2019: A Great Year for Our Nonprofit Partners!

Categorized as: About us, Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Education, Girls & women, Grantee, Job Creation, Latin America, Leadership, Our Partners, Poverty Alleviation, Stories, Storytelling, Youth on November 23, 2019.

Editor’s Note: The last half of 2019 saw both growth and challenges from our grantee partners. I am struck by the universally positive and resourceful approach our partners take to roadblocks that sometimes come their way. Whether it’s getting children to school safely amidst protests in Haiti, or attending a conference to learn how to overcome a perceived weakness in the skills of fundraising, our partners are confident and practical in getting the job done. We’ve highlighted below what’s been going on with our partners the last half of 2019, but make sure to dig deeper into the videos and links. As we head into this holiday season of gratitude you’re sure to find something that will lift your spirits and give you a reason to be thankful.

By Sally Skees-Helly, Chief Financial Officer and Director

Agora Partnerships: Latin America and the Caribbean: Agora just completed its application process for the Mexico City Bootcamp. They will be conducting a boot camp in Lima, Peru later in 2019. Also, at our virtual site visit with them in June, it came to light that they are in touch with Bean Voyage. Abhinav had been on a call with them the week before our meeting. We love seeing connections between our nonprofit partners!

Anseye Pou Ayiti: Haiti: APA celebrates five years of their movement in transformational leadership. Please check out APA’s beautiful and easy to digest 2019 Annual Report to see how far they’ve come and their goals for the future. They just completed a matching fundraising campaign where they surpassed their fundraising goals. APA has partnered with the Haitian Ministry of Education where nine of their alumni ambassadors have been hired as coaches in ten rural public schools. APA just partnered with MIT in their launch of an online platform to share teaching materials in Kreyol for all subjects and grade levels. You can watch Nedgine hosting comments from the closing session of the inaugural Obama Fellow Summit.

Bean Voyage: Costa Rica: Bean Voyage has established its first board and held its first board meeting. Besides Abhinav and Sunghee, they added two additional board members. Bean Voyage launched their first cohort of the Care Fellowship in June, engaging youth from various rural coffee producing areas in Costa Rica in sustainable development and gender equality. They chose the top 13 candidates from 47 applicants who will participate in the fellowship over 24 weeks. You can read their reflections on the fellowship here. Additionally, Bean Voyage has suspended the sale of their coffee outside of Costa Rica, but intends to open up sales again over the holidays.

Crea Nicaragua: Nicaragua: While school was out, Crea focused on arts and crafts, sports, reading, and other activities that give the kids a break from school, but keeps them active and learning. This summer they had a second-grade bilingual teacher from Northern California there to help with their Library Services Initiative for several weeks. Crea Nicaragua was recently awarded a grant from the Global Fund for Children and recently completed a fundraiser to provide up to 20 teenagers academic and psychological support as they prepare for college entrance exams. 

Crea Nicaragua has been busy with trainings of staff in better ways of teaching reading and math. They have formalized an Advisory Council to broaden support for the organization. They worked on clarifying their focus of Library Success, Academic Success, and Youth Development.

Educate Lanka: Sri Lanka: Manjula had the opportunity in late October to share his story and that of Educate Lanka on the Seeds of Exchange Story Series. 

Also, here is a very well-written blog by Boston high school senior, Anishka Yerabothu, with whom Educate Lanka has collaborated in the past, about her three-week trip to Sri Lanka to volunteer there. We especially loved her wise-beyond-her-years observation:

I am a Hindu girl, being educated at a Christian-Episcopal school, who enjoyed the home and hospitality of a Muslim host, visited and prayed at a Buddhist temple, and had rich engaging interactions with Sinhalese and Tamil students. I cherish these experiences in a country being torn along religious and ethnic lines. I hope universal access to education and opportunities will blur ethnic and religious lines of difference in the future.

