INTERNATIONAL CHARITIES

Common Hope partners with students and families in Guatemala to provide the resources needed to end the cycle of generational poverty and achieve better futures. Common Hope recognizes that a hungry child may have trouble concentrating or a child who sleeps on a dirt floor may be more susceptible to illness. For reasons like these, Common Hope’s approach is a comprehensive model with programs not only in education, but also in health care, housing, and family development.

POVERTY ENDS WHEREVER EDUCATION THRIVES

·  More than 30% of children in Guatemala fail 1st grade at least once

·  In 7th grade, students begin dropping out to supplement the family income

IMPACT:  Children whose parents didn’t finish primary school are graduating at three and four times the national rate of 18.6%.   Since 1986, over 2,500 young adults have graduated from high school with the skills for professional careers. Common Hope graduates are putting an end to generational poverty and changing the trajectory of their lives.

Doctors without Borders (MSF  Médecins Sans Frontières)  is a group of volunteer medical professionals who provide medical care where it is needed. Volunteering with MSF is also open to others who might help in achieving its aims. They offer support in crisis situations throughout the world with independent, neutral, and impartial care.  Their mission is to alleviate suffering, protect life and health, and to restore respect for human beings irrespective of race, religión, creed or political convictions.

The following is an example of some of their work:

• Nurses and midwives work on the frontlines in Syria
• Health crews continue to provide aid in Puerto Rico during the Covid pandemic 
• Medical teams in Beirut treat the wounded and provide mental health care for the large number of trauma victims

In warehouses around the world kits are available that contain everything from portable surgical rooms to medications and are ready to be sent to any area in crisis.  

EDESIA is a unique nonprofit based in Providence, RI whose world mission is making life-saving foods for the most vulnerable children in the hardest-to-reach areas of the planet. EDESIA helps prevent World Malnutrition with Plumpy’Nut – 12 million lives transformed and they’re just getting started!

Plumpy’Nut is a ready-to-use therapeutic food made with peanuts, milk powder, sugar, vegetable oils, and a fortified vitamin and mineral mixture.  A life-saving formula, it is inexpensive, easy to make, and most importantly, easy to use, ship, and store.  Watch Anderson Cooper tell the story of Plumpy’Nut on 60 Minutes.

• Their state-of-the art factory in North Kingston runs 24/7, making 1.2 million food packets daily.
• Plumpy’Nut has expanded to Plumpy’Mum, MeWe snacks in US, and MeWe Baby.
• Since 2010, Edesia has reached 10 million malnourished children across 55 countries.
• In 2019, 45 million pounds of fortified peanut butter fed 2.7 million children.

The mission of the Edna Adan Hospital Foundation is to end preventable child and maternal death in Somaliland and to eradicate the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).  This group provides Somaliland women and children with skilled public health professionals, improved health care facilities, and needed equipment and supplies. 

The Edna Adan University Hospital is increasing maternal and child survival rates by training and equipping 1,000 midwives to provide pregnant Somaliland women with medical monitoring, treatment and education. 

Community midwives typically:

1.  Assist with 150-200 births per year and some up to 400.

2.  Enhance the annual survival rate of mothers and babies which is 75% higher than the national average, with a goal to spread this success to all corners of Somaliland.

Approximately 140 million girls and women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM.)  And now, by working with the community and religious leaders to change the perception of this ingrained cultural norm, these professionals are working on new strategies that are more culturally appropriate.

Project Rozana is committed to building bridges to peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians through the field of healthcare.  The organization aims to improve access to medical treatment for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, while significantly increasing healthcare capacity on the West Bank and in Gaza.  The mission is to train Palestinian physician assistants (PA) in Israeli hospitals in order for the PAs to return and build the health capacities of their own communities. 

To achieve its goal of providing excellence in healthcare to the Palestinian people, Project Rozana raises funds to:

• TRAIN Palestinian health professionals in Israeli hospitals
• TRANSPORT Palestinian patients from home through checkpoints in Gaza and the West Bank to hospitals in Israel and back home, via their partner organziation Road to Recovery
• TREAT critically ill Palestinian children in Israeli hospitals in cases where funding from the Palestinian Authority is not available.

