Search Nonprofits

The primary purpose to join and organize Ecuadorians, their families and friends or other nations that live in California so that jointly we can carry on projects of assistance to those in need in Ecuador and in the United States. AECalifornia carries on its objectives by social activities, intellectual, cultural, sports and events of service to the community. The organization is open to the public at large and welcomes anyone who shares our ideas and not for profit activities, our mission and objectives. We share friendship, typical Ecuadorian food and that of other countries. Together we plan projects to help our brothers and sisters in need in Ecuador and in the United States. We share our friendship, culture, music, singing and dancing and organize activities to raise funds to carry on our charitable activities in support of hospitals, nursing homes, emergency relief, medical missions, for children and the needy. We support the medical missions from American doctors going to Ecuador to perform surgeries on Ecuadorian children and the poor.

From Articles of Incorporation "Ikirwa School Project is a non-partisan, non-profit organization committed but not limited to the establishment, operation, and expansion of the Ikirwa English Medium School located in the rural village of Midawe near the town of Arusha, Republic of Tanzania. Activities included but not limited to the following: fund-raising and donation acceptance, recruitment of paid and volunteer labor, capital planning and expenditures, marketing, and maintenance for the benefit of the Ikirwa school." About Ikirwa School: The idea for this project was born during a camp-fire conversation between a Tanzanian guide and a Russian-American tourist. Gasper had a dream to build a school in his home village of Midawe to give local children access to English-language education and significantly improve their future academic and employment opportunities. After spending close to a decade managing World Bank capital, Masha was looking for a way to make a tangible contribution to development. Finally, America Educates, our NGO partner and fiscal sponsor, was looking for an education project in Africa. And so Ikirwa School Project was born. We are taking a multi-phase approach to building and establishing this school, starting with kindergarten classes and organically growing the school into a single-stream education program for up to 300 students. Tanzanian students are taught in Swahili and learn English as a second language. However, English has become a language of both commerce and higher learning, limiting the prospects of government school graduates, especially those who are unable to afford remedial language instruction, which is often needed to become proficient in English. Our project's goal is to provide the option of English language instruction to the children of Midawe and nearby villages. We will leverage resources offered by many volunteer organizations and the NGOs in both providing instruction and education materials to offer world-class quality academic instruction to the students as well as career development opportunities for the teachers. Our goal is to ensure that all our students score in the top quartile of the TOEFL test at the time of graduation and the Tanzanian instructors within 2 years of joining the staff. The seed funds for the project are coming from its founders, with Gasper contributing a plot of family land for school construction and Masha financing Phase I of construction. Students will be charged tuition and boarding fees and those funds are expected to eventually cover the majority of the operating budget. Up to 20% of spots will be allocated for underprivileged children of Midawe. The architectural plan calls for construction of 13 classrooms, 4 dormitories, offices, staff quarters, dining hall and kitchen, library and assembly hall in four phases. We have completed Phase I of the project, consisting of 4 classrooms and 2 offices. On January 7, 2013 Ikirwa School open its doors to 38 kindergarten and 1st grade students and has successfully completed its first semester on March 27th. Based on the feedback we have recevied during Parent's Day, the families are thrilled to have their children in our program and are impressed by the progress they are seeing. Our vision is to build a small school that makes a big difference and stands on its own without depending on outside donors for day to day operations. We intend to grow organically and pragmatically, building a track record and using our success to attract donor funds for capital improvements.

Perched atop the buried pre-classic Maya city of Chocola, the village of Chocola on the back slopes of the volcanoes that form Lake Atitlan, is poverty stricken yet poised to become a model of cultural celebration and self-sufficiency. What it needs most is leadership training and technical support to develop its potential for diversified agriculture, archeological-tourism, health care for its families and education for its children. In its simplest terms, the mission of Seeds for a Future is to help this impoverished community plan and achieve prosperity based on balanced development principles that protect cultural tradition, the natural environment and preserve the Mayan and post-colonial history of the town. Seeds for a Future traces its roots to the period from 2003 through 2006 when many Earthwatch Institute volunteers came to Chocola to work on the archaeological site, which was then being excavated under license from the Guatemalan government. The volunteers embraced being associated with an important archaeological endeavor and learned about the vast pre-Classic Maya city that may hold keys to the early development of Mayan language, system of time and other fundamental cultural practices. At the same time, many of us fell in love with the community, its families and children and the fabulous, healthy mountain environment. As a result, groups of volunteers organized to help a community struggling with terrible poverty and deprivation to find a way to prosperity without destroying their way of life or the delicate balance of their natural environment. A vision emerged among a core of volunteers, Guatemalan visionaries and local leaders in which Chocola is seen as lifting itself into a more healthy and prosperous community based on its historic farming skills, adding value to its coffee, vegetable and cacao producers and through community cooperative action. In the future, there is great promise for the development of Chocola as a tourist destination based on archaeo-tourism; conservation of the natural resources in which the community is embedded and conservation of one of the first and greatest coffee processing plants (beneficios) established during the 1890s. But we also discovered in the early years that before Chocola could begin to realize its potential, the people needed training in identifying their own vision for the future, learning to work together and acquiring the technical skills needed for success. Overcoming 500 years of economic and social servitude is not easily done, but real progress is being made and our program has been recognized as ground-breaking, by the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and others. Four operating principles guide the work we do: We provide information and technical assistance to the people of Chocola to help them evaluate new opportunities and to plan. We provide direct funding and other forms of support for community requests for assistance on specific projects. These requests must come through Chocola leadership and must demonstrate sustainability and a willingness and capability of the community to provide part of the needed resources. All programs must aim at achieving self-sufficiency. We will help with programs that governmental agencies believe may be of value, provided that they too meet the same test as is noted for the community above. All such requests must be consistent with our mission to help the people and do no harm to either the Maya archaeological site or to the 1890 Coffee Finca site. In all of our programs we try to ensure that the participants become more engaged in the social and civil fabric, that they gain self confidence in their ability to change their own future for the better, and that we provide knowledge and coaching for a sufficient period of time that their activities and new ideas become self-sustaining in the community.

