Sunsar Maya is a small non-profit working in Nepal to improve the livelihoods of disadvantaged children and women through community-based services.  They directly serve 220+ children and women in Mahalaxmi (Lalitpur) and Jorpati (Kathmandu).  Three AllPeopleBeHappy Project Grants were awarded to Sunsar Maya in 2018 to 2021 for its SuMa Women’s Literacy Program.  This program teaches 100+ women conversation and written English, Nepali, and mathematics.  The English skills enable students to use communication devices, i.e., cell phones and computers which use English characters.  By building the women’s literacy and numeracy skills in their native language, they are able to more easily manage daily tasks, such as shopping and paying bills, and perform life skills such as navigating government offices, using a bank account, and participating more fully in their communities.  In 2022, we awarded a fourth Project Grant of $12,500 for teacher salary support (7 full time teachers and 5 part-time teachers) and the expansion of the literacy program to a third community center (Machhegaun).

A Project Grant of $14,000 has been awarded to Education Across Borders for a WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) initiative in the Dominican Republic.  Education Across Borders’ mission is to create lasting solutions to extreme poverty in the most vulnerable communities in the Dominican Republic, including two bateyes, home to over 2,000 Haitian Dominicans living in deplorable conditions.  The need for latrines in the bateyes is significant (currently only 1 in 5 families has access to sanitation), and clean drinking water is expensive and scarce.  The first Project Grant in 2021 allowed for the building of 11 new composting latrines for 22 families, the repair of 15 latrines for 30 families, and the delivery of 100 water filters.  This second Project Grant will build 10 new composting latrines, repair 17 latrines, purchase 50 water filters for new families, and deliver a second water storage container to 15 families.

The Magpie Community Foundation (MCF) is a group of organizers and Lakota elders committed to addressing the needs of the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.  Pine Ridge is one of the most impoverished Reservations in the country, with an unemployment rate of 80-90%.  Many families have no electricity, telephone service, running water, or sewers and must use wood-burning stoves to heat their homes.  Pine Ridge residents often need to travel up to two hours to reach a store with reasonably priced produce and other foodstuffs of decent quality.  In 2016, MCF set up gardens on the Poor Bear family land east of Allen, SD and seasonally distributes the produce to area residents.  In 2017, with the help of private funders, MCF was able to dig a well with a hand pump to irrigate the gardens and provide drinking water.  A Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to MCF for the purchase and installation of a solar pump and drip irrigation system to support this indigenous food sovereignty initiative.

A Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to LifeNet International to improve healthcare for 56,000 Burundian patients, including an estimated 1,800 mothers and babies at delivery.  LifeNet International provides high-impact, capacity-building trainings in medical and management best practices in 336 health facilities in 6 African countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda.  This Project Grant will provide healthcare providers at Ruzo Health Center in Burundi with trainings in medical/clinical practices (5 modules) and management best practices (4 modules) along with personal mentoring, access to digital tools, and need-based equipment and supplies.  Healthcare providers will acquire evidence-based knowledge and skills helping them to reduce infections, correctly diagnose and treat disease, perform interventions for maternal and neonatal complications, and more.

In Nepal, since the re-opening of schools after the pandemic, almost all the teachers are new faces who have not taken any training in modern teaching-learning tools and techniques.  Therefore, Little Sisters Fund (LSF) felt the next logical step in the teacher-training process was to develop a more intensive training program aimed at new teachers.  For this purpose, LSF has launched a pilot Teacher Training Academy (TTA) program.  The Teacher Training Academy is an in-depth training program for up to eight teachers per session.  Each training session consists of six days of theory-based instruction conducted over a 3-month period.  Three of these day-long classes focus on child development and psychology, child-centered learning methods and classroom management taught by LSF’s teacher trainer.  The remaining three days are dedicated to subject-based learning techniques taught by subject-area experts in mathematics, language arts and science.

We have initiated a new Opportunity Project, entitled “Solar for Tanzanian Clinics”.  In the Karagwe and Kyerwa districts of Tanzania, which have a combined population of 750,000 people, there are 2 hospitals, 8 health clinics, and 68 dispensaries.  The 8 health clinics are operating on low degrees of electrification, utilizing intermittent grid power or generators.  The AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has set ourselves the goal of solarizing all 8 clinics within 3 years.  After an initial need survey of all 8 clinics and a closeup study of 2 small clinics and 2 large clinics, we have specified and ordered the equipment needed to provide solar electrification and purified water for the large clinic Kayanga and the small clinic Kibondo.  Under the local management of Mavuno, the installation will be carried out in the second half of 2022 by OffGridBox.

Indego Africa, founded in 2007, is dedicated to empowering artisan women in Rwanda and Ghana through employment opportunities and education.  The AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has been a longtime supporter of Indego Africa, with a Challenge Grant in 2013-2015, Project Grants in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020-2021, and Fellows grants in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.  In 2022, another Project Grant of $10,000 has been awarded to Indego Africa for providing opportunity for 65 women in northern Ghana to participate in the artisan economy.  The program consists of 1) Basic Business Training (2 days/week) for 2 months, 2) Dye Training and dye processed bolga, 3) Access to Capital and Knowledge of Microfinance Training, 4) Design Training and QC Refresher, 5) Renovation of existing workspace in Bongo, 6) Research and secure 2-year rental workspace in Bolgatanga for Asibi cooperative.

AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has been supporting the work of the Pangea Network in Kenya for the past three years.  The program, titled Tubonge Uwazi na Dada Initiative (TUDAI), is an Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) teaching workshop program.  The various phases of the program consist of 1) Sensitization/Community Engagement Meetings, 2) Training of Trainers Workshops, 3) Parents’ ASRH Workshops, 4) Girls ASRH Workshops, 5) Peer Meetings, Focus Groups, and 6) Monitoring & Evaluation.  In 2021, phases 1-4 were completed with 116 community members, 15 trainers, 202 parents, and 375 girls.  Phases 5-6 will take place between May and August of 2022.  The Foundation is providing a $10,000 Project Grant to support the completion of these latter phases.

AllPeopleBeHappy foundation has been a longtime supporter of Project Alianza, working in Nicaragua and El Salvador.  In recent years, the Foundation has been making contributions to help operate their flagship Community Allies Program (CAP), a program that recruits local women as community educators in poorer quality schools, and trains them on a broad range of interventions standards (e.g., WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), Teach-at-the-Right-Level).  During the Pandemic and resulting school closures, the APBH funds were allocated for personal protective equipment/ materials to safely interact with students, materials for families and children who were affected by Hurricanes Eta and Iota last year, and supplies (books. school supplies, interactive workbooks) for their libraries.  Project Alianza has been approved by the Ministry of Education to resume the Community Allies Program (CAP) in-person for 2022 in 54 communities in Nicaragua.