We have partnered with Genesis Foundation, an organization that enables needy Colombian children to access a brighter future through quality education.
Colombia is a country with a poverty rate of 60%. An armed conflict has lasted over 30 years, resulting in one of the world's largest displaced populations; lowering the quality of education for children living in dangerous areas.
Our project "First Learning Steps" operates in the Magdalena area of Colombia and is aimed at improving the level of education for 250 children between 2 and 5 years old.
The entire program supports 180 families, 40 adolescent mothers and 23 teachers. This educational project serves as a template to be duplicated in other areas of the country and is also supported by The Colombian Institute for Family Welfare.
Through Mercy Corps, SOH is providing fresh water to over 100,000 people in the southern Ethiopian provinces of Konso and Derashe. To date we have built five acquifers which collect stream water high in the hills and pipe it directly into the villages through force of gravity. The villagers fill their large cans with water from faucets in the village center.
Fresh water is essential to life, and hugely reduces waterborne diseases. A child who contracts diarrhea from impure water might die in a few days. We are presently tripling the number of acquifers.
Additionally, SOH has built two schools to train young women, in these provinces, in the basic elements of business, leading to micro loans to establish small enterprises.
Days after the Haitian earthquake we funded a grant to Partners in Health, a NGO which has been running hospitals and clinics in Haiti for 25 years. These monies have aided both the emergency response and longer term aid for this tragedy stricken island.
Source of Hope supports Hand-in-Hand, a center for Jewish-Arab education in Israel. Hand-in-Hand's mission is to build a network of integrated schools in Israel bringing together Arab and Jewish children for an education that spans both culture and languages. Classes are taught both in Hebrew and in Arabic.
This is specifically important as Arab and Jewish communities in Israel are mostly segregated and there is little interaction among these two cultures.
The organization's vision "Learning together – Living together", reflects the goal of creating a more peaceful, pluralistic and democratic society in Israel.
Source of Hope, through the NGO Millennium Promise, is supporting health clinics in Malawi and Uganda. Located in villages previously without significant health care, the clinics provide HIV testing and treatment, medications for malaria, diarrhea, respiratory diseases and numerous other ailments. The clinics also provide pre and post natal care, as well as child delivery services.
SOH supports three programs in Palestine.
In collaboration with Mercy Corps and Google, we are helping Palestinian trained engineers develop a software outsourcing industry similar to the Indian model. Palestinians are well educated including thousands of engineers; most unable to find suitable employment. Because software outsourcing can be largely accomplished on the internet, travel prohibitions are less of a problem. Already some international technology companies, like Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, are outsourcing to Palestinian software developers. Our goal is to provide sustainable, high level employment, aid the Palestinian economy; thereby enhancing the prospects for peace.
SOH is supporting a sports group which helps disabled Palestinian athletes. This endeavor has sent Palestinian athletes to the International Para-Olympics competition. Giving these athletes a chance to perform on the world stage gives them hope for a better future, and exposes others to their plight.
The Parent's Circle is an Israeli-Palestinian organization that helps families from both sides deal with their grief over loss of loved ones. Their members speak in schools explaining firsthand the horrors of war, the need to recognize the humanity of both sides, and the urgency of peace. SOH is proud to help this cause.
Source of Hope has been a long time supporter of Henry Street Settlement, a social service agency that offers a wide range of programs to benefit the urban poor in the lower east side of New York City. We have enhanced the housing residence for battered women and their children by improving the facilities and creating a computer room and a playroom for youngsters.
New York Presbyterian Hospital
Part of NYPH, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, resides in a low income area around 175th Street on the west side of Manhattan. Over 50% of its patients are on Medicare or uninsured.
Many of these patients use the hospital's emergency room as their source of primary care. As a result, the emergency room is overcrowded, waiting times average nine hours. SOH is now building a rapid evaluation unit to improve care and reduce waiting times. Some patients can't be adequately diagnosed by the triage nurses, so they might wait many hours for a minor problem. The rapid evaluation unit will be able to make a diagnosis, leading many more patients to be treated and released quickly. Our goal is to make medical care for the less affluent an easier and less traumatic experience.