Together in Hope's mission is to empower lives and communities globally. We envision a world where all children have enough to eat, can go to school, have access to quality health care, and where all parents can find jobs and provide for their families. Together in Hope believes that if we all work together, in hope, each doing what we can, we can make that vision a reality and give those living in poverty a future with hope. We work with some of the world’s poorest communities in the Philippines, El Salvador and Ethiopia. These are communities unreached by international development organizations. We work with these communities to help them break the cycle of poverty and give them a future with hope. Our model hinges on the perspective that to empower a community living in poverty, the community must be involved in every step of the program and that they must own the project. Together in Hope does not walk into a community and create change; we wait to be invited by local community leaders to work with the community toward empowerment. The community is the main decision maker and they decide the programs they need to become self sustainable. Together in Hope comes alongside that effort and works with the local community to implement these programs. Our main goal is to empower poor communities and to leave as little foot print as possible. This model is built upon shared leadership amongst the community. The local community plays an active role in the project identification, planning, implementation, and monitoring. As a community grows and develops, Together in Hope is there to assist with educational and nutritional support, job and livelihood training, and health care support. By empowering communities to self-define and self-actualize, Together in Hope seeks to break the cycle of poverty, giving community members and families a future with hope.

The Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation (PCCHF) is a registered 501(c)(3) charity that provides medical assistance to children and families in developing countries, giving them a chance to live productive lives through well-conceived medical interventions. We perform reconstructive surgery (i.e. club foot and cleft palate repair, burn scar revision, ear tubes, eye surgery, etc.) and work to arrest preventable, curable diseases (e.g. trachoma, glaucoma). The foundation provides highly specialized medical assistance to individuals and families in developing countries where such services are unavailable due to logistics or economic circumstances. The foundation harnesses the expertise of medical professionals and local agencies to identify opportunities for maximum social impact, and then funds and completes the medical or surgical interventions deemed most viable. The PCCHF core base is made up of volunteers - both medical and administrative, which vary from 50-200 in any given year. On the organizational side, the small group is made up of 5-7 dedicated individuals who meet regularly to discuss, plan and pilot missions. Our medical volunteers coordinate, and execute the missions with the assistance of logistics volunteers and in-country counterparts who have requested our assistance. A typical mission takes place over ten days with a team of medical professionals and organizers in collaboration with officials from the host country. The number of surgeries performed is directly linked to funding, number of volunteers and the capacity of the local hospital. For example, a 2003 mission to Ecuador resulted in 110 successful surgeries, with a team of 20 foreign medical volunteers. Safe passage for supplies and staff was provided by the consul general and the first lady of Ecuador. The medical procedures provided largely addressed disfiguring conditions that have a tremendously negative impact on the livelihood of the afflicted individual.

