 |
December 2004-January 2005
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
Queen Rania cuts ribbon on first Intel Computer Clubhouse in Jordan
In December Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan inaugurated her country's first Intel Computer Clubhouse -- an after-school program that provides community-based technology learning for youth in underserved areas. A partnership of the Intel Corporation, the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and the Museum of Science-Boston, the Intel Computer Clubhouse, in Hashemi Al Shamali, will serve young people aged 10-18 by providing them with access to state-of-the-art computer equipment, professional software and volunteer mentors. Queen Rania serves on the board of IYF, which operates in more than 60 countries, and previously partnered with Intel to create the first Computer Clubhouse in the Arab World, in the West Bank. The Intel Computer Clubhouse in Jordan is part of a network of more than 90 clubhouses worldwide. Intel, the world's largest chip-maker, provides financial, technical, career, and volunteer mentor support to promote the Computer Clubhouse Network globally. In addition, Adobe Systems and the company Procreate have all committed a total of more than $10 million in software, hardware and services to the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network. Other organizations involved include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, LEGO Systems and B (The Jordan Times, November 30, 2004)
Private sector lending a STEP-UP to poor neighborhoods in Metro Manila
A pilot partnership between private corporations and local governments in the Philippines is showing gains in the form of community development and sustainable livelihoods in neighborhoods in Metro Manila hard hit by unabated rural-to-urban migration. An estimated 3.4 million informal settlers or squatters live in extreme poverty and environmental degradation in Metro Manila. The partnership is facilitated by Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP -- www.pbsp.org.ph), a private foundation established more than 25 years ago by leaders of the country's business sector to address a variety of critical social problems. Through its STEP-UP program, PBSP is rallying its more than 180 member corporations to work with communities to reduce poverty by leveraging corporate resources through skills sharing, mentoring, in-kind services and targeted financial assistance. For example, Tinig ng Nagkakaisa Homeowners Association, one of the beneficiaries of the project in Bayanan, Muntinlupa City, an economically depressed and flood-prone community, has received a new paved road and upgraded drainage and water systems through STEP-UP, as well as training for local residents in meat processing, vegetable production and aquaculture. The Asian Development Bank supports STEP-UP with a $3.6 million grant from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction. STEP-UP has allotted a $6.93 million outlay for its projects over three years. Some 35,000 residents of 23 communities in Metro Manila are expected to benefit from the projects. (Asia Pulse, October 15, 2004)
Media executives pool resources to combat HIV/AIDS in Eurasia
Meeting on October 27 at the first-ever Eurasia Media Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS, media executives committed to pooling their resources to raise public awareness of the epidemic in a region that is experiencing some of the highest rates of growth of new HIV infections in the world. The Russian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (RMP) will deliver AIDS messages to the Russian population via public service advertisements on television, radio, print and online platforms; in longer-format radio and television programming and print publications; briefings for journalists to improve the quality of coverage of HIV/AIDS; and in special events. To date, partners have pledged over $30 million in commercial airtime for the first year of the campaign. The summit was organized by Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA), Gazprom-Media, and the Global Media Initiative, a collaborative effort of UNAIDS, the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation and the UN Department of Public Information. Philanthropist and actor Richard Gere took part in the summit and is helping to mobilize local celebrities for the campaign with support from TPAA and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. (October 28, 2004 press release from US Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs, usinfo.state.gov)
Microlending and healthcare in Haiti offer opportunities for social investment
Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti, has teamed up with Zanmi Lasante, a leading rural healthcare provider, to offer one-stop shopping for a variety of financial, educational, and medical services in the Haitian countryside. The Boucan Carre bank office is expected to serve 2,500 clients over the next five years, providing microloans, savings, currency exchange and money transfers. The hospital, established with the assistance of the Haitian Health Ministry, is expected to register more than 60,000 patients annually. "I am tired of bringing people on the edge of death from tuberculosis, AIDS or other diseases to the point where they can become economically active, then watching them suffer because they have no way to make a living," said Paul Farmer, founding director of Zanmi Lasante and subject of the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains. Ann Hastings, director of Fonkoze, ties the partnership with Zanmi Lasante into global trends, noting that "if we are to serve the poorest, we must be able to provide more than just microcredit -- helping the poorest to make their way out of poverty requires the integration of microfinance, education and health care services." Social investors in the US can support Fonkoze while earning a 3 percent return by purchasing investment notes from Fonkoze USA, which lends the proceeds to Fonkoze in Haiti, who then makes the funds available to its loan clients. (SocialFunds.com, October 22, 2004)
Wide range of stakeholders kick off International Year of Microcredit
Haiti's Fonkoze is also a partner in the International Year of Microcredit 2005 - www.yearofmicrocredit.org - an effort kicked off at the United Nations headquarters on November 18 by a range of supporters including microfinance providers, the private sector (financial and corporate), academia, civil society and NGOs. The initiative is aimed at building more inclusive financial sectors and increasing public awareness and understanding of microcredit and microfinance. The campaign will include a Global Entrepreneurship Awards project in developing countries, organized by Harvard Business School students; a partnership with multi-media companies in Latin America to highlight microenterprise themes in popular television soap operas; collection of data globally to fill the gaps in the current understanding of microfinance; and a special session on microfinance and the mainstream financial sector at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in 2005. Organized by Brugger & Partners, Ltd., the session will feature leaders of financial institutions such as Citigroup and ING, speaking about how to promote inclusive financial systems.
Donor's record donation for clean water in India doubled by Dell Foundation
Close on the heels of a record $1 million donation from Silicon Valley philanthropist Wynnette LaBrosse, WaterPartners International (WPI -- www.water.org) has received a matching gift from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (www.msdf.org) to launch WaterCredit, an initiative to expand access to safe drinking water to some of the world's poorest communities, initially in India, Bangladesh and Kenya. LaBrosse, founder of the Agora Foundation -- a donor-advised fund of the Peninsula Community Foundation in California -- and the Texas-based Dell Foundation together had earlier granted WPI $250,000 to help pilot the WaterCredit program. The $1 million gift from LaBrosse was the single largest donation ever received by WPI. WaterCredit's financing mechanism represents a new model for projects in the water sector, which to date have typically been funded in their entirety by grants, even when individuals served by the project have the means to share costs. Working through loans to established local NGOs, WPI will use market segmentation to identify and grant 100-percent funding of water project costs to the poorest communities. Localities that are able to pay for all or part of the expenses will be transitioned to loans, while those that fall somewhere in between will be offered a combination of grants and loans. LaBrosse, whose Agora Foundation counts women's issues a priority, noted that the burden of gathering water in poor communities often falls to, and said she hoped that easier access to clean water would mean more time for education, among other benefits. (PRNewswire, November 30, 2004; San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2004)
Philanthropist teams up with Band Aid to combat global poverty
The United Kingdom's largest charitable donor, Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter, has made his first foray into international philanthropy with his pledge to match proceeds from sales of a chart-topping single -- Band Aid 20's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" -- and a Live Aid concert DVD, which are being dedicated to fight hunger in Africa. Hunter's commitment of up to £7 million is the single biggest donation that Band Aid-a coalition of musicians and celebrities working to combat global poverty -- has received in its 20-year history. Hunter last year announced that he planned to use one-fifth of his wealth to establish the Hunter Foundation, which aims to nurture entrepreneurial skills in British schoolchildren. Proceeds from music sales, together with Mr. Hunter's contribution, will go towards humanitarian relief in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and Sudan, and will help combat the epidemic of HIV/AIDS across the continent. Hunter's gift will also help kick off the Make Poverty History campaign (www.makepovertyhistory.org), a coalition of organizations and celebrities calling on world leaders to take a stand against global poverty in 2005. The campaign plans to take advantage of a series of high profile meetings in Britain in 2005 -- the G7 finance minister's meeting in London in February, the G8 summit at Gleaneagles in July, and Britain's presidency of the European Union -- to raise visibility for its agenda. (The Scotsman, December 17, 2004)
© 2005 The Synergos Institute
|
|
|
