GlobalGiving.org: Help Vulnerable Women Become Leading Change Agents

Portraits of Transformation

Jamie Persons — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:29:05 GMT

Global Grassroots is proud to present our interactive annual magazine, Portraits of Transformation, available online at www.globalgrassroots.org/annualmagazine

Meet the individuals, families, and communities that drive our work.

Explore stories of personal growth and social change, told through photography, writing, and video.

Discover inspiration in their reflections, challenges, and triumphs.

...Please join us in celebrating our impact in 2011, and looking ahead to new growth and continued transformation in 2012.

Global Grassroots works to support women change agents among survivors of war and disaster. Under-served, undereducated, and overburdened, these women would otherwise lack the resources to promote systemic change. But they have profound wisdom about their communities and innovative ideas for social change. Their resilience, courage, and creativity are transforming the world, one community at a time.

These are their stories…

"The [Global Grassroots] training has taught me to think big... Now, I can go somewhere and knock and ask for a grant or anything. Apart from that, in my own community, I have become a conflict resolver. If in the neighborhood there is a conflict, women come to me – they trust me. I go with them to solve those conflicts. It helps me to change the quality of life in my community.”

- Jeanette Muteteri, treasurer of Have a Good Life

“Now I feel like I can move... I can join the other people...I have come to understand my own value. I know that I can participate in the team. I can help them; I can give my ideas.”

- Christine Nyirandeya, team advisor of People of Love

2011 Impact Assessment & Training of Trainers

Jamie Persons — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:48:24 GMT

photo by Laya Madsen

Release of Global Grassroots’ 2011 Impact Assessment:

Over the course of ten weeks, Julia Oakley, a dual Masters student from Columbia University conducted an independent impact assessment of our Academy for Conscious Change in Rwanda. The following is an excerpt. Download our full Impact Assessment here.

The social impact of Global Grassroots via its trained and funded ventures is approximately 32,500 Rwandans... Most teams are able to measure their social impact in some form, and all operating Global Grassroots ventures have visible signs of positive impact on their communities. Some, like Let Us Build Ourselves and Construct the Family, work intensively with their target populations; others, such as Light In Our Home, have more of an indirect but possibly widespread social impact….Global Grassroots should support teams to maximize their potential social impact on one hand, but continue to prioritize self-initiated growth and idea generation on the other. Global Grassroots' strategy of participatory development in fostering the creativity and levering the inner knowledge of local persons is its strongest asset and its key to sustainable social impact.

On vocational skills and health/women's rights training for vulnerable populations:

“I know how to claim my rights and how to help other women to claim their rights, too. This helps me be safe and independent.” -Beneficiary of Construct the Family

On girls’ sanitation and reproductive health:

"Now I am able to discuss with my children reproductive health and change of life, and tell them this is normal. I encourage them to share this with me. Before, I was ashamed to talk about it, but now I no longer have that shame and I can advise them about the consequences of their actions. This project has helped me to know my responsibilities as a parent and as a neighbor. We need to support girls and promote a bright future for them." -Beneficiary of Think About The Young Girls

Global Grassroots Hosts Training for New Conscious Change Practitioners

This fall, Global Grassroots hosted seven women representing three countries (America, Rwanda, and Haiti) to participate in the first training of trainers in our curriculum, methodology, philosophy and trauma-healing skills for the Academy for Conscious Change. Over the course of two weeks, participants learned how to work with traumatized populations, how to use mind-body skills to reset the nervous system and address post-traumatic stress, how to use participatory development methods to catalyze locally-led solutions in a developing country among a foreign culture, how to use their own understanding of personal transformation to support conscious leadership in others, and how to develop a sustainable non-profit from scratch.

Having completed the curriculum training, these new Conscious Change Practitioners will next conduct a pilot volunteer training with a partner organization in the US, and participate in a year-long correspondence course in personal transformation for change agents. Once certified, Global Grassroots Practitioners will take a leadership role in expanding our programs in new countries with interested partner organizations.

Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about how to bring Global Grassroots' Academy for Conscious Change to your community.

