Development-related charities/organizations worthy of support

[Guest]

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[Ari]

Microloans are great but won't end poverty on their own.  Third world countries need infrastructure, education, health services, food, clean water, etc.  I thought we could make a list here of charities we currently support or find interesting that promote one or several of these causes.  I'm more thinking project-specific organizations rather than general ones (such as the Red Cross), but feel free to add anything you like.  It would be great to hear from Nick in Cambodia or other people in the field who know of such organizations working in their area.

[Ari]

http://www.specialmissions.org/lunch.htm

I just came across the Special Missions Foundation, which aims to further the development of Honduras.  One of their projects is to provide a nutritious lunch to 80 girls and boys who live in the city dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (where many of our Kiva loans go to!)  Julia, know anything about this?  Maybe you could find out more for us on your next trip down there?

[Julia]

I have actually donated to the Micah Project in the past to help start their dump school project, and its great to see they are now expanding it for lunch. I just made a donation.  Food for kids that live in dumps is good.

I like the way this project started by someone going to the dump, seeing the kids, and then taking action.

Perhaps I can take the kids stuff from Kiva Friends, books or bags or something educationally useful.   

[LukeS]

I'm currently interested in charities that support entrepreneurs/small businesses (I do support Oxfam as well).

Last year I started donating to KickStart
http://www.kickstart.org/
that develops and sells hand-held pumps to farmers in Africa, allowing them to increase their income up to ten-fold.

As well as TechnoServe
http://www.technoserve.org/
that provides business advice / development, e.g. to farmers in Africa to improve the quality of their coffee/pineapples/... and thus earn higher prices.

Thinking about the Acumen Fund as well ...
(I heard about TechnoServe and the Acumen Fund because they're supported by Google.org - can't remember where I first heard about KickStart)

[Jacquie]

Building Hope - One Well at a Time

www.africanwellfund.org

I wanted to copy and paste some info here from the AWF website, and well, there's just too much to tell! Please take a moment and go look at their site.  There is nothing as fundamental as the basic right to clean water.  By building these wells, the women are free from endless miles of walking, sometimes several times a day, to get the water - and often this water is so disgusting that we here wouldn't give it to our dogs.  There is so much disease-borne illnesses in unclean water, and never mind the violence against women out on their daily walks.  When the women no longer have to dedicate the main portion of their day to fetching water - they have more time to care for their families, to better themselves - and perhaps get a micro-financed loan to start their own business!

When I donated I thought, great, someone is going to get a well nearby.  Then one day I read of the annual reports, and when I read the stories of the women as I described above - well I had no idea just how much clean water could change a community!

[Julia]

I highly recommend BoGo lights (http://www.bogolight.com/), solar power flashlights that last for 20 years.  They are called BoGo because if you buy one, they will give one to Africa, to provide light to a family that doesn't have it. You can go on the website and find out how much access to light changes people's lives.

If you have a cat you might want to get a playful pancake cat toy (http://playfulpancakes.blogspot.com/) from Cassidy a 7 year old kid who makes them and donates the entire amount to Kids for Kids and they buy a goat for a kid in Africa.  I am just amazed at this 7-year-old.

I post about all the charities I find on my blog so I won't mention them all here...