Our local partners are doing the really hard work caring for those that need it the most.
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james sempere
We reached out to fight Covid-19 together-- Since the W.H.O. pandemic declaration in March, we have provided emergency funding for:
86 families with special needs children and 51 refugee families in the slums of Githurai, Kenya through Cordis Maria Medical Center.
80 households run by grandmothers, and the terminally ill and bedridden in rural Meru, Kenya though Rays of Hope.
In the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya provide public clean water, sanitary supplies, food and cash infusions to 70 parents and caregivers to children with disabilities and 35 women and girls with disabilities through our partner The Action Foundation.
2,000 families in the Thika region of Kenya are receiving food, water and sanitary supplies, and cash infusions, and 58 head of households to start/expand businesses or find new employment through our Kenya partner Macheo Childrens Centre
Water wash stations, hygiene training and cash infusions to rural farmers in several communities in Haiti (see the attached video).
A Breeze of Hope — Gnu Foundation’s newest Partner
This year we are proud to add A Breeze of Hope located in the City of Cochabamba, Bolivia as our newest Gnu Partner. As survivors of childhood sexual violence, Brisa De Angulo and Parker Palmer created A Breeze of Hope Foundation to build a world in which children grow up in safe, loving environments and to help other survivors regain the joy of living.
"The main goal of our Gnu Foundation Project is to help adolescent survivors of sexual violence and their non-offending family members acquire the skills and knowledge they need for economic independence. One path to realizing this goal was to create a café where they can practice their skills, make a small profit on the goods they produce, and eventually create their own small business to sustainably lift themselves from extreme poverty. Since the beginning of 2020, 23 adolescents have participated in our Café courses.
We believe our partnership with Gnu Foundation is extraordinarily relevant to the families we serve as they struggle to generate income under the oppressive weight of Covid-19.” -- Brisa & Parker, Co-founders, A Breeze of Hope
SUPER COLLABORATION --- Gnu Foundation joined 500+ other social impact leaders at Opportunity Collaboration 2019. A week of inspired sharing and collegiality in changing the world. Gnu Foundation has sourced and funded 5 new partners through O.C. connections in the past 2 years.
Rays of Hope Heath Clinic on the slopes of Mt. Kenya expanded their free community health operations through Gnu Foundation social business grants providing Agro-vet services, including 2 new bio-gas facilities and farm support services providing animal feed and care training. These businesses have allowed the Clinic to serve over 2,260 clients and provide 146 home care visits this past year.
Graphic showing direct impact of the pyroclastic lava flow from Fuego Volcano June 6, 2018
Just returned from Guatemala working with our local Gnu Partner, Hope for Guatemala, in the immediate aftermath of the eruption of the Fuego Volcano. Our Gnu Partners were on site providing water, protective gear, and food supplies to aid the rescuers and survivors of the eruption. It’s another in a long list of tragedies hitting those that can least afford it. It was very humbling and a reality check to be walking on top of the lava ash field that now covers a town of 2,500 - with 1/3 still buried beneath, including some family members of our local Gnu Partner. More bodies recovered in the last few days, most of them in a condition like those found in Pompeii. We did hear some miraculous stories of survival, meeting with a man who helped 40 people gather in a church that was buried on 3 sides (see photos below), yet they managed to escape after hours of waiting with the air outside at several hundred degrees.
On a positive note, so much good is being done through our local partner who has set up a temporary school and residential shelter for 150 family members, and work daily to provide water, food and protective face masks for the workers. The children of the surviving families are excited to get back to school this last week. It’s amazing to see the perseverance and joy in these youth!
As you know 100% of every dollar donated will make it directly to benefit those in the field. Right now a little goes a long way in supporting the hundreds of families lost or displaced due to the volcano’s wrath. In spite of the high risk, families continue to search for those lost (if they can afford to pay for the search). The emphasis is now on the survivors, many of them children, who we are helping with shelter, food and schooling. It’s s long road back but the good work has begun!
Gnu Foundation's founder, board members and 2 of our local Gnu Partners, David from Furaha Community Foundation (Nairobi, Kenya) and Lucson (Port au Prince, Haiti) recently joined 500 other participants representing 50 counties at the 9th Annual Opportunity Collaboration "un-conference" in Ixtapa, Mexico. Five days of intense and broad-ranging conversation, mostly in small groups, help feed connections, ideas and solutions both within our foundation and with new life-changing relationships to foster impacts around the world. If you haven't checked out this awesome event, you can do so at: www.OpportunityCollaboration.net.
