Food insecurity, lack of employment, gender inequality and minimal healthcare resources are issues that plague communities all over the world. The projects below prove that everyone has or can learn a skill to provide for their families, rejuvenate the planet and give voice to others who struggle with similar hurdles.
Women empowering other women exist in all parts of the globe. Fighting for the rights of the LGBTIQ community happens everyday, and reviving the planet’s resources is at the forefront of many TPP grantee’s work. Learn about the changemakers below who are creatively transforming the way communities operate and how these efforts impact us all!
Ska Sebata – Teaching Roots To Each Root
Teaching Roots to Each Root is a project addressing the absence of creative skill that is being passed down from generation to generation within the communities in rural Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Artist and creative entrepreneur, Ska Sebata, aims to help women learn how to make garments for themselves and for resale so that they are empowered and have a sustainable source of income, thus improving their livelihoods as well as those of their children. After holding several sewing workshops with young girls in the area, Ska found that mothers needed to learn the skill as they were never taught and in turn never taught their children, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. When women are empowered it causes a ripple effect where not only themselves are helped but also their families and the greater economy.
The seed grant will help facilitate a series of teaching workshops for 70 to 90 women from a cluster of 12 different villages who will in turn teach their girl children… Teaching roots so that they too can teach more roots.
Sohibjamol Rakamova, Madina Konunova – Vilka Chess Club
The term “Vilka”, derived from Russian language, is a strong move in chess where a knight, which is considered to be weaker piece than the king, queen, and rook, makes a big change in the game with a single move. The knight occupies the king, queen, and rook simultaneously and ultimately changes the course of the game. In this case, the knight is akin to a person with disabilities who shows his/her ability and makes an impressive change in the society. Vilka Chess Club was founded on the firm belief in the potential of children who are perceived as disabled by the larger society and use chess as a tool to unleash their potential.
Chess is an amazingly inclusive game that has room to accommodate people of different dispositions and abilities in its folds because of all the different styles, formats in its play as well as innovations in game boards. Unfortunately, very few chess clubs capitalize this amazing inclusiveness of chess. Vilka Chess Club is a venture that engages and taps the inclusive nature of the game to involve children with multiple conditions that challenges them intellectually and physically.
Ugonna Nwekwuru – Gedeihen Recyclers : Reward For Waste Initiative
Gedeihen Recyclers : Reward for Waste Initiative is an incentive-based recycling social enterprise engaged in transforming waste to value through recycling and empowering unemployed women and youth. Ugonna Nwekwuru and his team have adapted their recycling service to the needs of inhabitants in formal and informal settlements, thereby contributing to a better management of urban waste in Lagos, Nigeria. Their initiative gives the municipal alternate means to landfill, thereby reducing the rate at which waste is been dumped in drains, on streets. Ultimately this serves as a means of livelihood for the unemployed, especially women and youth. They help sensitize the residents on the importance of recycling in combating climate change.
Using an incentive-based approach, Gedeihen Recyclers comes onboard with a model to collect, sort, and recycle the waste, which evidently has overwhelmed the local authorities. At the same time it rewards the residents by raising their economic and living conditions since their reward is proportionate to their waste, waste is made wealth. They currently convert polythene into pellets through a contractual agreement with a recycling plant. They plan to use the proceeds to help develop a mobile application as a logical next step to further provides a touchpoint with the community.
Terana Boyd – Well Rounded Resources
Well Rounded Resources, WRR, is a non-profit organization that provides community residents with a professional portfolio for free. A professional portfolio includes a resume, cover letter, reference sheet, and an explanation letter if a person has a felony. WRR also provides resource referrals to clients searching for barrier removal sources such as housing, childcare, clothing, and any other resource we can provide. Well Rounded Resources was founded by Terana Boyd, a Roselawn community resident of Cincinnati, Ohio. Six years ago she was homeless and seeked out a shelter that assisted her with community resources she had not previously heard of. Since that time, she has received her Associates degree, gained stable employment, and earned a spot on her community council. Terana is now dedicated to providing and helping community residents overcome barriers to become self-sufficient. As she says, “Well Rounded Resources is a place of hope.”
Simon Patrick Obi – Capacity Building For Traffic Safety Advocate
Capacity Building for Traffic Safety Advocate in Abuja, Nigeria is a train-the-trainer program organized by GreenLight Initiative for young passionate safety enthusiasts. The training will develop and enhance the capacity of these advocates to better champion and lead road safety education and campaigns within their communities. This training became necessary owing to the numerous deaths, injuries, and permanent disabilities associated with reckless driving and lack of knowledge of road rules and ethics in the part of all road users. While less newsworthy, road traffic crashes kill far more Nigerians than the violent extremist group Boko-Haram, this is why GreenLight Initiative has taken the bull by its horn to train young people who will further enlighten others through organization of different sensitization and advocacy programs. The seed grant will enable GreenLight Initiative to pay for training space and logistics needed for proper delivery of the training.
I-Stem And XRCVC – Tech-Powered Inclusive Higher Education
India has over 26 million persons with disabilities in India, with 44.97% in the age group of birth to 29 years and thus in the school-going age. While there has been growing legal mandate in India for Inclusive Education through various legislations, access to equal and quality education and all streams of education remains a challenge. This challenge is even more acute at Higher Education and having recognized this need, I-Stem and XRCVC have come together to ideate and develop a concept that can harness technology to address this challenge.
I-Stem, Inclusive Stem, is an organization that is committed to empowering students with disabilities to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is primarily done through technical training, hands-on events, awareness campaigns and technical research and development. XRCVC, Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged, is a department of St. Xavier’s College that works on advocacy and access for persons with disabilities through its diverse programs. STEM education access for blind and low vision persons is one of its key interest areas. I-Stem brings the technical expertise and personal student experience while XRCVC brings in the rich experience of delivering high quality inclusive education services at higher education for in-house students with a replicable and scalable model developed which can be delivered through the technology solution. The partnership thus promises to bring in the best from all stakeholders to create a solution that can be a game changer for the Inclusive education space.
