On July 27, my GlobalGiving colleague Alexis Nadin and I visited the River Fund in New York City.  We walked through Queens on a hot summer day, following the address we had been given.  We arrived at a house and knocked on the door.  We were immediately greeted and asked to come in to the office, where people were busily working.  We asked for Swami, the founder of the River Fund – New York, and were taken to the back of the house where piles of food were stacked waiting to be distributed.   As we walked among the piles of onions and loaves of bread, Swami told us the history of the organization and the work that it does in the community. 

Every week, 500-600 families come to the River Fund to get food for the week.  The food is...

On Wednesday August 31st I was invited to a press conference hosted by Dell to launch the YouthConnect program in Panama. Panama is the 10th country to receive the YouthConnect program; undoubtedly an acheivement that everyone at Dell should be immensely proud of! As part of YouthConnect, Dell have chosen to sponsor Movimiento Nueva Generacion (MNG) through providing funding and in-kind donations on the tech side (i.e. laptops, computers, software suites etc.), as well as providing mentoring and guidance to the organization in order to ensure the proper allocation of funds and improve effectiveness. 

The press conference was short and sweet: there were three speakers (Martin Alvarez, Deborah Bauer, and Hector Brands), a presentation of a cheque for $275,000, and a reception...

During our field trip to Ghana we travelled to Winneba to visit the Challenging Heights school that serves the local area and educates many of the children rescued from child trafficking and child labour by Challenging heights. On the day of our visit, they were busy building new classrooms to hold computers that are being donated to the school. The older children were helping the volunteers whilst the younger ones ran around playing games during their playtime, laughing and skipping across the dusty playground making it almost impossible to imagine the experiences that some of them have had before reaching this safe haven.

We spent the majority of our trip talking to James Kofi Annan about the organisation and were most struck by how it is his openness and ingenuity that have...

My name is Clinton Misamore.  I am a Field Program Officer for GlobalGiving.  Over the past three months I have been visiting GlobalGiving projects throughout Russia.  On June 15th, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to visit with Petersburg Parents in St. Petersburg, Russia.  I was toured around by Lena Lashkova (International Communications Coordinator.)  Lena provided a tremendously thorough overview of the project and programmatic areas of Petersburg Parents.  In addition to this discussion, I had the opportunity to visit the "nursing project" directly.  It was located in one of the nine state medical institutions that Petersburg Parents is operating in.  

The nurses provide care to the orphan children--all of whom were sleeping...

Hospital Art Work

My name is Clinton Misamore.  I am a Field Program Officer for GlobalGiving.  Over the past three months I have been visiting GlobalGiving projects throughout Russia and the Baltics.  On July 3rd, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to visit with the Childhood Cancer Fund Regute in Vilnius, Lithuania.  I was greated with a welcoming smile and warm hug from Edita (Regute Founder) and a most friendly introduction to Regute operations from Tadas (GlobalGiving Project Leader).  Tadas also encouraged me to stay for their annual party where they bring together around 100 families that the fund is working with.  The fund supports these families in various capacities ranging from medical to emotional support.  The annual party was created to bring everyone...

Kids Playing With Volunteers

Musical Activity

My name is Clinton Misamore.  I am a Field Program Officer for GlobalGiving.  Over the past three months I have been visiting GlobalGiving projects throughout Russia and Ukraine.  On July 6th, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to visit with the All-Ukrainian Youth Public Organization "Service For Peace," in Kiev, Ukraine. I was also fortunate enough to particpate directly in one of their art therapy sessions---making arts and crafts with children who are fighting cancer.

The art workshop consisted of dedicated volunteers making oragami and singing songs with the children.  Toms Silenieks, Project Coordinator, explained to me that the children are really responsive to these activities as it allows them to feel active during their treatment process and...

Showing off our work

My name is Clinton Misamore.  I serve as the Field Program Officer for GlobalGiving.  Over the past three months I have been visiting GlobalGiving projects throughout Russia.  On June 2nd, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to visit with the Advita Fund country staff.   I was also fortunate enough to be given a tour of the medical research and treatment center where Advita Fund works in collaboration with the hospitals doctors and nurses to help treat sick patients.

After speaking with Advita Fund USA as well as their country staff in St. Petersburg, it was clear that the work this organization is engaging in comes from the heart and produces significant deliverables for the cancer victims.  In addition to sourcing bone marrow donors, Advita Fund also...

