In July of this year, the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation initiated a new Opportunity Project titled “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, 6 health centers, and 69 health clinics.  The health centers and clinics and all operating on low or zero degree of electrification, utilizing intermittent grid power or generators.  After an initial survey by Mavuno Project and a needs assessment by the solar company OffGridBox, we decided that Phase 1 will be the solarization of the Kayanga Health Center (53 rooms) and the Rugu Clinic (25 rooms).  The solar/clean-water equipment was shipped in from Italy and installed on-site in November.  For Kayanga, we used three OffGridBox Mini 5-1200 (total 3 kWp, 3.6 kW inverter, 14.4 kWh batteries, 5L/sec ultrafiltration), and for Rugu, we used one Mini 5-500 (0.25 kWp, 0.5 W inverter, 1.2 kWh batteries, 5L/sec ultrafiltration).  From now on, the up to 400,000 patients per year at Kayanga, and the up to 10,000 patients per year at Rugu will have 24/7 electricity and purified water for the foreseeable future.

A Project Grant of $10,000 was awarded to the Maji Safi Group in mid-2021 for its Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Program in Rorya District, Tanzania.  Maji Safi Group, ‘Clean Water Group’ in Swahili, was founded in 2013 to promote health and disease prevention in underserved and impoverished communities.  The MHM program consists of utilizing school programs and school clubs to teach girls about MHM, distributing hygiene kits (disposable pads, washable pads, menstrual cups, soap, periodic panties), painting educational murals, broadcasting radio program, and conducting group discussions.  For 2021-2022, the program was conducted in 3 secondary and 3 primary schools, impacting 350 students.

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.