Dear Project of the Month Club,
We hope the first few months of 2019 have been joyful for you! Last month, 548 of you gave $21,103 to Rahul Kotak Foundation’s Give Hope to Kisumu's Underprivileged Children project, holistically supporting children in Kenya through education, nutrition, and hygiene programs.
I’m excited to introduce March’s Project of the Month: SERUDS! A long-time GlobalGiving partner in Andhra Pradesh, India, SERUDS supports marginalized women, children, and elderly people across the country. This month, you’re supporting their Help Women By Providing Tailoring Training project, which teaches more than 200 women sewing and embroidery skills so they can provide for their families.
Mallikarjuna, president of SERUDS, is so grateful for your support this month.
“Thank you very much for recognizing our charitable work for the empowerment of women and girls and glad to hear the good news that our project has been selected as GlobalGiving’s Project of the Month. On behalf of SERUDS, we are very much thankful and grateful for your wonderful support for the deprived. Without your generous support, it is very difficult for us to serve the destitute and needy. Thanks to our GlobalGiving!!! Thanks to our Club Members!!!!”
He also knows how much of a difference your generosity is making for the people they serve.
“Incredible and fabulous support by the GlobalGiving community to our nonprofit for charitable work carrying out for women and girls. A sum of this magnitude will really help our charity project to create sustainable livelihood opportunities and makes a difference in the lives of many rural families. This is a wonderful opportunity as part of GlobalGiving’s Project of the Month Club.”
Thank you so much for your steadfast support so people everywhere—from Kisumu, Kenya to rural India—can have access to the resources they need to thrive.
Warm wishes,
Alix Guerrier
GlobalGiving CEO
The latest estimates say that more than 900,000 Rohingya people are now residing within Bangladesh as refugees, the vast majority of which are living in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. This represents more than 200,000 families unable to return home.
Previous discussions between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar regarding the safe and dignified repatriation of an initial group of 2,200 refugees to Myanmar have stalled. More troubling, a recent Reuters special report outlines how specific forces within Myanmar are setting in motion acts seemingly aimed at preventing Rohingya refugees from ever returning to the homes that they were forced to flee in the face of extreme violence. Hundreds of Rohingya settlements have been partially or completely destroyed, with homes or entire villages burned to the ground and bulldozed to make way for new settlements for other ethnic groups.
In the midst of these concerning developments and immense challenges, we are incredibly thankful for your generous support. GlobalGiving remains deeply committed to our nonprofit partners that are working tirelessly to assist Rohingya refugees. Our partners’ work and dedication is a consistent beacon of hope. Here are several highlights from their work in recent months:
As we continue into 2019 together, we thank you again for standing up for the Rohingya people.
Warmly,
Chase Williams + the GlobalGiving Team
Our partners in the U.S. Virgin Islands are in it for the long haul, helping fill in the gaps and helping ensure that even the most vulnerable in the community recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Some survivors affected by the hurricanes are ineligible for government disaster aid programs or will continue to have unmet needs even after receiving the maximum amount of help from the disaster recovery programs. This is where recovery group, like the St. Croix Long-Term Recovery Group (LTRG), come in. LTRGs are locally based teams committed to seeing the islands through to full recovery. The groups are helping Virgin Islanders remove debris, feed their families, and make repairs to their homes.
“The mission of the St. Croix LTRG is to help members independently provide community services on a daily basis and provide effective relief and recovery services to people affected by disaster on the island of St. Croix,” said Pastor Gary Moore, chairperson of the St. Croix LTRG.
“As we transition from the emergency response phase of the disasters to long-term recovery, it is important that we come together as community leaders to communicate, cooperate, coordinate and collaborate for a more sustainable and resilient future for our entire St. Croix community.”
What does long-term recovery look like in action? An example comes from the Resilient Housing Initiative of the St. John Long-Term Recovery Team. The group recently finished refurbishing the house of a retired school teacher who designed the home with her late husband. She had been staying with her daughter in the U.S. mainland since the storms. She returned to St. John when her home was rebuilt and members of the recovery group went to visit her. She stood with tears in her eyes as she looked silently over the newly constructed home.
The group had restored the home with a reinforced ceiling, safety grab bars in the shower, and like-new furnishings donated from a villa owner. She looked around at her once beautifully terraced gardens and remarked how excited she was to work in them again. Hillary Bonner, the group’s Director of Operations says, “She hugged each of us as we left, expressing her gratitude and giving thanks for all that had been done for her. We were just grateful she was able to be back in her home and returning to a ‘new’ type of normal.”
Thank you for your part in supporting full recovery on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
