What if every person who had an idea to empower their neighbors and release kindness into their surroundings followed through with this spark of inspiration?
The 14 featured grantees below demonstrate what it looks like to be devoted to a cause that is larger than ourselves. Bliss on Earth is possible, and we all have the power to create it!
These projects, organizations, and intimate communities are radical acts towards redefining stagnant beliefs, supplying fresh perspectives and spreading uplifting ideas with actionable ways to make a difference. TPP grantees display infinite ways to gather their communities and heal our planet. They create in the present to build a long-lasting foundation. Read on to soak in the talent and bravery that is occurring around the globe!
Laison Sylvie With HopeAlive Association – Donate A Pad And Keep A Girl In School. (#MypadMyPride).
Young girls in Bamenda, Cameroon often drop out of school as a result of being pregnant and thus we work to educate these girls on sexual and reproductive health and how to avoid this situation. We teach them about their menstrual cycles and how to remain safe if they are sexually active. Furthermore, many girls stay out of school on the days of their menstruation because of fear of stigmatization and poor menstrual hygiene management. We provide safe and healthy materials to school girls to stay safe and comfortable while at school so they can improve their grades and chances of graduating.
My inspiration stems from wanting people to know that girls face challenges growing up and should not be left alone to deal with it. They need – and deserve – the support of family and the society at large.
Promise Non-Profit Organization – Project GO (Growing Ourselves)
Project GO (Growing Ourselves) was developed to give program participants the knowledge and skills needed to seek and maintain gainful employment. This project will provide job training, education, and social support to residents of low-income Detroit neighborhoods, which will enable them to obtain and maintain gainful employment, helping to reduce the unemployment rate in low-income communities. Job opportunities are rapidly increasing in Michigan, primarily in the Detroit area and thus we aim to set up individuals for economic success. Job training programs that provide residents with the resources and skills needed to gain and maintain employment are in high demand in urban areas. Here at Promise, we understand the importance of Education and Job skills, and we are proud to have created such an important program that can positively impact peoples’ lives.
Zimconserve Partner Bangira Villagers – Developing A Vegetable Cooperative Society For Farmers
Developing a Vegetable Cooperative Society for Farmers is located in Seke, Bangira, Zimbabwe. Led by the Zimconserve and Bangira Co-Op Society, the goal is to grow and market a variety of vegetable species through sustainable permaculture methods, leading to nutritious meals and a revenue generation from sales.
This work is important in that it has transformed the lives of this otherwise marginalized community by helping improve individuals lifestyles for the better, uniting people together to achieve a common goal. The grant funds will enable the co-op to set up the much needed warehouse within the confines of the plot for the storage and purchase of a solar dryer that is used in drying the produce.
Rufus Sullivan And Kimberley Somerside – Green Generation Project
The Green Generation Project, which works with the Scottish charity Green18, will visit primary schools across the 32 local authorities in Scotland. The project will be led by Rufus Sullivan, founder and director of Green18, with other Scottish environmentalists helping along the way.
Working to utilize the enthusiasm and creativity that the youngest generations have shown across the planet with the #FridaysForFuture protests, the Green Generation Project will give primary school pupils a leading role in designing and implementing ways that schools can reduce their environmental impact. The concepts and ideas generated in the project will also feed their way into the lives of the pupils at home with the potential to influence the environmental impact of thousands of Scottish people.
Throughout the day-long project pupils will learn about environmental issues that our planet faces before pupils agree on areas they want to target at school. The pupils’ ideas will be developed and implemented with the support of Green18 and the school even after the workshop day is over. All schools that receive the project will also be provided with follow-up activities to be completed in class and more ideas to help reduce their environmental impact.
This project was inspired by the thousands of young people who have showed such dedication and enthusiasm for protecting the environment and the planet. Green18 works to encourage a bottom-up approach to climate change with individuals coming together to help protect the future. This generous grant from The Pollination Project will work in conjunction with funds raised through a crowdfunding campaign to complete designing the project, running a pilot project, and creating the resources to be used at all schools which are visited.
