Among the projects funded this year is an organic-farming training program in Cusco, Peru, led by our partner Wawasonqo.
By BGR Staff
At this spring’s annual projects meeting, held on April 29 and 30, 2023, Buddhist Global Relief’s Board came together to review and approve 60 proposals from project partners around the world. By the end of the weekend, the grants we approved totaled almost $1.2 million. At the meeting we were joined by representatives of our European partner organization, Mitgefühl in Aktion (MiA), who expanded their support to almost $83,000, helping us sponsor seven projects.
During the coming fiscal year, July 2023 to June 2024, these projects will relieve hunger, educate children, provide vocational opportunities and training for vulnerable women, and support sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers. The projects will be based in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Peru, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam, as well as here in the United States, in Sahuarita, Arizona; Detroit, Michigan; Easton, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C.
A majority of these projects are continuations of previous years’ work with established partners. This year, BGR welcomes four new partners.
New partner Terre des Hommes joins us with a project in Ecuador to address the root causes of chronic childhood malnutrition. The project will train parents in 38 indigenous and peasant communities in the construction of family gardens; horticulture; and the uses of medicinal plants. The project will train 700–900 parents, most of them women, and benefit 1,000 children with improved nutrition.
A project with new partner Humanity Aid Foundation will provide breakfast and lunch meals, school supplies, and mosquito nets for 150 vulnerable children and young people in a region of Uganda characterized by poverty, malnutrition, poor access to education, lack of safe drinking water, and inadequate health care.
Working in a village in Cameroon that is home to many teenage mothers who have been victims of rape by militia members or soldiers, a project with Rising Hope Foundation for Change supports an entrepreneurship program for 120 of these girls and young women, training them in sewing, designing, and business skills.
A project with the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C., will support after-school and summer meals for nearly 5,000 food-insecure girls and boys in our nation’s capital. A second project supports a Food Pharmacy that provides nutritious groceries to food-insecure families of diabetes patients.
In addition, BGR will be supporting a new project with Chrysalis, the Sri Lankan affiliate of our longtime partner CARE International, to create school gardens to combat nutritional insecurity. The project will also fund school uniforms and supplies for 1,000 students.
Finally, we continue to support our partner Better Burma with an expansion on a previous emergency grant providing much-needed food assistance to people in Myanmar. MiA joined BGR in funding this expanded grant.
We offer our deepest gratitude to our donors, volunteers, supporters, and project partners, without whom this work would not be possible.
