Archive for category: Charity

, , ,

9 Facts About Christopher Hohn’s Philanthropy

Christopher Hohn’s Philanthropy
Sir Christopher Hohn is a well-known hedge fund manager and founder of TCI Management Fund. However, he is also one of the most prominent philanthropists in the world, establishing the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation which is dedicated to alleviating child poverty worldwide. Hohn’s net worth as of 2022 sits at $8.21 billion, the majority of which he has committed to charity. Here are nine facts about Christopher Hohn’s philanthropy.

9 Facts About Christopher Hohn’s Philanthropy

  1. Christopher Hohn’s Beginnings: Christopher Hohn was born in October 1966 in Addlestone, Surrey. He became a hedge fund manager while completing his bachelor’s degree.
  2. The Origins of Hohn’s Philanthropy: Hohn studied Economics and Accounting at the University of Southampton and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1993. In 2003, Hohn left Perry Partners to found his hedge fund, TCI Fund Management, along with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). With its founding, Christopher Hohn’s philanthropy would begin to take shape and make immense contributions to his goals of helping children across the world escape poverty. Hohn’s wife encouraged Christopher to conduct his philanthropic work publicly because “she was against starting a fund just to make money for myself,” he says. “She said if you [did the philanthropic pledge] publicly, it would encourage other people.”
  3. The Knighthood: Christopher Hohn’s philanthropy earned him a knighthood in 2014. As a hedge fund manager of a company that managed billions of dollars, he separated himself from most other hedge fund managers entering the market, due to his active approach to charitable policies through his TCI Fund Management and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
  4. About the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF): The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation is the world’s largest philanthropy that focuses on improving the lives of children in developing countries. Since its inception, CIFF has established offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, Nairobi, London and New Delhi and has also worked with other organizations to help children out of poverty.
  5. CIFF’s Offices: CIFF individually established these offices to collaborate with partners within those countries, to facilitate the organization’s goal of alleviating child poverty. For example, CIFF’s office in Nairobi underwent establishment in 2009, and the Addis Ababa office emerged in 2019. CIFF established its offices in Ethiopia for initiatives like WASH and NTDs, along with its regional investments, such as Girl Capital, all with the intention of alleviating child poverty. Similarly, CIFF’s office in Delhi (established in 2007), currently based in Rajasthan, aids India in promoting child health and development. The CIFF office there also supports the India National Deworming Programme, which works for the complete elimination of worms in children there.
  6. Climate Investments: In 2019, CIFF also established an office in Beijing, where it works with multiple partners to address changing weather patterns; it specifically focuses on sustainable development and a low-carbon economy. In London, CIFF’s offices focus on climate investments through involvement with EU policy-making and further involvement with local campaigns. In September 2019, CIFF launched the Clean Air Fund at the U.N. General Assembly, which focuses on the quality of air in India, the U.K. and Eastern Europe.
  7. Partnership with UNICEF: During Global Citizen Live in September 2021, CIFF partnered with UNICEF to pledge $50 million towards improving child nutrition, with a specific focus on tackling “child wasting,” a severe form of malnutrition that affects 47 million children worldwide and multiplies their risk of death in comparison to healthier children. CIFF’s collaboration with UNICEF resulted from the Global Action Plan (GAP) on wasting, a plan that UNICEF pioneered. The initiative employs a “holistic approach” that combines prevention, treatment and early detection methods. It also allows countries to unlock matched funding to treat child wasting.
  8. Other Efforts with UNICEF: In August 2021, CIFF also collaborated with UNICEF to raise $13 million for UNICEF’s Soccer Aid campaign, with proceedings going towards initiatives that fight child-wasting. Funds from the campaign also help UNICEF provide vaccines, safe spaces and proper nutrition for children.
  9. Recent Efforts: Sir Christopher Hohn’s work has contributed $2 billion to charity, and he has also pledged most of his net worth to these causes. In 2021, CIFF, in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ELMA and other philanthropies, committed $130 million to help maintain essential health programs.

Success to Date

Christopher Hohn’s philanthropic work, through the TCI Management Fund and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, has made great strides in helping children across the world escape poverty. These organizations, in partnership with other philanthropies, have contributed billions of dollars to ensure that children across the world can escape hunger and poverty.

– Arijit Joshi
Photo: Flickr

,

5 Charities Operating in Russia

Charities Operating in Russia
Through the work of five charities operating in Russia, vulnerable people are able to receive health care support and treatment as well as assistance in instances of abuse and exploitation. Here is information about these five charities operating in Russia.

