Dear Project of the Month Club,
Greetings from snowy Washington, D.C.! We hope you had a joyful holiday season and your new year is off to a prosperous start. Last month, 550 of you gave $21,302 to Atzin Mexico’s Literacy for Adults: Reading the World project, which supports literacy education for adult women living in rural Mexico. Atzin is excited to use your support to increase their team’s capacity to better serve the community.
For February’s Project of the Month, we’ve selected Rahul Kotak Foundation’s Give Hope to Kisumu's Underprivileged Children project! Mansi from RKF has been a welcoming, engaging member of the GlobalGiving community, using her skills to mentor fellow nonprofit leaders around the world. At RKF, she supports education, feeding, and menstrual hygiene programs in the slums of Kisumu, Kenya.
Mansi was thrilled to hear that RKF had been selected as Project of the Month!
“The RKF Team was ecstatic upon finding out that we had been selected as the Project of the Month for February 2019. This comes as yet another feather in our cap after joining the GlobalGiving platform where we have had the opportunity to learn as well as experience tremendous growth.
“Our congruent goal of accelerating community-led change will further be strengthened by the magnanimity of the Project of the Month Club members who will help us get a step closer to our goal: a future in which every child in Kenya has all the necessary tools to succeed in their lives. Our programs are designed to work directly with the communities and help them take ownership of sustainable and long-term solutions. We use a multi-pronged approach to directly address the issue of education quality whilst tackling the various issues that prevent children from accessing this very education, such as no meals at school, little access to sanitary pads and learning material, especially books, among others.
“We are overjoyed at the possibilities that come with being selected as the Project of the Month. Thank You! Or as we would say in Kenya: ASANTE SANA!!”
Mansi knows your generosity will go a long way in Kisumu.
“This generous sum of money will help us empower some of the most vulnerable communities living in the slums and rural areas of Kisumu County by strengthening their local schools and providing quality education to the next generation of our country. It will provide a boost to the various programs we implement within these schools to achieve the following:
I’m honored to partner with every single one of you to support Mansi, the Rahul Kotak Foundation, and all of the children that will benefit from your generosity. Thank you for being a part of our community.
Warm wishes,
Alix Guerrier
GlobalGiving CEO
Dear Project of the Month Club,
Happy New Year! I'm excited to introduce myself to you. I started as the CEO of GlobalGiving in November, following the direction set by our co-founder and former President, Mari Kuraishi, who remains on the board. I'm thrilled to be a part of the team that supports our amazing community of nonprofit partners and dedicated donors whose support make their work possible.
Last month was your most generous month yet—468 of you gave $22,129 to Japan Animal Therapy Association, an organization training stray rescues to become therapy dogs to support sick children and elderly adults. Their team is excited to use your donations to upgrade their facilities and save even more stray dogs who would otherwise be put down.
For the first Project of the Month in 2019, we selected Atzin Mexico’s Literacy for Adults: Reading the World project! GlobalGiving representative Maria visited Atzin in 2018 and was amazed by the impactful work they do with such few resources. Atzin is the only nonprofit working in its community of Tlamacazapa, meaning its team takes on a variety of work. Your gifts will primarily support the adult literacy program working with Mexican women in acute poverty, but the Atzin team also plans to use some of the funds for some much-needed operational support.
Susan from Atzin was overjoyed at the great news!
“To be honest, we were overcome with a mix of emotions, seeing this as a true godsend. On hearing the news, team members said, "I am so excited, filled with hope!;” "This is a signal that we need to continue, not to give up;" "This is a light for us; it gives me goosebumps." Let me fill you in on the background. Since about mid-2014, the people of Mexico generally have experienced ever-increasing violence and corruption, especially in Guerrero (where we work) and other states. Prices have risen drastically; rural families now suffer deeper poverty and constant tension. Volunteers and visitors stopped coming, and each year, it has become harder and harder to find funding, even for our basic programs of education and health.”
