22 grants awarded in September 2007

In September 2007, 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, USA/Tanzania - to support the Environmental Greenishing Group, a recently formed organization of youth in the Meru District of Kenya, for establishing tree nurseries for reforestation, conducting training for the community on environmental conservation, providing basic environmental education, facilitating the planting of trees from the nursery to identified areas, and other activities.
  
  
• Benton Furniture Share, USA - to supply approximately 40 items of needed used furniture and household goods at no cost to low-income elderly individuals and households, primarily in Benton County, Oregon.
  
  
• Blue Veins, Pakistan - to establish a computer literacy center in Dagai Village, Swabi District, Pakistan in cooperation with a local women's group, which will empower approximately 100 girls and women of this remote village with new skills, with funding to include purchase of a computer, printer, internet connection, and salary for a computer teacher.
  
  
• Center for People's Agricultural Plan for the 21st Century, Philippines - to provide training on agro-forestry for 25 family-based organic farmers that will incorporate the preservation and protection of the local forest, including providing seeds of fruit and forest trees for community reforestation as well as purchasing equipment and materials needed for tree and vegetable seed storage using non-chemical pest control methods.
  
  
• Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, India - to help restore lands in the Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, India that had been made saline through seawater intrusion in the December 2004 tsunami, by supporting training, seeds, and organic inputs to 100 farmer trainers who will in turn train several thousand local farmers and NGOs in organic cultivation of salt-tolerant indigenous varieties of rice, vegetables and other crops.
  
  
• Centro de Educacion Creativa, Costa Rica - to purchase equipment, tools and safety materials to improve CEC's recently developed Biodiesel Project, which will help the students create recycled energy that not only fuels the school buses in Monteverde but also helps to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, including purchase of a plastic cone processor, heating pump, tubing and containers, tools, safety equipment, and other expenditures.
  
  
• Cultural Survival, USA/Mongolia - to purchase a laptop computer for the Totem Peoples Project's Mongolian veterinary specialist, Ms. Nansalmaa Myagmar, that will be used to document reindeer and traditional livestock health, treatment history, disease incidence, ownership patterns, and other data relevant to the management and protection of the indigenous Dukha nomads of northern Mongolia.
  
  
• Ecoclub Nongovernmental Youth Organization, Ukraine - for the project "The Green Spot in the Grey City" which will be conducted in Rivne, Ukraine to create a green area in the city for the benefit of city residents and the urban ecosystem with the involvement of volunteers and the local community, including purchase of saplings, soil mix, shovels, delivery of planting materials and stones, and other expenditures.
  
  
• Interaccion para el Desarrollo Sostenible, Bolivia - to improve the life of children in the small, rural community of Chijmuni, Bolivia through purchase of building supplies to construct a needed sanitary facility for a primary school benefiting 60 children, planting 500 trees near the school, and conducting approximately six training courses on the environment for primary and secondary students as well as for teachers and parents.
  
  
• International Association for Transformation, Canada/Philippines - to support the Summer Literacy and Tutoring Program in 5 remote villages in the Philippines in which approximately 30 senior students provide needed tutoring and educational upgrading for younger students for four to five weeks, with the Cottonwood grant providing food and accommodation for the student teachers, preparation, educational materials, supplies, transportation, monitoring and evaluation.
  
  
• MADRE, USA/Nicaragua - to provide organic food crop seeds to 20 indigenous Miskito women and their families in Nicaragua in partnership with local partner organization Mangki Tangni, as well as facilitating the participation of several indigenous farmers in a farmers' market (including purchase of tables, transportation for farmers, and salary for coordinator).
  
  
• Maka Foundation, USA (Land Fund) - to help purchase the 780 acre Medicine Butte Ranch within the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation that once was Indian-owned land but which had passed to non-Indian ownership, with future use of the land intended to exclude cattle grazing and for the land to be managed with the goal of increasing native prairie wildlife.
  
  
• Mangrove Action Project, USA/Indonesia - to support construction of a Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Education Center in Pakem District, Java, Indonesia, including purchase of a biogas converter, water pump, municipal electrical hook-up, vetiver grass nursery seed stock for revegetation, and seedlings for an herbal medicine garden.
  
  
• Nabichakha Women Group, Kenya - to help address waterborne diseases in Bungoma District, Kenya by rebuilding a public toilet facility that had been destroyed during recent heavy rainfall and flooding, as well as to initiate a water and sanitation project that will involve training and community outreach through mass campaigns, brochures and pamphlets.
  
  
• Norwalk/Nagarote Sister City Project, USA/Nicaragua - to provide scholarships in Nagarote, Nicaragua for 20 "Cottonwood Scholar" students from low-income families who are attending public schools, including covering their uniforms, shoes, books, school supplies and tutoring for one year.
  
  
• Project Mercy, USA/Mexico - to construct a sturdy house from used garage doors as well as partially recycled and donated materials that will be used by a family in need of emergency housing in Mexico.
  
  
• Rural 21, Moldova - to establish an Annual Winter School for Bike Mechanics using volunteer experts to train 30 bike owners in week-long courses as bicycle mechanics, and then to assist 10 of these mechanics to start their own bike shop businesses in their communities, including purchase of 5 bike mechanic stands, 5 bike wrench kits, and an electric compressor for inflating and painting.
  
  
• Sanchuan Development Association, China - to purchase 450 books and transport them by wagon to each of two remote mountain village schools in Minhe County, Qinghai Province, which will allow the schools to have their own libraries, and will encourage education of ethnic minority children by allowing them access to books in addition to their textbooks.
  
  
• Trees for the Future, USA/Cameroon - to support the Volunteer Group for Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Development (VOGASPAD) in Bamenda, Cameroon in providing training for farmers in tree nursery management, agroforestry and seedling transplantation, including purchasing wheel barrows, watering pipes, spades, pitchforks and over 30,000 tree seeds, with the goal of reestablishing vegetation that has been destroyed by logging and slash-and-burn farming techniques.
  
  
• Umoja Wa Kienjero Self Help Group, Kenya - to establish an eco-seed bank multiplication project that will propagate and package certified seed spice and herbs, and also fruit orchard seedlings, including purchase of seeds, equipment, training, and materials.
  
  
• White Earth Land Recovery Project, USA - to install a solar hot air heating panel on the home of a low-income tribal elder on Minnesota's White Earth Reservation, as well as to train four young people on the panel's installation.
  
  
• Wild Flora and Fauna Fund / FWFF, Bulgaria - to rehabilitate and protect three small spring-fed sources of water in the Yurushki Skali protected area in Kotel Mountain that had been created in the 1950s but have subsequently silted in, for use by people, wildlife, livestock, and aquatic vegetation, with work done by local volunteers.

Partners Program to continue in 2008-2009

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 2008, 62 organizations are participating in this program. Thanks to generous support from Cottonwood's contributors, 45 partner organizations were awarded grants in 2007!

The current Cottonwood Partners are participating for the two-year period 2008 - 2009. 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 also for 2010 - 2011.

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.


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