5 Charities Operating in Russia

  1. INGI. Crisis Centre for Women. This nonprofit organization was established in 1992 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its main goal is to support women who are victims of several types of violence, discrimination and human trafficking in Russia. According to France24, “Russia in 2017 decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence, classifying them as an administrative offense and not a crime.” The organization provides psychological help for women who have suffered from abuse; interacts with state and local authorities; draws attention to women’s rights through media; creates and carries out women’s rights lectures and seminars; organizes charity auctions and events to raise money and offers legal support in court, among other efforts. From January to August 2022, the INGI. Crisis Centre received 5,346 requests from women in need and 3,660 people requested online consultation services. In addition, 126,148 women used the “P.O.L.I.N.A” platform (a tool that helps women access essential services and assistance) and the organization provided 345 instances of legal advisory services.
  2. Podari Zhizn. This charity foundation helps to ensure child cancer patients in Russia are able to access high-quality cancer treatment regardless of economic status. Podari Zhizn pays the costs of treatment for children with “oncological, hematological and other challenging conditions and illnesses,” its website says. Also, the foundation supplies medical facilities with equipment, medication and blood donations. When it comes to families with ill kids, the organization pays for transportation and accommodation expenses and offers legal and psychological support. In 2021 alone, the foundation provided assistance to almost 7,750 young patients. Podari Zhizn has two partner organizations, in the U.S. and the U.K.
  3. EVA. Established in Saint Petersburg in 2010 by activists, the EVA Association became the first organization in Russia to focus its efforts toward “[protecting] women who are affected by the HIV epidemic and other socially significant diseases.” The EVA Association brings together “63 activists and specialists and [five] non-commercial organizations from 39 cities across Russia.” In Russia, there are more than 500,000 HIV-positive women. And, many members of EVA are also navigating through life with HIV. All donor funds are spent on programs: “the breastfeeding support program for HIV-positive mothers, HIV prevention among drug users [and] the center for the development of activism,” the EVA website says. Over the years EVA has implemented more than 50 projects in the areas of peer counseling, HIV testing and prevention, parenting and “development of nonprofits and activism.”
  4. Lighthouse Charity Foundation. This Foundation was founded by Nyuta Federmesser and Lida Moniava in 2018 to support “children’s hospices in Moscow and the Moscow Region.” It also offers help and assistance to those families who decide to “transfer critically ill children to their homes” for care. On an annual basis, Lighthouse Charity Foundation projects support around 1,000 families whose kids suffer from critical illnesses. The Foundation consists of more than 300 professionals and 300 volunteers. In 2021, its budget stood at 950 million rubles — only 20% came from government funding and 80% came from donations “from ordinary citizens.” In 2022, the Foundation raised about 896 million rubles but still requires 960 million rubles considering it has 811 children receiving its care services.
  5. Hospice Charity Fund VERA. This nonprofit operating in Russia since 2006 supports the provision of “palliative and hospice care for children, adults and elderly.” Unfortunately, the “Russian state medical and social system does not cover care” for patients with terminal illnesses, VERA explains. Hospices receive support through charitable contributions only. Back in 2006, VERA had just four employees and one institution it supported. Over 16 years, VERA has contributed to developments in professional palliative care in Russia and now has more than 60 employees providing support to more than 30 hospices around the country.

These five charities operating in Russia, though not the only ones in existence, play a significant role in helping the most marginalized and vulnerable groups of people requiring aid and assistance.

– Elizaveta Medvedkina
Photo: Unsplash

,

5 Charities Operating in Burkina Faso

Charities Operating in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a country located in West Africa. Its name translates to “the land of the incorruptible people.”It has a population of 21.5 million people and is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 40% of its people living below the poverty line. Despite the vast amount of humanitarian work conducted throughout the country addressing changing weather patterns and sustainability, Burkina Faso is still vulnerable to frequent natural disasters, including droughts, floods and diseases. Charities including Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages, CECI, Humanity & Inclusion and Caritas work tirelessly to help alleviate poverty throughout Burkina Faso through education, provision of clean water and sanitation along with human development and the survival of children. Here is some information about the above five charities operating in Burkina Faso.

Poverty Situation in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso, as mentioned before, remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with 40% of people living below the poverty line. According to the Human Development Index report that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) carried out in 2021-2022, Burkina Faso ranks 184th out of 191 countries. In the last few years, poverty in Burkina Faso has correlated with consistent political instability and violence the country continues to face with many people being displaced. With heavy reliance on agriculture as its primary source of economic development, Burkina Faso has suffered due to low agricultural output by 4.1%. With violence and political unrest, more than 900,000 people are internally displaced and remain in extreme poverty. This mostly affects children, with more than half of the 2.2 million people in Burkina Faso seeking humanitarian assistance being children. 

