In 2021, Ubuntu Pathways received its first installment in a two-year grant in the amount of $20,000 in unrestricted funds to stem the current tide of suffering in their community due to COVID and to also diminish the severity of future crises through long-term sustainable change. Ubuntu Pathways provides an integrated support system of health, education, and social support in the townships of Gqeberha, South Africa, previously known as Port Elizabeth.

In January 2021, Ubuntu re-opened its campus and re-launched its core services while continuously adapting to a barrage of challenges. Despite facing chronic vaccine shortages, a lack of electricity and massive drought, their team has had a massive impact through Phase 2 of their Crisis Response. The response included their targeted food security effort. Ubuntu now provides three meals and a snack daily to Ubuntu students, as well as food security for hundreds of their clients who have the  greatest need.

In 2021, TechnoServe received $10,000 in funding towards its cacao farming project in Peru. TechnoServe’s 2022 activities will focus on improving the quality of beans through harvest and post-harvest management training, which is a pivotal requirement to guarantee that the hilled plants grow properly, resulting in plants that yield a greater harvest. The incorporation of all participants to the cacao value chain through the incorporation to an exporting company is also expected to be completed. To that aim, TechnoServe has secured an alliance with an exporting company ECOM, which has provided many opportunities to women joining the company (access to financing, tools, trainings, transports for harvest, bean quality measurement, etc.). However, the work will not end until 100% of producers have joined a formal market with export opportunities. 
 

In 2021, Plant With Purpose received $10,000 in unrestricted funds. With help from The West Foundation, Plant with Purpose plans to establish 821 new Purpose Groups while strengthening more than 2,000 existing groups that will mobilize farmers to plant more than eight million trees. Additionally, the organization plans to host agroecology workshops with a cumulative attendance of more than 73,000 people. Through these program activities and the relationships they build, farming families around the world are gaining resilience.

Plant With Purpose is impacting the lives of farming families facing poverty and land degradation, empowering them to improve their livelihoods, heal entire watersheds, and gain resilience in the face of unexpected shocks. Their work has been particularly crucial in the past year and a half, as COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the world, including the areas where they work. The organization has witnessed their partnering farmers adapt brilliantly to this hardship, and remain resilient, largely thanks to the skills and practices gained and implemented through their partnership with Plant with Purpose. 

In 2021, Trickle Up was awarded $15,000 for general operating support. The skills that Trickle Up fosters – managing a business, planning for the future, building confidence, and mobilizing women’s voices within their households and communities – have never been more important. This grant will help their participants meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and escape extreme poverty.

In 2021, Lifewater was awarded $7,500 for assistance with its current program, “Vision of a Healthy Village” (VHV), which is designed to work in remote communities experiencing extreme poverty. VHV includes three years of water, sanitation, and hygiene education including COVID prevention.  Funding from The West Foundation would assist active programming primarily taking place in two districts within Uganda, Kakumiro and Mayuge.

In 2021, Opportunity International received a one-time grant of $5,000 for assistance regarding fund raising efforts for its COVID Response fund, which was established in 2020 with the intent of accumulating $12.5 million to serve 4.5 million people. In particular, the fund will be used for assistance to Ghana, Uganda, Nicaragua, and Colombia, in regard to smallholder farmer resilience, as well as that of proprietors, teachers and students at OI’s nearly 14,000 partner schools.

Village Enterprise received $10,500 in unrestricted funds. Village Enterprise serves the rural poor in East Africa who live on less than $1.90/ day. The organization recently completed the first year of its FY21-23 strategic plan and has seen significant progress towards its goal of reaching 20 million people by 2030. To do this, VE will focus on 5 main areas: 1) entrepreneurship to end extreme poverty; 2) partnerships to achieve scale; 3) digital solutions to revolutionize small business development in Africa; 4) developing a world-class African team to achieve impact, and 5) funding to drive results.

