For $40 you will provide 3 hoes, 1 sickle, 10kg of ground nut seed, 10kg of maize seed and a kg of beans, which will support a family of six in Mozambique. Provision of farming tools and seeds means more nutritious food for older people and their families.

Indira Jena is a social entrepreneur in India who has ideas for improving education in area slums. Anupama Murthy is an HP employee in Cupertino, California with an eye for Indian social and economic growth. It was GlobalGiving that brought the two together. Murthy was one of hundreds of donors from HP that sent more than $130,000 overseas through their employee giving program with GlobalGiving. "I was looking for a charity through which I could do something for an educational cause in India, and Jena's project looked very interesting," Murthy said. "I have always believed that education is the best gift you can give someone, especially a woman." Jena's project, called Vikasini: educating girls of an Indian Urban Slum, provides girls a healthy alternative to child labor widely practiced throughout the slum of Addagutta. Girls are taught English, computer skills and mathematics.

"In the present scenario there is very little opportunity for girls to exercise their fundamental rights," Jena said. "There is little environment for them to even start understanding what their rights are."

Further, students are shown that they can overcome discrimination, while increasing their self-confidence through sports and other activities.

In total, Jena raised $2,900 for the Vikasini school through GlobalGiving. Much of the support came from non-resident Indians (NRIs) living in the United States.

"People seek better opportunities for themselves and their children, which is why the NRIs themselves left the country," Jena said. "Vikasini is trying to provide the basic right of education for those children still living in Addagutta."

And through GlobalGiving's online marketplace, this mission is getting out to NRIs and the rest of the donor community.

"When I grew up in India, I saw women living in conditions similar to those in the Addagutta slum," Murthy said. "I know about the obstacles these girls have to overcome in order to attend school. The various skills being taught in [Vikasini] will definitely help them get ahead in life, and that's why I chose to donate."

Resources

• Contribute to Vikasini: educating girls of an Indian Urban Slum.
   
• See Vikasini's page on GlobalGiving.
   
• Email Indira Jena for more information about the project.

From Toc Dunlap, President of Creating Hope International, and contact for the Scholarships for Tibetan Bon Refugee children project. Recently, I traveled to Northern India to visit our Tibetan Project in Dolanji and work with our colleagues there. I was so happy to be able to carry with me the $3,300 from GlobalGiving for our Higher Education Scholarship Project. Your donations are making it possible for 124 Tibetan Bon students to get a university education. Most of the Tibetan Bon have been refugees since 1959. Almost all of the higher education students were born outside of Tibet as refugees. A few other students are from Tibet and have come, at great risk, to study about their culture and religion. Of the 124 Bon higher education students, there are 27 students studying at Central Tibetan Institute for Higher Studies in Varanasi, India and 97 students studying for the Geshe or doctoral degree in theology at the Dialectic School at Yungdrung Bon Monastic Center in Dolanji, India.

Donors from around the United States sent $3,300 overseas to help provide University education for refugees that didn't have access to higher education in their country of origin.

The students come from Tibet, Mongolia, India, Nepal and Bhutan. The students are either refugees from Tibet or do not have the opportunity for higher education in the country that they come from. It is very important for the Bon young people to be able to have the opportunity for higher education.

While I was in Dolanji, the Dialectic School graduated six of their doctoral students, all of whom received the Geshe degree, which is equivalent to a PhD in Theology. In the above picture, the young men are featured in their Geshe robes. To celebrate their graduation, students from the local Tibetan school performed traditional Tibetan dances in costumes that they had helped to make.

Thank you again for your wonderful generosity and for your support for education Tibetan youth. If you have questions or would like additional information, please let me know.

Resources

• Read more about the Scholarships for Tibetan Bon Refugee children project.
   
• Check out Creating Hope's Afghan women's education project on GlobalGiving.
   
• Email Toc Dunlap for more information about this project.

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