Building Tomorrow
$10,000 unrestricted
About: Building Tomorrow is a community-powered organization that harnesses the potential of local change-makers to connect learners across rural East Africa with transformational education programs. Building Tomorrow builds primary schools and implements at-home and community-based literacy and numeracy initiatives, improving student learning outcomes, strengthening the education system and engaging Community Education Volunteers.
Request: Building Tomorrow seeks to address the fact that foundational learning remains elusive for 7.3 million Ugandan learners who cannot read, write, or do basic math. Support from the West Foundation can help ensure that Building Tomorrow is able to reach up to 350,000 learners this year, keeping on track toward a new organizational target to reach 1 million learners by 2028, as committed through the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2024.
GoodWeave
$10,000 unrestricted
About: GoodWeave is the leading global institution with a mission to stop child labor in global supply chains through a market-based, holistic and authentic system. GoodWeave brings visibility to global supply chains, gives voice to informal and marginalized workers, provides assurance that certified products are free of child labor, and restores childhood to vulnerable children so they can laugh, learn, and play.
Request: Support from the West Foundation would enable GoodWeave to multiply impact at this urgent time in which child labor cases in South Asia are rising by about 49 percent, exacerbated by the impact of climate change. This will be accomplished through on-the-ground work that is community-led and business-supported, local-to-global advocacy, and capacity building for grassroots partners and GoodWeave’s international teams. Priorities include survivor-led advocacy, girls’ rights, and protection for children and workers from child and forced labor.
Hesperian Health Guides
$15,000 unrestricted
About: Hesperian develops and publishes health education materials to empower people to control their health and organize to change the social causes of poor health. Materials address pressing global health issues and their underlying root causes without shying away from political or social factors that contribute to ill health. Hesperian resources make it possible for communities to navigate and address health issues themselves, providing information in a wide variety of languages and formats.
Request: Hesperian requests renewed general support funding from the West Foundation to advance work in building the capacity of community health workers, promoting women’s health and expanding free global access to vital health information. Some specific objectives include promoting community mental health, expanding access to reproductive health apps, and making sure that up-to-date health information is available in as many languages and formats as possible.
Nurturing Minds/SEGA School
$10,000 unrestricted
About: Nurturing Mind’s mission is to support quality education, life skills, and entrepreneurship to help vulnerable girls in Tanzania become leaders in their communities. The Secondary Education for Girls’ Advancement (SEGA) School is a private secondary girls’ boarding school for bright, motivated Tanzanian girls who otherwise would be unable to attend school due to extreme poverty or hardship. SEGA uses a holistic approach to education and also provides outreach services to the local community.
Request: Funding will ensure that SEGA Girls’ Secondary School’s four main programs continue to grow, thrive, and reach more girls and young women each year (currently 2,500) with the education, skills development, and training that they need to live healthy lives and achieve their academic and professional goals. At the same time, new initiatives are being implemented, such as organizational partnerships, graduate internship placements, and scholarship application assistance for students interested in pursuing higher education in the United States.
Smiles Forever
$10,000 unrestricted
About: Smiles Forever is dedicated to improving the quality of life for impoverished children in Bolivia through free preventive and restorative dentistry, serving over 52 nonprofit partners including orphanages, burn centers and shelters. This program is supported by a unique educational model for disadvantaged women and mothers, who study to become professional dental hygienists in a program financed by the Smiles Forever Foundation and delivered by the university in Bolivia’s capital, Cochabamba. The program has graduated over 42 indigenous dental hygienists. By supplying a stream of trained dentistry personnel, the organization ensures the success of its own mission as well as the livelihoods of the women employed.
Request: With support, Smiles Forever will advance their mission through various existing programs such as expanding access to care, continuing preventive programs and strengthening professional collaborations. New initiatives will also be implemented, including developing a dedicated dental unit in Marquina for comprehensive treatment and establishing a Zero Sugar education program for students.