2015 Giving & Donations

Women's Earth Alliance (WEA)

WEA's mission is to equip women with the skills and tools they need to protect our earth and strengthen communities from the inside out. They work with local leaders who build up other leaders. One becomes two, two become four, four become eight, and millions.

Project: WISE Women’s Clean Energy Training
In an attempt to fulfill their traditional roles of cooking and caring for their families, grassroots women’s survival is threatened. According to United Nations Development Programme research, “Nigeria tops the list of countries where women suffer various ailments resulting from the use of firewood”. A World Health Organization report states that “Over 90,000 Nigerian women die annually fromuse of firewood. If a woman cooks 3 meals, it equals smoking between 3 and 20 packs of cigarettes each day.”

WISE will hold capacity-building trainings for women leaders from at least 5 states in Nigeria to promote and sell clean cookstoves.

The project aims to increase access to safe, affordable, income/energy saving and durable localized lighting, heating and cooking energy; promote cleaner air as well as safe and healthier living areas through the elimination of indoor air pollution and by reducing levels of deforestation; and supporting employment and income generation for women leaders, which will lead to improved standards of living and sustained livelihoods.

View Project Proposal

People for Progress in India (PPI)

PPI is a Seattle-based, volunteer-run non-profit organization that supports development work in India. PPI was founded on the concept that, help to underprivileged should go beyond conventional charity. PPI has been guided by the following goals:

• To fund programs that make people and communities self-sustained through cooperatives, low-interest loans, vocational training, small-scale industries, etc
• Promote innovative programs that remove the obstacles faced by marginalized communities
• Promote sustainable and organic farming techniques; Training farmers on improving efficiency
• To maximize the effect of money by working directly with local organizations and volunteers and maintaining constant contact with them
• To encourage new ideas that involve people participation in such issues as environmental awareness, forestation, etc.

Project: Medical Sterilizer for the Karnataka Health Institute (KHI).
KHI is in urgent need of a Mediquip Horizontal High-speed Steam Steriliser, as their present unit, which was over 30 yrs old, is broken down and needs replacement.

Project: Installation of a Solar Water Heating System for the Karnataka Health Institute (KHI).
A solar water heating system for KHI's new hospital will be a great help in saving energy and utilizing a natural power source. 4 Solar heaters, of 300L capacity each. Each unit saves an average of 4500 units of Electricity every year. Total savings $1620/year.

Project: Completion of Pragathi Orphanage, Mysore, India.
The project will finish 1 of 2 needed sidewalls to prevent rain soaking into the orphanage. Last year, World Centric® provided funding to finish the 2nd floor of the building.

Project: Hospital Residences for MLD Trust Rural Hospital
Doctors currently reside in dorms with bunk beds for this hospital located in a tribal village of the Vikramgad Block of Palghar District. World Centric®'s donation will fund 2 residences for resident doctors – 500 sq ft each. Establishing this infrastructure will enable additional space in the existing structure to be freed for the expanded health care activities and will enable a better living environment for the residential and visiting doctors, enable robust capacity building sections across programs, and provide space for efficient working of our staff. MLD Hospital Residences Project Proposal

View Project Proposal

Project: PPI's General Fund
Contributing to PPI's General Fund enables the organization to fund its ongoing micro-grants program. PPI Annual Report 2015

View PPI Annual Report

Power of Love Foundation

POL funds and runs projects in Zambia and India targeted toward helping women and children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS. Their mission is to (1) To ensure no child is born infected with HIV and (2) care for HIV-positive infants and children so they can live close to normal and productive lives. Their vision is a world where the AIDS epidemic is in continuous retreat, and people living with HIV have access to loving care and treatment in an environment free of stigma and discrimination.

Project: Mosquito Nets for Malaria Prevention in Zambia
World Centric® will fund 2,000-3,000 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and education on prevention of malaria to children and families vulnerable to malaria in Zambia to be provided in July/August 2016 - before the next malaria season.

Project: Micro-Loan Program in Zambia
We will provide an additional 50 new business loans to first-time women entrepreneurs impacted by and/or infected with HIV/AIDS. The goal of this program is to empower women by teaching them marketable skills (mostly business skills) so they can use their earnings from the business to pay for food, rent, medicines, and school expenses.