Global Grassroots Founder & President featured in Huffington Post:

Gretchen Wallace Empowers Women In Rwanda And Other Post-Conflict Societies

Our work has only been possible with your support, and we extend our deepest gratitude. We know that women have the potential to lead conscious social change, but many lack the resources and training to advance their own ideas. We need engaged investors to help us continue to support women’s initiatives for social change. Please consider a donation to help Global Grassroots continue to support the social ventures of grassroots change agents worldwide.

New Online Social Entrepreneurship Program Under Development

Gretchen Wallace — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:46:54 GMT

We are excited to share, Global Grassroots has begun the development of a web-based eAcademy for Conscious Change, which will allow women’s groups in developing countries globally to access our social entrepreneurship curriculum online. To date, we have received emails from over 160 women’s groups from 45 different countries requesting our programs. We will be choosing a pilot group of women's organizations from four continents to participate in the beta version of the elearning program. Our online academy will be accessible for free, providing an interactive program that will support the development of grassroots-level social entrepreneurship projects. We anticipate the development of the site will be complete in late autumn for piloting, with a public launch in early 2012.

Next week Global Grassroots will launch its new Conscious Social Change certification program, with seven women from three countries. Once certified, this corps of trainees will be able to deploy globally to offer our core program upon request to partner organizations. Global Grassroots is eager to collaborate through partnership to support women change agents in new communities.

This progress has only been possible with your support and we extend our deepest gratitude. As we expand, Global Grassroots needs engaged investors to help us make these exciting possibilities a reality. We know that women have the potential to lead conscious social change, but many lack the resources and training to advance their own ideas. Please consider a donation to help Global Grassroots continue to support the social ventures of grassroots change agents worldwide.

Expanding the Academy for Conscious Change into Uganda and onto the Web

Jamie Persons — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:20:35 GMT

Global Grassroots is currently preparing to expand our Academy to Northern Uganda to serve women and girls abducted and forced to serve as combatants and sex slaves by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Thousands of women have returned home after the war, many of them traumatized, stigmatized, HIV-positive, and caring for children. While there are many initiatives working to rehabilitate male former child soldiers, there are far fewer resources for women who are returning with the added trauma of having experienced sexual violence. We conducted an extensive feasibility study in late February/early March, speaking with individuals and organizations about the landscape of need and opportunities for partnership in Uganda. Having met with over 20 local organizations throughout the northern region of the country, we have identified strong potential partners and have chosen to locate our program in the Pader district. We intend to initiate the Academy program for at least 5 new teams in Uganda later this year.

We have also had over 100 women’s groups in 40 countries request our programs. This summer, we will launch a web-based eAcademy which will allow our training curriculum to be accessible online to serve this broader need and to disseminate our social entrepreneurship curriculum globally through local internet cafes. Global Grassroots' e-learning Academy will allow us to deliver our program through a free subscription service to grassroots teams throughout the developing world. In so doing, we will provide training, skills and tools to support small-scale, grassroots-level social entrepreneurship among underserved women’s groups in impoverished countries. In most cases, these women would have no other access to the training needed to start their own non-profits and design their own solutions to the social issues in their communities.

During this time of growth, Global Grassroots needs engaged investors to join with us to actualize these exciting new possibilities. Our vision is that all women will have the capacity and resources to lead conscious social change, sustained by their own communities. You can help to make this a reality. Please consider a donation to help Global Grassroots continue to support the social ventures of grassroots change agents worldwide.

Women in 40 Countries Seek Global Grassroots Support

Gretchen Wallace — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:17:38 GMT

GLOBAL GRASSROOTS YEAR-END UPDATE AND LOOKING AHEAD TO 2011

2010 has been a turning point for Global Grassroots. We have endured hardship with the economic downturn, but are emerging leaner, more creative and more strategic. We’ve evaluated our social impact, repositioned our training program as the Academy for Conscious Change and integrated new mind-body practices for trauma healing. We’ve brought these holistic practices to earthquake survivors in Haiti and, by request, to American relief workers serving in disaster zones. We’ve doubled the number of civil society organizations our Academy has helped launch in Rwanda, and are investing in technology and partnerships to expand our reach. Today, our 300 Rwandan change agents have established 16 non-profit organizations, which are working at the root level of a social issue facing women and girls, benefiting an estimated 10,000+ people each year.