Natalie Vereen-Davis – Recycled And Upcycled Art Summer Program
Located in a small fishing village on South Carolina’s coast, Smash Glass Arts is dedicated to preserving the surrounding waterways and forests in the most fun way possible: through arts, crafts, music, and creative programming. The 2019 summer program at the nonprofit challenges leaders and students alike to think critically about the environment by using at least 90% recycled and upcycled materials in all classes and workshops.
This wide-reaching program will include environmentally friendly art classes, writing workshops, sewing classes, and more, all of which will be offered for free. Creativity can build a community while also spreading the word about sustainability!
Egbe Jimmy – Installation Of Solar Energy Unit In Meveo Village, Cameroon
The Installation of Solar Energy Unit in Meveo Village, Cameroon is a community-led initiative whereby every individual is invited – and encouraged – to participate. Ashu Egbe James, the project’s leader, shares that it has been a long-time dream of the community to have light and the ability to power their own utilities via a charging station. The community’s renewed and sharpened hopes of acquiring free flow information updates, communication, uninterrupted connection with little trekking to benefit from these services is coming true.
A grant from The Pollination Project will assist in purchasing equipment to establish the solar-charging station, including panels, electricity conductors, sockets, batteries, bulbs, and switches.
Bih Pascaline – Dare Africa
Dare Africa is a campaign and challenge for young women and girls in Cameroon, and Africa as a whole, to dare to have big and bold dreams, to lead, and to create an impact in their lives and communities. Founded by Bih Pascaline with Nduma Ailin as Co-leader, Dare Africa is providing opportunities for leadership development for women through Emerging Women Leadership Breakfasts and networking circles. The project recognizes and celebrates the stories and achievements of young and experienced women leaders and promotes innovation and informed Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) choices among adolescent girls.
Dare Africa brings out the leader in every woman and girl by inspiring, empowering, and equipping them with the skills and tools necessary to break stereotypes, challenge the status quo, and reach their full potential.
Chrysalis; Esperanza Shelter – Labyrinth At Esperanza Shelter
The Labyrinth at Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families Support Center is a circuitous pathway design that leads to the center and back out again, unlike a maze that has tricks and dead ends. Walking the labyrinth is an ancient practice re-popularized in the last 20 years, proven to facilitate stress reduction, mind-body integration, and centering.
The vision for creating a permanent outdoor labyrinth at Esperanza Shelter is to engage the current residents who are recovering from traumatic situations, and engage the families in a fun outdoor activity that also creates a space for reflection and refuge, as well as a legacy for future residents.
Jean Klein – FEEDING The NEED
With the rising cost of regular produce, let alone organic, it is impossible for any low-income person to be able to afford to eat healthy. As a result, Jean Klein, founder and president of the non-profit organization FEED the NEED, works to feed and educate low-income families in Morris, Illinois, USA. Jean believes that by building raised gardens and using organic soil and seeds, they will be able to provide free vegetables and fruit to 72 low-income families in local complexes.
With the help of volunteers in their garden club, they will be able to maintain the gardens, and most importantly educate families on maintaining these gardens and healthy eating so that future generations will have the same opportunity to carry on the farm-to-table food mindset. As someone who was once low-income, Jean knows that this kind of work will empower individuals to become more involved for long-term change.
Micheal-Oba, Daniel, Godwin And Orie – MACI Digital Equity
According to World Economic Forum projection, most of the work available today will no longer be in existence in the next 20 years, as technology will replace most of the available jobs. UNESCO adds that more than half of those in schools are neither learning nor acquiring adequate skills. This is where Mentor an African Child Initiative – MACI – a social impact initiative, started. The goal of the work is to provide training and mentorship for children in low-income communities. The children are trained and mentored in skills such as ICT and STEM education for innovation and entrepreneurship.
As a result, they are exposed to different opportunities which are not readily accessible to them in their immediate environment. MACI is a capacity-building initiative for children who are tomorrow’s nation builders. The grant will enable the Initiative to train more children and provide them with resources and computers for continuous use. MACI currently operates in Abeokuta and its environs in Ogun State.