Save the Children

One of the five charities operating in Burkina Faso is Save the Children, which began working in Burkina Faso in 1982. With children at the forefront of the organization’s focus, Save the Children works tirelessly to ensure security in their lives. Save the Children has become one of the biggest charitable organizations in Burkina Faso through its programs dedicated to education, safety and child health. Some of the work the organization has carried out revolves around multiple aspects of quality of life. It includes greater access to universal health care, resources and tools for treating malnutrition in children, food programs to combat insecurity and malnutrition and financial discipline teachings to help families support themselves and maintain quality health care. 

SOS Children’s Villages

The organization came to Burkina Faso during the 1990s and established itself in 1997 north of the nation’s capital; since 2004, SOS Children’s Villages has taken the initiative of operating SOS Family Strengthening Programs that ensure that children can grow and live in an environment of familiarity in the case that the child loses its family. One of SOS Children’s Villages operates in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso with a population of 1.5 million people. SOS Children’s Villages’ work in Ouagadougou, specifically the SOS Social Center revolves around its mission to ensure that children have access to health care, education and social services through family strengthening programs. SOS Children’s Villages is among the five charities operating in Burkina Faso that help families and children find social security while providing access to the very necessities required to survive.

Humanity & Inclusion

Burkina Faso became the first country where the organization began its work in 1991, focusing on “defending the rights of people with disabilities and responding to the urgent needs of the people affected by conflict.” Humanity & Inclusion’s work in Burkina Faso spans multiple facets, including physical rehabilitation, maternal and child health, inclusive education, disaster risk reduction and mental health and psychosocial support, along with road safety and protection. Humanity & Inclusion is one of the five charities in Burkina Faso that works tirelessly to address poverty in Burkina Faso by focusing on development, health and rehabilitation. The organization’s 187 members undertook 12 projects within the country, with 50% working on humanitarian efforts and 25% on chronic crises and 25% on development needs in 2021. 

Caritas

The organization emerged in 1956 and began operations in Burkina Faso in 1998. Caritas’ presence covers the entire country of Burkina Faso through its “15 diocesan offices and more than 200 Caritas parish branches.” By utilizing the branches, Caritas “aims to promote mainly community and integral human development, social justice, peace and human rights.” Caritas Burkina offers programs that align with its goals of alleviating poverty by solely focusing its work on women and families along with younger individuals through humanitarian development that fosters solidarity and sharing of resources to help facilitate expansion.

The Barka Foundation

The Barka Foundation is an organization that began in 2006 and is based in the United States. It began its work in Burkina Faso in 2009. The Barka Foundation is a younger charity compared to other charities discussed. Still, regardless of longevity, the Barka Foundation is among the five charities that operate in Burkina Faso. The organization focuses its work from a perspective of longevity and community-driven programs involving accessibility to clean water, agriculture improvement, women’s empowerment and human rights and minimizing the effects of changing weather patterns. The Barka Foundation sets itself apart from other organizations working in Burkina Faso by ensuring that its mission to alleviate and combat poverty does not obstruct the lives of the indigenous people, thereby mitigating western influence and developing relationships with them to help provide them with basic survival needs.

Looking Ahead

All the charities mentioned above work tirelessly to address poverty in Burkina Faso. Each charity offers and provides unique programs and initiatives to help the people of Burkina Faso access necessities such as health care, rehabilitation and social and economic security, along with tools to combat the effects of changing weather patterns and, most notably education and security for children affected.

– Arijit Joshi
Photo: Flickr

,

5 Charities Operating in Angola

Charities in AngolaAngola is currently one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and the second-largest oil producer in Africa. Despite its eye-catching profile, many challenges plague this sub-Saharan country, from severe humanitarian crises to serious human rights abuses. The country is also struggling to recover from the ruins left behind by a 27-year civil war. Angola’s dark years might not be over yet, but the country is moving in the right direction. A part of this positive momentum is driven by charities operating in Angola. These charities have brought hope, support and development to several marginalized and neglected groups in the country. Here are five charities transforming the lives of Angolans:

RISE International

RISE International was formerly called the African Refugee Committee (ARC). Founded in 2001, ARC started as a nonprofit organization that provided relief and support to people displaced by the Angolan civil war. In 2003, a year after the war ended, ARC changed its name to RISE International.

While RISE continued to provide relief to refugees, it added a new plan: rebuilding Angola by bridging the country’s education gap. RISE builds schools for children in rural areas that receive little to no attention from the Angolan Ministry of Education. Since its inception, the charity has provided education to over 140,000 Angolan children and built 194 schools, with several more underway.

Hope For Our Sisters (HFOS)

Hope For Our Sisters (HFOS) is an advocacy group for women’s health focusing on maternal care. The organization is working to eradicate fistula in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nepal.