In June Global Grassroots hosted our 2010 Rwanda Academy for Conscious Change in the rural village of Byimana, inviting 7 new teams represented by 34 women and 3 men into the program. The teams are now in the project development phase, which involves 3- 6 months of hands-on high engagement support. They are working on the following issues:

Violence and discrimination against mothers of handicapped children
Violence, exploitation, disease and other issues facing women associated with the lack of access to clean water
Domestic violence
Violence against and rejection of single mothers
Malnutrition
Teenage mothers with unwanted pregnancies (age 12-14)
Education of girls, especially children of prostitutes

We look forward to posting their project descriptions on GlobalGiving in early 2011 as they finalize their venture plans and budgets.

As we move forward into 2011, we have over 100 women’s groups in 40 countries requesting our programs. In response, we are expanding our hands-on approach into Northern Uganda next and possibly Haiti as well. We are developing new courses for a range of new audiences, including US students, donors and practitioners, to help generate revenue for our expansion. We are preparing to package and license our program model for partner organizations to implement in regions we have yet to explore. And finally, we are embarking upon a web-based eAcademy for Conscious Change to reach women worldwide through local internet cafes.

In partiular, Global Grassroots' web-based e-learning Academy will allow us to deliver our program via a free subscription service to grassroots teams throughout the developing world. The purpose is to provide training, skills and tools to support small-scale, grassroots-level social entrepreneurship among underserved women’s groups in poor countries, who have no other access to the training needed to start their own non-profit and design their own solution to the social issues of priority to them in their communities. Global Grassroots will require significant sponsorship to launch our eAcademy for Conscious change, and invite you to partner with us to make this innovation possible.

Global Grassroots needs engaged investors to join with us and our change agents in a three-part-partnership to actualize the possibilities in front of us. We invite you to read more about our progress in our 2010 Year-End Magazine (available for download on our home page: www.globalgrassroots.org) and consider a donation. Thank you for your continued support, which allows us to invest in the social ventures of grassroots change agents worldwide.

GLOBAL GRASSROOTS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports conscious social change for women in post-conflict societies. Our Academy for Conscious Change is a 12-18 month social venture incubator, offering non-profit management skills, leadership training, personal transformation practices, seed grants and high-engagement support that enables vulnerable women change agents to launch their own grassroots solutions benefiting women and girls. JOIN US.

Links:

Transformation for Women in Rwanda

Gretchen Wallace — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:06:53 GMT

2010 Academy for Conscious Change

GLOBAL GRASSROOTS UPDATE

Global Grassroots US team recently returned from Rwanda where we visited our existing project teams and initiated our 2010 Academy for Conscious Change.This Academy cohort includes 37 participants representing 7 of the 30+ teams who applied. Having completed our intensive training, our teams will now embark upon the development of their own social ventures over the next 18 months. They are a highly motivated group working on a range of critical issues facing women:

Violence and discrimination against mothers of handicapped children Lack of clean water access and associated violence, exploitation, and disease Domestic violence Violence against and rejection of single mothers Malnutrition Teenage mothers with unwanted pregnancies (age 12-14) Education of girls, especially children of prostitutes

We anticipate great progress from these teams as we work with them over the next few months to develop sustainable ventures with a measurable social impact. We'd like to ask for your help in making that happen. Your financial contributions enable our efforts on the ground to improve the lives of the worlds most vulnerable women.

NEW TEAM PROFILE: A Friend Indeed: Combating stigma and violence against unwed teen mothers

In Rwanda sex before marriage is considered inappropriate, and so pregnancy out of wedlock is highly stigmatized. Pregnancy and birth control is often considered a woman's responsibility and the boys frequently take little responsibility. Even if the pregnancy was the result of sexual violence or exploitation, the girls, sometimes as young as 12, may experience rejection from family members, and possible expulsion from their homes. Forced into absolutely dire circumstances, there are stories of mothers falling into transactional sex in order to survive.

