GlobalGiving

With so much of today’s international health news focused on the spreading Zika Virus and the discovery of unfrozen anthrax in Siberia, West Africa’s recovery from the Ebola epidemic has not drawn as much attention. But the work continues! Nonprofits, volunteers, and donors (like you!) need to continue to provide support to the West African states of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and all those who suffered directly or indirectly from the devastation the virus caused. Today, we want to share the titanic achievements our partners have made in their post-Ebola recovery efforts.

Partners supported by your donations to GlobalGiving’s Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund focused on rebuilding, rehabilitation, and prevention in the affected regions.

Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness (THINK) provided shelter and services to 15 new young women at the THINK Safe Home. THINK is currently supporting 43 women, while also establishing a Rehabilitation and Training Center to provide psychological counseling and trade skills training to female inmates in Monrovia.

MindLeaps recognized the lack of rehabilitation for young girls in Guinea. Rebecca Davis, Executive Director of Mindleaps, described their work as helping “girls meet their basic needs, and through this, their feelings of abandonment and worthlessness start to change.”

GlobalGiving’s nonprofit partners in West Africa also focused on  the prevention of future health crises, primarily through education.

IMANI HOUSE, Incprovidedhealthcare to Liberians at their Maternal and Child Health Care Clinic, whilealso equipping 500 local women withhealth literacy to improve their health and prevent future disease outbreaks. IMANI House’s actions truly represent the saying that “Knowledge is power!”

The Welbodi Partnershiptried hard to find a silver lining within the crisis. In their own words, they are striving to “deliver vital messages on how to keep communities safe from a resurgence of Ebola, how to access healthcare and how to tackle some of the most common preventable illnesses.” They are looking to transform “Ebola response projects to projects that support more longer term health improvement initiatives,” such as tuberculosis outbreaks.

PCI-Media Impact’s #ISurvivedEbola campaign has empowered survivors to become leaders in their own communities, helping to educate their friends, families, neighbors on public health prevention and how to respond to an emergency outbreak. PCI-Media Impact has also helped to reintegrate survivors into their societies in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

As always, we are so grateful for your support!  Your donations have not only supported rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts, but are helping to prevent future epidemics through health education and literacy. Despite the end of the immediate crisis, the work continues! You can keep supporting our nonprofit partners in rebuilding, rehabilitation, and education by donating toGlobalGiving’s Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund.

The Safer World Fund is pleased to announce the 2016 Matching Fund Campaign. As of September 7th, donations will be matched 50% by the Safer World Fund. The matching will be applied to donations up to $1,500, and the matching opportunity lasts until funds run out. Help us grow the Safer World network supporting education, training, and health care in Afghanistan and Pakistan by sharing this update with your friends and networks.

The anniversary of September 11th reminds us of the critical role of opportunity for every person who wants to live life with dignity and foster change in Central Asia. Terrorism is a complex phenomenon with no simple explanation. But people have a choice about whether to use violence when seeking political or social justice. This is why Safer World focuses on a few key and select projects providing a better quality of life for those in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The 2016 campaign includes the following projects:

• Afghan Institute of Learning provides literacy and education so that women can support themselves and their families. Afghan Institute of Learning also supports mobile medical clinics and Community Health Workers to reach patients in rural and urban poor areas of Afghanistan.
• Aid Afghanistan for Education fosters peace through year-round education for mothers, girls, and boys. 
• Sahar Education trains teachers and supports education, especially for girls, in northern and rural Afghanistan. 
• Marshall Direct Fund provides entrepreneurial tools including training, equipment, materials, and market linkages in order for women to support themselves and their families.
• The Womanity Foundation is training teachers to improve their performance and that of their students in the classroom and beyond in Afghanistan. 
• Primary Education Project works with marginalized minority groups living in Pakistan’s rural areas and provides education through building effective schools. 
• SHINE Humanity advances mother-child health, hygiene and nutrition in disaster-hit Pakistan by revitalizing healthcare facilities and improving primary and preventive services in rural communities.

Thank you for supporting these projects this year through The Safer World Fund. Donate today and please spread the word to your friends and neighbors!

Dear Project of the Month Club,

Summer is coming to an end here in D.C. and the GlobalGiving staff is ready for cooler weather! In August, we launched the Italy Earthquake Relief Fund in response to the 6.2M earthquake that damaged communities throughout central Italy. We have been busy supporting our partners on the ground responding to the earthquake, and we’re grateful that GlobalGivers like you have already donated more than $170,000 to support relief efforts in Italy. And of course, we have a new, inspiring project to share with you this month.

Last month, 262 of you gave a total of $8,803 to support Big Life Foundation’s Maasai Olympics: Ending Lion Killings in Kenya project, where your donation is going to help fund an Olympic games for the Maasai people in East Africa to help them replace lion hunting as a rite of passage.

This month your donations are supporting Zartonk-89’s ICT as a tool for young voices project, which provides training on information and communication technology (ICT) to help raise the next generation of journalists in Armenia. Vigen Mkrtchyan, the project leader of Zartonk-89, has this message for you:

“Thank you so much for your generous donations.  The whole staff of our organization are greatly thankful to all the people who supported our work.  We deeply value the gesture, which will be the base of the future development and enlargement of our sphere.  Thank you!”

When we asked what $8,800 could do for Zartonk-89, Vigen knew exactly how your donations would be put to use:

“A gift from the Project of the Month Club will go towards training young ICT experts in the communities of all 11 Armenian regions.  This will be realized by Armenian leading specialists of ICT sphere through trainings and seminars.  The trainees will be provided with digital means, theoretical and practical knowledge.  This means that the gift is aimed at voicing the issues in rural and faraway communities, at searching for solution ways and, the most important, at the exchange of experience amongst the young people of various communities.”

It sounds like being a part of the Project of the Month club will lead to some really exciting projects from Zartonk-89. We can’t wait to share their progress with you next month!

Warmly,
Mari Kuraishi + the GlobalGiving Team