In 2021, Wild4Life received $7,500 to assist their Wild4Life Health program in the focus districts of Binga and Lupane (Zimbabwe, Africa), building upon their recent achievements (highlighted in the proposal). Wild4Life Health, a program launched by Wild4Life, collaborates with many stakeholders and partners involved in various HIV/AIDS areas. Specific to this grant, the organization has recently partnered with Pangaea Zimbabwe Aids Trust (PZAT) and the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC). These new partnerships have shaped the organization’s mission leading to a focus on the particular diseases faced in rural communities in Zimbabwe. Wild4Life’s vision is to transform the lives of underserved populations by increasing access to high-quality, comprehensive, and affordable primary health, (including HIV and sexual health) services. 

In 2021, Mothers2mothers(M2M) received $7,500 (2nd of 3 installments) of its $22,500 grant over a three-year period (FY ’20-’22) in renewed general operating support for its efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. M2M utilizes a peer-based model to deliver health benefits to women, their partners, infants, children as well as adolescents. The organization is believed to be the largest employer of HIV-infected people on a global basis and in 2018 it served 3 million people. For the past five years mothers2mothers has virtually eliminated mother-to-child transmission, lowering the number of children infected to 1.3% across its seven countries of service. Funding provided will allow the organization to serve new audiences and to assist all beneficiaries in preventing transmission of COVID-19.

In 2021, Smiles Forever was awarded $10,000 as the third and final installment of a three-year grant for phase II of its research pilot focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of Silver Diamine Fluoride. Since 2000, more than 37,000 impoverished children have received quality dental care that is complete, free, preventative and restorative. Additionally, 37 disadvantaged indigenous women (mostly single mothers) have completed the Smiles Forever two-year vocational dental hygiene program, which helps them become trained to work as professional dental hygienists with the Smiles Forever Foundation.

In 2021, Care2Communities was awarded $10,000 in unrestricted funding to support its ongoing work in northern Haiti. Although COVID-19 vaccinations are already a reality in the US and other developed countries, the organization is uncertain as to when they will be readily available in Haiti.

In 2021, Hesperian Health Guides was awarded $15,000 in unrestricted funding to support and expand their work to create new multilingual health resources for people worldwide. Hesperian’s content, delivered as print materials, digital resources, and mobile apps, helps people take greater control over their own health and organize for equal access to health and healthcare.

In 2021, VisionSpring was awarded $15,000 in general operating expenses. The millions of workers they serve – including garment workers, tea pickers, truck drivers, crafts-persons, and students – are now responding to COVID-19 in their communities. Because their eye screening work intersects with community health workers, hospitals, government health ministries, supply chain providers and the manufacturing sector, the organization has built-in capabilities that have been helpful in responding to COVID-19.

In 2021, Mali Health received $10,000 in unrestricted funds to develop grassroots, community-led structures that can maintain and finance the results and impact of their community health program. Since the government of Mali is not able to provide these services, Mali Health is stepping up. Their goal is a sustainable program model that ensures geographic and financial accessibility of quality healthcare and services for underserved peri-urban communities by developing local financing mechanisms to support including (but not limited to) the development of a sustainably funded community health model and implement and evaluate the pilot program in a new and neutral site.

Mali Health has served mothers and children in peri-urban Bamako by partnering with communities and local health centers since 2006. For the past fifteen years, Mali Health has improved the survival of pregnant women and children under the age of five and increased the rates of care-seeking among the poorest, most vulnerable families who have struggled to access healthcare.

Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA) received $10,000 in unrestricted funds as the organization continues its work to sustain the Rural Community Clinic in La Mora, El Salvador, which has played a pivotal role during the pandemic. CoCoDA has been involved in grassroots, community development collaborations with communities in El Salvador since 1992.  In response to our current funding priorities, CoCoDA is proposing efforts that will both address the present pandemic as well as position their partners to address some of the gaps identified by the present crisis. CoCoDA’s pandemic response will address the role of clean water in public health as well as the need for easy access to healthcare.