Project: Pediatric HIV Care in Zambia
This project will provide a package of life-saving health care services to 300 HIV+ children, prevent new HIV infections, and provide education on HIV prevention and care to families in our community in Zambia. The children receive food, medicines, weekly health visits from a community health worker/Nurse, psycho-social counseling, education on HIV prevention, and monitoring and training in adherence to medication. In addition, primary caregivers of children (most are grandmothers caring for multiple orphaned grandchildren) receive a five-day intensive training in caring for an HIV+ child and in the prevention of HIV.

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Mayan Families

Mayan Families works to educate, feed, shelter and heal the impoverished populations of Lake Atitlán. Their mission is to facilitate enduring, sustainable programs that promote community development. Their objective is to stimulate long-term progress through school sponsorships, health initiatives, vocational training and microfinance while providing emergency services to those in critical need.

Project: Community Water Project in Peña Blanca, Guatemala
Indigenous Guatemalans, especially those residing in the rural highland villages, are detrimentally affected by a lack of access to clean water, manifest by the high precedence of water-borne disease as the leading cause of death in children under 5. Peña Blanca, a beautiful agricultural village in the highlands of Guatemala, is in need of a system to bring clean water to residents. The project will lay piping to bring water down from a catchment box to a distribution tank, which will be constructed just outside of town. This project is expected to directly benefit around 1000 Maya indigenous people. Specifically, 763 indigenous community members in 150 households, 70+ new preschool children ages 3-5 and their teachers and also will provide water access to the middle school close-by that currently only receives water periodically.

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Trees, Water, People

Trees, Water & People's mission is to improve people's lives by helping communities protect, conserve, and manage the natural resources upon which their long-term well-being depends.Their projects have been well-received in communities throughout Latin America and on Native American Reservations in the United States as they engage with local people and respect local culture. Trees, Water & People's unique community-based development model is based on the philosophy that the best way to help those most in need is to involve them directly in the design and implementation of local environmental and economic development initiatives.

Project: Conservation of the Reserva Biologica de Montecillos in Honduras
Trees, Water & People (TWP), in partnership with Centro de Enseñanza Apredinzaje de Agricultura Sostenible (CEASO), will lead a long-term natural resource management program that trains Honduran farmers in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in the buffer zone of the Reserva Biologica de Montecillos (RBM), a biodiverse, mountainous protected area. With our funding, TWP will build at least six community tree nurseries to begin production of fruit, fuel, timber, and shade trees, as well as plant 80,000 seedlings in 1st year. Additionally, they will construct 220 clean cooking stoves to reduce wood consumption and pollution from open cooking.

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SOIL

Since 2006, SOIL has been transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. Through the use of ecological sanitation, SOIL is working to create a revolutionary social business model for providing access to safe, dignified sanitation that produces rich, organic compost as a natural resource for Haiti’s badly-depleted soils, while also creating economic opportunities in some of the world’s most under-resourced communities.

Since building Haiti’s first EcoSan toilet in 2006 and first waste treatment facility in 2009, SOIL has gone on to become one of the country’s most well-respected sanitation providers. SOIL’s EkoLakay household sanitation social business pilot is now sustainably providing over 700 www.oursoil.org households with dignified, in-home sanitation for less than $5 USD per household per month. And SOIL’s EcoSan waste treatment facilities (in Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince) now treat more than 360 tons of human waste annually, providing a powerful example of how to affordably and effectively increase access to sustainable sanitation services worldwide.

Project: Scale Sanitation Service in Haiti
2.5 billion people (36% of the global population) still lack access to a toilet. This crisis is particularly evident in Haiti, where diarrhea accounts for 16% of deaths in children under five. In fact, Haiti has the highest childhood diarrheal incidence rate in the world and is currently battling the largest and most virulent cholera epidemic in recent global history. World Centric®'s contribution will help cover the cost of treating the toilet wastes at a SOIL site, increase the scale of SOIL's current composting facilities, and help them manage the facilities. This effort will generate over 120 metric tons of rich, organic compost for re-entry into the Haitian agricultural and environmental sectors.

Spark Microgrants

Spark supports rural poor communities to design, implement and manage their own social impact projects. They provide microgrants of between $2,000-$10,000 to enable project implementation, such as of a school, electricity line or farm. No interest or repayment of the funds granted is requested. To date, Spark has partnered with over 100 communities in Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi who have developed local project plans and are in the process of implementing them.