One of the teams from this year's academy, "A Friend Indeed," is working to advance women's rights awareness, entrepreneurship training, reproductive health education and parenting skills for single mothers. Its members also aim to educate their larger community through theater to fight the stigma against young, unmarried women who seek access to contraception. They have already established an initial program to provide emotional support and parenting help to unwed mothers who are on their own, visiting the mothers of 120 children once every two weeks, and providing education about sexual safety and birth control. Once they develop a sustainable program in their first location, they will expand their work nationally.

BRINGING BREATH AND YOGA TO RWANDA

For the first time in Rwanda, Global Grassroots implemented the Breath~Body~Mind (BBM) program developed by Dr. Richard Brown and Dr. Patricia Gerbarg (www.haveahealthymind.com). This program, integrating Qi Gong and Coherent Breathing, was introduced by Global Grassroots earlier this year in Haiti to support trauma relief for earthquake victims. We are conducting a program evaluation over the next year in Rwanda to assess how this group's symptoms of PTSD change with the continued practice of BBM.

We were also thrilled to have Yoga practitioner Jessica Spain join us to offer yoga each morning during the personal transformation practice portion of the program. On the first day she taught, yoga was met with a room full of nervous and embarrassed giggles, but the next day everyone told us that they wanted another session! It became a regular part of our morning and prompted Jessica to develop special series of poses she called "Yoga for Skirt Wearers".

Gretchen Wallace has coauthored an article with Dr. Gerbarg on the use of mind-body practices in post-disaster scenarios that will be published in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. Gretchen will also be teaching a course at Kripalu September 6-10 for relief workers in Haiti on using breath for managing trauma exposure when working with traumatized populations. This offering is a collaboration with Suzanne Jones of YogaHope and David Emerson of the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Initiative.

Be a part of Global Grassroots! Help us continue to offer innovative programs to train and support local change makers.

Thank you!!

Rwandan women doing yoga

A Team's Community Theater Performance

Links:

Global Grassroots

New Change Leaders Enrolled for 2010 Academy

Gretchen Wallace — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:07:22 GMT

Light in Our Home training program

2010 ACADEMY FOR CONSCIOUS CHANGE BEGINS Global Grassroots will host its next Academy for Conscious Change course beginning June 14th, enrolling a new class of 5-6 teams of change leaders in its 18 month social entrepreneurship incubator. Applications have risen sharply to nearly six times the available spots in the new class. Global Grassroots is targeting a rural area to the east of Kigali, where it has not yet had an opportunity to reach.

GLOBAL GRASSROOTS EXPANDING GLOBALLY THROUGH PARTNERS & TECHNOLOGY To date almost 100 women's organizations in 40 countries have requested partnership or access to Global Grassroots training. This past term, Global Grassroots engaged a team of MBA students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College to analyze this market opportunity and design a global scale strategy to replicate our work on an international level. The Tuck team recommended two core strategies. The first strategy will use a web-based, interactive, e-learning platform to disseminate our curriculum to teams of change agents working at the grassroots level. The second strategy involves training selected partner organizations to license and deliver our complete Academy program model to their own target populations. Global Grassroots is now in the process of securing funding to begin to roll-out each strategy by year end.

NEW PROJECTS LAUNCHED & OPERATING In May, Global Grassroots project team, "Have A Good Life" completed construction and began operations providing access to water for 200 families, including those once sexually exploited in exchange for water access. Thank you to the PECO Foundation and Cherokee Elementary School in Scottsdale, AZ for making this project possible.

Further, Global Grassroots' newest project, "Light in Our Home", which is dedicated to ending domestic violence through education, held its first training program with local leaders, including district executive council members, sector representatives, women’s council members, youth representatives, and the director of education for the district. Thank you to the Christ Church Board of World Fellowship and the St. James Trust for making this project possible.

This month, Global Grassroots is preparing to launch two new projects. APROFER will fight violence against women and ensure access to property rights by training local community representatives to be advocates. Turwubake will engage married couples, domestic workers and their employers in dialogue to fight sexual and physical violence in the home.

