Thank you for supporting Julie Foudy Scholarships For Military Daughters this past month!

We raised $2,192 from 90 donors in July to support military daughters. This means that you helped provide two full scholarships for daughters of military servicemen to attend the Judy Foudy Sports Leadership Academy last week. Alan, the father of one of the scholarship recipients had this to say:

"I'm writing to say thank-you ... it’s nice to know my 20 years of military service is still appreciated. Without your scholarship, my daughter's dream of attending the Leadership Academy would have remained just that and I would have been denied her endless smile as she reminisces about all her Chicago experiences. Thank you, again, for being such a positive influence on my daughter."

This month, we're pleased to announce that Solar Cookers for the School In Fiadanana is the project of the month for August 2011.

This project provides solar cookers to a Madagascar village school. Villagers currently use charcoal or wood-fired cook stoves in the village of Fiadanana but unfortunately this has led to massive deforestation. Solar energy is an alternative to using trees for firewood, but the price of solar cookers in Madagascar has made wide adoption of alternative cookstoves nearly impossible.

The leaders behind this project are working to develop appropriate cooking technologies for the village of Fiadanana, which they intend to introduce to the community through classroom training with village children.  By using and testing this new technology in the school, children will learn first-hand about the benefits of solar energy and they can then teach their families.

An immediate benefit of introducing the cookers to the school will be the opportunity to feed the 140 students, most who come to school hungry.  In the long run, project leaders hope to see a great reduction in deforestation around the Fiadanana village.

With the money that we can raise together as a club, we can provide the school with seven solar cookers and pots. Any remaining funds will go towards food supplies to feed the children.

Thank you for being part of the Project of the Month Club - it's exciting to know that together we can make a huge difference for generations of people living in this small village in Madagascar!  We look forward to updating you on the amazing project that you will support next month!

Warm regards, 
Mari and the GlobalGiving Team

Dear R.O.A.R. Supporters,

The R.O.A.R. Fund is off to a great start. Each R.O.A.R. beneficiary received its initial $5,000 grant from Animal Planet, and the organizations are gearing up for a matching campaign that is set to start this September. Matching funds, as well as prizes for various categories to be announced closer to September, will be generously provided by Animal Planet to the R.O.A.R. Fund and its beneficiary projects on GlobalGiving.org. 

In the meantime, we wanted to let you know what some of the R.O.A.R. beneficiaries have been up to lately with some updates from the field:

• Within weeks of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year, the American Humane Association had wired $10,000 in cash and shipped a load of critical animal sheltering supplies to support local animal relief efforts in Japan such as those of the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) and the Japan Animal Welfare Society (JAWS).
• For the last 6 months, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors have been taking care of female joey koala named Frodo, who was found near Kenilworth. Frodo has overcome a fractured skull and significant damage to her stomach and intestines as a result of being shot with what appeared to be the spray of a shot gun, and she is now almost ready to return to the wild.
• The Jane Goodall Institute has been monitoring the activities of two chimp sisters, Golden and Glitter, at Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. In a recent blog post, Dr. Deus Mjungu, GSRC Director of Chimpanzee Research, hinted that with a distended belly and more tired than normal, Glitter might be pregnant.
• In its efforts to give wildlife the opportunity to roam and thrive in their native habitat, the National Wildlife Federation’s Adopt-A-Wildlife-Acre Program has recently retired the 2,000-acre Bull and Bay Pasture on Montana’s Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, the 10,000-acre Wapiti allotment in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest, and 45,000 acres on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Montana.
• The Petfinder.com Foundation was recently in Kentucky with students from Rescue U renovating the Rowan County and Menifee County Animal Shelters. In total, 65 dogs were transported out of the Kentucky shelters to other shelters and rescue groups where they await their forever homes.
• South Shore Natural Science Center has been teaching students about the migration of Barn Swallows and Baltimore Orioles via its newly-updated Migration Exhibits and Naturepedia interactive monitors. 

We will continue to update you on their progress throughout the year, and don’t forget to look for the upcoming matching funds that will be available this September!

Thanks for your support,
The GlobalGiving and Animal Planet R.O.A.R. teams

Dear Girl Effect supporter,

What a year it’s been! From winning the TEDx ‘Ads Worth Spreading’ award to surpassing 250,000 likes on Facebook, the Girl Effect movement is gaining momentum – and thanks to you, it’s not slowing down any time soon. Your generous contributions will have a powerful ripple effect for years to come. 

In the past year, more than 6,000 girl champions just like you have raised over $425,000 to support girls around the globe. From Bangladesh to Kenya, Ethiopia to Paraguay, your donation is helping educate, equip, and empower thousands of girls to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and build a stronger world for everyone.

Your continued generosity is the heart and soul of the Girl Effect movement. Here’s a glimpse of what your contribution has helped to accomplish.

You helped 18-year-old Insana (photo attached courtesy of BRAC) receive training to become a tailor in her village of Kalampur, Bangladesh. She used the money she earned to re-enroll in school, and she is currently preparing for her Secondary School Certificate exam. In her free time, she is training other girls in her village with the hope of getting them back in school too.

Insana IS the Girl Effect, and your generous donation has helped her start a ripple effect that will forever change the lives of girls in her village.

In addition, your donation supported girls involved in these seven other projects:

Carolina for Kibera, Inc.: YOU provided a safe space and advocacy platform for adolescent girls living in the Kibera slum of Kenya.  More than 900 girls have participated in the program to combat gender-based violence and discrimination.

Equality Now: YOU funded a workshop that provided legal training to adolescent survivors of sexual violence and human rights abuses. 

Fundación Paraguaya: YOU taught girls in the Mbaracayu region of Paraguay how to build small-scale, agro-forestry enterprises to learn both technical and entrepreneurial skills for economic independence and regional poverty reduction.

Going to School Fund: YOU created a 15-part television series that will soon be aired on Indian national television to encourage and inspire India’s poorest girls to stay in school and learn entrepreneurial skills to solve social and environmental problems.

Harambee Center: YOU increased the daily income of 60 undereducated girls in Tanzania by providing the funding for a new sewing machine. The girls witnessed an income leap from $1 per day to $8 per day.

Save the Children: YOU helped girls in Bangladesh develop life skills and receive the support needed to stay in school thanks to your contribution to a community safe space. More than 42,400 girls have been reached through the program.

United Nations Foundation: YOU prevented a girl in Ethiopia’s Amhara region from becoming a child bride. In a region where more than 40 percent of girls marry before the age of 15, your gift helped one family break the cycle. This project has delayed marriage for more than 11,000 girls.

To continue supporting one of these projects, or to set up a monthly donation, please visit www.globalgiving.org/girleffect.

On behalf of all adolescent girls living in poverty, thank you so much for your donation and support. The clock is ticking for 250 million girls in the developing world, and thanks to the generosity of girl champions like you, more girls are breaking the poverty cycle and reaching their full potential.

Best Wishes,
The GlobalGiving team