Project: Ox-Plough Project in Gum Pe Genge, Uganda
Gum Pe Genge is a community of three sub-villages in the Amuru District of northern Uganda. The community identified increased income as their priority goal with Spark and have designed an animal traction project to help them reach this goal. The group will purchase a pair of oxen and ox-ploughs that will enable them to prepare their land for planting at five times the speed as manually and with fewer back challenges, ultimately leading to more land being used and increasing their crop yield and sales. Families plan to use the income from the project to cover school fees for their children and to build basic housing with improved roofs as well as start a savings program for when unexpected needs arise.

Project: Savings & Loans Project in Kididikiro, Uganda
Kididikiro is a village of 100 households nestled on the top of a steep slope in eastern Uganda’s Mt. Elgon region. Most community members are subsistence farmers, making less than $1.25 day. the lack of income means many people cannot access the health care or send all their Working with their Spark facilitator, Kidididkiroare designing a savings & loans association. Using their microgrant as start up capital, the association will lend out small loans to different community members who are interested in starting their own small businesses, such as selling food or soap. To get a loan, community members will have to submit a short pitch to the association’s committee who will help the community member think through feasibility and payment timelines. Once approved the loan will be paid by with 5% interest. The community also plans to contribute 2000 Ugandan shillings (.70 USD) a week per household to continue increasing the capital available for loans.

Project: Dairy Farming Project in Gibetwa, Uganda
Gibetwa is a small village of 86 households nestled in a valley in eastern Uganda’s Mt. Elgon region. The community is far away from important social services such as healthcare and education. Working together with their Spark facilitator, the community decided that increased levels of income was their priority goal and are currently completing their proposal for a dairy farming project. As the community depends on agriculture, the community realized a huge opportunity to increase their direct income by using improved farming methods to increase harvest yield. Using the manure from the cows, the community will produce compost fertilizer in order to improve crop yield, which means more food and income. The community also plans on selling the milk from the cows as a mini-business. Gibetwa has already started their own savings and loans group in order to provide their contribution towards the seed-grant.

VIEW PROJECT PROPOSAL

Muonde Trust

The Muonde Trust (a registered charitable body in Zimbabwe) is a community-based organization dedicated to fomenting locally-driven creativity and development in the Mazvihwa and neighboring areas of south-central Zimbabwe (Zvishavane District). Through locally-driven educational, agricultural and community extension programs and a healthy dose of action research, the Muonde Trust backs indigenous development efforts that maintain the connections between spirit, community and ecology.

Project: Water Harvesting Indigenous Innovation in Mazvihwa, Zimbabwe
Since the 1950s women have been relieved of much of the labor of processing grain into flour by hammer mills owned by local businessmen. However, these cannot process seed removal for bulrush millet and sorghum, and so have discouraged women from growing those indigenous grains in favor of introduced dent maize varieties. This matters because these traditional grains are much more drought-resistant, are capable of long-term storage between good and bad years, and typically have much higher micronutrient density. These grains have been replaced by maize, which often fails, causing famine/hunger. The community has a first generation de-huller, purchased in the early 1990s, which needs to be replaced. Muonde Trust will work with the same technician to source a contemporary de-huller and train people how to use it.

Project: Solar-Powered Drip Irrigation in Mizvihwa, Zimbabwe
Mazvihwa is famous for its searing droughts, it’s heavy red soil, water-demanding fertile clays and its big rivers, especially the Runde. The advent of new technologies in both pumping (solar) and irrigation (drip) can lead great changes for the community. Muonde Trust will test solar-powered drip irrigation on 5-10 hectare units. World Centric®funds will cover the purchase of panels, batteries, pumps, piping, construction of water tanks and distribution systems.

Project: Microloan Fund in Zimbabwe
The microloan program will fund short and medium term production projects by small groups and families for agriculture and other small-scale enterprises, such as bee-keeping, small herd options, and diversified food production.

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Green Ninja

The Green Ninja Project is an educational initiative to inspire interest in the science and solutions associated with our changing climate. Adventures of the Green Ninja – a superhero – are told in a youth-oriented and humorous way, but grounded in science and data. Related educational materials are used to support teachers in the classroom and promote hands-on learning experiences for students. Green Ninja is a collaborative project out of San Jose State University.