THANK YOU Without your support these successes would not have happened. But the need remains great and we ask you, once again, for your help as we stretch to reach dozens more vulnerable women with ideas to transform their own communities. Your help is vital to this effort. Thank you for your continued support of the women of Rwanda and the work of Global Grassroots.

Have a Good Life water access point

Links:

View new short films of our projects by filmmaker Aaron Soffin

New Partnerships and New Projects Launched

Gretchen Wallace — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:39:12 GMT

Let Us Build Ourselves Literacy Class

We are delighted to share we have formed a new partnership with Jewish Helping Hands and deepened our partnership with the J.A. Clark Charitable Trust to provide mezzanine funding for several of our existing projects to help sustain and expand their operations in 2010. This will allow:

Hard Workers, a project fighting sexual exploitation of vulnerable women for water, to expand to a second site, serving another 1000 people

Think About the Young Girls, to complete construction of a new bathing facility at the site of their latrines which protect girls from rape and ensure they do not drop out at the age of menstruation. It will also provide feminine products and supplies for one year.

Achieving a Better Life, to produce new plays fighting domestic violence and, with the additional support of the Rebecca Davis Dance Company, to make a new documentary film.

Let Us Build Ourselves, to continue offering its literacy and math classes to a new class of 20 vulnerable women.

Invincible Vision 20/20, to expand its literacy classes to another 226 women and add an animal husbandry program to compensate its teachers.

We are thrilled by the support of these partners and the continued social impact of our teams into their second and third year of operations.

We are about to complete construction on another water project, Have a Good Life, which should be operational by March, and anticipate launching three more projects fighting violence against women before April. We welcome any of your comments and questions about the projects.

Thank you for your continued support!

Hard Workers water project

Think About the Young Girls latrines

New Video from Rwanda

Gretchen Wallace — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:56:13 GMT

On this eve of Thanksgiving, Global Grassroots wishes to thank you for your invaluable support. Please click on the links below to view our 2009 video annual report to see our impact this year in Rwanda.

Our 260 graduates of our Academy for Conscious Change served 8000 vulnerable women and girls this year. This would not have been possible without you.

We invite you to join us in 2010 so that we may continue to support conscious social change driven by and for grassroots women.

There is only one week left in the GlobalGiving Give More Get More Challenge, where your year-end donation will be matched. Please consider making a gift today to support our work in 2010.

Thank you. Gretchen Wallace Founder & President

Links:

Global Grassroots Reaches 40,000 Lives

Gretchen Wallace — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:56:58 GMT

30 women learn to write. Venture: Let Us Build Ourselves

Global Grassroots held its annual Gathering of Graduates from its Conscious Change Academy in Kigali this August. Over 75 grassroots change agents attended, enjoying new workshops on conciousness practices, creative problem-solving and financial sustainability. Joining us from the US were graduate student Lydia Humenycky of Carnegie Mellon University, Melissa Collum - a Fulbright Fellow and social studies teacher from Wisconsin, and Jennifer Holden - former board member, athlete manager and photographer from Utah.

Over the course of 10 weeks in the field, Lydia completed an in-depth Impact Assessment of our Academy program. Her analysis show Global Grassroots is moving steadily towards its goals in supporting marginalized women in becoming leading change agents. In only two years, we have helped establish 11 civil society organizations, 6 of which are moving into their 2nd and 3rd year of operations! Our graduates' ventures have collectively touched upwards of 40,000 lives across Rwanda, combating domestic violence, illiteracy, sexual exploitation and lack of clean water. We invite you to download our 2009 Project Portfolio which we have just posted under our GlobalGiving profile to learn more about each project you have helped make possible by supporting our Conscious Change Academy.

Over a dozen projects remain in our pipeline, which we have also just begun to post separately on GlobalGiving.com. Please consider supporting a specific project by searching under Global Grassroots or projects supporting Women and Girls in Rwanda. Our goal is to launch 10 more projects by year end. Thank you for your continued support of our work.

