| Photo Credit: Empowers Africa Trustee Catherine Howell |
 Exciting news! Due to the generosity of our donors, we have been able to make the following new grants:
Click on each of the grants above to find out about the incredible work each of these organizations is doing.
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Garden at Hananani Primary School
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With the success of the Utah Community Garden Project, The Thornybush Collection ( www.thornybushcollection.co.za) has recently helped develop another small garden at a local school. The Hananani Primary School is an ideal place to start up a new garden, considering nutrition is crucial for young learners. Hananani has struggled with government funding due to its relatively small student body. However, Thornybush has taken the school under its wing. Not only has the school been repainted, electricity fixed, and windows fitted, but the small garden is also well under way. Shade cloth has been installed alongside water tanks and water pumps. The garden will begin coming to fruition in the near future - it will provide food to the students and the women who run the project.
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Top three photos: The garden during construction. Middle two photos: Newly renovated classrooms at the school. Bottom three photos: The existing Utah Community Garden Project.
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Nkuringo Integrated Model School
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In 2013, Dennis Bilungi formed the Nkuringo Integrated Model School on the outskirts of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The Bwindi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to both the Batwa people and many of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. Currently, there are 154 children enrolled at the school, and the pupils are at an age when their bodies and brains are continuously growing, yet their nutrition needs remain unfulfilled. Among the pupils are 34 Batwa children who are most vulnerable. The Batwa were evicted from the Bwindi forest in 1991 when it became the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and they lost their rights to resources such as honey, medicine, wild meat, yams, fruits, and shelter. They are now the poorest people in Kisoro district and have the highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy in the region. Malnutrition is common among the Batwa, and hunger and undernourishment eventually affect their academic performance.
The school operates a mushroom-growing business that supplements the students' daily diet and provides funding for the school's operating budget. Due to the generosity of a U.S. donor who visited the school while on a gorilla-trekking trip, Empowers Africa was able to make a grant to the school to further its mushroom-growing business. The grant was used to construct a mushroom kitchen and a specified grow house, and to purchase items like spawn, substrate, firewood, and horse pipes. The construction of a new kitchen was important because the previously used kitchen was primarily for the preparation of the pupils' food, where contamination was a huge risk for both students and the growth of the mushrooms. The new additions to the project will increase its sustainability and output, allowing the community to further its mushroom-selling goals.
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Above: Pictures of the construction of the mushroom kitchen and grow house.
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Nkomo Primary School is situated in the rural community of Mduku on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. This school currently has 842 students, 17 classrooms, and 22 teachers. In 1999, with 120 children arriving eager to learn, the school's heroic principal and founder mobilized the community and parents to help build the first reed hut to start the building of the school. Since then the school has grown significantly and offers complete care for the children who attend. This leadership and dedication has not gone unnoticed: Nkomo Primary was identified as a role model in its region and was upgraded to a Full Service School in order to accommodate disabled children from the village.
Empowers Africa made a second grant in 2014 to support the nutrition program at the Nkomo Primary School Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Center (OVC) in South Africa. This grant will provide approximately six months of groceries for the OVC at Nkomo Primary School, ensuring that the more than 456 children who rely on this OVC Center will receive a nutritious meal each day.
Empowers Africa also made a grant to provide student uniforms and make repairs to the school's playground equipment.
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Above: Pictures of the students, facilities and kitchen at the Nkomo Primary School.
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Black Rhino Translocation
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Empowers Africa made a grant to Wilderness Wildlife Trust to assist with the reintroduction of the critically endangered black rhino to Botswana. On a recent trip, Empowers Africa trustees had the opportunity to successfully track two of these 16 black rhinos. Please can see photos of their visit below.
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Above: Pictures of the black rhinos and the rangers who monitor them.
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| October Trip to Zambia and Botswana |
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Empowers Africa trustees recently traveled to Zambia and Botswana and had the opportunity to visit some pristine conservation areas including the Chobe River and the Okavango Delta. Check out their phenomenal photos!
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Above: Pictures taken by our trustees while on a trip to Zambia and Botswana.
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Save the Date: April 23, 2015
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The Empowers Africa annual event will be held at the Explorers Club in New York City on April 23, 2015. Please join us in honoring Global Witness and its co-founding Directors!
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Join our 4,000+ fans on our Empowers Africa Facebook page, where you'll find more information on our efforts to save endangered wildlife, support community development, and more.
Click here to go there now.
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If you would like to donate to Empowers Africa to help any of the schools or projects we support, please contact us at info@empowersafrica.org or go to our online donation page by clicking here.
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2 Beekman Place, Suite 18B New York, NY 10022 (917) 328-1611 (Phone) | (917) 591-1979 (Fax) www.empowersafrica.org |
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