22 grants awarded in September 2009

In September 2009, Cottonwood Foundation has awarded 22 grants of $1,000 each to grassroots organizations worldwide that are working for a sustainable future. Each of these grant recipients is a Cottonwood Partner.

Following is a listing of the 22 $1,000 grants awarded this fall: (Please note that organizations followed by "USA/[another country]" are based in the United States, but were funded for a specific project in another country.)

African Blackwood Conservation Project’s nursery produces thousands of seedlings annually for tree-planting efforts in Tanzania.

African Blackwood Conservation Project, USA/Tanzania — to dig a water well and line its walls with brick, purchase an electric underwater pump, and install piping to provide water to ABCP's Moshi mpingo tree nursery in Tanzania. The project will eliminate the hard labor of hauling water by hand from the nearby river, providing safe drinking water for the staff and nourishing the nursery’s 10,000 — 20,000 seedlings.

Association "Green Alternative," Republic of Georgia — to support establishment of a new kindergarten for children with mental disabilities in Tbilisi. In addition to needed painting and repairs for the classroom, the project will fund improvements in energy efficiency (purchase and installation of thermal insulation, compact fluorescent bulbs, motion-activated lighting fixtures) and tree planting in the kindergarten's garden.

AYAFE: Association of Young Azerbaijani Friends of Europe, Azerbaijan — to organize a working camp in Baku, Azerbaijan, to help clean up pollution and plant trees around a local orphanage and shelter housing 140 children aged 4 to 16. Volunteeers, both local and international, will educate local residents and raise awareness about waste, littering, and environmental pollution.

Blue Veins, Pakistan — for a three-month volunteer-led training on tailoring, embroidery, and sewing for 15 internally displaced women from the conflict-stricken Swat Valley of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. Each woman that completes the training will receive a sewing machine, necessary accessories, and funds to start her own business and help make her and her children self-sufficient.

Centro de Educacion Creativa, Costa Rica — to be used for materials and machining to install a solar water heater at the school, providing over 200 students with hot water for the first time. Also funds materials and welding to construct a needed shelter for the school's recycling center.

Cultural Survival, USA/Guatemala — to purchase a compact disk duplicating device for making copies of radio programs about environmental protection and other topics in four indigenous languages. Broadcasts on 168 community radio stations will reach more than one million listeners in rural Guatemala.

Dos Pueblos: New York — Tipitapa Sister City Project, USA/Nicaragua — to support a potable water project to serve 135 families in Ciudadela San Martin (near Tipitapa, Nicaragua), a low-income rural community with inadequate supplies of drinking water. Community involvement is centered on local volunteers who will provide the labor for installing the water system; this grant helps purchase pipes and other needed materials.

Ecoclub Environmental Nongovernmental Youth Organization, Ukraine — for the "Garbage is a resource!" campaign targeting local schools and the community of Rivne, Ukraine, to address the problem of accumulation of domestic waste through waste collection and alternative utilization of garbage, including purchase of containers for paper garbage and development of educational materials.

Eco-garden, Kenya — for training 15 Kenyan farmers on organic farming and natural resource management. Funds for tree planting, seeds for organic vegetables and beans, maintenance support for Eco-Garden's demonstration farm, and other organizational costs.

Fifty Lanterns International, USA/International — to purchase and distribute 20 sturdy LED solar lanterns to low-income families without electricity in Honduras, Rwanda, or Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Friends Service Council Nepal, Nepal — to develop, print and distribute 1,000 copies of training handbooks on community-based disaster management and community-based health and sanitation management. The manuals will be distributed through community NGOs, network members, and social organizations to Nepalese communities that are subject to loss of life from disasters, epidemics, and poor sanitation.

Fund for the Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF), Bulgaria — to promote small-scale organic farming to local people in Kotel Mountain, Bulgaria. Efforts include creating a one-hectare organic demonstration field, orchard and garden for native crops; collecting seeds of native crops; and mapping local gardens, orchards, and fields where native crops are currently used.

