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Fundacion Via Cocina is a community based project focused on improving the health and economic development of vulnerable women, youth and underprivileged in Medellin Colombia. With a personalized training and mentoring system sharing healthy food recipes, cooking techniques and applied financial planning and entrepreneurial small business fundamentals, we build a program for individuals and families based on their current reality, applying the training to objectives created with them, for them, in their own home. Additionally, we provide classes to individuals and groups who want to learn to cook healthy dishes with local ingredients for their families, transforming them into uncommon flavors that are low in fat, oil, salt and sugar-free. These activities look to decrease frequency and severity of non-communicable diseases in the communities, including obesity, diabetes and cholesterol.

SosteNica promotes sustainable economic and community development in Nicaragua. Our loan programs strengthen Nicaraguan communities. The training and technical assistance programs we provide ensure the success of our rural borrowers. Our housing program embodies environmental values while affording low-income families a dignified place to live. In the U.S., SosteNica offers socially conscious investors an opportunity to use financial resources constructively, to have a positive impact on one of the poorest nations in the Americas, while preserving their capital and earning annual interest. Thanks to SosteNica, many of the productive poor of Nicaragua -- small farmers and micro-enterprises -- have access to credit that would be otherwise unavailable. The combination of thoughtful First World investment and careful socially conscious lending to Nicaragua's poorest creditworthy borrowers creates an opportunity for sustainable growth. We dream of rural Nicaraguan families owning their own land, and on that land, growing everything they need to lead healthy, happy lives. We dream of communities of Nicaraguan families supporting one another in good times and in difficult times, celebrating together, and grieving together. We dream of a verdant Nicaraguan landscape, an intact ecosystem free of toxins and pollutants, rich with biodiversity, clean air and fresh sweet water. We dream of ordinary Nicaraguan families having enough resources locally that they never think of emigrating to another country in search of work, families who love where they live and what they do. We dream of young families living in ecological homes built with their own hands out of locally available materials that are both beautiful and sustainable. We dream of a world in which people with resources in one country reach out their hands of support to people in another country struggling to make a sustainable life. We dream of a community of people in the US whose investments reflect their values, where doing good does not conflict with doing well. SosteNica gives US investors an opportunity to achieve their social and environmental as well as their financial dreams and values. With a portfolio of both invested and donated funds, SosteNica promotes natural building for low-income families, organic agro-ecology and reforestation for rural small landholders, and micro-credit for small credit-worthy businesses. More than just "socially responsible", SosteNica gives investors an opportunity to have an impact in a way that says: "I care about the future, as well as about the present."

Ada’s Café is a Palo Alto-based 501(c) 3, non-profit that provides training and jobs for adults with developmental disabilities living primarily in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The social mission of Ada’s is three-fold: (i) to hire and train adults with disabilities to work in its café and catering businesses, (ii) to engage teens and young adults through work and involvement with Ada’s disabled employees and (ii) to foster a better understanding among the general population about the contributions that can be made by developmentally disabled adults. The benefits of empowering and employing adults with developmental disabilities are clear, innumerable and easy to document with social science statistics. The population of adults with intellectual disabilities is one of the most marginalized in our society, is often ignored and suffers from an unemployment rate estimated at nearly 80%. The self-esteem and health benefits that come from having a job, the satisfaction that comes from making an important contribution to a sustainable enterprise and reducing the burden on an already overwhelmed and under-funded social welfare support system are just a few of the many benefits created by Ada’s. In addition, Ada’s believes that youth engaged in meaningful work will feel more connected to and invested in their communities. In all of its ventures, Ada’s Café brings diverse groups of people together in a warm and welcoming environment with a mission of creating good food and community.

The African SOUP's Vision is to transform the lives of Ugandan youth through education system reform. The African SOUP leads a national education reform effort through Active Learning and provides educational opportunities to vulnerable children in rural eastern Uganda. The African SOUP School utilizes the following strategies to fulfill our vision: The African SOUP Model School Secondary Enrichment Program The Active Learning Project Baby SOUP SOUP Model School Mission: To educate, nurture, and inspire scholars to unleash their potential and that of their community. Vision: The African SOUP School will become the premier active learning model school in Uganda Active Learning Project Mission: To improve the quality of primary education across Uganda through the implementation of active learning. Vision: The African SOUP's Active Learning Project will bring active learning into every primary classroom and teacher training college in Uganda. Secondary Enrichment Program Mission: To provide secondary scholarship support, mentorship and leadership training to African SOUP School Alumni so that they develop the skills needed to meet their potential and transform their community. Vision: The African SOUP's Secondary Enrichment Program will produce leaders who will transform their community. Baby SOUP Mission: To serve vulnerable children and pregnant mothers by providing health education, growth monitoring, and nutritional supplements to ensure holistic child development. Vision: The African SOUP Emma's Baby SOUP Program envisions a future where every child has the ability to survive and thrive in Namutumba District. Sustainability Mission: To cover all organizational operating costs through local, income-generating projects. Vision: The African SOUP will become a financially independent and secure Ugandan NGO.