The mission work of the Kizito Family Haiti USA, Inc. is to provide financial and material assistance to Sister M. Paesie and her Kizito Famille religious community of six who live and work among the poorest of the poor in different parts of the Cite Soleil, Port au Prince, Haiti. This is the largest slum area of the Northern Hemisphere. The Kizito Famille was founded 2017 in Haiti. It was founded in order to provide safety, free education and shelter to the children living on the street and to bring the light of Jesus as requested by Jesus to Mother Teresa. The Kizito Famille community operates homes for children who had been on the streets and chose to leave the streets. The first homes were for boys because mostly boys are on the streets. And then we added homes for girls. Today we have six of these homes, four for boys and two for girls. Some of the children in the homes are orphaned, others are not. Most are not orphans but have left home either because of hunger, poverty, or because of being mistreated by their parents. We try to find their parents in order to reestablish family ties, reconcile the parents of the children, and offer the possibility to visit from time to time while remaining in our homes. Additionally, the Sisters created eight schools In these schools, varying ages of children who had never been to school are received and educated. A preschool was added in service to the younger children from our homes in 2022. In total about 1,510 children attend these free schools. In most cases, the school lunch is the only food most of these children will receive each day. Depending on financial resources amidst the Haitian unstable economy and food resources, there may not be meals available everyday in the schools. The Kizito Famille operate several activity centers for developing team soccer sports, recreation and craft activities. The idea is always to set up a place where children can be safe, protected and come to know Jesus. Future plans: • to address day to day food needs in the homes and schools • to secure each school property perimeters with block walls to create a barrier of protection from foot traffic often intending malicious activities • to expand the living quarters of the current convent home • to acquire another vehicle and motor bikes for transport

Feed The World's mission is to empower poor smallholder farm families to feed themselves and provide for the future through sustainable farming. Guiding Principles - Seeds of Dignity and Hope are planted in the hearts of our smallholder farm families as they work together to provide for themselves and build a better future. Transparency & Accountability means that we will do exactly what we promise to do in the communities we serve and that we will be open and honest with our donors in communicating how funds are being used. Lasting Self Reliance is achieved as families obtain sufficient knowledge and education, manage resources wisely, and prepare for the future so that they will continue to thrive after our support ends. Sustainable Farming is practiced by smallholder farm families as they plan, plant, and harvest food for themselves and their livestock, while building human capacity to recognize and enhance the efficient use of their natural resources. Nutrition & Income are the core benefits to smallholder farm families as they grow and produce foodstuffs that provide for a nutritionally balanced diet on an economically sustainable basis. Scientifically Proven Methodology guides the implementation of agricultural best practices with our smallholder farm families and on our demonstration farms. We also support further scientific research through partnerships with universities, governments, and other non-governmental organizations (NGO's). Mutual Respect is the goal of our in-country agronomists, nutritionists, and animal scientists as they interact with smallholder farm families, seeking to understand the "why" behind traditional practices, and always exploring new possibilities. Training & Education in sustainable farming, nutrition, food preparation, and hygiene are key to ensuring that lasting self reliance is achieved by smallholder farm families. Honoring Culture means that our programs work within the local cultural framework to empower and educate smallholder farm families without imposing an outside culture on them. Family Focus involves both women and men in all aspects of decision making, training, and education; and keeps children and parents united and working together on their land. Feeding the Spirit means that while Feed the World does not identify itself with one particular religion or belief system, we honor the spirituality of all human beings and serve all program participants irrespective of their beliefs or social station. Pay It Forward means that we expect our smallholder farm families to pass on their seeds, stock, and knowledge to other families in need once they have successfully provided for themselves.

Northeast Wilderness Search & Rescue (NEWSAR), had its origins in "Childseekers, Inc.," a Vermont organization that specialized in finding missing children. NEWSAR was organized in 1999 and incorporated as a Massachusetts charitable corporation in the last quarter of the year 2000. NEWSAR was recognized as a Federal exempt non-profit organization in 2001 and received its 501[c][3] final determination letter from the IRS in in 2005. Expanding the mission of Childseekers, NEWSAR's mission statement included the commitment to address the high cost of training that faced SAR Volunteers. Over the last decade, the cost of training and certification escalated to the point that many SAR Volunteers were beginning to drop out of their local teams. Discouraged, they would ask why training fees were so expensive when they were providing their time and energy for free, in an effort to save lives. Guided by an executive board of experienced civilian and law enforcement SAR experts, NEWSAR in its first few years of existence, began to mitigate this problem in the Northeast. Working with law enforcement agencies, NEWSAR has been able to coordinate and provide a series of low cost and no-cost trainings since its inception, using law enforcement or public facilities and volunteer instructors to keep costs down. For example, the September 2010 Training Weekend (Friday-Sunday) at the VT Police Academy, included classroom instruction, workshops, field exercises and a mock search. The entire 3-day weekend, encompassing over 20 hours of multi-track training (K9, Ground Searching, SAR Planning), was provided at an average cost of only $160 per person, including 5 meals and 2 nights accommodations in the academy dormitory. This type of collaboration and shared training between Law Enforcement and Civilian personnel is a Win-Win formula: Civilians get access to high quality, low-cost training while the Law Enforcement community gets access to a cadre of highly motivated and well-trained Civilian SAR personnel who are ready to assist on any public emergency. NEWSAR's fund-raising goal is to receive adequate donations to provide most or all of its SAR training at a subsidized discount or for free, with no required dues for Volunteers or their Teams. However, in the absence of adequate donations, NEWSAR tries to price dues and training events at or near the break even level to ensure high quality training at the lowest feasible cost. A donation of $4000 would provide free training for 25 Volunteers over a full 3-day weekend. A donation of $1000 would cover most of the organization's annual fixed administrative costs related to maintaining a "virtual" organization with no bricks and mortar overhead. Besides being available for actual search emergencies, NEWSAR members routinely teach classes and manage mock search trainings on a volunteer basis. NEWSAR is committed to stretching any contributed dollar as far as it can go to fulfill its dual mission of providing low-cost/no-cost training and maintaining an online training registry operated by volunteer instructors. NEWSAR also fills an important role as a credentialing agency that sets training standards which civilian SAR teams and law enforcement agencies use to ensure that their members are qualified to be deployed on lost person searches. NEWSAR maintains an online certification program that allows instructors to issue certificates of completion via email, further reducing administrative costs.

The Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology for the Environment (CREATE!) was established in 2008 to help rural populations in the developing world prepare for water, food, and fuel shortages resulting from the impact of climate change on their communities. CREATE! operates on the principle that all people have a right to water, food, shelter, energy, and the means to earn a living. We work with village populations to meet these needs through a culturally respectful, participatory process grounded in our belief that people must have a stake in their development and contribute towards solving their own problems. The cooperative groups in our beneficiary villages have already demonstrated the validity of this approach. CREATE! currently operates in Senegal. Senegal is representative of many Sub-Saharan African countries that are hardest hit by the increasingly disastrous effects of global climate change. CREATE! responds to the inter-connected crises generated by climate change with strategies that decrease dependence on fossil fuels, conserve natural resources, and increase the use of appropriate technologies. Our programs produce sustainable, human needs-based development at the village level while forging resilient and vibrant communities across rural Senegal. CREATE! seeks to face these challenges and assist rural Senegalese residents with small-scale, accessible, and "appropriate" technologies - technologies that are adapted to, and fit, their local conditions - and with human needs-based strategies that can both better their lives and build their capacity to meet these inter-connected challenges. CREATE! works in six villages in two regions of Senegal. One region is in the rural north of Senegal, centered around Linguere in the Louga Region, where CREATE! implements programs in the village of Ouarkhokh. The other region is in the central-west of Senegal, centered around Gossas in the Fatick Region. CREATE! implements program activities in five villages in this region. The total beneficiary population of the six villages is approximately 12,000 people, comprised of both agricultural and pastoral peoples. The average per capita annual income of the population in these villages is approximately $350 a year. In each of these villages, CREATE! staff work closely with local and traditional authorities, including village chiefs and imams, in addition to other community leaders, families, and public schools. CREATE! values the expertise and input of community members and strives to incorporate their knowledge and participation into each stage of our programs. As a registered NGO in Senegal, CREATE! works with government officials from the regional office of the Department of Water and Forestry. CREATE! also respects the Senegalese government's strategic development goals for rural communities. Although CREATE!'s administrative office is located in the United States, CREATE! relies on local Senegalese staff and volunteers to plan and implement successful development interventions. Barry Wheeler, CREATE! Founder and Executive Director, has spent the past 27 years working to alleviate suffering and to provide basic human needs for rural villagers, displaced persons, and refugees in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. After serving in the Peace Corps for six years as an Improved Cook Stove and Appropriate Technology volunteer, trainer, and technical advisor in Togo, Barry earned a Master's degree in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University. Barry has served as Country Director for the American Refugee Committee's programs in Uganda, Sudan, and Rwanda; as a consultant for UNICEF and UNHCR; and as a team leader and training coordinator in local capacity building, renewable and appropriate technology, and sustainable rural development. CREATE! Chief Operations Officer Louise Ruhr has more than 30 years of private sector and nonprofit management experience and has spent the past eight years working with international NGOs, including the American Refugee Committee, to support women's cooperative groups in Rwanda and Senegal. CREATE! Country Director Omar Ndiaye Seck oversees program activities and conducts site visits in CREATE! communities. He also manages CREATE!'s finances and staff in Senegal. Omar closely collaborates with local and traditional authorities, community volunteers, and CREATE! staff to achieve both organizational and village goals.

TO EMPOWER AND ASSIST THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA THROUGH THE MUTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITY PLANNING, EDUCATION AND HEALTH SERVICES

Their mission is to help severely impoverished small communities facilitate and develop the necessary skill sets to become economically self-sustaining. They plan to achieve this by providing education, business development opportunities, health services, and creating community infrastructure. They are guided by the principle of self-reliance and helping communities to learn to help themselves to reach their full potential.

Lifetime Orphaned Children's Ministries is dedicated to permanently improving the lives of the orphaned and abandoned children of Southeast Asia, by partnering with God in support of already established Christian orphanages that do not have resources beyond their own. The focus of our plan is soliciting help, by one sponsor to one child relationships, providing overtime a financial resource to aid all of the children at each individual orphanage.