materials and are ingenious in creating art from scraps, such as earrings from painted bottle caps! Their handicrafts are sold internationally and sales have allowed the group to expand to 94 members. This project is Championed by Jan Stoner in Hillsborough, CA, and Lynn Poole, a dedicated volunteer in Harare.
South Africa
African Solutions to African Problems: Eastern Cape, South Africa
African Solutions to African Problems (ASAP) mitigates the impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children by building the capacity of Community Based Organizations (CBO) in South Africa. These CBOs and their network of women extend sustainable care to orphans and vulnerable children through education, nutrition, medical and emotional support. By strengthening the extended family and support structures through community based intervention, ASAP is able to support the children. ASAP also empowers women in rural areas by providing them with technical skills and facilitating training, peer workshops and ongoing learning exchange visits, creating a forum through, which they can learn from the expertise of their CBO partners and other indigenous teachers and facilitators.
Uganda
El Shadai Family Foster Home: Uganda
El Shadai Family Foster Home is founded by Stephen Wante, an orphan himself, who was determined to care and educate street children and orphans whose parents had been victims of HIV/AIDS and faced rejection by the society. El Shadai currently offers shelter, care, counseling and support in a safe family-like environment to around 30 children, from age 2 to 19 years. The children come from different tribal and geographical backgrounds, but all share similar history of poverty, neglect, abuse and abandonment. All children are currently attending school and the eldest in the family has recently completed his first year at the prestigeous Mekere University in Kampala.
This project is Championd by Masha Maslova, Srijana Angdembey, Veronica Canton and Olivia Lizotte who reside in the Bay Area. Srijana volunteered with the project in Uganda and returned to the US wishing to continue supporting their programs that care for the orphans. Click here to visit El Shadai web site
Zambia
KnowledgeBeat: Zambia
KnowledgeBeat’s mission is to empower the children of Africa with tools that will enable them to build a sustainable future for themselves and their country from within. The project strives to promote the core qualities of integrity, leadership, entrepreneurship, empathy, passion, civic awareness and responsibility in emerging generations of African children. Their preliminary focus is on the children of Zambia.
KnowledgeBeat develops programs that emphasize underserved regions and subject matter such as basic resources, community involvement, girls advancement and environmental education. This project is Championed by Margaret Word, Sarah Mintz and Annie Hazlehurst who reside in San Francisco. Click here to visit KnowledgeBeat web site
Malawi
Kunyanja Development Organization (KUDO): Malawi
KUDO is a nonprofit based in the Nkhata-Bay district in the northern part of Malawi. The project was founded in 2004 and its mission is to support development activities focussed on reduction of poverty and inequalities to improve the lives of rural people living in the Nkhata-Bay area. Its outreach activities comprise raising agricultural productivity and investments, income generation activities, orphan care, HIV/AIDS sensitization programs, among others. KUDO operates through a network of 110 community based organizations.
Kenya
Kusoma International (LMEF), Kuria District
Kusoma International - Laurenti Mohochi Educational Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to enable access to quality education for children of impoverished and marginalized communities (particularly in the Kuria District of Kenya). The mission of Kusoma International - Laurenti Mohochi Educational Foundation is to empower impoverished and marginalized communities by enabling all children access to quality education, in order to develop their full capabilities and equip them well to fight poverty, ignorance and disease in their communities and the world.
Kusoma International is Championed by Sandra Darrow who resides in the Bay Area.
