INDEGO AFRICA
Project Grant - Education and Training
Indego Africa, founded in 2007, is dedicated to empowering artisan women in Rwanda and Ghana through employment opportunities and education. The AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has been a longtime supporter of Indego Africa, with a Challenge Grant in 2013-2015, Project Grants in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020-2021, and Fellows grants in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. In 2022, another Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to Indego Africa for providing opportunity for 65 women in northern Ghana to participate in the artisan economy. The program consists of 1) Basic Business Training (2 days/week) for 2 months, 2) Dye Training and dye processed bolga, 3) Access to Capital and Knowledge of Microfinance Training, 4) Design Training and QC Refresher, 5) Renovation of existing workspace in Bongo, 6) Research and secure 2-year rental workspace in Bolgatanga for Asibi cooperative.
SUNSAR MAYA
Project Grant - Education and Training
Sunsar Maya is a small non-profit working in Nepal to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged children and women through community-based services. They directly serve 220+ children and women in Mahalaxmi (Lalitpur) and Jorpati (Kathmandu). Three AllPeopleBeHappy Project Grants were awarded to Sunsar Maya in 2018 to 2021 for its SuMa Women’s Literacy Program. This program teaches 100+ women conversation and written English, Nepali, and mathematics. The English skills enable students to use communication devices, i.e., cell phones and computers which use English characters. By building the women’s literacy and numeracy skills in their native language, they are able to more easily manage daily tasks, such as shopping and paying bills, and perform life skills such as navigating government offices, using a bank account, and participating more fully in their communities. In 2022, we awarded a fourth Project Grant of $12,500 for teacher salary support (7 full time teachers and 5 part-time teachers) and the expansion of the literacy program to a third community center (Machhegaun).
LITTLE SISTERS FUND
Project Grant - Education and Training
The Little Sisters Fund (LSF) provides in Nepal a Basic Educator Training (BET) Program, which seeks to replace the teacher-centered rote memorization learning system with a child-centered teaching methodology. In 2015, LSF trained 121 teachers from 12 schools and impacted 2,350 students. In 2016, LSF newly trained or provided refresh training for 360 teachers and impacted 9,000 students. In 2017, LSF trained or re-trained 258 teachers. With grants from AllPeopleBeHappy foundation of $7,500 in 2015 to 2020, $4,640 in 2021, and $5,935 in 2022, approximately 50% of the cost of the BET Program is being covered.
A BREEZE OF HOPE
Project Grant - Education and Training
A fifth $10,000 Project Grant has been awarded to A Breeze of Hope Foundation (ABH) in 2021 to support its school-based sexual violence awareness project in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Since 2009, ABH has been changing school cultures and helping those who’ve suffered sexual violence to disclose the crimes committed against them and begin healing. ABH has reached over 100,000 people through this longstanding effort, most of whom are of low or impoverished socio-economic status. During 2017-2021, A Breeze of Hope 1) conducted 457 workshops in middle and high schools in Cochabamba, reaching 20,761 students, 2,558 parents, 1,160 teachers, and 2,087 school-based professionals and justice officials, 2) provided students with current information on their human rights, ways to get help, and the benefits of disclosing sexual violence, and 3) ensured that professionals trained in trauma-informed response are prepared to provide legal assistance, therapeutic support, social services, academic support and advocacy to children who disclose sexual violence during or after workshops.
SUNFLOWER GLOBAL
Project Grant - Education and Training
Sunflower Global’s PALE (Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education) program is an afterschool education program for upper primary school girls living in the Kibera Slums of Nairobi, Kenya. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, even as schools and other non-profit organizations have been forced to shut down, Sunflower Global’s team was able to apply for a waiver to stay open and continue serving their students. They have provided three handwashing and sanitation stations to serve their 300 PALE students and 100 SEED (Sunflower Early Education and Development) students, as well as their 10 employees and others in the neighborhood. They have distributed over 400 masks and important food staples, such as Unga (for making the Kenyan staple food Ugali) rice, and sukuma wiki (a staple vegetable) to over 200 of their beneficiaries’ families. Sunflower Global has distributed clothing for children and adults to over 200 of their beneficiaries’ families and distributed sanitary pads for over 300 students during the Covid-19 pandemic. They have provided academic support, tutoring materials, and safe spaces for academic tutoring since schools closed in Kenya in March of 2020. The AllPeopleBeHappy foundation is continuing its support of Sunflower Global’s many efforts.
THE SUPERKIDS FOUNDATION
Project Grant - Education and Training
Founded in 2016, The Superkids Foundation has an innovative solution to improving education in Latin America. They mobilize children as agents of change; parents who haven’t studied beyond third grade struggle to keep up with the new economy and don’t have the time or skills to help kids out, but 4th-6th grade children do. “Kid Teachers” has been volunteering their time teaching younger kids to learn to read. In 2019, The Superkids Foundation had 50+ Kid Teachers in Paraguay signed up for its three-week incubator program at the local teacher’s college. Matched with mentors, Kid Teachers learned not only to teach literacy but to confront their fears and empower others. After the training program, the Kid Teachers worked with local elementary schools to tutor younger students. The 52 Kid Teachers spent 5,000 hours teaching younger kids to read, and 250 volunteers spent 6,000 hours in mentoring, life skills workshops, and community activities. The AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has awarded three $10,000 Project Grants in 2019, 2020, and 2021 to support the salaries of their seven staff members (two directors and five facilitators).
