What difference does our money make? Here are some examples:
Christian Aid – This year all the money raised on the Island during Christian Aid Week will go directly to Mali, one of Africa’s poorest countries, to provide clean water in 3 specific villages. In addition, the Overseas Aid Committee (OAC) has agreed to match the amount raised through street collections, coffee mornings and sponsored walks which should mean that 6 villages will have clean water.
The OAC is also funding a project in Rwanda. It will support 120 peer educators to enable them to raise awareness about HIV and other health issues.
The Overseas Aid Committee has also been funding a three year project in Sierra Leone, through Christian Aid. A year ago several people from the Island went to visit the communities who benefited from the project. If you would like to learn more from one of them, contact us. If you would like to learn more about the work of Christian Aid, then go to their website.
Are there any more good projects out there that could be funded? Yes! The Isle of Man’s Overseas Aid Committee recently had a budget of about £800,000 to spend. It could have spent it ten times over. Here are some examples that were unsuccessful:
Powerful Information applied for a grant to extend its work with very poor women in Sierra Leone by providing additional training in sustainable agriculture/Integrated Pest Management and establishing cooperatively-managed seed banks/grain stores. Existing community-based learning circles would have overseen the training and the distribution of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides, with participants required to return 1.5 units of grain/seed after the harvest for each unit ‘borrowed’ so that the bank could grow. This would have provided a model that could be copied by other groups to improve food security – and IOM schools could have followed the project as it developed.
The Overseas Aid Committee has supported the work of Powerful Information on three previous occasions and you can read more about their work on their website.
Advantage Africa hoped a grant from our Overseas Aid Committee would help more than 3,000 people in Uganda. For only £10/person they were going to provide clean water through a new borehole, support income generating projects and distribute health kits including mosquito nets.
In Kenya they wanted to provide practical support to families affected by HIV and AIDs. Again for about £10/person they hoped to improve their nutrition, health and incomes.
Unfortunately their application was unsuccessful, but you can learn more about their work on their website.
Thare Machi Education has an opportunity to send out almost 4,000 sets of educational DVDs in a variety of South African languages at a cost of £29,750. 25 different interactive lessons would have been experienced by 1.75 million people – the distribution was already agreed. It would have been fantastic value at 10 viewings/1p and could have saved many lives. To learn more of their work, have a look at their website.