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The Village Development Partnership developed by renowned social entrepreneur Mechai Viravaidya is an innovative endeavor to empower rural communities in Thailand and Cambodia to eradicate poverty and improve their quality of life. It is a genuine partnership between the villagers and a sponsoring company or organization, providing business skills training and capital to enable each village to have its own community owned and managed Village Bank.
The micro-credit program is managed through Population & Community Development Association (PDA), based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Through the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, we support ten graduate students every year seeking funding for unpaid international internships in the NGO sector.
Worthy Village builds pathways out of poverty for women and children in Guatemala by providing economic opportunity, healthcare, and education. To accomplish this mission, we have established partnerships with more than 50 skilled women artisans living in the impoverished villages surrounding Lake Atitlan. Our artisan partners sell their wares to tourists, but profits are not sufficient enough to pay for basic needs.
Earlier this year, with seed funding from some generous individuals, Worthy Village was able to commission a collection of scarves and handbags and pay artisan partners a fair wage for their work. Their next step is to establish an online marketplace for this collection. Profits will enable us to continue purchasing products, thus providing our artisan partners with a stable source of income. Surplus profits will go towards supporting two key initiatives: healthcare and education.
The SONG Project introduces Songwriting to women who have been marginalized by poverty, homelessness, violence, or trauma, as a tool for empowering them to tell their stories of oppression, resilience and hope in a creative and transformative way. Often, formal music education is not accessible to women who are poor, homeless, or otherwise marginalized, yet music and songs play an influential role in many of their lives. People find songs that they connect with, and carry them through the day as companions, filling the individual with a sense of a wider community that she is connected to and supported by.
The purpose of the Blakeley Outreach Program is to enhance opportunities for Avon Old Farms students to provide volunteer home building / renovation services in the United States in impoverished areas, to provide relief in disaster areas, or to work on environmental issues.
The Blakeley Outreach Program is intended to afford meaningful experiences for our students to make an immediate impact upon the welfare of the recipient(s). It will enable students, annually, to serve in a community for up to two weeks during Avon’s spring break in each March.
The Bicycle Program is managed by the Youth Committee in each village and supervised by the village’s Junior Officer. Students are trained on how to use and maintain the bicycles and are required to wear helmets to and from school and to keep their borrowed bike locked at all times. The children are taking ownership of the project in terms of honoring their community service requirement and managing the record keeping system. This program has proven to be very successful and with the continuing help of PDI will be expanded into other villages in Cambodia and Thailand.
Voix Libres’ goal is to offer alternatives to child labour in the mines, fields, garbage dumps and streets of Bolivia. Once trained and educated, the young people direct their own projects. Their commitment ensures long-term development for the common good.
Located in Vientiane, Laos, Les Artisans Laos is a social venture allowing disadvantaged, uneducated and often marginalized people (ie. single mothers), to receive an apprenticeship and to have the opportunity to get a job and earn their living with an acquired skill set.
From its inception in 1979, NAMI has been dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.
For three decades, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has established itself as the most formidable grassroots mental health advocacy organization in the United States.
Trinity School was founded by Colombo-American citizens in Cali, Colombia in 1967, in an attempt to make their neighborhood a safer and better place for poor children. by offering them a free education and a meal.