MAJI SAFI GROUP
Project Grant - Education and Training
A Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to the Maji Safi Group for Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Program expansion in Rorya District, Tanzania. Maji Safi Group, ‘Clean Water Group’ in Swahili, was founded in 2013 to promote health and disease prevention in underserved and impoverished areas through holistic community empowerment and by working predominantly with local women and youth. The program consists of utilizing school clubs to teach girls about MHM, distributing hygiene kits (disposable pads, washable pads, menstrual cups, soap, periodic panties), painting educational murals, broadcasting radio program, and conducting group discussions. This project will expand the MHM program to 7 new secondary schools, reaching 350 girls.
PROJECT ALIANZA
Project Grant - Education and Training
Seasonal migration of coffee farm families leads children to experience fragmented education and pervasive child labor incidence. It is estimated that over 320,000 children in Nicaragua between the ages of 5 and 14 are working, predominantly in the agricultural sector. Since 2015, Project Alianza has established 5 schools with Finca la Aurora, a large coffee farm situated among many smallholder farms in a remote coffee growing region. The schools have provided primary education to over 2,000 children. In 2015 and 2016, grants of $5,000 from AllPeopleBeHappy foundation were used to enhance this education initiative by administering anti-parasite medicine to the children, building a community garden, hosting health programs, creating a small computer lab, and expanding teacher training programs. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, three $10,000 grants are being used to support the Community Allies Program (CAP), which trains local women to teach literacy, hygiene, gender equity, and environmental conservation to 1,250 children in 20 schools.
SAHA GLOBAL
Project Grant - Healthcare
Saha Global’s mission is to reduce waterborne disease in impoverished rural villages where the water supply comes from stagnant ponds. Saha Global sets up entrepreneurial women with a chlorinating business that provides clean water at a price that all can afford. Saha Global provides the women with equipment (three 200L drums, one 1,000L polytank, metal stand, chlorine tablets, and multiple Safe Storage Container (SSC), one for each village family) that uses locally available materials, train the women on how to run the business, mentor them over time, and closely monitor the water quality and consumption for 10 years. In 2017, a $10,000 AllPeopleBeHappy Project Grant supported the opening of 6 new water businesses in the East Gonja District that provide clean water to approximately 2,400 people. In 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, four more $10,000 grants were awarded to Saha Global to continue in this endeavor. Since its founding in 2008, Saha Global has opened 278 water businesses that provide jobs to 794 women entrepreneurs in rural Ghana and clean water to 112,320 people.
FRIENDS OF NEPAL PARIWAR FOUNDATION
Project Grant - Healthcare
For many years, Nepal has had one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in Asia. Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation, for the past 12 years, has provided assistance for salaries of nurse-midwives in four rural clinics in Nepal, and for in-service training and transportation expenses for the nurse-midwives, through the Friends’ partner organization in Nepal, BBP-Pariwar. With the $67,840 of grants from the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation in 2010 to 2022, Friends has 1) added 4 nurse-midwives to the 4 clinics, 2) upgraded the in-patient delivery facilities, and 3) built another remote clinic. Each nurse-midwife provides reproductive health services to an average of 1400 persons per year, so the addition of 4 nurse-midwives strongly impacts the community.
THE PANGEA NETWORK
Project Grant - Healthcare
The Pangea Network equips women and youth with education, life-skills and resources to improve their overall quality of life and realize their full potential. The Network has over 600 active members in cooperatives across Kenya, and in 2017 created its Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). The WHI provides much needed training workshops for greater understanding of the female reproductive system, the male reproductive system, sexually transmitted infections, the science of fertilization, stages of pregnancy, proper nutrition during pregnancy, the birthing process and menopause. With the help of a $10,000 grant from the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation in 2018, the Network completed 11 workshops in 2017-2018, training 447 women in 15 coops (caring for 1,800 children). A second $10,000 grant was awarded in 2019 to conduct 40 days of WHI training to 250 additional women in July to December of 2019. A third and fourth $10,000 grants in 2021 and 2022 support the Tubonge Uwazi Dada Initiative (TUDAI) which builds on the prior Women’s Health Initiative by giving Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health (ASRH) talks to 375 adolescent girls (by using 15 local peer educators after 5-days of training). TUDAI is also giving 3 days of training to 200+ parents and 100+ community members.
LIFENET INTERNATIONAL
Project Grant - Healthcare
In 2022, we awarded the third of three $10,000 Project Grants to LifeNet International to improve healthcare for 56,000 Burundians. For the first two grants, over the course of two years (2022-2022), LifeNet provided high-impact, capacity-building monthly trainings in medical and management best practices to health workers in the Bugendana Clinic and Maternité Makamba Healthcare Facility in Burundi. This third Project Grant is providing healthcare providers at Ruzo Health Center in Burundi with trainings in medical/clinical practices (5 modules) and management best practices (4 modules) along with personal mentoring, access to digital tools, and need-based equipment and supplies.