Various factors can cause fistula depending on its type. This charity mainly focuses on obstetric fistula, caused by prolonged or obstructed labor and traumatic fistula, resulting from sexual violence and trauma. Women suffering from fistula are often abandoned by their loved ones and ostracized from their communities.

HFOS partners with other charities and organizations in Angola to provide rehabilitation, aftercare and empowerment for these shunned women. They also sponsor awareness campaigns to prevent the occurrence of the disease and provide treatments, including repair surgery.

It currently has two ongoing projects in Angola: the Ultrasound Empowerment Program and the Aftercare Program. The Ultrasound Empowerment Program helped 151 and another set of 50 women have been empowered to generate income through the Aftercare program.

Mothers2mothers

Mothers2mothers is an award-winning charity that operates in several sub-Saharan countries. Driven by its commitment to eradicating AIDS and maternal and child deaths, the charity started working in Angola in 2019. Since then, it has partnered with the country’s government and the Ministry of Health to offer aid to more than 10,000 Angolans, as of December 2022.

The charity uses its innovative Mentor Mother Model in local communities to administer HIV tests and treatments to those who need them. This model involves selecting women trusted by their communities and training them to administer necessary medical care. Its efforts have also resulted in the virtual elimination of mother-child transmission of HIV among its beneficiaries.

World Vision International

World Vision is a global leader in humanitarian aid. Created in 1950, the charity’s mission was inspired by a homeless Chinese girl helped by Bob Pierce, its founder. Pierce got the idea to seek a permanent solution to poverty. That idea birthed the World Vision.

Today, the charity has helped over 200 million children escape poverty in over 100 countries worldwide. One of those countries is Angola. World Vision began operating in the sub-Saharan nation in 1989. Its Angola mandate is to improve food security, provide access to water and sanitation services and offer better education opportunities to disadvantaged children.

Every year, about 1 million people in Angola benefit from the charity’s programs each year.

UNICEF

UNICEF’s interventions in Angola have had profound and widespread outcomes over the years. In 2022 alone, the charity reached 214,449 people with clean and safe water and vaccinated over 270,000 children against measles, polio and acute diarrhea. And the list goes on.

Despite its huge success, UNICEF’s humanitarian impact in the sub-Saharan country remains limited due to inadequate funding. The organization currently needs $33 million to cater to the humanitarian needs of 1.5 million Angolans.

Providing a Brighter Future

These five charities operating in Angola have achieved commendable results. The commitment and actions of the nonprofits have helped to revive core sectors of Angola’s economy, including health care, agriculture and education. With more children in schools, Angola can envision a brighter economic future with fewer woes. Thanks to some of these charities, thousands of Angolan women are healthier and safer and can provide for their families and children.

– Amarachi Orjiude
Photo: Flickr

,

5 Charities Operating in South Sudan

Charities Operating in South Sudan
South Sudan is a country in dire need of assistance. Having seceded from Sudan over a decade ago, the fledgling nation’s history has been fraught with conflict between its government and armed opposition groups. The fighting stopped in 2018 when South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir and the leader of the main opposition force agreed on a peace deal. The opposition leader became the vice president and he and Kiir have been working toward unity and a new constitution.

However, the South Sudanese people are still in trouble. More than 60% of the population is facing food insecurity, the country is chronically underdeveloped and extensive flooding devastates many areas. Here are five charities operating in South Sudan.

