Lewa also protects large numbers of buffalo, cheetah, eland, elephant, giraffe, gazelle, impala, and Burchell’s Zebra and initiated and supports conservation and development programs in surrounding communities.

Lewa believes that wildlife welfare in this region is the most sustainable form of land use for the long-term benefit of the people of Kenya. It provides a link between wildlife and people, uniting communities with government and private wildlife refuge areas and stimulating the local economy. Since 1995, Lewa has helped establish 1,500,000 acres of conservation land managed by local communities and created employment for more than 1,000 Kenyans. This contribution to the economy has established conservation as a recognized and critical form of land use ensuring the long term future of wildlife in the region and in Kenya.

The clinic provides immunizations, training for community members in basic healthcare and common disease prevention, HIV/AIDS testing and education, and a number of innovative preventative health programs based on local needs. It is also the only clinic in the region that provides care to newborns. FIMRC also supports community groups that work with men, women, and children to directly influence the health and well being of families within the area.

FIMRC’s volunteers come from universities, medical schools and the medical profession. Volunteers travel to the clinic each year to support and expand the ongoing efforts of the organization through creativity and diverse skill sets.

Namono Lakeri, a widow and mother of five in Uganda, is one of our success stories. Namono received a WMI loan for about US$125 (300,000 shillings) to expand her second-hand clothing business. With the extra income her business now generates, she is able to send all of her children to school. Namono even has enough money left over to enjoy little luxuries, like milk for tea, which were beyond her reach before.

WMI issued its first microloans in January 2008. As of April 2011, we have issued more than 2,500 loans to women in more than 150 villages with a 100 percent repayment rate.

Focusing its current efforts in rural Uganda and Kenya, the WMI loan program is run entirely by local village women. As an end-goal, it seeks to transition experienced borrowers into independent banking in their country’s formal economy.

Tostan’s program is a platform upon which communities build many successes: they become healthier and more prosperous; they decide to abandon female genital cutting and child marriage; they participate in grassroots democracy; and women emerge as dynamic leaders.

Tostan’s innovative “organized diffusion model” extends these impacts to entire social networks, often reaching 10 people for every one person trained. Most importantly, all of these successes are community-led and community-owned, making Tostan’s program one of the most sustainable in the region. Tostan’s program has been implemented in 10 African countries in 22 African languages.

Exemplifying the creativity and community impact of our conservationists’ work, the Painted Dog Conservation project in Zimbabwe has turned a deadly threat to wildlife into a successful entrepreneurial venture for local people. They employ local men as anti-poaching scouts. Patrolling approximately 12 miles a day, 6 days a week, the anti-poaching teams have dismantled more than 12,000 snares used to kill wildlife.  At a nearby arts center, talented local artists transform the snare wire into impressive animal structures. Sold worldwide, the sculptures provide financial security for the artists and communicate the critical need to protect Africa’s remaining painted dogs and other wildlife. WCN also focuses on protecting the elephant in Kenya, cheetah in Namibia and Botswana, okapi in Congo, lion in Mozambique, and Ethiopian wolf.

Nurturing Minds works with its Tanzanian partner–Secondary Education for Girls’ Advancement, or SEGA– to provide education for poor girls. Together we are constructing and developing the Sega Girls School, a residential eco-friendly school that provides education for bright, motivated Tanzanian girls who otherwise would not be in school. After three years of operation, Nurturing Minds is supporting  85 girls, providing them with a pathway out of poverty and a brighter future.

The school includes student and staff-tended gardens, which produce much of the fresh food for the school community. Our program also includes counseling and life and decision-making skills—instrumental in nurturing self-confidence and the social skills girls need to succeed.

By 2015, our goal is to support 200 students at the Sega Girls School and to ensure that the school will be self-sufficient through small businesses run by teachers and students.

Our model engages the local community which raises 10 percent–$1,500–of the overall cost of each classroom. The remaining 90 percent, or $13,500 per classroom, is paid through partner organizations like us. Each classroom serves 40 children, year after year.

Africa Classroom Connections also leads regular “Learning Tours” to South Africa and supports a small Stay in School Fund to help students with unexpected expenses that impede continuing in school.

Africa Classroom Connection’s board of directors covers all administrative expenses, which ensures that 100 percent of donations support our work in South Africa, allowing us to help the maximum number of students possible.

• home visits,
• medications for opportunistic infections,
• nutritional assistance and vitamin supplementation,
• antiretroviral therapy,
• prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, and
• support for orphans and vulnerable children.

HTH was founded in the spirit of social justice to promote health as a human right. Our mission is to support community-based health programs for the poor and to share lessons and build solidarity through global partnerships. Through these partnerships, our ultimate goal is to develop and expand community-based health care systems that provide the highest possible standard of treatment and support for poor people living with HIV/AIDS.

Over the past two decades, Africa Development Corps has placed more than 800 long-term volunteers with schools and indigenous development organizations in Africa and Latin America. Africa Development Corps has two types of volunteer programs, the classic volunteer program and the supported volunteer program. The classic volunteer program lasts 6 to 12 months with volunteers working for an indigenous NGO in their field of interest. The supported volunteers are required to have a Masters degree and have already worked abroad. They work directly on ADC’s own initiatives in the areas of food security, education, HIV/AIDS, volunteer management and program development. Through the service of these highly qualified volunteers, we have been able to train farmers in rice production techniques in Liberia, provide HIV counseling and testing in a post-conflict zone of Northern Uganda, and distribute much-needed books and school supplies to children in Tanzania and South Africa.

Africa Development Corps provides this development and relief assistance through a collaborative approach, and in so doing, facilitates the empowerment of the local community.

Africa Development Corps also holds an international exchange program called the African Youth Leadership program. Each year ADC hosts 48 students and 12 educators from 6 Francophone African countries to participate in an interactive 3 week program. Students learn about civic participation and the functioning of a democratic society as well as impart specific skills in leadership, conflict resolution, and community development.

In Africa Panthera is creating the  Pan-African Lion Corridor that protects key lion habitat and connects core lion populations in order to preserve the species’ genetic diversity.  With our partners at the Kenyan-based Living with Lions, we developed the unique Lion Guardians Program in southern Kenya.  This program involves training local Maasai warriors to become the front line in reducing human-lion conflict.  They do this by informing Maasai cattle herders of areas occupied by lions, by helping farmers improve cattle husbandry and find lost livestock, and by discouraging lion hunting.