GRACE CARES INCORPORATED

The Uzima Community Development Project supports the wellbeing and development of the Watha people in the Galana region of Kenya through development programs in education, health care, water access, and human rights training. The Wathas primarily inhabit four villages within the Kisiki sub-region with a majority living in Garisemuke Village in the Galana area. Most Wathas earn a living through farming, hunting, or charcoal burning. In addition to natural disasters and cyclical climate events like droughts, the Wathas have encountered the following developmental problems that have had adverse effects on their daily lives: access to clean water, poor infrastructure, healthcare, food security, and education. On December 22, 2018, the first organizational meeting was held in Garisemuke Village to introduce GRACE Cares to the elders and to present the proposed water project. In addition to the water project, there are plans to form women’s groups that will include livelihood training, microfinance programs, and development-building activities.

Kali to Kali operates two projects—one in Pakistan and one in Rwanda. Kali to Kali aims to provide sustained education and wellness efforts in areas of need. These efforts are done by supporting local education systems and schools, providing access to clean water, addressing hygiene issues, as well as providing access to proper nutrition. Over the years, Kali to Kali has established long-term relationships with organizations overseas to ensure that sustainability can be continued. In addition, local workers are used to supporting and stimulate local economies.

The Lucknow Project works to improve the educational system of rural villages in India, along with health and quality of life. Improvements to the educational and health systems have led to broader community empowerment and a sense of a future for the younger generations. Since 2006 the project has grown to employ six full-time, qualified, English teachers and are able to maintain the curriculum year-round. The Lucknow Project has been expanded to include an annual medical initiative, and they are recruiting physicians who are willing to donate their time for this cause. A community initiative is led by a group consisting of 7-10 members from each constituency in Amethi and they manages a small fund to help pay for marriages, funeral rites, birth certificates, hospitalization for a critical illness and other official ceremonies or emergencies.

GRACE Cares believes it is important to promote the arts and education projects that develop individual and community awareness on the importance of peacebuilding. By doing so, they join citizens across the globe to reflect on decisions that impact the lives of vulnerable people. We promote an agenda that respects the rights and responsibilities of humans: the right to be free and to live peacefully and to learn how to build peace within individuals, families, and communities.

B4 Peace uses art at the community level to engage communities in their own peacebuilding process. B4 Peace facilitates this exploration through art installations, performances, and peace-art workshops. In each project, B4 Peace utilizes multiple types of presentations to appeal to different people and their unique preferences. The model that B4 Peace follows is straightforward and profound: art + participation + discussion = transformation of hearts and minds.

Thousands of indigenous Kakchiquel Maya households throughout the Chimaltenango department (~counties) of Guatemala live with constant financial uncertainty and instability, which greatly diminishes their overall quality of life. Community Finance Guatemala (CFG) is dedicated to reversing this situation by supporting indigenous Guatemalan women with the necessary knowledge and tools to empower themselves to organize their own financial systems.

Community Finance Guatemala provides financial education workshops designed to meet participants where they are at regarding literacy level, education level, and financial situation. Interested participants can also decide to receive savings group training to learn how to create and manage their own informal community bank. These community banks are comprised of friends and family members, are based on a solid foundation of trust, and provide easy access to financial services such as savings and lending on their own terms.

The Munali Youth Empowerment Program (MYEP) provides early learning resources—books, reading workshops, health and safety programs—in the Lusaka Province of Zambia.

MYEP’s Knowledge in Motion initiative began in 2020. Since then, it has impacted more than 150 children with book deliveries and literacy workshops, facilitating unity through shared storytime. Books are borrowed on a rotating basis and are read individually or in a group, with many MYEP volunteers offering their time to read out loud. Moving forward, the project will provide the option for children and their families to receive books and educational materials in the comfort of their own homes.

YOCUPA was founded in 1996 to use theatre and the performing arts as a means to influence social behavior changes in communities of Zambia with high numbers of reported sexual and gender based violence incidents as evidenced by the Zambia Police Victims Support Unit annual reports. Many more incidents, of course, go undocumented.

Prior to forming this new initiative, 7ASIDE-ASHAGs (Anti-Sexual Harassment Groups), YOCUPA observed there was no comprehensive intervention taking place in the affected communities. They decided to be that intervention.

Reaching YOCUPA’s target fundraising goal means that victims of sexual harassment have access to peer-to-peer awareness workshops, poignant performances by the Theatre For Community Action and rehabilitation center resources. All this, paired with your help, will have a meaningful impact on reducing the frequency of sexual violence in target learning institutions, places of work and worship, homes and community spaces.

The Base for Hope and Human Rights Organization (BHHRO) strives to create a society in South Sudan without gender-based violence; to inform the communities of Juba, Western Equatoria, Upper Nile, and Western Bahr el Ghazal about the many harmful effects of female subjugation, including youth pregnancies, and forced marriages.

BHHRO utilizes Cash Transfer Programs (CTPs), which are regarded as one of the most successful approaches to reducing poverty in developing countries, to stimulate small business growth for young mothers in South Sudanese communities. Following a learning course on entrepreneurship, and the injection of 150 US dollars in seed money, recipients are expected to build their own, income-generating businesses, which in turn, reduces their reliance, and therefore vulnerability, to harmful relationships of necessity.

Donated funds will help BHHRO’s Cash Transfer Program, “Cash for Capital: Re-routing Teenage Mothers Through Small Businesses,” extend services to include