Groundwork Opportunities

Since the inception of Groundwork Opportunities, I have formed and implemented the below projects. In 2010, we will be continuing to support and expand the projects we have in 7 countries. Rwanda: In 1994, Rwanda suffered a horrific genocide where over 1 million people lost their lives in a span of three months. The communities of Rwanda now have to reconcile in a difficult economic environment that is made even more challenging by the communal rift between the perpetrators and survivors of the genocide. GO has partnered with the Unity and Peace Development in Muhanga, Rwanda to bring lasting progress through a combination of innovative traumatic reconciliation practices and micro-development projects. GO has already re-granted over $16,000 that was used to build five homes for widowers and vulnerable children of the genocide, facilitate reconciliation classes in the community, and provided other small income generating projects for the most vulnerable female members of the community. In 2010 and 2011, GO is working on expanding our income generating projects in the area to include partnerships with Thanksgiving Coffee Company and Project Rwanda. Uganda: The agricultural sector is central to Uganda’s economy and food security. It provides employment to 85% of the population, accounts for 40% of GDP, and generates 85% of export earnings. Due to a lack of resources and education, rural farmers do not have the skills to conserve and use water efficiently during droughts and drier rainy seasons and are struggling to produce enough crops to provide for their families. GO's has partnered with URCSF to use traditional and sustainable farming methods as a remedy to poverty. Together, GO and URCSF have built an organic agriculture and livestock teaching farm run by a cooperative of local farmers. Specifically, this project organizes farming communities into cooperatives and teaches farming methods and techniques with regard to water usage, planting, harvesting, animal husbandry, grain milling, and marketing successful crop yields. It is designed to boost economic growth, restructure and revitalize Ugandan exports, curb environmental degradation, and enhance food security for the vulnerable elements of the population, including those affected by HIV/AIDS. Southern Sudan: In January of 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed and officially ended Africa’s longest running civil war. During the 21-year conflict, fighting, famine, and disease killed more than 2 million people, forced some 600,000 people to seek refuge in neighboring countries, and displaced 4 million people within Sudan. The U.N. estimated that 300,000 displaced persons have returned to Southern Sudan since 2005, threatening to further destabilize a region struggling with widespread poverty, chronic unemployment, and inadequate access to basic services. The need to facilitate education and reintegrate returnees is critical in creating sustainable growth and stability in the region. In collaboration with Operation Blessing International, UNHCR and the African Refugee Development Center, GO is funding long-term solutions for Sudanese refugees in Israel. As a first step, GO is mobilizing global resources to support a refugee education center in Jerusalem aimed at empowering refugees with the skills and micro-loans necessary for work as they move towards repatriation to Sudan. Additionally, GO is partnering with The John Dau Foundation to build and support health programs in South Sudan and bring increased access to care, improved efficiency of care, more trained community staff members, and improved maternity and reproductive care. Nicaragua: Nicaragua is striving to overcome the after effects of dictatorship, civil war and natural calamities, which have made it one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Utilizing small ovens to create BioChar, a simple and low-cost technology that heats food and the home while creating a byproduct used as a valuable soil amendment, the GO's project will focus on building the skills of the local people while enriching the natural environment. GO volunteers are instructing local workers how to build these ovens with an open source design, giving the community vital sustainable management skills and the ability to build the ovens for themselves. They cost as much as a regular charcoal oven used in many developing world homes, however have near zero emissions and are much better for the health of the people. The BioChar by-product after the burning is planted into the soil, increases the yield of the crop, and gives more food and funding to the local communities. Cambodia: After enduring a brutal 4-year genocide under the Khmer Rouge dictatorship in the late 1970s, Cambodia is still dealing with the ripple effect of having lost over 1.5 million people during this brutal regimes' rule. With children of vulnerable families being sold for human trafficking across Cambodia's fractured communities, GO has partnered with the Sao Sary Foundation (SFF) to implement programs that provide poor children and families with opportunities to gain economic independence. GO is proud to have re-granted over $15,000 to help build wells, sustainable farms and local markets, sponsor classroom facilities, and provide micro loans directly to the recipients on the ground. Ghana: Ghana was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade and recently celebrated 50 years of independent rule. Though an open and democratic country, Ghana has a very large street children population as the country races to economic development in the cities. GO has partnered with Sovereign Global Mission (SGM) to build the first school in the area outside of Accra that helps educate street children. GO is planning to expand this primary school to include a secondary school in 2010-2011. Additionally, GO is also partnering with Saboba's Hope in the northern rural region to support the for the medical education of Samuel Bukari and several other doctors from the community. Samuel is native of the northern Saboba region, has volunteered at Saboba's Hope for over 10 years, and will be the first of his community to graduate from medical school in 2012.