The organization transports children and adults.  Last year year 20,000 patients were transported from Palestine to Israeli hospitals for medical treatment. 16,000 of these patients were children. 

Child slavery in Haiti arises out of the country’s challenging history of slavery, poverty and natural disasters. Enslaved children in Haiti are called restavek, a word that means "stay with". They're desperate for freedom - and there's a source of hope. Restavek Freedom is a nonprofit working to end child slavery in Haiti where:

• 1 in 15 children live as restaveks
• 60% are girls
• 300,000 children are in restavek

Restavek Freedom is committed to ending child slavery in our lifetimes. Every action taken is done with this goal in mind.  Restavek Freedom uses the following strategies to try to ensure every child is free:

• fight for children in restavek by providing each child an advocate, promoting child protection, and rescuing them when possible
• educate families who have sent, or who are at risk of sending children into restavek
• help to reunify families and prevent abuse
• engage the host families of child domestic workers to protect children from abuse and encourage access to education
• raise awareness in Haiti to challenge the cultural acceptance of restavek 

Sarah’s Covenant Homes works with government agencies that are over-run and understaffed to place disabled, orphaned children in one of their seven family style homes. Depending on the severity of their disability, children are placed in a home that most closely matches their needs. 

Here’s how it works:

• Reception and Rehabilitation: Children are brought to a care home, from a government orphanage, where they receive the quality medical, emotional and spiritual care that they deserve in a loving family-style setting.
• Reunification and Adoption: If a child isn’t able to be reunited with their biological family, adoption is explored while their care is continued.
• Long-Term Care: Children who have “aged out” of adoption remain forever in a loving family setting and participate in vocational programs that foster independence and encouragement in pursuit of their individual dreams.

Due to COVID-19, there is more financial strain on the operation of SCH. The dire need for food, medical attention and supplies is critical now.   

Trees, Water & People (TWP) works to improve the environment while creating economic opportunity for people in Central America. Their projects combine a focus on environmental conservation, job skills and healthy families. Research has shown irrefutable improvements in household health, reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, and savings on fuel expenditures resulting from these projects.

In Honduras, TWP worked with a local NGO to tackle the problems caused by poor home cooking facilities.  The resulting cookstove was named the Justa Stove, and over the years it has become the predominant clean cookstove design in Central America.  TWP and its partner followed up by developing a manufacturing facility and distribution method that continues to provide clean cookstoves throughout Central America.

Working with another local partner, TWP is training rural communities in agroecology and sustainable technologies and is helping individual families acquire a 500-gallon rainwater catchment cistern to reduce pressure on natural water springs in the area.

Village Enterprise equips people living in extreme poverty in rural Africa to create sustainable businesses and start savings groups.  Village Enterprise’s cost-effective, evidence-based Graduation program equips Africans living on less than $1.90 a day with the resources to create successful, sustainable businesses, permanently breaking the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families. 

As a part of the program, a mentor provides ongoing coaching to ensure that participants have the skill and knowledge to run a business.  Over two-thirds of the people who receive training and start a business are women.

How does it work?

1.  An initial cash grant is given as seed capital to start the business.

2.  In six months, after the successful completion of the program, a second cash grant is provided.

3.  Next, three entrepreneurs create a business savings group to develop growth capital.

Village Enterprise has started over 48,000 businesses and trained over 185,000 East Africans since its inception.

Founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen (WCK) uses the power of food to

heal communities and strengthen economies in times of crisis and beyond. WCK has created a

new model for disaster response through its work helping devastated communities recover and

establish resilient food systems. 

WCK has served more than 40 million fresh meals to people impacted by natural disasters and other crises around the world in countries including The Bahamas, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Venezuela, and the United States. 

WCK’s Restaurants for the People program attacks the growing hunger and economic crises on two

fronts by paying local restaurants to cook fresh meals for their neighbors in need—at the same

time getting food to hungry people and keeping restaurants and their teams open and working.