“We cut back more and more programming as well as staff, squeezed every peso twice, recycled, repaired and reused everything possible, and sought out alternative ways to bring in money—each time, just barely managing to keep things going. The last four years have been tough and stressful especially in the face of acute need. To all of you, we offer a heartfelt "thank you" for your trust in our work. You will never know just how much this vote of confidence means to us.”
Susan already knows the donations will be put to good use.
“These funds will be used immediately to: send the eight literacy modules for printing; increase the amount of educator payments for classes taught; purchase medications, equipment and transport for children and adults with special needs or chronic disease; expand outreach for education (more home-based classes); repair or purchase of needed equipment (such as a small photocopier); repair of our vehicle’s electrical system; pay external accountants (they have been very patient with us); renew Atzin’s legal charitable status as well as the status of Yotlakat Non Siwatl, our village partner. The list is long!”
From the GlobalGiving family to yours, we wish you a joyous and peaceful 2019. Thank you for your continued support and generosity.
Warm wishes,
Alix Guerrier, GlobalGiving CEO
Dear Project of the Month Club,
Last month, 468 of you gave $22,129 to East Bali Poverty Project, an organization that educates children near Mount Agung in Indonesia and runs a social enterprise creating bamboo bicycles. The EBPP team was elated to benefit from your support and is planning to train even more young people to build and sell bamboo bicycles.
For our last Project of the Month for 2018, your donations are headed to Japan to support dozens of very cute therapy dogs. Japan Animal Therapy Association rescues stray dogs—who would otherwise be put down—and trains them to be therapy dogs, serving elderly people and people with disabilities. Sarah and Shreya, two GlobalGiving staff members, visited JATA this past spring and were so impressed by their impactful work.
Eiko, JATA’s CEO, couldn’t believe the great news!
“When we heard the news that we have been selected as GlobalGiving's Project of the Month for December 2018, we totally doubted our ears! It was amazing news and we repeated to ourselves, “Really? Really we were selected?!” We at JATA greatly thank the GlobalGiving’s staff and community for supporting and helping us! And of course, we truly appreciate everyone who has made donations for our project to make a change. We will keep dedicating all our best to show all the people in Japan and all over the world the “power of the dogs” and work to reduce the killing of dogs.
Eiko has big plans for your donations:
"First of all, your donations will help us improve the indoor and outdoor facilities for training the rescued dogs. These facilities help us raise the rescued dogs into therapy dogs. Our association JATA was established in 2007 so almost all facilities and equipment, such as kennels and fences, need upgrading. Also, enough care should be taken on the earth of the training areas to prevent water flooding at times of rainy seasons. We hope all the dogs live and be raised comfortably.
“In order to train the stray dogs into therapy dogs, we need an experienced dog trainer. For this reason, we would like to use the donation effectively to hire professional dog trainers.
“This week we will visit a palliative care unit in a local hospital for therapy with a golden retriever named Johann. He was a stray dog in Turkey. I rescued him three years ago, and two years ago he came to Japan. After some intensive training, he became an excellent and caring therapy dog and now he even has a fan club! We want to show all the people in Japan that even a rescued dog can be a therapy dog. And with these donations, we will continue to rescue more dogs and train them to become a nice therapy dog!”
Thank you very much for your support and generosity! From everyone here at GlobalGiving, we hope your holiday season is full of joy and peace.
Warm wishes,
Mari Kuraishi, Co-Founder + President
Dear Project of the Month Club,
In October, 451 of you gave $19,908 to support the first-ever Project of the Month from Palestine: Empower Palestinian Kids to Lead Positive Change, from Defense for Children International - Palestine. DCIP trains children to document human rights violations, create positive change through local government, and become leaders in their communities.
In November, your donations are headed to Bali, Indonesia! The East Bali Poverty Project’s Bamboo Bikes Social Enterprise trains young people to build and market bikes made of bamboo—a renewable resource— to connect communities in rural parts of the island. EBPP also educates children who live near the foot of Mount Agung, an active volcano on Bali.