GREEN EMPOWERMENT
Project Grant - Healthcare
A Project Grant has been awarded to Green Empowerment for construction of a clean water system in the community of San Marcos, Bolivia. San Marcos is located 50 miles north of Rurrenabaque, Bolivia in the Amazonian lowlands, and is only accessible by boat via the Beni River. The community currently collects water from the Beni River, which is contaminated by natural, and human caused contaminants. The clean water system consists of a 50-meter deep well, an elevated concrete water tower, a chlorination system, and metered distribution systems with taps for each of the 28 houses (140 people). The total projected budget is $80,815, with the Foundation contribution being $10,000. This flood-safe project was developed by two former AllPeopleBeHappy Volunteer Service Award recipients (Steve Meicke and Lisa Hall) and it is being used as a prototype that will hopefully be deployed elsewhere in the area.
UGANDAN WATER PROJECT
Project Grant - Healthcare
A $10,000 Project Grant has been awarded to the Ugandan Water Project to provide 550 Ugandan primary school students at two schools with on-site rainwater collection systems, water filter stations, and handwashing stations, coupled with water and hygiene education. This self-contained clean water system (2 Rainwater Collection Systems (10,000L PE-tank); 6 H2O-filter stations; 4 hand-washing stations) for each school will eliminate children’s need to leave class to collect water from far-off contaminated sources. Ugandan Water Project will also train approximately 4-7 staff at each school in system maintenance and filter use, and train student leaders and students in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) best practices. This solution has proven not only to eliminate water-related safety concerns and support students’ health, but also to redeem an average of 90 collective hours of increased time for instruction per school per week.
EDUCATION ACROSS BORDERS
Project Grant - Healthcare
A Project Grant of $14,000 has been awarded to Education Across Borders for a WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) initiative in the Dominican Republic. Education Across Borders’ mission is to create lasting solutions to extreme poverty in the most vulnerable communities in the Dominican Republic, including two bateyes, home to over 2,000 Haitian Dominicans living in deplorable conditions. The need for latrines in the bateyes is significant (currently only 1 in 5 families has access to sanitation), and clean drinking water is expensive and scarce. The first Project Grant in 2021 allowed for the building of 11 new composting latrines for 22 families, the repair of 15 latrines for 30 families, and the delivery of 100 water filters. This second Project Grant will build 10 new composting latrines, repair 17 latrines, purchase 50 water filters for new families, and deliver a second water storage container to 15 families.
TANDANA FOUNDATION
Project Grant - Sustainable Agriculture
The Tandana Foundation collaborates with communities in Mali’s Bandiagara District on initiatives that address community priorities. In late 2020, the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation awarded a Project Grant of $9,477 to the Tandana Foundation for the creation of two school gardens, at the secondary school of Ondogou and the primary school of Saredina, Mali. These gardens permit students to earn income with which they can purchase school and first aid supplies, enrich educational experience, and provide nutrition to the students. The Tandana Foundation help the students elected management committees to lead their garden efforts, train these committees along with teachers and parent representatives, install fences to protect the gardens from livestock, and purchase seeds, fruit tree seedlings, and tools to get the gardens started. In 2021-2022, the same project is being carried out in 2 new primary schools in Mali, Andjine Nantanga and Tegou.
INTO YOUR HANDS AFRICA
Project Grant - Sustainable Agriculture
Into Your Hands Africa (IYHA) is teaching farming techniques to new and existing farmers in 10 villages in Kikinene, Uganda. This Demonstration Farm Project comprises two interconnected components, a Farm Field School (FFS) and a Master Farm Program (MFP). The steps being taken are: 1) purchase land, 2) public communication, 3) introductory meeting, 4) recruit 25 participants, 5) 2-day lead trainer’s farm visit, 6) 6 months of business and agricultural classes, 7) harvest and selling, 8) open house day for 400 people, and 9) pick top farmers as future trainers. This project empowers marginalized people in rural Uganda by fostering opportunity, learning, and self-sufficiency. A Project Grant of $7,900 from the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation is being used to support this effort.
MAGPIE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Project Grant - Sustainable Agriculture
The Magpie Community Foundation (MCF) is a group of organizers and Lakota elders committed to addressing the needs of the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. Pine Ridge is one of the most impoverished Reservations in the country, with an unemployment rate of 80-90%. Many families have no electricity, telephone service, running water, or sewers and must use wood-burning stoves to heat their homes. Pine Ridge residents often need to travel up to two hours to reach a store with reasonably priced produce and other foodstuffs of decent quality. In 2016, MCF set up gardens on the Poor Bear family land east of Allen, SD and seasonally distributes the produce to area residents. In 2017, with the help of private funders, MCF was able to dig a well with a hand pump to irrigate the gardens and provide drinking water. A Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to MCF for the purchase and installation of a solar pump and drip irrigation system to support this indigenous food sovereignty initiative.