Funds from TPP will help to create an online University Portal that can automate delivery of inclusive services at institutes of higher education.
ActivistasQRock – Biblioteca Animal
Led by ActivistasQRock, Biblioteca Animal is an initiative taking place in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico that is providing books and reading materials centered on veganism, animal rights, history of social movements, activism, and intersectionality. Jessica Gonzalez Castro was inspired to begin her activism after reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer and thus she remains inspired that books can helps us achieve a plant based diet and activist for animal liberation. The grant from The Pollination Project will afford her and her team to purchase books, from cookbooks to vegan kids books.
Doom Mavis Ikyaator – Red Is My Right
Red is My Right is an initiative created by Doom Ikyaator, a development practitioner from Nigeria who is passionate about the health and rights of the girl child. The aim of this work is to educate adolescent school girls on proper menstrual hygiene, especially within the school environment, in order to boost their self-confidence and ensure that nothing hinders them from achieving their full potential. Through this initiative, adolescent school girls of Government Secondary School Magwan-Kano, Nigeria will be equipped with skills on how to self-produce reusable, environmentally friendly and cost effective sanitary pads. Additionally, safe spaces will be created for them through the establishment of school clubs so they can freely share information on their menstruation.
Nyankui Women’s Association – Nyankui Women’s Vegetable Garden Project
The Nyankui Women’s Vegetable Garden Project is an economic empowerment initiative that will be conducted in Nyankui Village in the Upper River Region of the Gambia. The region continues to experience food insecurity and poverty, which greatly impacts women as they are unable to access resources. As a result, the Nyankui Women’s Association alongside the Village Development Committee and the Nyankui Development Association will carry out this work. The primary activity revolves around vegetable production that aims at generating income for the women while also contributing to food security, improved nutrition, and enhanced livelihoods for the community. The fact that vegetable gardening is often done by women and the Nyankui women are already involved in this activity through the village vegetable garden provides the foundation on which activities will be anchored and scaled up.
Funds from The Pollination Project will help in extending the surface area under cultivation, secure the extension rom domestic animals, demonstrate better vegetable production methods based on sustainable practices, and introduce value addition to improve the shelf life of certain perishable produce, fetch better prices, and improve market access.
Willot Joseph, Wilson Romelus – Jean-Rabel Community Vegetable Garden Project
The Jean-Rabel Community Vegetable Garden Project, located in the Northwest region of Haiti, is addressing two main issues: deforestation and food insecurity. For decades, poor farmers have cut trees down to turn into charcoal in order to make a living. As a result, large swathes of the topsoil have eroded, leading to food insecurity in the area. Since these two issues are not mutually exclusive, planting fast-growing and evergreen trees like Moringa oleifera help to restore the environment and provide food sources to the beneficiaries. Likewise, growing vegetables and beans will help increase their food staple significantly in less than three months.
The funds from The Pollination Project, Willot Joseph and his team will be able to train, and in turn support, the local population on the benefits of the plant, provide technical assistance to farmers, train on various agricultural techniques, and ultimately create a community seed bank to ensure access to necessary supplies.
Zimbabwe Expressive Art Workshops – Purple Hand Africa
Purple Hand Africa is an initiative for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) people of Zimbabwe founded by Trevor P. Molife. The expressive art workshops programme is critical in the rainbow journey of empowerment, a journey taken along the colors of the LGBTIQ rainbow flag. First and foremost, the workshops will provide healing through art, which in turn is effective in developing the beneficiaries self confidence. Ultimately, this work is intended to bring together LGBTIQ people from all across the spectrum to form stronger peer bonds and a stronger movement. The grant will go a long way in assisting with program implementation, which will prepare the work for the next step of livelihood promotion.
Shamsina – Shamsina: Solar Water Heaters For The Energy Poor
Shamsina designs and manufactures affordable solar technologies for energy deficient communities, and equips the public with the tools to build innovative and clean energy solutions. It operates out of Al-Darb Al-Ahmar in Cairo, Egypt and has installed solar powered water heaters in locations across the country–from the rural valleys of Aswan in the south, to the vast desert and mountains of Sinai in the east and the coastal city of Dumyat in the north.
Sauda Kassim Kupi – Donkey Love
The Donkey Love project will train donkey operators in Faza, Pate Island, and Lamu on how to properly care for the animals, including nutrition, rest needs, and medical care. Many people in Lamu rely on these animals for their livelihood and transportation of goods however do not have the correct information and training on how to handle the animals. Sauda Kupi and her team will work with the Donkey Operators Association to change how donkeys are treated.
The funds will allow them to construct a water well for the animals, hold seminars for the donkey operators, and provide veterinary training for designated members.
Joy VanLandschoot, Jake Tibbetts, & Live Now – Mollie’s Movement: Paying Kindness Forward
Mollie’s Movement: Paying Kindness Forward has a simple goal of sharing random acts of kindness across the nation and the world by utilizing the impact social media can make. The project is spearheaded by two individuals: Mollie Tibbetts’s brother, Jake Tibbetts, and Joy VanLandschoot, owner of Live Now, a printing company in Mollie’s hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.
Mollie was a young woman who went missing on July 18th, 2018, and was found deceased 5 long, heartbreaking weeks later. Mollie’s memory is carried on exactly like how she lived: as a kind person, loving everyone she met and always seeking to find and celebrate the good in other people. The Movement also assists in finding other missing persons by “share and prayer” through social media and promotional products.