90 prostitutes learn new skills. Venture: Meg Foundation

Water delivered to 250 families. Venture: Work for Life

A Postcard from Rwanda Conscious Social Change Program

Alexis Nadin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:35:38 GMT

Rwandan women

Alexis Nadin is a student at American University and former intern at GlobalGiving. This summer, she is traveling through Africa and visiting a number of GlobalGiving projects. Alexis visited this project on May 27, 2009. She writes:

During our brief time in Rwanda, we have heard about a broad range of problems: young girls being attacked in latrines; female business owners unable to read, write, or use a calculator; disabled women trading sex for water; women forced into prostitution to afford food for their children; and many others. How can one organization possibly address such a broad range of problems? It’s simple: empower the grassroots to find and implement their own solutions. This is how Global Grassroots has been able to change so many lives. They teach women about the power they have in their own communities, work with them to identify the root causes of their local problems, and how to develop sustainable solutions. Further, this organization equips women with skills to develop a strategic plan, to fundraise independently and to operate as a lasting organization.

At every project we visited, we found women that had gained confidence in themselves, and, consequently, had begun to respond to problems in their local communities. In their own words, they have become “agents of change.” The success of Global Grassroots is best exemplified in the achievements f the four projects we visited during our stay. These projects are briefly described below.

Project 1: Helping School Age Girls Stay Safe

In a community thirty minutes outside of Kigali, a group of teachers noticed that girls were dropping out of school, and others were complaining of being attacked and harassed in the latrines. We saw that the latrines were crumbling, and lacked any privacy (no doors, ceilings, etc). According to the president of the group the boys and girls use the same latrines, which led to the violence. Because of a lack of privacy, girls were too embarrassed to come to school during their period. Today, through a partnership with Global Grassroots, this group of teachers has began to build new latrines (separating boys and girls) and to educate the community about issues facing young girls. Because of the networking skills this group learned through Global Grassroots the local government has also contributed tremendous support, and more latrines.

Project 2: Improving Quality of Life Through Access to Water

In another community, a lack of access to water forced women to walk two hours to collect water, children to miss school because they were busy collecting water, and handicapped women to trade water for sex. Having attended Global Grassroots training, a group of women from a local church decided to set up a rainwater collection system to provide water access to the community, as well as a source of income from the profits. Aside from providing the training, Global Grassroots provided the otherwise unattainable start up costs (such as tanks) for a project that still serves 200 families today.

Of the 22 Global Grassroots projects throughout the country, time only allowed us to visit two others. For one project, Global Grassroots helped the group buy 15 sewing machines to teach former prostitutes an income generating project to escape the sex-trade. The last project taught female business owners to read, write, and do basic math, making it possible for them to profitably manage their businesses. One woman, Zahara, happily told us that now she can help her children with their homework. The countless stories about women like Zahara are a testament to the phenomenal work of Global Grassroots.

GlobalGiving is committed to incorporating many viewpoints on our 600+ projects. We feel that more information, especially from eyewitnesses helps donors like you continue to support organizations doing great work in the community.

Think about the Young Girls Project is building latrines to protect 635 girls from rape in school.

Gretchen S. Wallace — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:06:53 GMT

Project “Think About the Young Girls” (TAYG) recently completed their baseline study to measure the extent of violence facing girls and the need for more protection and reproductive health education for students. They have since followed up with an educational workshop for 94 teachers, 233 young people and six local restaurants in order to begin tackling this enormous issue in their community.

TAYG will soon be setting up anti-violence clubs in schools and performing plays about the issue to reach the general public. As a result of their proactive community education process, the team has already raised the matching funding needed from their own community to construct the latrines. (This matching fundraising challenge was structured to encourage local fundraising for longer-term sustainability and support their desire for local involvement in the latrine building project.) TAYG will begin construction of the latrines at the end of this month, breaking ground on Umuganda – a monthly day of community service in Rwanda.

HelpWomenHELPWOMEN

Gretchen Wallace — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:38:00 GMT

HelpWomenHELPWOMEN By Gretchen Wallace - Founder & President March 8, 2009 is International Women’s Day. Did you know, globally, 1 out of 3 women has been beaten, coerced into having sex or abused?

Join our HelpWomenHELPWOMEN Campaign to advance grassroots solutions to end violence against women in Rwanda.