Haiti Outreach, USA/Haiti — to support a well-drilling project that will provide clean water for 410 people in Kajou Won, Haiti, located in the commune of San Raphael. Currently, the community must take its water from a contaminated stream about 3 miles away—more than an hour's walk in each direction.

Interaccion Para el Desarrollo Sostenible, Bolivia — to improve the life of children and community members in the small, rural community of Chijmuni, Bolivia, through construction of a forest nursery where community members will produce 1,000 plants annually of native species such as the Keñua and the Quiswara to reforest common areas, with the grant used for purchase of seeds, construction of the nursery, training courses, educational materials, and other activities.

International Association for Transformation, Canada/Philippines — to support the Summer Literacy and Theatre Arts Program in 5 remote villages in the Philippines. Thirty senior students provide needed tutoring and educational upgrading for younger students for one month, and use drama and skits to address community problems in open forum. Through the Cottonwood grant, the student teams will be provided with food, preparation, educational supplies, transportation, monitoring and evaluation.

MADRE, USA/Nicaragua — to provide seeds for organic food crops to 100 indigenous Miskito women and their families in Nicaragua in partnership with Mangki Tangni through the Harvesting Hope project.

Nabichakha Women Group, Kenya — to build a water borehole and install a pump to provide clean and safe water for 200 needy children at a primary school in Wacheka Village, Kenya, reducing time and work in fetching water from the river. Funds will also pay for an environmental education project in the school.

Norwalk/Nagarote Sister City Project, USA/Nicaragua — to provide scholarships to twenty public-school students from low-income families in Nagarote, Nicaragua. Financial assistance for these "Cottonwood Scholars" covers their uniforms, shoes, books, school supplies, and tutoring for one year.

People’s Agricultural Plan for the 21st Century, PAP 21, Philippines — to help nine families of farmer partners of PAP 21 in Hacienda Carmen, Barangay Granada, Bacolod City, who were evicted from their homes, to address the problems of hunger and poverty while rebuilding their lives in a new location through providing them with farm tools and seeds, training in organic agriculture, and other assistance.

Sulaxmi Lok Sansthan, India — to assist people in drought-stricken Behror Block, Alwar District, Rajasthan, India, with water management and local food production, by constructing 5 cement tanks for harvesting rainwater, developing 5 kitchen gardens, creating 5 low-cost vermicomposting beds, and providing training.

Village Volunteers, USA/Kenya — to support Namunyak Maasai Welfare in forming an Environmental Youth Action Corps in Oronkai, Kenya, including conducting a three-day workshop that will train a total of 50 youth from Transmara in activism and advocacy for their natural environment, implementing a community cleanup project, and providing solar flashlights and certificates to youth participants upon completion.

White Earth Land Recovery Project, USA (Land Fund) — to help pay off the project's Callaway property on the White Earth Reservation. There, a community garden focuses on restoring indigenous corn, beans, and squash — "the three sisters" — which will improve food security and resilience for the reservation.

Partners Program to continue in 2010-2011

Cottonwood Foundation initiated the Cottonwood Partners program in 2004 to focus the foundation's funding on a selected group of excellent nonprofit organizations. As of January 2010, 56 organizations are participating in this program. Thanks to generous support from Cottonwood's contributors, 43 partner organizations were awarded grants in 2009!

The current Cottonwood Partners are participating for the two-year period 2010 - 2011. As a result of positive feedback from the partners as well as the success of this approach from the board's perspective, it is anticipated that the Cottonwood Partners program will be continued in future years.

Support needed and appreciated for Cottonwood's grants
Most of the funding to support Cottonwood's grant rounds is generously donated by individuals, with important contributions also provided by foundations and businesses. Contributors can now easily donate to Cottonwood online by credit card through our web site at www.cottonwoodfdn.org/contribute.html.