Serving others can take the form of money, emotional support, counseling, friendship, and education. The forms and methods are nearly infinite, and the resulting impact increases when people create solutions together. TPP supplies grants, belief, and other non-financial support, but it is the mindset, determination and brilliance of TPP grantees that generates real change.
TPP grantees serve others with their hearts and hands, making use of the resources available to them to change the world. But their journey is so often one of partnership and mutual respect. Through their service, they connect with the grit, courage, vision and hopes of the communities they serve. And it is this rootedness in community, this foundation of shared responsibility and respect, that helps carry the grantee’s vision and plant the seeds for new beginnings, opportunities, and boundless joy.
Eco-Soap Bank – Soap Angels
Soap Angels, powered by Eco-Soap Bank, is a program of Triple Shine Foundation that empowers disabled and rehabilitated drug users in the Mamelodi Township of the Capital City of South Africa, Tshwane. Soap Angels is committed to providing soaps with dignity by meticulously recycling hotel soaps through our 8-step process into fresh new hygienic bars. By doing this, the project aims to achieve lifesaving and sustainable improvements in global hygiene practices, so that no child suffers from preventable diseases because they lacked access to soap.
The project stemmed out of an interest to save soap away from the landfill and serve a greater purpose in solving unemployment as well as the lack of hand washing soap at schools , children’s homes, and child learning centers. The grant funding will assist in seeding the program, purchasing materials, and covering start-up costs.
Estnart Gondwe – Bolero Women Build: Women And Girls Empowerment Project
Bolero Women Build is a women-led and women-run community organization, in Bolero, a small rural town in Northern Malawi. The goal is that by 2025 the women within northern Malawi will be empowered to make their own decisions and be financially self-sustainable. To do this, Bolero Women Build has started a handful of projects that help support the empowerment of women and girls, such as opening a pre-school, starting a community banking group, opening an environmentally sustainable rocket-stove café run by women, and beginning tailoring lessons on how to make sustainable, reusable sanitary pads.
A grant from The Pollination Project will help them to purchase a sewing machine and other sewing material that will allow more women and girls to learn how to make reusable pads and will enable more pads to be constructed in less time. This is important for the women as they will have their own income separate from their husbands, as well as for girls who will receive the pads, enabling them to stay in school during menstruation.
Foncham Linda Konnant And Ramata Ramani – Eco Sustainable Gardens Project Empowering Mbororo Women
Eco Sustainable Gardens Project Empowering Mbororo Women takes place in the northwest region of Cameroon. The project team is made of three individuals, a senior agricultural technician, a marketer, and a communication expert. The project now cultivates two classes of traditional crops – foleri, karikacee, and lalo – of the Mbororo people and nutritional crops – garden egg, huckleberry, waterleaf, sweet bitter leaf, eggplant, okra, Chinese cabbage and more – aimed at boosting their level of nutrient intake. The project is needed in that it reduces hunger and malnutrition in communities, reduces the rate of over dependency of the Mbororo women on their husbands, and empowers women.
This project is of utmost importance as it goes a long way to increase food production and consumption by the community and country at large. The zeal to share the knowledge I acquired during my training in the technical school of agriculture serves a great source of inspiration, along with the desire to impact communities and increase food supply.
The grant fund will permit us to purchase more inputs, maintain the already existing gardens, increase the number of gardens, and expand into new communities thereby increasing the number of beneficiaries.
Fonyuy Videc Leinyuy And Eldad Gaih – After School Code Club
Most schools in Cameroon do not equip their students with IT and coding skills, thus the digital gap among young people continues to increase. With the 21st century growth in digital technologies, which brings a rise to new employment opportunities, it is unquestionably evident that workers with information technology (IT) skills will be in high demand for the future job market and learning to code will be one of the most important job skill of the future.