Help us raise $25,000 by March 8, International Women’s Day, to:

* launch FIVE social ventures (details below) * designed by courageous Rwandan women * to HELP nearly 3000 other vulnerable women, and * END the domestic violence, sexual violence and discrimination they suffer daily

That’s less than $10 per woman.

HelpWomenHELPWOMEN end the violence in their communities. DONATE NOW to support 1, 2, even 10 abused women.

Our HelpWomenHELPWOMEN Projects include:

LIGHT IN OUR HOME Expected Impact: 574 people This group is working on sexual violence against women and girls. The team will begin by creating anti-violence clubs in secondary schools, where sexual abuse and exploitation of minors is a major issue. They will work closely with local leaders to ensure that cases of sexual violence are reported to and followed up on by the legal authorities.

ASSOCIATION DE LA PROMOTION DE LA FEMME ET L’ENFANT RWANDAIS (APROFER) Expected Impact: 500 people This project in the rural district of Kibuye is working to educate the community on domestic violence and women’s property rights. Serving estranged couples, youth about to get married, and widows in property disputes with their in-laws, APROFER will train community leaders to follow up on cases of domestic violence with the local authorities.

RELAX Expected Impact: 815 people This group is working in the rural village of Mutara, where up to 50% of women are victims of domestic violence. The team will teach women about their rights and identify local representatives who will be given cell phones to report cases of domestic violence when they occur. The team will work closely with the police and local authorities to improve the legal protection of women who experience violence, and seek to change community norms that tacitly condone domestic violence by shifting stigma toward the men who abuse their wives.

HAVE PITY AND COMPASSION Expected Impact: 555 people This project will work with couples in the rural community of Mutara District to counsel them on domestic violence and women’s land rights using theater and educational films to fight social norms that accept violence against women. By training a team of counselors to work directly with families, they hope to promote stronger relationships in which men respect their wives.

KIND PEOPLE Expected Impact: 405 people This project works in the rural district of Ruhango, where many women are not able to access their land rights, because they did not get legally married, and domestic violence is pervasive. This team will train couples throughout their district on women’s rights and will set up monitoring and reporting teams to help victims report their problems to the local authorities and seek help.

Please help these women help other women by donating now!

Links:

Click here to see Projects in Development & Recently Launched

Cell Phones Protect 2250 Rural Women from Domestic

Gretchen S. Wallace — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:09:35 GMT

In 2008, we trained 80 new change agents who have designed 26 social projects that will serve thousands of marginalized women. We've launched ten of these locally-designed projects so far and have another 16 in development.

One project currently ready for launch is in the rural Mwendo district of Rwanda. Here, 50 percent of women experience some form of violence, including denial of property rights, sexual violence (marital rape) and domestic abuse. The "Relax" project will train local women representatives about domestic violence and provide them with cell phones to contact the police when a woman in their community has been beaten. This project team of ten will serve 2250 abused women in their first year, ensuring quick and effective intervention. Please help us raise $5000 to launch this newest Global Grassroots project.

To read more about this and Global Grassroots' other projects, please visit: www.globalgrassroots.org/projectsummary.htm

New Latrines Help Rwandan Girls Avoid Rape in School

Gillian Porcella — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:37:52 GMT

Help us fund our next social project in Rwanda and save 635 girls from rape in a rural primary school's unisex latrine.

Issue: In most primary and secondary schools, there are only unisex latrines. Not only are many girls embarrassed to use the toilet due to insufficient privacy and sanitation, but many are also targets for sexual assault. As a result, girls suffer from poor academic performance and high drop-out rates.

Solution: This 35 member team, Think About the Young Girls, in rural Byimana will build separate sanitation facilities for girls and educate the community about girl's biological needs.

Impact: Once the separate sanitation facilities are built, 635 girls in the Byimana primary school will no longer be targets for sexual assault while going to the bathroom, nor will they be too embarrassed to go to school once they begin menstruation.

