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May-June 2005
Global Giving Round-Up
Overviews of best-practices around the world and links to learn more about them
Gandhi Project brings message of nonviolence to Middle East
The Gandhi Project, (www.gandhiproject.org) a campaign to encourage peace and tolerance in the Middle East, was launched in Ramallah, Palestine, in April with an Arabic language screening of the film Gandhi. Sponsored by the Skoll Foundation (www.skollfoundation.org) and the Global Catalyst Foundation, (www.globalcatalyst.org) the project plans to offer free screenings throughout Palestinian communities and refugee camps the West Bank and Gaza Strip and to distribute copies of the film to local civic groups to show to youth. Further screenings are planned in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. "Gandhi was an ordinary man who took it upon himself to change the world, and telling his story is one way to get people to see the Gandhi in themselves," said Jeff Skoll, Skoll Foundation chair, at the launch of the film in Ramallah. Administered by Relief International-Schools Online in partnership with Palestinian non-governmental and community-based organizations, the Gandhi Project has produced a series of educational materials to supplement the film with resources and training materials. Meanwhile, actor and philanthropist Richard Gere, a member of The Synergos Institute's Global Philanthropist Circle, was also in Ramallah and Jerusalem in April for private visits with Palestinian and Israeli officials. It was the third visit to the region over the past year for Gere, who has been active in efforts to address conflict in the Middle East through his Healing the Divide foundation (www.healingthedivide.org). (Associated Press, April 6, 2005)
Nike Foundation supports safe spaces for girls in developing countries
The Nike Foundation (www.nikefoundation.org) has announced a new focus: improving the lives of adolescent girls in the developing world as a critical link toward achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals of poverty alleviation and gender equality. The foundation's programs aim to create "safe spaces" to bring together and empower young girls. "Research has shown the ripple effect of positive outcomes for girls and boys, communities, countries and the world when girls and young women are provided meaningful opportunities to participate more fully in life," said Maria Eitel, president of the Nike Foundation and former Nike VP for Corporate Responsibility. One of the first projects will be a $600,000 grant to the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee to support a pilot program that uses learning centers to give 45,000 girls in 1,500 rural communities opportunities to socialize and access information on personal finance, life skills and reproductive health. The foundation will work in partnership with the UN Foundation, the World Bank, the Population Council and the International Center for Research on Women on its new global outreach to girls. The philanthropic work of the foundation will complement community investments made by the athletic wear company through NikeGO, a global program that uses sport and physical activity to bring positive change to young people. Nike, Inc. will provide $20 million in cash and land donation for the foundation's new line of work and aims to target 3% of its pre-tax profit to the foundation going forward. (Nike Foundation press release, March 8, 2005)
Unitus takes on two new microfinance partners in India
Unitus (www.unitus.com), which works globally to increase access to microfinance, has announced two new lending partners in India, Activists for Social Alternatives-Grama Vidiyal (ASA-GV) in Tamil Nadu, and Bharatha Swamukti Samsthe in Karnataka.