Irene Greaves And Jessica Distaso – Lovescaping: Learning To Practice Love In Action
Lovescaping is a program that teaches the skills needed to practice love in action. We believe that only through love can our humanity be transformed to embrace individuals as well as societies worldwide. In order for us to practice love in action, we need to learn to embody the 15 pillars of Lovescaping: respect, care, honesty, communication, empathy, trust, patience, compassion, liberation, humility, vulnerability, solidarity, hope, gratitude, and forgiveness. We are based in Houston, Texas, where we are carrying out Lovescaping pilot programs at different public schools throughout the city, learning to love with students of all ages, from 1st through 12th grade.
Our current education systems aren’t equipped to nurture and cultivate feelings, emotions, self-value, self-esteem, and self-love in the way that Lovescaping can. It is of utmost importance that we equip the future generation with the social and emotional skills that will allow them to cooperate, collaborate, and transcend our differences in our increasingly diverse world. Schools can be a conduit to provide safe, loving, and nurturing environments where students learn to love. When Lovescaping techniques are brought into a school, it becomes a place of empowerment for self-discovery, where students learn first and foremost how to love themselves, and how to practice love in action. Despite any perceived differences between us, we teach inclusiveness in the practice of love as an important uniting force, as individuals and as a group.
We explore meaningful ways of authentic expression, and with love and kindness we validate each other’s opinions, self-expression, and uniqueness without prejudice and without fear. We believe there is nothing more urgent, more timely, and more important than learning to love. By learning to practice love in action we will be able to overcome discrimination, hatred, aggression, racism, xenophobia, and all other forms of violence and oppression. This grant will be instrumental in helping us cover the costs of the materials we need to carry out our lessons, and to continue spreading the love. Welcome, future fellow Lovescapers, to the humanity of tomorrow!
Youth For Aarey
Youth for Aarey is a Mumbai-based community that works to preserve and protect Aarey Forest, one of the world’s oldest urban forests and last remaining tribal inhabitants by establishing an environmental awareness and learning hub. The hub engages Mumbai citizens from all walks of life by running experiential programs around environmental issues, such as agroforestry, natural farming, wildlife walks & conservation, climate change resilience, wild medicines, and native tree planting.
Our hub is inclusive – serving as a bridge between tribal communities and urban citizens, facilitating knowledge exchange and creating citywide champions for the protection of our urban forests.
Tiffany Kirk, City Of Atlanta – LIFERS Program
The LIFERS Program is a non-profit that provides life skills training in the Atlanta Metro area. Founder, Tiffany Kirk, partners with other non-profit and government agencies, including Fulton County Juvenile Courts, to deliver a 6-part series that covers lifestyle choices, incarceration and its effects, financial empowerment, education, employment pathways, entrepreneurship, relationships, and success.
With juvenile crime on the rise in Atlanta and many other U.S. cities, it is more important now than ever to equip young men and women with the tools and resources that will ensure higher success outcomes and lower recidivism rates. My inspiration comes from seeing friends and family affected by crime; a criminal charge is a factor that places lifetime barriers on the accused. The grant received will assist with the purchase of materials for the program and other supplemental resources needed to successfully execute programming.
SinFin Collective – SinFin Land Project
SinFin is a collective land project in the pueblo of Oaxtepec, Morelos, dedicated to building a base of mutual aid, grassroots organizing, and sustainable living practices. Nestled between the Yautepec and Cuautla rivers, the valley’s fertile soil served as the most ancient botanical garden in the “Americas” and the first modern hospital to use indigenous herbal medicine. Today, Oaxtepec is facing a new threat. Its economy relies largely on tourism from Mexico City and its residents are starting to sell their land to development projects that are depleting the area’s abundant fresh water deposits.
Every day, less and less water is being left behind for low-income residents. Oaxtepec’s public library has remained closed due to damages caused by the devastating earthquake of 2017 where residents failed to receive assistance from government relief funds. Neighbors in the region who attempted to deliver supplies were intercepted at police check-points and the materials seized. SinFin aims to interrupt this dynamic by creating alternatives to extractivism and building up the resources needed to fight against it.
We see ourselves as part of an endless cross-pollination of resistances! We are committed to self-organizing a library, an herbal apothecary and a garden in order to support a self-sustaining ecosystem, a social mycelium that connects local knowledge, food harvesting, herbal medicine, and reforestation. We hope to manifest an inclusive and inter-generational space where people can meet, connect, and form meaningful relationships that give rise to fertile grounds of struggle.
