Q4 Partnership : New Story Charity

We are so excited to announce our partnership with New Story Charity! New Story is a non-profit focused on providing safe homes for families living in slums around the globe. To date, they have built more than 850 homes for families in Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico, and Boliva.

To provide higher quality homes and impact more families faster at a lower cost, New story has partnered with ICON to create the first 3D home printer developed specifically for underserved populations.

New story is rolling out their first 3D printed community of homes in the new year! We are so excited to play a small part in their efforts of providing safe homes for families. Through our partnership, we will sponsor 5 3D homes in 2019!

Watch the video in below to get a sneak peak at the process! 

Update from the field : Food for the Hungry

Many of you know from our previous blog that j.rich recently began a partnership with a non-profit organization called Food for the Hungry (fh.org). For those of you who don’t know, FH is committed to ending hunger in developing communities. Unlike many organizations who just drop resources into a community to solve an immediate need, FH comes alongside the community and develops a plan that will help the residents create a stable, lasting means of self-sustaining. In our mind this is a perfect partnership, because our desire is to help people find (or in this case, create) communities in which they can truly feel safe and at home.

We previously announced that we would be working with communities in the Dominican Republic. We are very excited to announce that we’ve been paired with two wonderful communities: La Mina and Camarón. Your support through this process has been paramount and we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the two communities, discuss what is already underway, and update you on how FH plans to continue to equip these people with the skills and knowledge to operate independently.

La Mina is a rural community located near Yamasa in the Monte Plata province. Although we are just joining in on supporting this community, FH has been walking alongside this community since 2012. There are 262 families with a total population of 1,310 people including 150 children. Of these 150 children, 136 are ages 3 to 17 years old and are registered in the FH sponsorship program with 116 (93%) of them already sponsored.

Camarón is another rural community located near Yamasa in the same province. Having arrived in 2010, FH has also been here for quite some time. They have already been walking alongside this community of nearly 430 families totaling a population of 2,000 people including 300 children. Of these 300 children, 270 are ages 3 to 17 years old and are registered in the FH sponsorship program with 252 (93%) of them already sponsored.

Both communities we have come along side are in stage II of a process FH has titled Child Focused Community Transformation (CFCT). The intention of this method is to engage with various leaders in the community and work with them to discover how to develop the best possible environment for the youth in the area.

We are elated with the prospects of stage II because so much good has already been done in stage I. Here are a few incredible transformations that have already taken place in both communities:

·       100% of school aged children have been supplied with anti-parasite medication and vitamin A with the help of our partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH).

·       100% of children registered with FHDR were supplied with school kits and school uniforms. This was to aid, to support, and to encourage parents in the education of their children.

·       A formation of a neighborhood council and mother’s club

·       FHDR has initiated height and weight monitoring for children in the community, aiming to monitor and aid healthy growth for children.

These are just a few of many exciting changes that have already happened. We hope that along with these changes, we continue to see changes in the hearts and minds of the people living here. A hope that any mindset of despair and fear would shift to that of hope and security.

With this vision of a hopeful shift in the people, FH has set numerous goals for both communities to accomplish in the CFCT model. FH plans to continue walking along side these communities for a long time. In La mina, they plan to be there until 2021; in Camarón, they plan on staying until 2023. When it is time to walk away, it is our hope and FH’s hope that the communities will have:

·       100% of the families with access to clean drinking water

·       100% of the families with bathrooms or latrines

·       The vast majority of children impacted by the AMO program. This program teaches children good decision-making and biblical principles of self-governance, stewardship and service.

·       100% of families with either a better income or vocational training that could lead to a better income

First and foremost we want to thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and financial support of our two communities in the Dominican Republic. Secondly, if you want to continue to give or give for the first time, there are multiple ways to do so. FH provides a diverse range of options for giving. You can give a straight donation, sponsor a child, give to a specific cause, choose from a gift catalog, and, in some cases, give through your employer who will match your donation. Regardless of the method, you can trust that FH will be using the money to improve the lives of many families who desperately need our love and support.

If you want to know more about FH, more about us, or just want to chat about what community means to you, feel free to contact us with whatever is on your mind. Stay tuned for more updates on our friends in La Mina and Camarón.

Q3 Partnership : Ron Clark Academy

We are excited to announce our 3rd quarter partnership with The Ron Clark Academy. The mission of this amazing academy is to "To deliver the highest quality educational experience where global citizens are born through advanced rigor, engaging teaching methods, and a passionate climate and culture." 

We had the honor of taking a tour of this school last month and were amazed by the school, the students, and the incredible teachers + staff. When we first arrived at the school we were greeted by several students who were ready to take us on a tour. They split us up in small groups and we were lead around the school by two 5th grade students. These students were engaging , intelligent, and amazing communicators. It was at this point that we knew, this was not a regular school! We ended our tour with a interactive classroom experience and then a trip down the 2-story blue slide! All of us said multiple times that we would love to go back to school if we could go here!