One of the Green Ninja projects we supported in 2015 was "Changing Tides: The Green Ninja Tackles Marine Trash". This project uses storytelling, creek cleanups, and classroom curriculum to help students develop an interest and passion for preserving and caring for the environment, specifically local creeks and the ocean.

Social Advocates for Youth (SAY)

SAY provides support, opportunities and hope to children, youth, and families. They are dedicated to creating and supporting a caring community where all children, youth, and families grow, thrive and succeed. Their programs cover housing, counseling, and jobs.

The Farmers Guild

The Farmers Guild brings together the newest wave of farmers, ranchers, and sustainable food system advocates. With a passion for feeding our local communities, they unite to share skills, knowledge, and a meal after a day in the field. Founded by farmers for farmers, the Guild supports healthy food production by collectively striving toward the economic viability of agriculture as well as the social networks to attract, cultivate and sustain a new generation ready to work the land.

Mentor Me

Mentor Me empowers youth in need to achieve their highest potential by matching them with an adult mentor. Operating in four Petaluma and Novato school districts and serving youth aged 5-17, the organization currently has over 300 active school-based mentorships in place, with 90 youth waitlisted. Trained adult mentors spend at least an hour a week with their mentees in Mentor Centers located in partner schools and at the MM Cavanagh Recreation Center. Mentor Centers are rooms on school campuses that include equipment and supplies that support developmental relationships between mentors and students. MM manages Mentor Centers in 17 schools: 9 elementary schools, 2 K-8 schools, 3 junior highs, and 3 high schools. Mentor Center Coordinators lead the mentoring program at each site, recruiting mentors, accepting student nominations from teachers and counselors, meeting with parents and mentors, making mentor matches, and supervising mentorships.

SOPUDEP

SOPUDEP (Society of Providence United for the Economic Development of Petion-Ville) is a Haitian-founded and run grassroots organization located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. SOPUDEP’s focus is on providing accessible education to adults and children, supporting children’s and women’s rights, and creating programs of economic empowerment for members of their community. They also work closely with other local organizations to help them achieve these same goals in other communities that face economic and social challenges.

World Centric® is contributing to the construction of the new SOPUDEP school. With nearly 20 classrooms, a 70 thousand water gallon cistern, and an auditorium, the school will provide education to children and adults, including vocational training, and will also provide a computer lab and a library.

Jubilee USA Network

Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of more than 75 US organizations, 550 faith communities, and 50 Jubilee global partners. Jubilee is building an economy that serves, protects and promotes participation of the most vulnerable. The Network has won critical global financial reforms and more than $130 billion in debt relief for the world's poorest people.

North Bay Organizing Project

NBOP is a diverse, multi- issue organization that believes that participation of our members is essential for the survival of democracy. In collaboration with Sonoma County working people, congregations, environmentalists, neighborhood organizations, young Latino professionals, youth who are eager to lead, but lack venues, progressive organizations, immigrant rights organizations and unions — NBOP seek effective ways to address the divide. By recognizing the capacities and strengths inherent in each person, they work together to create community relationships and build power. This provides opportunities for people to engage in deciding how to change the structures that keep them poor and to work for equity in our neighborhoods, communities, and region.

Daily Acts

Daily Acts, based in Sonoma County, is a sustainability non-profit that inspires action to create more nourishing, connected, and resilient communities. Grounded in the core belief that every choice you make matters, we take a heart-centered approach to personal and community transformation. Our education programs, action campaigns, and strategic alliances connect people to each other and to their own power to grow food, conserve resources and build local resilience.

Many of the following donations are a result of our annual Employee Donation Matching program!

Bahamas Disaster Relief, Redwood Credit Union Community fund, Inc., Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids, Susan G. Komen 3-day, 20 Liters, The Mountain School, eSponsornow.org, SEEQS, Water For South Sudan, Gold Ridge Volunteer Firefighters' Association, Oceana, Styrophobia, La Jolla YMCA, Wounded Warrior Project, Second Leash on Life. 5 Gyres Institute, California Congress of Parents Teachers and Students, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Movember Foundation, Nepal Help Via Shangri-La Restaurant, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Alzheimer's Association, The Warming Center, Solid Ground, Guided To Safety, Days for Girls International, Mentor Me, BlueWorld Project, Black Women for Wellness, Oxfam America, Tuolumne River Trust

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