5 Charities Operating in South Sudan

  1. Sudan Relief Fund: The Sudan Relief Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit religious organization founded in 1998 and is dedicated to bringing food, safe drinking water, clothing, shelter and medical attention to the people of South Sudan. The organization seeks to aid in the development of infrastructure necessary for South Sudan’s growth and stability. Some of its accomplishments include the Catholic University of South Sudan, which the organization helped build and continues to fund, and the “Mother of Mercy” hospital which is a full-scale hospital with 400 beds. Moreover, the organization also provided more than $5 million in support to South Sudan in 2021. Many of the South Sudan Relief Fund’s operations and aid efforts take place right in South Sudan, ensuring that most of the donations go right to where people need them.
  2. International Rescue Committee (IRC): The IRC is a global humanitarian aid, relief and development 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. The organization operates in more than 40 crisis-affected countries and has assisted in some of the worst humanitarian crises like Afghanistan and currently Ukraine. South Sudan is one of the countries the IRC aids and the country is under a “crisis watch,” according to the IRC website. On October 17, 2021, the IRC issued a statement about its emergency response to assist the South Sudanese people affected by conflict, disease and flooding.
  3. Helping Hands for South Sudan: Helping Hands for South Sudan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity based in Palo Alto, CA. Its founder, Gabriel Akim Nyok, is a Sudanese refugee and was one of the “Lost Boys and Girls of South Sudan,” the nickname for the 20,000+ children who fled from southern Sudan during the civil war. He came to the United States in 2006 and has since taken multiple trips to South Sudan and Uganda to meet with locals, school officials and refugees. His goal is to help facilitate educational needs in the country and previously sponsored the education of South Sudanese children. Nyok has direct involvement in the charity’s operations as its chairman. About 99% of donations go directly to children and a donation of $500 can sponsor a child’s education for a whole year.
  4. Water for South Sudan: Founded in 2008, Water for South Sudan is a charity that helps provide people with clean and safe water through sustainable means. Its founder, Salva Dut, was also a “Lost Boy,” like Gabriel Nyok. The charity takes a collaborative approach by leveraging its existing resources and using them to work alongside communities in need to build or repair water wells. Its projects also include building latrines and commencing hygiene education programs to improve water practices. According to 2021’s report, the charity received more than $1.9 million in contributions and drilled 48 new wells, rebuilt 48 wells and successfully taught 99 hygienic training practices.
  5. Hope Ofiriha: Hope Ofiriha is an NGO registered in Norway and with the South Sudanese government. It has a 501(c)(3) status in the U.S. Its mission is to assist women and children in overcoming social injustice, disease, poverty and illiteracy in Magwi County, one of the poorest and most remote places in the world. According to Hope Ofiriha’s website, its small-scale grassroots projects aim to act as a “hand-up,” not as handouts. The categories of its projects are education, health care, agriculture, child sponsorship, microcredit and the environment. The NGO was originally founded in 1996 as a group that provided agricultural workshops to widows to give them the skills necessary to become self-reliant. Although the organization has grown tremendously since then, its sentiment of helping women (and now children) become self-sufficient has remained the same.

Concluding Thoughts

These five charities operating in South Sudan are making a substantial difference in the country because of their direct approaches and willingness to garner input from the South Sudanese people.

– Matthew Wikfors
Photo: Flickr

,

5 Charities Operating in Portugal 

Charities Operating in Portugal 
In Portugal, there are around 185,000 people working for nonprofit institutions. This figure represents about 4.3% of Portugal’s total employment. While this percentage might not seem staggering, the nonprofit sector makes up quite a significant portion of Portugal’s employment with a large number of charities operating in the nation. In fact, Portugal’s nonprofit sector actually makes up more of the national employment than the agricultural sector. This article will focus on five charities operating in Portugal and how they are making a difference.

5 Charities Operating in Portugal

  1. SOS Children’s Villages International: This Austria-based nonprofit has been operating in Portugal since the early 1960s. SOS works to provide for children who can no longer stay with their families or who do not have families. SOS Villages is currently helping children and families in four locations within Portugal. Internationally, SOS Villages has worked in more than 135 territories and countries.
  2. AMI: This nonprofit focuses on helping people that poverty affects. In Portugal, this charity provides goods and services such as night shelters, street teams and food reception centers. The organization was founded in 1984 and has sent hundreds of volunteers to a number of countries, including Portugal.
  3. Crescer: This nonprofit operates in the greater Lisbon area and focuses on excluded and vulnerable groups of society. The organization is passionate about implementing drug consumption rooms in Portugal. These rooms enable users to consume drugs in a safer setting under the care of medical professionals. They have made contact with 2,478 people experiencing homelessness and 7,969 “consumers of psychoactive drugs.”
  4. Check-In: Operating out of central Lisbon, the main focus of Check-In is youth education. They provide services such as seminars and training for young people hoping to enter the workforce. In Portugal, they also provide access to services such as Portuguese classes for non-natives and workshops for expanding knowledge.
  5. Apoio A Vitma (APAV): This charity’s name means ‘support for the victim’ in Portuguese. As the name suggests, this organization works with people who are victims of violence, sexual assault and discrimination. This nonprofit provides many resources such as a victim hotline, victim support offices and shelter housing. In 2021, APAV had 9,588 phone calls that made contact with victims of abuse. In addition, they made in-person contact with 2,367 other victims.

These charities operating in Portugal are examples of organizations fighting poverty and social inequality. They are looking to provide support for impoverished and vulnerable populations across Portugal and the world.

– Timothy Ginter
Photo: Unsplash

,

5 Charities Operating in Bolivia

5 charities operating in BoliviaFor 20 years, Bolivia’s poverty rates have spiraled downward due to wage increases and strongly supported social programs. For those still in poverty, there are at least 5 charities operating in Bolivia to improve the quality of life in the nation.

Bolivia’s Progress

Bolivia has made significant progress in reducing poverty. In 2009, about 40% of Bolivians lived in conditions of extreme poverty. More than 10 years later, in 2020, that percentage decreased to 4.4% (based on the 2011 Purchasing Power Parity of $1.90 a day).