Opportunity Collaboration 2017: Colloquium for the Common Good Small Group
UPDATE: Since our first Empowerment summit in July, 2016, our local Gnu Partners have successfully completed 4 additional Summit's in locations throughout Kenya.
The first Gnu Empowerment Summit recently gathered 35 leaders from several Gnu Foundation partner organizations including Furaha Community Foundation, Macheo Children’s Center, Rays of Hope Health Center, Children of Strength/Watoto Wenye Nguvu, DISC Inititatives, Immaculate Heart of Mary Community of Hope Care Center. This 2 ½ day conference was hosted by Gnu Foundation with underwriting sponsorship provided by RCA (Real Capital Analytics).
The Gnu Empowerment Summit reminded me of the power of bringing like-minded people together. At the first night’s dinner, the participants from each of the different organizations sat among themselves and wondered what they would be taught. By the end of the summit, we were one group breaking bread and celebrating as friends and colleagues who could teach and learn from each other.
Tonee Ndungu, a successful entrepreneur and energetic teambuilding moderator, deftly led the Summit –bringing each voice into the room and using powerful exercises to bring leadership concepts to life. To get us all started, he challenged us to figure out how to exactly measure 4 liters of water using only a 5 liter and 3 liter bottle and a tub full of water. Go ahead and try it. None of our 2 person teams got the answer. If you can’t get it, ask a couple of 8 year olds (they can typically solve it in less than 10 minutes). The point? Try different things. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work, you can try something else. Build upon others’ success. And the ability to solve a problem requires a different mindset than created it.
I was inspired to see connections made and “ah ha light bulb moments” when someone from one organization made a suggestion based on their experience that could help someone else. The social businesses that Rays of Hope started to provide income and jobs to their volunteers so that they could afford to volunteer for the clinic, offered a concrete example to several organizations who are struggling to generate enough income from donations to thrive or scale.
As a woman executive with a commitment to support women leaders, I paid particular attention to the powerful women leading organizations here in Kenya. One woman leader is a mentor to many of the participants in the room. She strikes me as one who leads with an iron fist in a velvet glove guided by an open heart. Other women (and several men) were very timid when they first spoke. With Tonee’s encouragement, they spoke up and boy did they have lots to say. They have big dreams and big visions coupled with the credibility and experience to make things happen.
The learnings from the Summit itself were important. Some of them include:
- The importance of aligning vision, resources, strategy and an action plan to making things happen.
- Think differently and to get different perspectives to address a problem or challenge
- Create the structures and systems that will allow organizations to expand
- One of my favorite “learnings” was from a women who “learned that there is such a thing as a portable cell battery changer. When it was clear that the wall sockets were full, another participant handed her a charger.”
More important than any specific learning are the relationships that were forged over the 2 ½ days together. The group picked up the mantle from James Sempere, the Summit host and founder of Gnu Foundation, with an intention to get together periodically to dive deeper into topics.
The energy from the final celebration complete with BBQ goat, music DJ’d by a Summit participant Victor, and Tusker beer was palpable. If that energy drives this group of people forward, they will do even more amazing things than they already are in areas of healing, educating children, providing homes for children in need and helping lift families out of poverty. What could be more inspirational than that?
-Beth Stelluto
Our holiday year-end gifting is been a great success. The gifts provided were both small and large, supplying rabbits, goats, a water tank, sanitary towels, wheelchair, blankets, basic food stuffs, dairy cow, and solar lamps
Thanks to your generosity we’ve distributed over $3,000 to our Kenya-based Gnu Partners: WWN (Children of Strength) orphan care program; Rays of Hope Health Clinic; Community of Hope orphan care program; and the DISC Initiatives community empowerment program.
The store remains open at Gnu Foundation Gifts so consider an 'any-occasion tribute' for a friend or loved one or simply buy a cow for fun!
In 2008, Steve Henderson and James Sempere planted the concept of a microcredit program at a business conference held at Kusitawi Village, the home of our local Gnu Partner the Children of Strength orphanage. Some 125 pastors, teachers and local leaders attended, and in honor of the event we planted the “Microloan tree”. Fast forward 7 years and the tree has grown strong and healthy along with our local microcredit programs which have now funded more than 1,000 businesses and provide ongoing business credit to hundreds of local families.
Both visual and economic proof that small initiatives well planted and cared for will grow into big results!