The Grafton Street Fund
2007 - Health in Harmony
The mission of Health In Harmony is to improve the health of people and the natural environment by providing improved access to medical care, sharing empowering knowledge, and advocating for the inherent value of all life. Health in Harmony takes a unique, holistic approach, looking not only to the health and well-being of individual people, but also at the needs of the whole environment as we believe human and environmental health are synergistic.
Health In Harmony's flagship project is a program called Alamku Ya Umurku ("My environment gives me my years"). This program provides medical care, and medical training, while at the same time preserving the natural environment through creative incentives for local communities, awareness raising, and ecologically-sustainable community development. The project is located in West Kalimantan, Borneo, in Indonesia, in a beautiful but threatened National Park.
Why we support them
We appreciate Health in Harmony's unique approach to medical care and environmental conservation, and hope that our grant can be catalytic in helping the organization grow. Moreover, Health in Harmony's founder, Kinari Webb, is a passionate social entrepreneur with a clear vision for success.
Grant Recipients
2006 - Orphans of Rwanda
Orphans of Rwanda, Inc. (ORI) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda who have been affected by the 1994 genocide and diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. ORI provides targeted grants to strong local partners that have effective leadership and clear goals but lack the financial means to implement their plans. Partners include orphanages, youth-focused community groups, and other NGOs.
While ORI's primary focus is on higher education, the organization provides a broad range of support activities. These include assistance for primary and secondary education, healthcare, and orphanage infrastructure.
ORI's staff comprises a small fundraising team in the United States and a small management team on the ground in Rwanda, most of whom serve on a volunteer basis. These volunteers enable ORI to operate with an absolute minimum of administrative costs.
The ORI strategy is based on empowering people on the front lines. ORI's Rwanda-based team identifies strong partners and works with them to design effective projects geared at improving the quality of life for the children they serve. Once projects are approved and funds transferred to a given partner, full responsibility for implementation lies with the partners themselves. Through regular site visits, ORI's local team ensures proper oversight and financial accountability.
Why we support them
ORI is tackling one of the hardest problems we can imagine -- how to create a new generation of leaders in a country that lacks basic infrastructure to support higher education. We like their focus on creating long-term solutions to development, as well as their holistic approach to supporting higher education.
Copyright 2009, The Grafton Street Fund. All rights reserved.
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2008 - PlayPumps
PlayPumps International’s mission is help improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering play equipment to millions across Africa. The organization accomplishes this mission by providing schools and communities throughout Africa with an innovative, uniquely sustainable, free supply of clean drinking water. The PlayPumps System is unique -- we encourage you to check it out yourself!
PlayPumps has a clearly stated goal of installing 4,000 PlayPump® water systems in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010, bringing the benefits of clean water to up to 10 million people. More than 1000 PlayPump systems have already been donated to communities in South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia.
Why we support them
We were impressed by the simplicity of the solution, the clear focus on one problem, and the ability to have a major impact on the ground leveraging only small contributions.
West Kalimantan, Borneo
The magical simplicity of the PlayPumps System
Some of ORI's beneficiaries
2009 - Full Belly Project
Founded in 2003, Full Belly Project designs and distributes simple, income-generating agricultural machines to farmers in developing countries. The organization started with the Universal Nut Sheller, which can be assembled from locally available materials for under $50 and can process nuts ten times faster than individuals working only with their hands.
Most small farmers in developing countries sell their produce as soon as it comes off the tree or plant. Shelling the nuts enables the farmers to charge a higher price for them, earning extra income. Take for example this story from Kenya, as told by the folks at Full Belly:
"One farmer explained to us that he normally sells his 50 kilo sacks of dried coffee for $25. He shelled one entire bag in fifteen minutes time. Once he was done, he literally danced a jig with glee because he could now sell his shelled coffee for up to $250, ten times as much as the unshelled coffee."
Why we support them
Full Belly Project identified a need that was going unmet, designed a simple, cheap solution, and found a way to deliver it locally, without large-scale support. Our grant will go to assisting them in tracking their results and investing in their next generation of projects.
The Universal Nut Sheller and its handiwork
2010 - LIFT
Founded in 1998 by two students at Yale University, LIFT is focused on combating poverty in the United States. LIFT helps families navigate the complex and vast web of challenges that confront families in poverty, through a single neighborhood center where families can receive assistance from trained volunteers across a spectrum of social services, including finding jobs, securing housing, obtaining public benefits, and making connections with other social service agencies.
Volunteers work one-on-one with low-income individuals (clients) to find jobs, secure safe and stable housing, make ends meet through public benefits and tax credits, and obtain quality referrals for services like childcare and healthcare. LIFT’s services are free of cost and without eligibility requirements. Simultaneously, the LIFT experience pushes volunteers to grapple with our country's most challenging issues related to poverty, race, inequality, and policy. LIFT alumni go on to pursue careers across all sectors and become lifelong leaders in the effort to improve the practices and policies that aim to eliminate poverty. Since LIFT's founding, over 5,000 volunteers have served more than 30,000 individuals and families.
Why we support them
LIFT tackles the nuts-and-bolts challenges of poverty, from managing landlord/tenant relations to identifying reliable child care. These are some of the most intractable problems in poverty alleviation. GSF's grant will help LIFT expand its Bronx service center.
A LIFT volunteer and client in action.