Education Bridge: South Sudan: Our newest 3G Generational grant, Education Bridge builds and operates schools in South Sudan with the mission of creating flourishing communities through holistic secondary education and peacebuilding skills for boys and girls. Education Bridge is unique in that it incorporates peacebuilding into its curriculum to address the ethnic tensions in the country, it hires only local staff mindful of cultural and community norms, and pays their teachers privately to avoid government delays in pay leading to teacher absenteeism. 

Congratulations to founder Ngor Majak Anyieth, who just received a Domer Dozen award from his alma mater, Notre Dame, recognizing young alumni who have made a difference in their communities and the world.

Eggpreneur: Kenya: One of two of the new 2G Generational grants, Eggpreneur is a social enterprise working in remote Kenyan rural communities to build sustainable egg farming ventures that help families end the cycle of hunger and poverty. While currently working in Kenya, Eggpreneur has plans to expand to Uganda.

As the holidays approach, if you’re looking for an opportunity to give a unique gift, check out Eggpreneur’s gift catalog!

Idea4Africa: Rwanda and Uganda: Idea4Africa is continuing its train the trainer program, reaching exponentially more students by training their teachers entrepreneurial skills such as supply chain management, budgets, and simple accounting to help expose young people to an entrepreneurial mindset. They awarded their annual I4A award to Deo Niyizonkiza of Village Health Works and are figuring out how to support VHW’s work with I4A’s methodology of teaching entrepreneurship. I4A has also started a seed funding program in Uganda at the refugee camps and are carefully selecting entrepreneurs to support that have sustainable ventures and have a commitment to repay the loans. 

In October, Idea4Africa hosted their first IDEA Week lab workshop for high school graduates to learn design thinking, a skill that helps them compete favorably in entrepreneurship and teach them skills that will help them with potential investors, partners, and employers. Between panel discussions, group discussions, problem solving exercises, and ideating, the students learned to take an idea from prototype close to the end result of functionality.

KadAfrica: Uganda: KadAfrica is planning on expanding into Uganda at refugee camps. They have employed a program manager and are looking for a local managing director. In September, Cohort 6 girls from Kyangabukama and Harugongo sites graduated last week from the KadAfrica Experience Program. Certificates were awarded, and prizes were given out for the Most Passionate Farmer, Top Exam Score, Best Garden, and Top Attendance. Also in September they began Cohort 8 with the girls setting ground rules, sharing fears and expectations, and giving everyone an opportunity to be heard.

Resonate Workshops: Rwanda and East Africa: Resonate hit its second quarter goal of training 600 participants. They are now fully staffed, much to Norette’s relief, having found an Operations Associate and a Trainer, as well as filling the Partnerships Director position. After a year working to secure a strong partnership, Resonate has signed a memorandum of understanding with researchers from Georgetown and UC Berkeley to run a year-long study on their program impact with 450 participants. Resonate is expanding into Kenya and published a new video on their work.

Norette was recently in the States attending a fundraising training where she was hoping to learn some specific tools she could use for fundraising. We were lucky to meet with her and she asked if any of our grantee partners were at the same level in terms of growth, or perhaps a little further in their mission journey. I introduced her to Nedgine at APA, as I thought they might learn from one another. I also introduced her to Matt at Eggpreneur, since Resonate is expanding into Kenya.

Tujenge Africa Foundation: Burundi: Tujenge is the second 2G generational grantee. Learn about their mission below!

Tujenge recently closed its application for the Tujenge Scholars Program (TSP) for the class of 2021. 

Women LEAD: Nepal: Check out WomenLEAD’s newsletter with details on the graduation of 28 young women from their year-long crash course in leadership. 

In September, Women LEAD elected a new board made up of all Women LEAD alumni. This process helps young women understand and participate in a democratic election process. They held a Governance Workshop later in the month to enable the new board members to understand their roles and equip them with the skills required for their position.

Women LEAD also brought on two new ambassadors who will raise awareness about Women LEAD outside Nepal and help with fundraising.

LEARN more about all of our grantees here.

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