This month I had the pleasure of visiting with the team at Challenge Your Disability Initiative in Bauchi, Nigeria.  Mainas and his team were extremely welcoming and eager to learn more about how to maximize the use of the GlobalGiving platform.  I also had a chance to visit with the children who were just finishing up studies for the term.  

The children at CYDI's school are very lucky to have the opportunity to benefit from CYDI's work.  In Nigeria children with disabilities face many barriers to completing even primary school successfully.  CYDI works hard to help the children in their program work through their disabilities, so they can enter mainstream schools, and they have successfully helped 15 children overcome barriers and succeed in mainstream...

Last week I visited the Leadership Initiatives team in Bauchi.  Marshall Bailly, the organization's founder, has assembled an amazing team of local leaders who have a knack for bringing folks together to start up small businesses.  From disabled men starting Internet cafes, to subsistence farmers starting to raise catfish, to tailors, to welders, the LI team finds community leaders and helps them start business.  

LI provides training and in some cases a piece of equipment, but the model relies on community investment in the new enterprise.  They seek local people to take a financial stake in the new business, and they keep scrupulous records of each investor's return.  In this way, business are much more likely to succeed and grow.  They work very...

I've been in Nigeria for the last two weeks, visiting a few partners, but mostly trying to figure out why we don't have more Nigerian partners expressing interest in joining GlobalGiving.  I've been impressed by the great NGO leaders turning up at our workshops, and I was blown away by long-time GlobalGiving partner, Friends of the Disabled.  

Chief Aku Christy Ordu started the organization and grew it slowly over time.  Today, it is a tidy, energetic center of skills training for the disabled, literally under a highway overpass.  In her complex she has a tailoring workshop, a welding workshop, a shoemaking workshop, a fish farm, an urban garden, and a clean water baggie plant.  She and her staff just graduated 50 disabled students from a two-year...

Last week I attended the Mrembo project graduation ceremony - which prepares girls for adolence and arms them with the wisdom about their bodies that will help them make better life choices.

VAP's founder, Enouce Ndeche, grew up in the slums of Kamukunji and played soccer addictively....

Clarissa is a GlobalGiving In-the-Field Volunteer. She is visiting GlobalGiving's projects in South America and writing postcards to donors to let them know how their donations are having an impact. Read other postcards from the field here: http://www.globalgiving.org/inthefield/.

If you have visited Buenos Aires before, you most likely think back fondly on a thriving, beautiful city, steeped in culture, and lined with impressive buildings and inviting cafes. Given this image of prosperity, it is hard to imagine that less than an hour from the city center there are areas of extreme poverty; neighborhoods lacking essential services such as gas and electricity. Moreno, a suburb of Greater Buenos...

On March 30^th I participated in a visit to Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of America in Managua, Nicaragua.  I met the amazing team of Mirna, Moises, Isabel and the rest of the Managua staff for WNPA. 

In their organizational philosophy the WNPA believes that “the most valuable assets are the human resources of each country.”  Improving those assets is the real trick.  One of the strategies that the WNPA is working on is learning centers.   There are currently over 70 active learning centers all over Nicaragua that endeavor to train and support individuals and enhance vocational skills.  The training courses encapsulate a wide range of activities such as handcrafts, sewing, beauty, handcrafts, jewelry, knitting, and...

Workshops

Sewing Workshop

The Beauchamp Foundation is an iconic case of someone giving back to their community even if they no longer live there.  Monica Belli-Beauchamp started the foundation in 1998 but has been living in the United States much longer than that.  It was evident from speaking with her that she was passionate about providing support to her fellow countrymen and women.  The Beauchamp Foundation was a direct result of that passion.  

The funding that was raised through this GlobalGiving project literally CHANGED a families life in Nicaragua.  The Beauchamp staff in Nicaragua have already established a solid foundation with the La Boquita community and are planning on scaling these operations up if they can receive enough funding.   

In addition to...

Playground at the school

House in the local community

The vision of Verbo Nicaraguan Development Fund is a lofty one. 

“To equip impoverished Nicaraguans with the tools, opportunities and encouragement they need to care for themselves, create a better life for their family and contribute to the restoration of Nicaragua.”

For many organizations this would seem like a daunting taks—because it is.  However, through a dedicated and passionate staff, long-term community presence, strong international support network, detailed strategic planning, and persistence to achieve excellence, it is my opinion that the Verbo Nicaraguan Development Fund is accomplishing their vision piece by piece.  The organization understands that it’s a long process and their entire team remains...