Much of the credit belongs to Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales. He used income from nationalized industries and “the commodities boom,” during which the international prices of Bolivia’s key exports grew 800% between 2000 and 2014, to fund schools, hospitals and other infrastructure. Morales also raised the minimum wage multiple times and set up social programs to support vulnerable groups, such as senior citizens and pregnant women.

Current Issues

Even with all of Bolivia’s success, issues persist. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), about 16% of Bolivian children face stunting due to malnutrition. Furthermore, anemia affects almost 54% of children younger than 5. Marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, struggle to find work or attend school. Fortunately, these 5 charities operating in Bolivia are addressing these issues.

5 Charities Operating in Bolivia

  1. Fundación Bolivia Digna. The first of 5 charities operating in Bolivia is Fundación Bolivia Digna. This nonprofit was set up in 2006 to protect the rights of vulnerable young people and other marginalized groups. It is based in the city of Cochabamba, near the center of Bolivia. With more than 250 Bolivians and almost 240 international volunteers helping over the years, Fundación Bolivia Digna provides children with a “safe environment” to receive educational support and promotes good hygiene habits and positive influences. Volunteers help children with homework, lead creative activities like singing, dancing and instrument lessons, teach English courses and run sports activities. Fundación Bolivia Digna has helped more than 200 children from roughly 100 families.
  2. Help Bolivia Foundation. In 2018, Matt and Lydia Hill established the Help Bolivia Foundation to give disadvantaged women and children access to educational and nutritional resources. Operating in the Tahuantinsuyo Community Center in El Alto and in Villa Ingenio, Help Bolivia Foundation provides children with health, education and lunch programs. In 2020 and 2021, the foundation used grants to purchase tablets for online classes. In 2022, the foundation used a grant to run a year-long Sewing & Entrepreneurship Training Program for 30 Indigenous women. Other classes include cooking classes and painting classes.
  3. Aktion Sodis. Another one of the 5 charities operating in Bolivia is a German nonprofit called Aktion Sodis. It operates within the mountainous Micani region south of Cochabamba to help the locals improve their food security and access clean water and education. One of Aktion Sodis’ current projects looks to improve food security by creating “resilient food systems and sustainable agriculture” adapted to the Micani region’s extreme weather conditions, the Betterplace.org website says. The project began in 2017 when Aktion Sodis (along with a Bolivian vocational school) established water-efficient irrigation systems for four village school gardens. These improved gardens now have rain-fed water storage and drip irrigation systems. The project later “expanded to all 16 village schools in the region.” Currently, Aktion Sodis is building solar tents over six of the school gardens to create a “microclimate” suitable for growing vegetables outdoors. For the upcoming phase of the project, Aktion Sodis will focus on families. The organization will help families create or extend food gardens and will give lessons on “balanced nutrition and sustainable agriculture.”
  4. Bolivians Without Disabilities. Matt Pepe founded Bolivians Without Disabilities in 2015 after living in Bolivia for years. Around 15% of Bolivians have some type of disability, according to the organization’s website, equating to more than 1.5 million people. Seventy-five percent of Bolivians with disabilities are unemployed and less than 40% of children with disabilities attend school. Bolivians Without Disabilities helps people by providing prosthetic limbs, raising awareness in the United States and funding other organizations that help Bolivians with disabilities.
  5. Smiles Forever Foundation. Smiles Forever, founded by dental hygienist Sandy Kemper, provides free dental care to children and hygiene education to Bolivian women near Cochabamba. Since 2000, Smiles Forever has helped more than 60,000 children and has placed 37 Indigenous women in its two-year dental hygiene training program so that the women can become professional dental hygienists. Educating women not only helps them make better dental hygiene decisions for themselves and their families but also increases their self-esteem and independence in a society rife with gender inequality.

Even with economic success, NGOs like these 5 charities operating in Bolivia are needed to educate and lift people out of poverty. In time, the knowledge gained from these NGOs will spread and Bolivia will be a better place for it.

– James Harrington
Photo: Flickr

, ,

La Bonne Etoile: Helping Children in Vietnam

La Bonne EtoileTwo friends, Laeticia Hallyday and the French chef Hélène Darroze decided to create the charity La Bonne Etoile to improve the living conditions of Vietnamese children in need and then extend their aid to the rest of the world. The charity supports children and teenagers who are often orphans left behind and suffering from diseases or disabilities. It provides them with a decent quality of life, giving them access to care, education and vocational training, within a protective emotional framework.

Services Offered

La Bonne Étoile is a nonprofit organization that began in March 2012. The charity “builds schools, rehabilitates social centers, finances training workshops, provides support for health professionals in orphanages, subsidizes medical equipment and participates in emergency food aid in pediatric hospitals.”

