|
|
Overseas Grant Programme 2010 - announcement of awards
3 November 2010: The 'Zurich Cares Overseas Grants Committee' has recently awarded grants to the following thirteen organisations as part of the Overseas Grants Programme. 'Zurich Cares' is the employee engagement community programme, run under the umbrella of Zurich Community Trust, and encompasses fundraising, volunteering and employee-led grant making.
A proportion of the money donated annually to Zurich Cares by Zurich employees is awarded to support charitable projects in other countries. The thirteen organisations below were successful in receiving grants, totalling the committee's overall budget of £70,000.
Grants Awarded
- Village Water, Zambia aims to help poor rural communities to lift themselves out of poverty through the provision of clean sustainable water supplies, hygiene education and training in how to build sanitation equipment. Our £2553 grant will pay the costs of full water and sanitation programmes for three communities.
- Y Care International, Thailand is the relief and development arm of the YMCA. Their aim is to address the needs of children and young people who face the severest economic and social conditions. Our £2967 grant will help a local project to improve nutrition through building skills and knowledge in the production and marketing of local, healthy, organic food products.
- Riders for Health, Africa. In Africa, millions of people are dying from easily-preventable diseases because health workers do not have the reliable transport to reach them. By ensuring health workers have access to vehicles that never break down Riders for Health is making sure millions of people across Africa receive regular, reliable health care, often for the first time in their lives. Our grant of £1686 will pay for the running, servicing and all associated costs of two motorcycles.
- Leprosy Mission, India. Our £2110 grant will be used in the Vocational Training Centre where they provide comprehensive technical and non technical training and additional proficiency programmes such as ‘Life Skills’.
- Sense International, Kenya helps deafblind people in a number of institutions. A deafblind education unit was established in 2007 and the charity now wants to pilot a project to provide home based support. Our £6000 grant will support this project, which aims to increase the number of deafblind children receiving community based rehabilitation.
- Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Bangladesh supports the most vulnerable urban and rural communities. The £8000 grant will be used to provide five pumps to provide safe drinking water at an affordable cost. This will improve the health of the community, lower infant mortality and increase income opportunities.
- Microloan Foundation, Malawi. Our grant of £8000 will provide 100 women in Malawi with a loan to start their own businesses and so help them provide for their families.
- Wherever the need, Sierra Leone. The people here suffer from water related intestinal diseases, due to the use of polluted rivers or pools for their water supply. Two in every five children in the Pujehun district die from water related disease and adults are often too sick to work or farm. The £10,415 grant will pay for two wells to provide clean water, irrigation water facilities to help with farming, community 'ecosan' toilets and livelihood support in the form of Cassava and Groundnut farming.
- Latin American Foundation, Peru. Our £1769 grant will help a home for former street children to provide a stable environment, education and training. It will buy books and interactive resources to better equip the home's study room and and employ local professionals to provide after school tuition in bakery, animal care and greenhouse productivity.
- Jeevika Trust, Orissa, India. Our £9640 grant will expand on a previous project to sustain the Island's lagoon for crab and groundnut cultivation and implement new livelihoods of pineapple and cashew nut cultivation for income generation. It will also be used to help improve access to electricity, water and sanitation for households, schools and agricultural use.
- Lepra, India. The £5000 grant will fund the construction of a new 13-bed ward in St Joseph’s Leprosy Centre in Sanawad, India. Disabled people are often ostracised and even shunned by the community. The unit provides specialist surgery for young people to correct conditions such as claw hand and drop foot, as well as rehabilitation, which will dramatically improve their quality of life.
- Landarini Trust, Malawi. At present 12 of the 25 schools in Malawi are being provided with an Agricentre which houses a vegetable garden, wood lot and maize garden. The crops are then distributed to the orphans and vulnerable. in some locations to improve yield. At the moment the local Agriculture Officer visits all schools by bicycle, but during the rainy season, the terrain is unsuitable. The £2160 grant will buy a motorcycle, so he can still reach all locations.
- Henry Van Straubenzee, Uganda. A project is underway to transform Magogo Secondary School in Uganda into a fully registered secondary school. It currently teaches 270 kids in mud huts and under trees. The first stage of the project, (building the classrooms) is complete. Our £10,200 grant will fund the second stage, which is to build teachers' accommodation and toilet facilities - accommodation is needed due to the remoteness of the school.
|
