April 4, 2013            

 

Greetings!  

 

Making your charitable dollar go far is Global Grandmothers' goal.  This means that more children who need support get it.  Our job is to introduce you to organizations with know-how, integrity, and heart.

 

We review all our recommended charities at least once annually, using Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, and other recognized resources.

 

This year we are also meeting face-to-face with many of our charities -- thus far Camfed, Nepal Youth Foundation, and Room to Read -- and we have loved our visits.  Here's what we have learned.

   

Two themes unite these three charities and maximize their reach:

• Focus on girls.  All three of these organizations have decided that transforming the lives of girls will do the most to fundamentally help those in greatest need.  Educated girls reinvest 90% of their earnings in their families and have fewer but healthier children. 
• Partner with the local community.  All three of these organizations hire local staff and partner with local community organizations to make sure their projects are relevant, sustainable, and support the local economy.

Here is just a peek at these creative, child-centered groups:

   

Your Global Grandmothers Charity Review Team

Camfed educates girls in sub-Saharan Africa, in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, paying school fees, buying uniforms, and providing other necessary support.  Now 20 years old, Camfed has a graduate network of almost 20,000 girls (CAMA), each of whom supports the education of 2-3 children not related to them.  More than 90% of Camfed's funds go to direct charitable spending.  

    

Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF) supports Nepalese youth in every possible way. Two are 1)abolition of indentured servitude and 2) nutritional rehabilitation.  A number of years ago NYF initiated a program to end indentured servitude.  Once thousands of girls were victims of this practice -- now only 500!  NYF has started 16 nutritional rehabilitation homes, developing a partnership with the state so that 5 of these are now government-run. Here mothers reside with children for 6 weeks, learning the fundamentals of nutrition and hygiene, and then return home.   The result is that children who would have died are now alive and thriving.

 

Room to Read was born when a trekker came upon a school in the Himalayas with only 2 books. Resolving to address this situation, John Wood held a book drive when he came home. Now Room to Read works in 10 countries promoting global literacy and girls' education.  Early in its development, Room to Read learned that very few children's books were available in the local languages of developing countries.  Since then it has published more than 700 children's book titles in 27 languages.  It hires local authors and illustrators and prints the books where they will be read.  In 2011 alone, 13,000 girls participated in Room to Read's Girls' Education program, which helped with transportation, uniforms and housing to keep them in school.  

 

To learn more, go to the websites of these organizations.  We think you will be proud to be part of this global endeavor -- and amazed at what has already been accomplished!.  

 

Diana McDonough

President

Global Grandmothers