The Thuy An MOLISA Center is a rehabilitation and vocational training center where 240 children aged 6 to 18 live in Vietnam. These children are mostly orphans. This Center offers them medical care, physical rehabilitation, access to primary school and vocational training adapted to their disabilities. It is a unique center in northern Vietnam that provides comprehensive rehabilitation (physical and mental) and trains caregivers in others in the region.

In five years, from 2017 to 2021, La Belle Etoile helped this center in many ways such as financing a new professional training workshop in pyrography, a dance class and a course on the hygiene of life and everyday gestures for children with a more severe handicap.

Beyond Vietnam

In 2016, the organization decided to expand its efforts beyond the borders of Vietnam. The charity began its interventions in France with a project to help children in great distress by funding protected hearing rooms within the hospital. These rooms are a reassuring setting for children so they can tell their stories without having to move from one place to another. In this context, La Bonne Etoile worked with Le Rire Médecin to bring joy to children through comedy.

La Bonne Etoile also wanted to devote its energy to helping children in Africa. In 2019, the charity decided to fully finance the construction of a school for refugee children of the village of Visiki in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to provide them access to education and the opportunity to evolve in good conditions to prepare for their future. In early 2022, the charity also took charge of building a maternity ward in the Visiki hospital.

Final Thoughts

La Bonne Etoile continues its actions to help children in Vietnam and the world. In October 2022, the charity organized a month-long event for its 10th birthday, in which people could buy raffle tickets to win gorgeous gifts and experiences while helping children. La Bonne Etoile has helped 2,000 children and organized 20 actions. According to the charity, 11 projects are in progress.

– Olivia Roy Fritsch
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

,

5 Charities Operating in France

Charities Operating in France
Many charities are organizations with the aim of helping and raising money for those in need. About 1.3 million of these operate today in France. These represent a budget of €113 billion, equivalent to 3.3% of the French GDP. Even if the right of association is a fundamental public freedom, its status has evolved. The last law of August 2021 aims to consolidate the respect for the principles of the French Republic: indivisible, secular, democratic and social. Here are five charities operating in France.

5 Charities Operating in France

  1. Le Secours Populaire français: Le Secours Populaire français has a global approach to combating poverty. SPF helps people victims of social injustice, natural disasters, misery, hunger, underdevelopment and army conflicts in France and the world. Pierre Kaldor created the organization in 1945. The charity had about 80,000 volunteers in 2020 and has already helped more than 3 million persons in need, making it one of the largest organizations in France. One year after the passage of Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017, which destroyed 95% of the island of Saint-Martin, the charity remains committed to the population. Beyond the emergency aid of the first months, SPF continues to support the association Saint-Martin Santé (SMS) to support people that Hurricane Irma affected psychologically by offering stress management and wellness workshops.
  2. Apprentis d’Auteuil: Apprentis d’Auteuil gives every young person the chance to access education or training to help them find their place in society. It is a Catholic charity of public utility in France that educates and professionally trains more than 25,000 young people who experienced challenges, about 6,000 families are benefiting from it in 2022. The organization has 200 établissements in metropolitan and Overseas France as nurseries, schools, colleges, vocational high schools, training centers and boarding schools. Today, about 5,000 volunteers and as many employees work in 54 countries. Launched in 2013 by the charity with the support of the L’Oréal Foundation, the hairdressing professional apprenticeship of Tihais welcomes 15 young people aged 15 to 23, offering them rewarding training. A real application salon set up by L’Oréal in high school allows young people to fully invest. The success of this first apprenticeship led L’Oréal to open the second one in the 2014 school year at the Lycée Saint-Joseph in Blanquefort, near Bordeaux.
  3. La Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer: La Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer optimizes the efficiency of sea rescue and coastal monitoring using innovation, prevention and training. It aims to make people aware of navigation’s risks to ensure a safer and more respectful practice of the sea. On average, 400 persons die at sea per year in France. La SNSM has 218 stations along the metropolitan coast and in overseas France. The number of volunteers increases each year. The organization currently has about 1,200 rescuers. During the sanitary crisis in 2020, many means of transport between island and continent have operated in Bretagne. In Quiberon, Groix and le Conquet, a small crew of volunteers equipped with masks, charlottes and suits, masks transported patients suspected of having COVID-19.
  4. La Croix-Rouge: La Croix-Rouge is the largest French organization. It brings together 97 million people in France and overseas around seven principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteering, unity and universality. Created in 1864, volunteers give humanitarian assistance to people touched by an army conflict or in a situation of armed violence. The charity also raises awareness of the rules that protect victims of war. More than 1 million French citizens have received first aid training to help 3.6 billion around the world. Following the attacks of 2015, la Croix-Rouge has evolved its action by integrating the learning of techniques and the use of new material to best respond to these exceptional situations. Parisian local units have also multiplied the initiations to first aid, training hundreds of people in the gestures that save, especially during the campaigns Paris qui sauve and Samedi qui sauve in the City of Paris.
  5. Les Restos du Coeur: Les Restos du Coeur is the most popular of these five charities operating in France. It provides voluntary assistance for people, notably in the food industry. It gives people access to free meals and assists them in social and economic inclusion. Created by Coluche in 1985, this organization mobilizes 75,000 volunteers. In 2020-2021, the charity distributed 142 million free balanced meals to 1.2 million welcomed people. Food aid is an emergency aid but mostly a central contact point to accompany people to independence. An extensive national food collection occurs every year in March in hypermarkets and supermarkets. About 1,915 Restos centers then distribute throughout France. The people helped go there once or several times a week. They are also places of welcome, meeting and exchange where one can drink a coffee, spend a moment in the warm, establish contacts and, thus, go further in the social insertion.