After School Code Club is an initiative of GirlsTEK Global, lead by cofounder Fonyuy Videc Leinyuy, Eldad Gaih and company. This project is designed for young boys and girls to discover, learn, build, and code in a fun and supportive environment. The Clubs activities merge technology and entrepreneurship projects to spark the imagination of each student, endowing them with the creative confidence and zeal to pursue STEM fields when they make it to university. Our training will give young boys and girls hands on experience in computer manipulation, coding, and entrepreneurship.
Fonyuy is inspired by the numerous youths, especially girls in her nation, with limited knowledge and low application of technology. Her desire to see more of them in tech influences her work. The grant from The Pollination Project will catapult the transformation of this idea to a realization, as it will finance the requirements needed to kick start this project.
David, Silvia, And Paula – Equalia
Equalia is an organization determined to generate change in society, improving the quality of people’s lives, and protecting the environment and the animals. For more than a decade, we have been doing a constant work and committed to our environment. With a background in disciplines related to social spheres and animal protection, we channel our knowledge and experience to build something really big with all our hearts.
Something with real and effective impact. Some of the biggest changes in the last ten years in Spain in terms of animal welfare have been possible because of our work. David Herrero as CEO, Silvia Mayorga, Carla Fernández, Paula Sánchez and Maria Jose Alcázar are part of this amazing team.
Rebook Africa – Digital Skills 4 Good
There are a lot of young people in Ota and Makoko communities who do not have the skills to use a computer. This poses a setback on our developmental journey as the African continent as we are failing to develop our most resourceful asset – the youth – for the future which is driven by technology. The Rebook Africa’s Digital Skills 4 Good Project is designed to empower young people in low-income communities with digital skills so that they can become active and responsible citizens. This project is divided into a two day boot camp and six month mentorship program, which will help create an ecosystem of digital literate young people, who will use their skills to create innovative solutions and empower others.
Ntardzenyuy Jenette Dubila, Jenny Beads – Bead Jewelry Production For Income Generation
Jenny Beads is an individual endeavor that builds capacity of vulnerable internally displaced young girls who are victims of political crisis in northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon. Led by Ntardzenyuy Jenette Dubila, Bead Jewelry Production for Income Generation gives young women an opportunity and second chance to rebuild their lives and reduce their risk of STDs, adolescent pregnancy, and violence as they are engaged in something greater together. The project provides support and brings employment opportunities all while contributing to rebuild crisis torn communities in the country.
Social Shift
Social Shift invests in the social and creative development of teens who live in the Detroit Metropolitan area. Detroit Public School Community District has lost approximately $6.5 million under Public Act 8 and as a result, the budget for art classes, musical theater and stem programs have been underfunded or diminished in the attempt to save the schools. The unconscious stripping of creative and innovative output is deterring kids from inquisitive thinking, and their ability to socialize in a effective manner.
Jeremiah Steen is planning community outreach events that will bring together teens to brainstorm how to make positive impact, promote strong inquisitive thinking, and how to advance their view of community through a creative perspective. The planning and executing process with the teens will be an opportunity for them to give back to the community, gain leadership abilities and receive community service hours to help their advancement in school.
“There seems to be a reoccurring theme of adults planning teen events without teen input or advisory. My fellowship idea will reevaluate and dispel that way of planning. This project will not only give teens a chance to ‘just plan events’, but it will give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and create a space for teens to collaborate and voice their opinions in a safe environment.”
Adekunle, Naomi, Gabriel, And Samson – Skrind
In 2019, infectious diseases continue to pose challenges to global health as they remain a leading cause of death, with the Sub-Saharan region accounting for most of a majority. Professionals agree that early detection through screening will not only prevent health problems but also help prevent the transmission of these diseases. Adekunle Adeluwoye is a healthcare professional who has taken a special interest in Hepatitis B, alongside other infectious diseases, because of the level of its burden, increasing financial cost, and personal suffering that patients go through. Having engaged in awareness campaigns and outreaches, Adekunle Adeluwoye and his team began to identify a digital health solution. This is how Skrind was born, a mobile app that provides a one-spot access for vita information on infectious diseases and a simple, DIY self-testing tool for users to discreetly screen themselves, whereby the application reads and interprets testing strips via the users smartphone camera.
