A Glimmer of Hope Foundation

Since 2000, Glimmer of Hope Foundation has helped more than one million people improve their quality of life in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is one of the five poorest countries in the world. Four out of every five people live on less than $2 a day. More than 80 percent of illnesses in the country are due to poor access to clean water and sanitation, and waterborne diseases claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year. One in ten children die before their fifth birthday; half die from diarrhea.

Our approach is to help people help themselves out of poverty. We work directly with and invest in Ethiopian development organizations. We follow an Integrated Development approach to the projects we support, combining three key elements: humanitarian services, development, and enterprise. In so doing, we are able to achieve a deeper, more holistic level of development – one village at a time.

• Humanitarian projects address the critical need for clean drinking water. We have funded almost 3,000 water projects throughout Ethiopia, including hand-dug wells, spring protection schemes, and bore-holes.
• Development projects focus on health care and education. We have completed a major hospital rehabilitation, built more than 150 clinics, and funded more than 300 educational projects.
• Enterprise projects are income generation and micro-finance programs; they provide a hand-up to farmers, women, and small and medium-sized businesses.