Looking Ahead

These charities’ scope of engagement is very diverse. In France, the four main fields of activity are social, health, sport and culture. Many volunteers are involved in charities, which increases by 4.9% per year in France. Furthermore, the creation of organizations leads to an augmentation of wage employment. More than 1.8 million persons are full-time or part-time employees representing an increase of 2.4% between 2011 and 2017. In addition to these five charities operating in France, more and more charities should be able to emerge internationally, to continue helping people in need.

– Olivia Roy Fritsch
Photo: Flickr

,

5 of Queen Elizabeth’s Charitable Efforts

Queen Elizabeth’s Charitable Efforts
Queen Elizabeth was the patron of more than 600 charities during her lifetime. She inherited most of these charities from her father, however, the Queen paid service to additional charities that held a special place in her heart. Here is a list of five of Queen Elizabeth’s charitable efforts that she serviced during her reign.

The British Red Cross Society

When her father, George VI, passed away in 1952, Queen Elizabeth inherited the role of Patron. Her Majesty donated funds for disaster relief efforts. The Queen made many visits to visit Red Cross staff and show British support for many appeals both worldwide and domestic.

The Queen donated to the Red Cross more than 40 times throughout her reign. One of her latest acts as Patron was visiting the survivors of the Manchester arena bombing where Red Cross staff came to help people injured in the crowd.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust

This trust helps fund commonwealth leaders and their organizations so that they can provide aid to their communities. The trust originated in 2018 in recognition of the Queen’s love for service and her great global impact. The trust is a global program that focuses on aiding young people to help transform their communities across multiple areas. Recently, The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust helped an organization provide health care to rural areas in Uganda.

Less than 0.1% of international aid goes to these young Commonwealth leaders and organizations and the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust plans to provide its assistance to these smaller organizations. By the end of March 2022, the organization had earned £532,499 in donations. The trust is continuously growing.

Friends of the Elderly

One of Queen Elizabeth’s charitable efforts was Friends of the Elderly, which is an organization that began in 1905. The mission of the organization is to support older people to live life well. The organization provides grants for the elderly who live on a low income. The Queen served as Patron for more than 60 years. The Queen hosted receptions at Buckingham Palace to meet with some of the people who benefitted from the charity’s work.

The pandemic was especially hard for Friends of the Elderly as it had to close down many of its retirement homes to the public. However, as of 2020-2021, the organization raised £195,848 in grants that helped support 587 older people.

The Disaster Emergency Committee

The Disaster Emergency Committee is a combination of 15 U.K. aid charities collectively pooling resources to provide relief to overseas countries facing crises. These charities work to bring awareness to the U.K. population. The Committee has been working to provide assistance to different organizations since 1963. It has raised nearly £2 billion and used that money to save lives and rebuild communities.

In 2005, she donated to support efforts after the Kashmir earthquake. More recently, the Queen made a generous donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The Queen made the donation using her private funds. The Committee plans to distribute these funds to five charities working in Eastern Europe.

The Aberdeen Association of Social Services

Among other things, the Aberdeen Association of Social Services serves to reduce the number of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty. The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor came into being as an organized response to supporting the people of Aberdeen. The main focus of the organization is on enabling the impoverished to be able to help themselves.

In March 1870, when the organization was the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, Queen Victoria accepted the position of Patron. Ever since Queen Victoria, the reigning monarch has been the Patron of the Aberdeen Association of Social Services.

Queen Elizabeth’s charitable efforts have had a significant impact on people living in poverty and experiencing disasters. Many will remember the generous service of Queen Elizabeth II.

– Kiara Finch
Photo: Flickr