Important Links

The following are links to organizations that are fully engaged in the battle against extreme poverty. Please visit these websites to learn more about the amazing contributions these people and organizations are making to our planet and its future.

Adopt A Mother Foundation (AAMF) provides underprivileged children with adequate nutrition, medication and education—giving them the chance to learn, grow and live with health, dignity and opportunity. AAMF also supports and instructs destitute mothers in the areas of health, nutrition, literacy and family planning, providing them with self-reliance, initiative and the ability to better care for their children.  www.aamf.org

American Himalayan Foundation (AHF) provides vital education, healthcare, cultural and environmental preservation in the Himalayan region. The strategy of AHF is to support projects that are on a human scale and that directly benefit people. AHF builds schools, plant trees, trains doctors, funds hospitals, takes care of children and elderly, and restores sacred sites throughout the Himalayas. AHF also assists and encourages Tibetans to rebuild and maintain their culture both in exile, and within Tibet. www.himalayan-foundation.org

BOOKS for the BARRIOS is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening elementary school education in the Philippines so that all children – even the most disadvantaged – can receive a great education. Their award-winning approach emphasizes local community involvement in both the Philippines and the United States. www.booksforthebarrios.com

Children of Grace supports orphans and widows of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. They provide resources and financial support to Non-Governmental Organizations for programs that provide: education to the orphans; widow’s empowerment; community training; rural HIV/AIDS awareness: and ongoing medical support to the villages and rural areas. www.children-of-grace.org

FACE AIDS aims to build a broad-based movement of students seeking to increase global health equality. Working with Partners In Health (PIH), a respected health and social justice organization working to provide healthcare for the poor in nine countries, FACE AIDS runs income-generating projects with HIV associations in the Kirehe District of eastern Rwanda. www.faceaids.org

FINCA provides financial services to the world’s poorest families so they can create their own jobs, raise household incomes and improve their standard of living. They deliver these services through a global network of locally-managed, self-supported institutions. www.villagebanking.org

FUNDaFIELD is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of less fortunate youth in Africa through sports. The organization's goal is to provide soccer fields and equipment to African schools. www.fundafield.org

Healing Waters International seeks to reduce water-related sickness and death in developing countries by building water purification systems at local churches in poor communities. The communities operate these systems in a manner that ensure they will be 100% self-sustaining. www.healingwatersintl.org

Heifer International is a humanitarian assistance organization that works to end world hunger and protect the earth. Through livestock, training and "passing on the gift," Heifer has helped seven million families in more than 125 countries improve their quality of life and move toward greater self-reliance. Heifer helps build strong communities because each project participant agrees to pass on the gift of animal offspring, training, or skills to another family in need. www.heifer.org

Hospital de la Familia is a hospital in Guatemala supported by doctors and donors from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work with poor families is truly inspiring, and makes a tremendous difference in combating one of the causes of persistent poverty: lack of adequate medical care.
www.hospitaldelafamilia.com

International Pediatric Outreach Project (IPOP) was founded in 2002 by two UCSF pediatricians with the broad aim of improving the health of children in developing countries through direct and lasting collegial relationships with local health providers. The strategy of IPOP is to assist these providers in addressing what they consider the most pressing problems of child health in their communities through education, research and material support. IPOP currently has programs in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Saragur, India. www.ipoproject.org

Journeys Within Our Community (JWOC) was founded in 2005 by Brandon and Andrea Ross, owners of Journey Within Tour Company and B&B in Cambodia. JWOC strives to create and support projects that reduce poverty levels and increase educational and economic opportunities throughout South East Asia. By working at the local level and focusing on basic needs such as clean water, education, health, emergency relief and other community based issues, JWOC helps to develop projects that start small, but with outside support, gain momentum and change lives. www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org

KIVA is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. The people on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), a lender receives email journal updates and tracks repayments. When the loan is paid back, the lender can relend to someone else in need. www.kiva.org

Orphans of Rwanda, Inc. (ORI) is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to assisting orphans and vulnerable young people in Rwanda. ORI's principal mission is financing university education and related training for young people who, against tremendous odds, have completed secondary school and scored highly on university entrance examinations. ORI also devotes some resources to other educational and health-related activities. www.orphansofrwanda.org

The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) provides an intensive two-week residential program at Santa Clara University that enables successful technology innovators to scale their endeavors and achieve sustainability. The invited social benefit entrepreneurs have demonstrated their commitment to applying technology to address urgent human needs throughout the world and have achieved recognition through the rigorous selection process of the prestigious Tech Museum’s Awards. cms.scu.edu/sts/programsandpartnerships/gsbincubator.cfm

The Hunger Project is a strategic organization and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. Their priority is the empowerment of women, who bear primary responsibility for family health, education and nutrition – yet, by tradition, culture and law they are denied the means, information and freedom of action to fulfill their responsibility. www.thp.org

Think Humanity was created in 2007 to provide relief, support and hope for a promising future to refugees in Uganda. All projects are driven by a group of seven young adult administrators appointed by the organization. The refugees have proven themselves to be of high integrity and character, trustworthy and leaders in their community. www.thinkhumanity.org

Trust in Education (TIE) was founded by Budd MacKenzie in May 2003, in response to a "What now?" question raised at a public forum held in Lafayette, Calif., two days after the United States invaded Iraq. TIE's mission is twofold: providing education and economic development to villages in Afghanistan, and educating Americans about Afghanistan. TIE strongly believes that Afghans and Americans working together can dramatically improve the future. www.trustineducation.org

United Nations You should also visit the UN website to review the millennium goals for the end of world poverty. www.un.org/millenniumgoals