Each year, Action Africa provides meaningful funding to grassroots, community-based organizations that reach underserved populations across Africa. We strive to highlight and fulfil unmet needs in the areas of education, arts and culture, community development, health, and small business.
Children Living with HIV/Aids (CLWHAN), located in Livingstone, Zambia, was founded in 2016 by a group of volunteers who provide varied support to vulnerable children living with HIV/AIDS, almost all of whom are orphans. They work with the Ministries of Education and Health, and have received an award for their work.
In their third year of AAGC funding, CLWHAN will directly serve a new cohort of 150 low-income children between 5 and 18, whose caregivers (foster parents and guardians) are not able to provide needed support. The children will be provided with food, school supplies and other material goods. CLWHAN will establish Income Generating Activities (IGAs) that are managed by the Network’s volunteers and selected caregivers. Run by volunteers, an important part of their work is to train caregivers and school management staff in counseling for the children on issues such as discrimination and rejection that they often experience, as well as ensuring that their medication regimes are followed. They also will hold meetings with community stakeholders to discuss the children’s needs and how to address them.
“ Wow! We wish to thank you most sincerely for this great donation you are going to make to Children Living With HIV AIDs Network. We are grateful to your organization for considering to provide financial support to children with AIDS. We are delighted.”
Six years ago, George James and Aidah Olwack’s daughter, Genevieve, was born. As they tried to understand her lack of development, they learned she had cerebral palsy. They also learned how difficult it was to get the diagnosis, and what a lack of resources existed for families in their situation. Determined to raise awareness of this condition, and of the crucial importance of early intervention, they created this foundation to educate the public, the medical community, and traditional healers. They have established close relationships with several local vocational and educational programs to help the children reach their full potential. Now they also are providing services to the families.
This grant will help identify children with cerebral palsy and register them for government help; provide needed durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs; and create income-generating activities for families to help them support the children who will be unable to work.
“Thank you for your trust in us, and we hope for a fruitful collaboration between both of us as we strive towards serving this underprivileged group in our society”.
The Dambwa Children with Disabilities Foundation was founded in Livingstone, Zambia by volunteers who provide support for children with mental and physical disabilities and their families.
80 children, ages 7-25, with physical and mental disabilities, living in abject poverty, will benefit from this grant. (With two earlier grants from AAGC, DAMBWA has been able to support 146 children, all now in school.) They will continue their successful gardening and poultry-raising projects. Food and groceries will be distributed to the disabled children and their families, and psycho-social counseling will be provided for the caregivers (often parents) looking after the children. They also will provide durable medical equipment (like wheelchairs) and other items for personal care. In addition, they will conduct community awareness campaigns on issues for disabled children and their rights. They are the only child-disability foundation actively involved in advocating for the rights of disabled children in their community. All work is done by eight (8) volunteers, so all of the funding goes to support the children.
“… we have received your message with great joy and appreciation. … We are very happy and grateful to you for your consideration of this grant which ... will go to bettering the lives of disabled children.”
This new grantee is different from other projects AAGC has funded: rather than teaching skills or providing basic resources, “Addressing Reproductive Health Challenges Through the Arts” will create eight interactive theater performances to provide information about sexual and reproductive health.
700 young people, 12-30 years old, will be the audience for four performances at schools and four at churches, and will be invited to participate in the somewhat impromptu productions, with some participants interviewed before and after the presentations. Then all the venues will be re-visited for follow-up. Young people also will be referred to health services focusing on their needs. In addition, multimedia platforms (three murals in marketplaces and social media) will be part of a public awareness campaign.
“Thank you so much for the great news!”
Located in Mwanza, Tanzania.
In their second year of grant funding, Tabitha Development Initiative's “Menstrual Management for All” (MM4all) will serve 1,000 schoolgirls, 500 boys, and parents and teachers in 5 primary and 5 secondary schools, and train role models (older girls) to act as “ambassadors” within the school. Using a curriculum created by health specialists, these campaigns work to break the cycle of silence and taboos about menstruation, and keep girls in school during their periods.