Social Change Leaders

Gretchen S. Wallace — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:39:51 GMT

We just learned that two of our women project leaders have decided to run for Parliament in the upcoming elections! One of these women is leading a project involving expanding knowledge of property rights among rural women, and the other is working on raising awareness of the rights of women so as to combat domestic violence. Their engagement in national government will help ensure that these same concerns will have consideration among lawmakers and further encourage women’s participation in decision-making at all levels. We anticipate that several more of our women changemakers will decide to participate more actively in local and national government over the next year, as they experience the possibility of creating meaningful social change in their communities. We have 14 more preparing their project plans for seed funding and implementation, and six more teams in the training we are leading this month. We expect all social ventures will be ready to launch by year end.

MEG Foundation School

Gillian Porcella — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:46:37 GMT

We are delighted to share the first project to be launched as part of our 2008 Rwanda Social Project Portfolio. Before year end we anticipate 19 to 24 more social issue organizations will be ready for implementation.

MEG FOUNDATION SCHOOL

THE PROBLEM: A team of 45 men and women have identified women’s involvement in sex work, and in turn exposure to and lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS as one of the greatest problems facing their community. In Kinamba, Kigali, many women and girls have been left widowed or orphaned from the genocide and have felt forced into prostitution with little to no education and skills to secure other jobs. One team-member states, “After talking to the women, we have helped them to decide to leave prostitution and change their lives, but they need skills training in order to be able to earn a living without prostitution.”

THE SOLUTION: To help vulnerable women earn a sustainable living without exposing themselves to HIV/AIDS through prostitution, the MEG Foundation School plans to offer training in tailoring, workshops on HIV/AIDS prevention and reproductive health as well as literacy and English classes.

THE IMPACT: In year one, the MEG Foundation School will provide 60 prostitutes a sustainable and healthy alternative for themselves and their families.

Please make a donation today in support of our 2008 Rwanda Social Project Portfolio and Conscious Social Change Program.

Project Leader HACIMANA Seraphine and team have reduced the vulnerability of their neighbors

Gillian Porcella — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:27:17 GMT

HACIMANA Seraphine - ABANYAMURAVA's Team Leader

During Global Grassroots' most recent trip to Rwanda in January, we visited Gahanga, a community on the outskirts of mountainous Kigali where project leader HACIMANA Seraphine and the ABANYAMURAVA team gathered their neighbors to speak with us about their first water delivery earlier that week.

Gahanga was formerly forced to rely upon a dirty water source located at the bottom of the valley. Before attending Global Grassroots training, Seraphine noticed that not only was the two-hour water collection too time intensive for her busy community, it often left those physically disabled or infected with HIV from the genocide relying on men with bicycles to collect water in exchange for money or sex. After graduating from our training, Serpahine and her fellow team members realized that they had the power to combat this issue head-on.

This dedicated group of 17 women decided to design a water tank project that could reach over 60 households, including Gahanga’s most vulnerable neighbors by providing clean, reliable and affordable water. However, the quickly-rising price of cement and professional labor meant that our original Global Grassroots grant would no longer cover the construction of the tank foundation. Instead of abandoning their project, ABANYAMURAVA put their newly-learned creative resourcing skills to work and decided to sacrifice their time and wages to come together and build the foundation themselves. They were then able to rely upon the newly designed rain-water collectors during rainy season, and saved what was necessary so that they could ensure their first water delivery once dry season began.

During our visit, community members shared with us that they were incredibly grateful for the water tank. It meant that they no longer had to forfeit part of their busy day to make the arduous journey down the valley to only return with dirty water. Children were now on-time for school and mothers had enough water to cook for their families throughout the day. We also learned that people were now able to clean their houses and themselves much more often, which they told us greatly improved their quality of everyday life. We were especially pleased to hear that with the new tank, many women were no longer sexually exploited because of their need for water.

What was most thrilling to see, was the pride exhibited by these women. With the help of Global Grassroots, these community members learned to properly diagnose an issue and found the solution to promote social change on their own. Seraphine, who is married with seven children at the age of 38, has been approached by several individuals requesting that she share her skills and guidance so that they too may combat issues within their own communities.

We are incredibly proud of the ABANYAMURAVA team who has proven the validity of their project name in Kinyarwanda. These “hard workers” have truly shown us that they are willing to sacrifice in the spirit of improving their community.

Global Grassroots team members, Allison and Gyslaine learning ab