Dan Jetter – EducationEquity Foundation
EducationEquity Foundation (EEF) provides excellent free tutoring to motivated low-income students taking online lessons in science and/or math. These non-EEF online lessons are often free MOOCs – Massively Open Online Courses. EEF founder Dan Jetter, himself an expert private tutor of science and math – over 2400 hours’ experience- augments the online lessons with in-person tutoring as needed. Though currently focused on the Trenton area, EEF will soon be available throughout the NYC Metro Area. In fact, EEF’s roots are in NYC, where Dan was a High School Science teacher.
After burning out in frustration with a dysfunctional public education system that left even motivated kids without the math foundations necessary for science learning, Dan resolved to return someday to help such kids help themselves. EEF, with its efficient/effective pedagogy of in-person tutoring that supplements online lessons, is the mechanism for helping these kids help themselves. This grant will help EEF maintain its website, as well as provide textbooks to students who have limited Internet access. Just as importantly, thanks to the ensuing publicity from The Pollination Project, this grant may help EEF partner with computer hardware-providing foundations that are also attempting to bridge the digital divide in education.
Melissa Reinberg – Negotiation Works
Women who are homeless, recently released from prison, or living in domestic violence shelters routinely engage in critical and complex negotiations to seek steady employment, a safe place to live, and access to needed services. However, they too often lack the conflict resolution skills necessary to deal effectively with all the challenges they face as they endeavor to get their lives back in order. Melissa Reinberg, a lawyer, mediator, and educator, founded Negotiation Works to provide negotiation skills training to these under-served populations in the Washington, DC area.
Staff and volunteer instructors lead the interactive classes, using games, activities, and role play simulations to engage the participants and to give them opportunities to practice the skills. The women learn negotiation techniques and strategies they can use to resolve everyday situations more effectively, enhance interpersonal relationships, and achieve personal and economic stability. This grant will be used to support the design and dissemination of course materials.
Unny Nambudiripad, Freeman Wicklund – Our Wellness And Liberation (OWL) Retreat
Our Wellness and Liberation (OWL) Animal Advocates Retreat helps strengthen the animal advocacy community in Minnesota by addressing compassion fatigue and burnout in animal advocates. We aim to holistically address this complex issue by providing training and retreats that teaches about sustainable activism, helpful tools for managing feelings of anger and frustration, tools to de-stress, and connection with other activists. We will use meditation and other proven techniques to help deepen animal activists’ love and compassion for themselves, for advocates they work with, for the industries they challenge, and for everybody.
Joy Simwaka And Mzgola Community – The Green House Tomato Farming
The Greenhouse Tomato Farming project is an initiative in Nkhata Bay District, Malawi that will address the problems associated with environmental pollution and human health due to increased use of industrial fertilizers and chemicals. Along with the help of youth and women volunteers, Joy Simwaka will work towards this goal while reducing the problems associated with poverty and unemployment among these demographics. As a result of this project, communities will be trained in sustainable, small-scale agriculture, which serves as a benefit to human health and environmental conservation.
Najee Amaranth, Jahniah Bahari – Oakland Mind
From Hip Hop to Tai Chi, Oakland Mind represents the people. Led by Jahniah Omi & Najee Amaranth they’ve hosted one of Oakland’s dopest freestyle cyphers, facilitated weekly Qi Gong sessions, held healing circles and acted as a platform for upcoming artists. Behind that are two talented artists, parents, social activists, and innovators. Dedicated to pushing positivity in Oakland.
Amaranth, artist and innovator, got his start in 2009 performing for colleges. In 2012 he started the group The Oakland Mind, one of the leaders in the bay area music scene. Through this group and his personal music, he was able to bring light to real-life issues such as human trafficking, the lack of resources in underprivileged communities, and mental health. The music he creates stays true to his hip hop roots while incorporating a strong message into the music without losing the power.