Outreach Uganda is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Colorado and dedicated to helping empower Ugandans, especially women and children, to rise out of poverty. To do this, we work with village groups in Uganda to bring hope and improve lives, especially in the areas of education, women's empowerment, and self-sufficiency through job creation. Initially, our village groups help support themselves and their families through sales of paper beaded jewelry and other craft items. The beaders save money from their bead sales so they can then start own group or individual businesses to supplement their income and eventually we hope it will be their main source of income. Micro-credit loans from their group's internal revolving loan fund provides additional help for the ladies to either start businesses or further expand their existing businesses to a level that will help them rise above poverty. As an organization, we emphasize to both our donors and our clients that we believe in truly empowering those we help. In everything we do, we seek to be a partner with those we serve so that they do not become dependent on us, and so that we do not take away their spirit of wanting to help themselves. We believe that income-generation of the women, and education of the children is the way that families can truly become empowered. But it is essential to take a holistic approach and focus on multiple areas, all of which impact the woman's income-generation potential. For instance, a woman must be relatively healthy to be a successful business owner. Therefore, we must also help a woman address issues of health. For many of our women in northern Uganda, agriculture and the raising of cash crops will be key to their income generation potential. Therefore, agricultural issues, water issues and even land access and rights become important areas to address.

Research shows that employment is a chief "trigger" in aiding those with the greatest barriers to work in their transition from poverty to productivity and greater prosperity. Nearly three-fourths of poverty spells end with a rise in earnings and employment occurs twice as frequently as any other event associated with an exit from poverty. Employment also encourages social mobility in addition to providing an economic benefit. A job strengthens human capital, facilitates access to financial capital, builds interpersonal skills, and enhances social networks. Having a job boosts employees' self-confidence and is source of dignity and pride. But entering and staying in the workforce is extremely difficult for many people who live in protracted poverty and have also confronted homelessness, health problems, fragmented families, incarceration, and inadequate access to a good education. The private sector is often unwilling to hire employees facing these barriers or provide adequate support to address the many challenges that can undermine their success once on the job. Few workforce development programs have achieved positive outcomes preparing those workers that are most disconnected to jobs, or creating durable pathways to employment. MDRC, one of the premiere researchers in this area, summarizes this consensus: "For at least three decades, policymakers, researchers, and program operators have developed and studied strategies to help people who face serious obstacles to steady work. Despite the broad policy interest in serving the hard-to-employ, knowledge about effective program strategies is still relatively undeveloped." REDF is uniquely positioned to address this problem. Our successful track record of building the capacity of nonprofits to operate social enterprises and the success those businesses have demonstrated in employing, retaining and advancing their employees is a solid foundation to build on as we invest in our new portfolio and expand the role we play with the organizations that we intensely supported for many years.

The Rural Children Hope, as a Faith Based Non-Government Organization, is committed to humanize and improve the living standards of the rural children by disseminating, promoting and defending their rights (moral, physical and mental) through the provision of Education, Health Care Services, Water and Sanitation and Socio-economic Empowerment.

Gaudenzia helps individuals and families affected by drug and alcohol dependency, mental illness, and related conditions to achieve a better quality of life and become accountable individuals.

1. Sustain and promote the growth of the manufacturing labor force within the United States of America. 2. Help people of all ages to launch their own entrepreneurial manufacturing businesses. 3. Partner with unions to reinvent their role in assisting with job creation. 4. Campaign large manufacturing corporations to maintain a foothold in the USA. 5. Create an online information resource center to assist new manufacturing entrepreneurs and organizations. 6. Raise funds that will be dedicated to furtherance of these goals

The mission of First Shift Justice Project is to empower low-income pregnant women and parents to safeguard the health and economic security of their families by asserting their workplace rights.

The relief of sickness and the preservation of health among people residing in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria by the provision of free primary healthcare services in particular but not limited to medical consultations, eye checks, health education, advice and further referrals. The relief of poverty and financial hardship among people living in Imo state, South Eastern Nigeria by the provision of micro-finance loan funding to individuals in, or at risk of, poverty or financial need to enable them to establish their own businesses to provide for themselves and their families.