We can't wait to share with you more about our partnership, but until then get to know the Ron Clark Academy a little bit better below! 

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The Ron Clark Academy (RCA) is a highly-acclaimed, nonprofit middle school located in Southeast Atlanta. The Academy has received both national and international recognition for its success in educating students with academic rigor, passion, and creativity balanced by a strict code of discipline. Our 5th - 8th grade students represent various socio-economic and academic backgrounds and communities from across the metro region.

The Academy seeks to extend its reach beyond its student body by having an impact on students everywhere. RCA is a demonstration school – a place where visiting educators engage in a vibrant professional development experience by observing best practices in action before participating in hands-on workshops. In the past ten years, more than 50,000 superintendents, district-level administrators, and teachers from 42 states and 22 countries have participated in the RCA Experience to learn better ways to engage students, promote academic rigor, and create a climate and culture that promotes success.

"Healthy community development begins with an exit strategy"

Get to know La Mina

The community of La Mina is located 27.5 miles northeast of Santo Domingo. Most people living in this community are day laborers and have small plots of land for crops such as cocoa, corn and cassava root that they sell to meet other needs. Many of the women work as maids in Santo Domingo. Many families also raise sheep, cows, chicks and others. There is no tap water system or access to potable water. People must walk to a nearby well but there is not enough water for everyone. There is a lack of adequate sanitation facilities so water is often contaminated.

Education in general in the Dominican Republic is deficient. There is a school in this community for children up to 8th grade. Often times weather prevents children from attending school. There is no clinic or healthcare center in La Mina. People must walk at least a mile to receive even basic care. People often use home remedies and diagnose themselves. 

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The people of La Mina have never experienced what could be possible if they worked together for a better future. Yet, they are not far from becoming “agents of change” in their community.

We will work in conjunction with FH's work with the community to carry out the following projects, which have been identified as critical for the community's development :

·      Water and Sanitation Projects

·      Quality education

·      Improve their agriculture activities

·      Vocational trainings

·      Livelihood development

FH believes that healthy community development begins with an exit strategy. Goals must be set for when community members will be able to continue their own development without outside help. FH anticipates that this community will no longer need to rely on our partnership by 2022!

Being a Part of the Global Community

There are places around the world that don’t have the means to choose or develop their community. Many are trapped in a culture of poverty and despair. This is exactly why we are so excited about our partnership with  Food for the Hungry (FH). They have a unique approach to addressing poverty in struggling countries and we will be coming alongside them to aid their work with the communities of the Dominican Republic (DR).

The problem of poor healthcare, unclean water, and a lack of food is not a new issue, but FH is changing the way we give to those in need. Our goal within our partnership will be to take a struggling village in the DR and, over the next 3-10 years (as needed), transform them into a striving, self-sustained community.

Many humanitarian efforts have gone into a developing country and given food, clean water, and medicine; while we are extremely grateful for their global efforts, we really want to be a part of transforming the community as a whole. When FH enters a community, they meet with various male and female people of importance in the community to identify what the greatest needs are and in what order they should be addressed. After there is a goal in place, the community leaders and FH representatives work together to create a plan of action for the community.

The funds donated by partners are deposited into an escrow fund for the community and are distributed as needed. Instead of bringing a resource and leaving it to be consumed, FH communities work and contribute to the developmental process using the donated funds to move toward becoming economically independent. Once the community has reached a sustainable state, FH pulls out and moves on to another community while still checking in from time to time.

FH has shown us various stories of monumental change as a result of their method. It only seemed natural as a company who identifies so strongly with a sense of community to become a part of what FH is doing. We are optimistic and ecstatic about the journey ahead in the DR and we invite you to be a part!

Q2 Partnership : Food for the Hungry

We are excited to announce that our second quarter partnership is with Food For The Hungry!

We will be partnering with two FFH communities, Camaron and La Mina, in the Dominican Republic to support/fund several projects that tackle each of these community's biggest challenges in health, education, livelihood, agriculture, development and disaster risk reduction practices.

We can't wait to share more stories from these communities...coming soon!! 

charity:water Completion Report!

In January 2016 we launched our very first partnership with charity:water through Brilliant! ATL. We are so excited to share that our first few water projects that we funded in Tigrary, Ethiopia are officially complete! 

Constructing clean water points is a time-consuming business, and over the past 21-months, the charity:water team has been dedicated to the high-quality implementation of the wells we funded through our partnership!

We are overwhelmed with excitement and thankfulness for all the life changing work charity:water is doing in Ethiopia and all around the world. #waterchangeseverything