The Unitus partnership will help ASA-GV grow from serving 66,000 clients to 700,000 in five years and includes a $1 million loan guarantee and a commitment take a minority equity ownership position in a new, for-profit finance company to be formed. The partnership with BSS includes a $1.5 million line of credit and a $100,000 capacity building grant, to help accelerate BSS's client base from 10,000 to 500,000 poor women over the next six years. Unitus' pioneering approach has helped its partners in Mexico and India achieve unusually rapid growth, doubling the numbers of borrowers served by local institutions. "We know firsthand that microfinance works," said Mike Murray, Unitus chairman and member of The Synergos Institute's Global Philanthropists Circle. He noted that another of Unitus' lending partners in rural India has grown from serving 7,000 to more than 70,000 microcredit clients in two years, with a 100% repayment rate. "Few microfinance institutions in the world have seen this kind of accelerated growth. This is the way we will achieve the democratization of opportunity." (Unitus Newsletter, March 2005)
Activists from six nations tapped for 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize
The 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize (www.goldmanprize.org) the world's largest prize for grassroots environmentalists, was awarded on April 18 to six activists from Haiti, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, and Romania. "The caliber of this year's winners takes environmental activism to new heights for risk, dedication and vision," said Richard N. Goldman, President of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. The Goldman Environmental Prize was founded in 1990 by Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda, both civic leaders and philanthropists. Many prize winners have gone on to receive further recognition; for example, 1991 Goldman Prize winner, Kenyan Wangari Maathai, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. This year's Goldman Prize recipients are working on numerous fronts in their home countries, from preventing devastating soil erosion to fighting illegal mining and logging, to thwarting plans to import nuclear waste. 2005 winners, who each receive $125,000, are agronomist Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of Haiti; biologist Kaisha Atakhanova of Kazakhstan; indigenous farmer Isidro Baldenegro López of Mexico; botanist Corneille Ewango of the Congo; Father José Andrés Tamayo Cortez of Honduras; and former journalist Stephanie Roth, Romania. (Goldman Environmental Prize press release, April 18, 2005)
Jimmy Carter stepping down as chair of Carter Center
Former US President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn have stepped down as chair and vice chair of the board of the Carter Center (www.cartercenter.org) the Atlanta-based nonpartisan public policy institute that works globally to fight disease, poverty, conflict, and oppression. At the age of 80, President Carter, who founded the institution that bears his name, said the move is part of preparations to ensure the center continues its work after his retirement. Both Carters plan to stay on and play active roles as members of the board. The board has elected current trustee John Moores, San Diego businessman and philanthropist, to serve as the next chairman of the Carter Center. Moores and his wife Rebecca founded the River Blindness Foundation in 1989 and developed innovative partnerships across various sectors to develop a distribution method for treatment of the disease in the developing world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. The assets of the foundation were transferred to the Carter Center in 1997; see Global Giving Matters' December 2001 for more information on the Moores.
Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a pledge of $25 million to the Carter Center in April toward the campaign to eradicate the remaining cases of Guinea worm diseases worldwide. The grant includes an initial $5 million contribution and challenges other donors to provide an additional $20 million over the next five years, to be matched one-to-one. The Canadian International Development Agency and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation have stepped up with pledges of $6 million to date. (Carter Center press releases, March 22 and April 6, 2005)
Clinton's partnerships help underserved AIDS populations worldwide
Another former US President who remains an active advocate for partnerships to benefit the developing world, Bill Clinton, has announced that his foundation's HIV/AIDS initiative will deliver antiretroviral therapy to 10,000 children in at least 10 countries by the end of 2005. Through an alliance with Indian generic drug maker Cipla, the William J. Clinton Foundation (www.clintonfoundation.org) has obtained much lower than market prices for pediatric HIV/AIDS therapies and will purchase and donate these drugs to countries already receiving technical assistance from the foundation. Children in China, Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Rwanda and Tanzania are scheduled to receive drugs under the program this spring. Pediatric AIDS medicines are normally as much as five times as expensive as adult HIV/AIDS and more problematic to administer. President Clinton also announced that his foundation would launch a new program to provide HIV/AIDS care to people living in rural Africa, and has asked Paul Farmer, a pioneer in rural health care, to lead the effort, which will kick off in Rwanda. The program will be expanded to Mozambique and Tanzania later in 2005 and will use these experiences as a model for rural health care in other countries. The Clinton Foundation will contribute $10 million for the pediatric and rural programs, which is aimed at leveraging funding commitments from national governments and international donors. Private funding partners to date include the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, and its president, Jamie Cooper-Hohn; Mala Gaonkar and Damien Tran, lead donors for the pediatric program, and The Ruettgers Family Foundation, lead funders of the Rwanda rural program. (William J. Clinton Foundation press release, April 11, 2005)
© 2005 The Synergos Institute
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