Ambulance for Brickmakers in Lahore, Pakistan
The Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLF) wants to purchase an ambulance to serve laborers at some of the 250 brickmaking kilns in a district of Lahore, Pakistan. Women and girls as young as 10 are among the 4.5 million brick kiln laborers in Pakistan. The ambulance will be staffed by a female doctor and nurse, which can treat a range of health challenges—from smoke inhalation to skin cancer—that are left untreated because they lack access to health care.
Through our partnership with the Asian University for Women (AUW), Connecther is working to establish a language lab in Bangladesh, to serve students from 15 different countries, most of whom receive a full scholarship (due to lack of resources). The aim of this language lab is to provide support for language instruction and learning through technology. This lab will help AUW provide additional technological support in enhancing reading, writing and critical thinking skills.
Connecther Community Development Project: Fugee School Girls Soccer Team
The aim of the Fugee School Girls Soccer Team program is to use football (soccer) to teach female students about communication skills, leadership, teamwork, and how to take care of their physical and mental health in an interactive and fun way. This is done through weekly soccer practices, scrimmages, and participation in an annual refugee soccer school tournament, the Faisal Cup. We will provide the equipment, coaching, and transportation needed to help participants of all skill levels pass, dribble, score, win, lose, learn, and have fun through organized practices and games.�
Education and Nutrition for Burmese Girls!
Thailand plays host to over 100,000 refugees, many of which originate from Myanmar and reside in the Thai-Myanmar border regions. A number of schools have been established in this area to meet the educational needs of refugee students and ensure they are not excluded from future opportunities. This is particularly important for girls with interrupted formal education who might otherwise have been side-lined and had no hope of achieving a quality education. One such school is Minmahaw School, which has been educating youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in Burma and the Burmese refugee population living along the Thai-Burma boarder) aged 17-23 since 2009. Minmahaw School is a boarding school operating independently with volunteer teachers and management. These efforts are being undermined by the ongoing struggle to provide students with adequate nutrition. This project aims to raise funds to send a nutritional expert to Minmahaw School to educate girls about how to maintain a healthy diet and to plan a new menu plan using the resources available. This will also provide an opportunity to educate girls about maternal nutrition to ensure they can equipped with the knowledge to adequately provide for their children in future and maintain good health during pregnancy.
The Rozaria Memorial Trust is launching a project to support
the educational needs of survivors of child marriage who left school. It also offers
education and training for orphans and other marginalized girls at risk of becoming
child brides. This project will help these young women and girls regain their
dignity and fulfill their economic and social potential. Education for Child
Brides aims to send 20 girls to school as well as provide skills training for
100 girls at a counseling, training, and technology center run by the Rozaria Memorial Trust.
In partnership with the Asian University for Women, Connecther's Girls Global Education Fund provides scholarships to deserving students all throughout the developing world with a focus on the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Project implementation and supervision by Azmina Karim.
Photo credit by John Stanlake
Poverty Reduction for Rural Women
Women in many rural communities in southern Africa face
poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and adequate healthcare. This poverty-reduction
project, run through SAEs partners on the ground, offers opportunities for
women to use their talents in income producing projects. These likelihood
projects include handicrafts, poultry and goat rearing, vegetable farming, and
sewing. Products will be sold at urban markets to local residents, and possibly
in global fair trade markets.
The Southern Africa Embrace (SAE) Foundation promotes
prosperity, empowerment, and self-reliance for women and children in several
countries in southern Africa.
Send 35 Afghan Girls to School!!
Afghanistan does not have enough public schools for all children to attend, and even in areas where public schools do exist, they do often not offer a high quality education. To address this need, Dr. Sakena Yacoobi founded 4 private schools, 2 in Herat and 2 in Kabul. Connecther is hoping to provide 35 Afghan girls with scholarships to attend these private schools, which will provide the girls with a high quality education and change the course of their life for the better.
She is Rising: Help Survivors of Sex Trafficking
Problem: Approximately 79,000 youth are currently victims of sex trafficking in Texas. Since the state now has the highest rates of child sex trafficking in the U.S., She is Rising is uniquely positioned to connect survivors with the services they need to heal from this devastating abuse and exploitation.
Goal: To help survivors of sex trafficking overcome their trauma, reclaim their worth and become leaders in their community.
You can be a part of creating a Sughar Center! Sughar provides socio-economic empowerment to tribal women in Pakistan by establishing Women's Learning and Skill Development Centers in selected rural communities. Each Center provides a 6 month course to tribal/rural women on creating value through traditional embroidery creation & enterprise development. Sughar Centers also provide basic education and literacy skills to rural women which builds their decision making abilities and increases their contribution in their households and lives. With your support, within only three years, this center will be completely self-reliant and sustainable!
HazeraBegum is determined to give her children the
bright future that every child deserves. This Bangladeshi woman is the
"mother" of 40 children, most the children of sex workers in bustling
Dhaka.
Hazera understands their plight because she has lived
it herself. After she ran away from home at the age of 8 to flee an abusive
stepmother, she eventually was forced into sex work to survive. She has never
forgotten the daily struggle for dignity and safety that is the lot of sex
workers and their children.
Without Hazera's care, many of these children
would be left on the streets while their mothers work, where they would be
exposed to drugs, violence, and harassment. She is determined to raise them
right and give them an education.
Project implementation and supervision by Azmina Karim.
Support AIL's Legal Clinic for Women and Girls
This law clinic in Afghanistan run by Afghan Institute of Learning has won the trust of the women by taking on complicated cases for those with no financial resources and unable to fight for their rights. Five dedicated female lawyers work on a variety of cases affecting women, including child custody battles, protecting property or inheritance rights, and securing justice in cases related to child marriage, marriage without consent of the girl, and abuse.
Support AIL's Programs for Orphans
The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) is offering support to a girls' orphanage which houses 200 young girls, and we need your help! In 2010, AIL began offering medical services to the girls at the orphanages, and after a government ministry saw the quality of care that AIL was offering to the girls, they asked us to begin offering educational programming as well, which we have been doing since 2011. With your help, we can offer much needed support to Afghan orphans.
The Maia Project: Bringing Clean Water to the Children of Palestine
This project began when the Student Parliament at the UN Boys School in Bureij Refugee Camp, Gaza were given the opportunity to choose one thing they most wanted for their school: They chose to have clean drinking water. MECA's partner in Gaza heard about this vote and, after meeting with representatives from the school and the Student Parliament, came to MECA to see if we could respond to the children�s request for drinking water. MECA provided the funds to build a water purification and desalination unit for the school in 2007.
MECA is working in partnership with community organizations in Gaza to build water purification and desalination units in schools throughout the Gaza Strip.
Following a bitter civil war with Somalia, the newly-independent Republic of Somaliland was left with, basically, no health care professionals. One goal of the Edna Hospital is to train 1000 midwives and return them to their communities where they can help to reduce the extremely high rate of maternal and infant mortality.
Using Solar Energy to Promote Safe Motherhood
Sporadic electricity compromises the ability of community
midwives to provide safe, appropriate, and timely medical care. Midwives are
forced to make treatment decisions without the benefit of necessary diagnostic
tests. Obstetric procedures are conducted under grossly suboptimal conditions,
and can have tragic consequences.
In collaboration with Connecther & We Care Solar, the Edna Adan
University Hospital is poised to promote safe motherhood and reduce maternal
mortality by providing health workers with reliable lighting, mobile
communication, and medical devices using solar electricity.