Whilst visiting the rural villages in the mountains of Guatemala it was very evident to see first hand the vast improvement to general village living standards through Agros’ relationship with GlobalGiving.  This was physically evident through the construction of educational facilities, a basketball court which doubles as a meeting area, corn grinder and greenhouse just to name a few.

 Agricultural development techniques implemented like the greenhouse create more effective crops. One season the produce cultivated was worth US$300.   After the installation of the greenhouse the following season from the same amount of seeding the crop took in US$4000.  This money goes back to the families to improve their living standards.

 Children...

Baby Snowpeas

Kakenya’s Dream runs the only primary boarding school for girls in this district in South Western Kenya – Masai country. It isn’t far from Nairobi but very remote (took me 13 hours to reach). I crammed into a station wagon with 9 other people (arranged as 4-4-1 plus a trunk full of goods). Upon hearing where I was headed, one of the other passengers asked, “Oh. Are you going to Kakenya’s school?” So I guess this place is well-known.

Enoosaen is a small town: a few shops, one "hotel" owned by the chief, and four schools. The school is 2 1/2 years old. Kakenya’s mother (named Ann, but everyone calls her Mama Kakenya) popped in to visit throughout the day. She is known by everybody in town...

I had an opportunity to spend a day and night at Daktari, visiting with Michelle Merrifield and her husband and counterpart Ian.  This was truly an eye-opening experience for me, because I did not grow up with animals in my house.  The closest thing I had to a pet was a goldfish in a tank that my brother, sister, and I foolishly tried to clean one night by refilling it in our bathtub, only to wake up the next morning to see that we had broken the seal of the tank and all 10 gallons had leaked onto the floor.  Being surrounded by wild animals of all kinds, ostriches, warthogs, a leopard, a donkey, a porcupine, etc. was an entirely new experience for me.

That said, I am so grateful to have had the chance to spend time at Daktari...

I had an opportunity to spend a day and night at Daktari, visiting with Michelle Merrifield and her husband and counterpart Ian.  This was truly an eye-opening experience for me, because I did not grow up with animals in my house.  The closest thing I had to a pet was a goldfish in a tank that my brother, sister, and I foolishly tried to clean one night by refilling it in our bathtub, only to wake up the next morning to see that we had broken the seal of the tank and all 10 gallons had leaked onto the floor.  Being surrounded by wild animals of all kinds, ostriches, warthogs, a leopard, a donkey, a porcupine, etc. was an entirely new experience for me.

That said, I am so grateful to have had the chance to spend time at Daktari...

I visited two of Noah’s Arcs in South Africa a little more than a week ago.  The first one, called Kliptown, was located in the Soweto township where a lot of the news-making Apartheid-related tragedies took place.  The Arc is run by a woman named Helen, a member of the Soweto community who has been managing the Arc for several years.  She took care in showing me around the plot of land whose perimeter was outlined on all four sides by portals (long, narrow, mobile rooms outfitted with all the fixings to create classroom space, a kitchen and bakery, and bathrooms for the children to use).  In the middle of these portals was an open play space for kids to have lunch and otherwise enjoy the outdoors.  There was also a small garden kept on...

Last week I had the privilege of meeting Lindiwela, a foster mom and recent widow who has adopted nine South African children.  She lives in a shack in a township where piles of trash lie on the sides of unpaved roads, electricity and running water are near non-existent, and unemployment is higher than 40%.  Two of her nine children are HIV+, and one is blind and dumb and had been raped twice by the age of eight.  As I listened to Lindiwela tell the story of how she came to be a foster mom, I saw a piece of paper with words of inspiration on her wall.  The first line on that page read, “Oh how you are blessed.”  When I read this I cried.  In the midst of all that was around her, she still had so much joy...more joy, more...

I had the pleasure of visiting the Hope Academy, a part of the Ambassadors in Sport program, in South Africa.  The program was started in 2008 by Mark Slessenger based on three principles:  Football, Faith, and Future.  The goal is to use Football (the US equivalent of soccer) to inspire inmates serving up to 10 years in prison to choose constructive paths for themselves while serving time and after they are released.  The impact this program has had on its participants is palpable. 

Thulani, a second-year soccer player, gave me a tour of the Academy.  Beds are made every morning, school is attended every day, and football practice is taken seriously.  Thulani and his comrades seek education, hold upstanding...