In their first year of funding, they far exceeded their goals, serving more than 1,700 young people, twice as many as they anticipated, training 30 (rather than 10) role models, and finding reusable sanitary pads costing 40% less than planned, and so distributing them to more girls.
"Thank you so much for the great news!"
Founded in 2017 in Livingstone, Zambia, Livingstone Child Headed Households is a group of volunteers that provides counseling to families where the parents are dead or have disappeared, and the oldest child cares for the younger ones. Many of these children become involved with gangs, drugs, and prostitution.
100 new Child-Headed Households, including orphaned siblings between 5 and 18 years old, will be supported through school fees, uniforms, food, bedding, clothes, etc. The oldest children will be trained in raising poultry and growing food, and in group sessions, learn about psycho-social issues such as isolation, loneliness, discrimination, exploitation, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. Although they no longer provide supplies to the children from the first two years of AAGC grants, they continue to advise them on their income-generating projects, so the children can earn enough to support their families. LCHH is the only organization addressing this issue in the population, and another of its goals is to create community awareness of the children’s plight. Further, all its “staff” are volunteers.
“We are very excited about the great news. May God bless you all at AAGC. I am passing on this wonderful message to the rest of our members.”
Located in Tamale, Ghana, Community Resources International is a second-year Action Africa Giving Circle grantee.
In 2022, their first year of AAGC funding, the Women in Agricultural Development (WiAD) planned to help 12 women prepare and cultivate unused land that is already theirs. They were able to help 22women, each with one or more acres of land. This year they will help 28-30 women. The food they grow will feed the women’s large families (at least 170 additional people) and they will sell the surplus to the CRI’s Children’s Learning Centre, to provide nutritious lunches to the children enrolled there. The project has been designed with input from the women it will serve, and additional women – and men – want to be part of it.
“Thank you so much for this wonderful news!”
Although new to us, KIYOSIMA began in 2009, when a small group of women wanted to help young, single mothers. This project has several goals: to ease physical burdens of carrying water and firewood long distances; to bring sick children and mothers to clinics; to bring women’s crafts to market; and to provide skills and income for 50 young single mothers, ages 16-35. They will do this by procuring e-bikes and training some of the women to use and repair them, and then renting out the e-bikes to members of the public, raising funds to be invested in a micro-fund to start small businesses.
“… (our) sincere gratitude for making this award possible. This award (will) take us a long way in restoring hope to the many desperate single mothers in our organization and networks by bringing them back on the path of progress.”
In their second year of AAGC funding, the “SIYABONA” (We See You) Outreach Project will serve 150 homeless women (most struggling with trauma, addiction, and mental health issues) and their children. Rea Thusana staff and volunteers go to where their clients are to provide services, creating respectful relationships with people dealing with some of society’s most difficult problems. In addition to material goods (such as toiletries), the recipients have help in obtaining personal documents (necessary for services), counseling, skills training for employment, referral to safe spaces and, when possible, reconciliation with their families.
Through their contacts with these families, Rea Thusana has identified the complexities of homelessness, often involving addiction and mental health issues, and is working with local officials to create a range of services.
“We are very grateful for the 83 women in the US who are supporting us. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are in the process of finding a house for 10 women who are victims of gender based violence, human trafficking, and homelessness.”
The Mkata Women Empowerment for Sustainable Development (MWESUDE) will help the poorest of the poor – 20 households who live below $1 a day. LITA’s overall goal is to strengthen citizens to actively participate in local sustainable development. This project will form four groups of five households each, and provide them with a pig, chicken, and maize seeds, as well as indigenous and exotic trees to plant for food and to stop soil erosion. In addition, the project will facilitate good health habits and disease prevention, and work toward participants having at least two meals a day.
“Thank you so much for the great news! This has added energy to us, as an organization, and indeed to the beneficiary community.… thank you for the rigorous steps this journey has taken, for us to reach this far, together with you. (We) owe you a lot of gratitude for your passion to uplift the well-being of marginalized and poor women of Africa in general, and Malawi in particular. LITA looks forward to working with AAGC in this sustainable community transformation project.”
Copyright © 2024 Action Africa Giving Circle - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder