Do Good Lab supports projects in developing countries focused on education, health, and agriculture. Our Project Team volunteers collect and review project proposals from all over the world. Then, we carefully assess the projects’ viability and whether they fit our mission. The chosen project partners are locally led, locally envisioned, and have projects with a tangible outcome. They also have a history of local support and successfully improving living conditions in their communities. We are excited and proud to join them in their efforts to change the living conditions of their communities. Here are the stories of their efforts to create sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.
Kachere Development Program
Location: Chipata, Zambia
Funds Needed: $10,000 USD
Anticipated Completion Date: 2014
Project:
The Kachere Devleopment Program is working to construct a mill to be operated and maintained by the Women’s Cluster Level Association (CLA) in Chipata, which will serve as an income-generating program. With funding from Do Good Lab, Kachere will purchase a hammer mill and dehuller, material needed for constructing the shelter that will house the equipment, and seeds to increase crop yield. Kachere will work side by side with the women of the CLA and train them in basic business management. Once the mill is erected, women and families will have access to the tools and space for both production (milling flour) and sales. The mill will also increase access for these women to micro-credit and loans, and decrease the amount of time currently spent by women and girls in traveling to nearby mills. It is expected that once this project is funded, approximately 882 households will directly benefit (these households are currently members of the Women Self Help Groups at the project site). Read more about Kachere here.
Arise and Shine Uganda
Location: Jinja, Uganda
Funds Needed: $4,760
Anticipated Completion Date: 2014
Project:
Pit Latrine usage in Uganda is generally poor; yet general health and sanitation are crucial to the well-being of the children. Currently, the Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary Schools does not have enough pit latrines for the number of children that the school supports. The only latrine that school had broke because it was poorly constructed. The Ministry of Education and Sports of Uganda requires that the ratio of pit latrine usage is 1 latrine per 40 children. The Ministry also requires that schools should have separate pit latrines for girls and boys. For a school that has a population of 350 pupils, Arise and Shine Uganda needs two “Four-Stance” pit latrines for the students and one “Two-Stance” pit latrine for the teachers. Funding from Do Good Lab will be used to purchase the materials and labor needed to construct the 3 latrines previously mentioned. Arise and Shine Uganda’s School Management Committee will be in charge of all maintenance. Read more about Arise and Shine Uganda here.
ADESCOSYM
Asociación de Desarrollo Comunal Sol y Mar
Location: Las Salinas Puerto Parada, Usulutan, El Salvador
Funds Needed: $10,000
Anticipated Completion Date: 2014
Project:
ADESCOSYM has proposed constructing six broiler chicken farms to be placed in communities throughout Puerto Parada. Each farm will be implemented and maintained by a designated group of women. These women are members of Self-Help Groups, also known as “Women in Action” committees, that have been established throughout the communities. Each group is comprised of between 10 and 15 women. The women will work with local businesses to sell the goods (eggs/chickens) produced to local consumers.
The specific objectives of the project include: female empowerment through the establishment of economic initiatives; utilizing the economic initiatives to encourage the women of the community to contribute economically to their households; and to strengthen the “Women in Action” committees through implementing productive projects. Read more about ADESCOSYM here.
FUNDAESPRO
Fundación Esfuerzo y Prosperidad
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Funds Needed: $9,600
Anticipated Completion Date: 2014
Project:
The population of Guatemala City is characterized by high levels of poverty, low education, large families working in the informal sector, and 50% of families led by single-mothers. Both non-indigenous and indigenous populations live in extreme poverty. There is a dire need for quality education and health services in these low-resource areas. FUNDAESPRO has already established educational centers in various parts of the most impoverished areas of Guatemala City – now, they need equipment and resources to update the centers. Funding from Do Good Lab will enable FUNDAESPRO to update scholastic equipment, and kitchen supplies, in five of their established community centers. Read more about FUNDAESPRO here.
Funded Projects
People’s Action in Development (PAD)
PAD aims to bring a Water Plant to 10 tribal villages of Kadiri Mandal, in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. The Water Plant will directly benefit 1048 households (approximately 3400 individuals, including children). These communities experience dangerously high levels of fluoride in the ground water that they consume. This has led to a prevalence of dental and skeletal fluorosis throughout the region. Almost none of the households are able to afford the expensive water-purifiers required to make the water safe to drink, so the majority of people collect water from one contaminated communal well. Read more about PAD here.
Wamba Community Development Program
The Wamba Community Development Program (WCD) works with communities throughout the Samburu National Reserve in eastern Kenya. The region is considered fairly underdeveloped compared to the agricultural south. It also experiences extremely high levels of drought and water is a constant scarcity. WCD works with communities to develop strategic solutions to their local problems. Children walk more than 10 kilometers on a daily basis to collect water for themselves and their families. Currently, WCD is supporting the Lengarde Primary School which enrolls more than 200 students. These students are provided one daily meal through an initiative funded by the World Food Program. Now, WCD wants to bring clean water directly to the school so that children can spend more time in the classroom. They wish to construct a simple system of gutters on the school’s roof to collect and store rain water. The entire community, including the children’s parents, will be involved in the implementation of this project. Read more about Wamba here.
Action et Initiative pour le Developpement Sanitaire et Sociale (AIDSS)
AIDSS is a non-governmental organization located in Togo, in western Africa that is working to end the stigmatization and discrimination of persons living with HIV/AIDS by promoting an open-door policy to give patients a safe, private clinic for testing, treatment and advice. Do Good Lab is partnering with the AIDSS center in Tsevie, Togo in the construction of its desperately needed cistern. The cistern will collect rainwater from the center’s roof. An on-site water source will greatly contribute to the sanitary and hygienic needs of the center staff and beneficiaries. Read more about AIDSS here.
Global Hope Mobilization
Global Hope Mobilization is a non-governmental organization based in Lilongwe, Malawi. Global Hope Mobilization concentrates its efforts on creating sustainable communities by focusing on health issues, human rights, good governance, climate change and education. Do Good Lab is partnering with Global Hope Mobilization in the construction of a borehole for the Nkukwa Primary School and the Kalumbu community outside of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. Read more about Global Hope Mobilizaiton here
Ecofinder Kenya
Ecofinder Kenya is a non-governmental organization located at the Dunga Wetland Pedagogical Centre in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya in Eastern Africa. Ecofinder Kenya works towards the conservation of the Lake Victoria islands and wetlands, which currently face numerous anthropogenic threats including waste pollution, reclamation for unsustainable farming and settlements, papyrus burning and over-harvesting for fuel. Read more about Ecofinder Kenya here.
Beautification Initiative Kenya
Do Good Lab raised $8,000 to help the Beautification Initiative Kenya (BIK) to buy a garbage truck and to help the people of Naivasha, Kenya, improve their sanitation conditions. With the trash build-up and stagnant water in the city streets, Cholera and Malaria have become a problem – especially for the children of the area. Read more about BIK here.
Vanavasi Ashram Trust
Do Good Lab partnered with the Vanavasi Ashram Trust to help their Pazhassi Raja School in Wayanad, India. The school was in need of a Jeep and thanks to our volunteers and donors we raised $5,000. Wayanad is part of the forest of India, about 6 hours away of the closest village and hosts tribal families - you can read more about the Vanavasi Ashram Trust and their achievements here.
Grapesyard
Do Good Lab and Granicus Inc. partnered with a community organization called Grapesyard in the Korogocho slum of Nairobi, Kenya and raised $5000 to provide 300 textbooks and 4 flushing toilets for the Grapesyard School. Please read here how we helped Grapesyard
Akili Dada
Do Good Lab partnered with Akili Dada, a Kenyan organization that empowers women to become the next generation of African leaders. Do Good Lab recently completed our goal of raising $4,000 for one Kenyan girl’s secondary education tuition. Read more about the project here…
The Champions
Update: The Champions finalized the purchase. See new pictures of the plot and the kids here!
Do Good Lab raised $5,000 for the kids of the The Champions organization to purchase a school building in Nairobi, Kenya. The Champions is working in Mathare, one of the oldest slums in Nairobi and the second largest in Kenya, with a population of up to 700,000 – you can read more about the great work of this organization here.
We organized two amazing events to raise awareness and money:
- June 26th: How to make it ECO!
- July 8th: Do Good Lab Fundraiser at Baobab
Haiti Fundraiser
As you all know, Haiti was going through an unrelenting avalanche of natural catastrophes exacerbated by manmade injustices. As a community we need to continue to show support and stand in solidarity with our Haitian brothers and sisters. Do Good Lab raised $4,500 in a social fundraiser benefiting Partners in Health and the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti:
- January 20th: Mountains Beyond Mountains