David, who met GlobalGiving’s field team in Bali this summer, couldn’t believe the great news.
“This is wonderful news! At first glance I really couldn’t believe it was true; took a deep breath, re-read the email and felt exhilaration!! Thank you so much for your kindness in selecting the East Bali Poverty Project as a recipient of GlobalGiving’s November Project of the Month donation. You have shone a bright light at the end of a dark year of disruptions to our activities and village communities’ lives with Mount Agung volcano eruption evacuations until February followed by the August Lombok earthquakes which destroyed many homes in 12 of our 19 village hamlets, now rebuilt. Our team and I unanimously agreed that this generous grant comes at the perfect time to build on the foundations of our youth and community empowerment programs and to optimize the added value of wonderful bamboo, that is readily available in our village.
“We will use these donations to create exciting brochures and catalogs to market and promote our bamboo bikes and accessories so that we can create employment for unemployed high school graduates and other local youth who can then go on to train their local communities. In parallel, we’ll build more of our MTB and City bikes, our exciting prototype kids’ balance bikes and bamboo BMX bikes and accessories that our East Bali Bamboo Bikes team will now be able to take to prominent exhibitions, display in popular bike shops and internationally well-known bamboo product centers. We will also now be able to start building up stocks of our bamboo speakers, laminated bamboo holders, and many more exciting products our students’ created and new ones that we are designing. We’ll then create exciting online catalogs for these products which we’ll promote domestically and internationally, which will enable our youth to develop community-based bamboo home industries. We will also be able to extend the contract of our Indonesian expert bamboo bike designer and builder to train our new team members to proficiency.”
Thank you very much for your generosity! I look forward to sharing December’s Project of the Month with you.
Warm wishes,
Mari Kuraishi, Co-Founder + President
Dear Project of the Month Club,
Happy autumn! Your donations in September—totaling $16,459 from 455 people—helped p.h. Balanced Films sponsor scholarships for women to attend workshops and learn about creating change through storytelling. This month, I’m very excited to share our first-ever Project of the Month from Palestine.
Defense for Children International - Palestine is a child rights nonprofit based in Ramallah that works with children throughout the West Bank and Gaza. In addition to providing legal aid to Palestinian children in Israeli military courts and prisons, DCIP teaches children how to document human rights violations, create positive change through local government, and become leaders in their communities. We selected their project Empower Palestinian Kids to Lead Positive Change as October’s Project of the Month.
Upon hearing the news that DCIP had been selected as Project of the Month, General Director Khaled Quzmar was elated:
“We could not be more thrilled to learn that our program “Empowering Palestinian Kids to Lead Positive Change” has been selected by GlobalGiving for October’s Project of the Month Club. Our young people have been working hard, learning how to document rights violations and turn data into evidence-driven advocacy. These are ambitious goals! Our child participants are deeply appreciative to receive this honor. Thank you for choosing to invest in an organization like ours, as we stand beside Palestinian children and help them raise their voices.
“Recently, on September 13, DCIP’s Children’s Council submitted a report on changes they would like to see in their school learning environments to the Palestinian Minister of Education. The report represented a culmination of discussions, youth workshops, and a past meeting with the Minister of Education during which he invited them to submit a proposal about their dream school. Our child participants have designed an advocacy plan to hold decision-makers accountable for improvements in school learning environments. The Project of the Month Club’s donations will support this project as it continues to develop into next year. The funds could also cover some of the program’s peer-to-peer educational activities, a planned training on research, and new child-led advocacy initiatives in the new year. Thank you for helping bring these children’s goals to life with your generous donation.”
Thank you for generously helping children amplify their voices and fight for their rights! We’re so grateful to have you as part of the growing GlobalGiving community.
Warm wishes,
Mari Kuraishi, Co-Founder + President
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