LIBERIA

Employment and Training

Tiyatien Health

Tiyatien is a non-profit organized by Liberian health care workers and medical professionals to expand access to primary health care for the rural poor. Africa faces a shortage of 1.5 million health workers. Nowhere is this crisis more acute than in the rural areas. Today, people in remote villages of Liberia walk up to 17 hours to reach a clinic. It is in these so-called “last-mile” villages that the Millennium Development Goals for child and maternal health, and HIV control and prevention, are most likely to fail. Tiyatien has piloted a model to bring home-based care to these villages through a cadre of trained and supervised frontline workers. These workers –mid-level providers, local villagers and former patients – are trained to bring treatment and prevention for HIV, tuberculosis, and mental health problems. To reduce stigma, malnutrition and the costs of seeking care, frontline workers connect patients to food sources, job training and other forms of social support. The Lester Fund supports training for 40 frontline workers – primarily women — who will make health care available to up to 25,000 residents of Zwedru County. The foundation also provides a capacity building grant to help Tiyatien build its fund raising and development operations so that it can replicate its model throughout Liberia. http://www.tiyatienhealth.org/

Made in Liberia (now Liberty and Justice)

Liberty and Justice is the non-profit workforce development arm of a social purpose textile manufacturing enterprise producing clothing exports from Liberia and Ghana. The company is dedicated to promoting the empowerment and economic sustainability of women. Its workers own 49% of the stock, receive health care and salaries substantially above average in the local industries. The company is also unique in providing a job training program consisting of the hard and soft skills necessary for the women to succeed in their jobs, as well as financial management courses to teach them how to budget and save their earnings. The Lester Fund supports training for 25 sewing machine operators from the Monrovia slum of West Point, and has provided a capacity building grant to assist Liberty and Justice in building its fundraising for its job training and education activities for women. http://www.madeinliberia.org/

West Point Women for Health and Development Organization

West Point Women (WPW) is a membership organization that was founded by and for women to improve their lives in the Monrovia slum of West Point. In addition to providing rape prevention, women’s empowerment and literacy programs, WPW is expanding its focus to include preparing and connecting its members to sustainable employment. The Lester Fund supported WPW’s efforts to develop and market the weaving and tailoring skills of its members by funding Global Goods Partners (GGP) to assess the market potential for their products and suggest strategies for improving their marketability. GGP is a leading technical assistance provider to international craft cooperatives, and has helped many access the U.S. market through its wholesale and retail channels. (No website)

Zwedru Women United for Change (ZWUC)

ZWUC began as a safe space for women in the southeastern town of Zwedru, Liberia. Now numbering 100 women, the group has organized a cooperative to create a pathway for economic sustainability for women. The Lester Fund supports the marketing of their tailoring work to small enterprises in the area, and two vocational training programs.

Federation of Miners (FOMAL)/Rice and Rights Foundation

FOMAL is an association of miners and mineworkers that works to improve the conditions of its members. The Rice and Rights Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy and literacy in the rural and remote areas of Liberia. The Lester Fund funds the provision of mining equipment on a revolving loan basis, together with financial management training to increase the income levels of the miners and mineworkers. The financial management training is evenly divided between male and female miners and mineworkers. Rights and Rights is providing technical assistance to FOMAL on the project.http://rightsandrice.ushahidi.com/help/view/1

Education

Liberian Education Trust

The Liberian Education Trust (LET) was established to support the restoration of basic education in Liberia after 14 years of war and conflict destroyed most of the schools. Few children received any education during the war, and at the war’s end, seventy percent of the population was illiterate. The Lester Fund provided a capacity building grant to LET-Monrovia so that it could build the administrative infrastructure necessary to raise, receive and re-grant funds for the school and education rebuilding process. http://www.liberianeducationtrust.org/

Women Peace and Security Network Africa (WIPSIN-Africa)

WIPSEN is a Pan African women’s organization led by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee that works to enhance the leadership skills of women and girls, and promote their participation and leadership in fostering human security, sustainable peace and development. The Lester Fund supports WIPSEN’s work with a general support grant.http://www.wipsen-africa.org/wipsen/

Child Welfare

Movement for Labor and Human Rights (MOLARJ)

MOLARJ is a nonprofit organized by trade union and human rights activists to promote social and economic justice in Liberia. In 2007 MOLARJ researched the use of child labor at the Firestone rubber plant in Liberia. They found that the company’s quotas on workers for tree tapping was so high that the workers had to use their children to help them tap trees in order to make the quotas. This was not only arduous work, but it kept their kids out of school. As a result of MOLARJ’s documentation of these conditions, the Rubber Workers Union negotiated collective bargaining provisions that lowered the quotas for adults for sap collection, and required that all children under 15 had to be in school. The Lester Fund is funding MOLARJ to research and report on child labor, trafficking and safety and health conditions in small-scale mining.

WEST AFRICA

American Jewish World Service

AJWS is one of a small number of organizations that supports grassroots organizations creating change in the developing world. They currently support over 150 projects in 16 countries throughout Africa. The Lester Fund supports AJWS’s work in West Africa to promote and protect women’s rights at the grassroots level and empower youth through access to education. http://ajws.org/

HAITI

The Lambi Fund of Haiti

The Lambi Fund was created in 1994 by a group of Haitians, Haitian Americans and North Americans to promote democracy and community –led development in Haiti. In 2010 Lambi created a Relief Fund to respond to the January earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and caused a massive outpouring to rural villages ill-prepared to produce additional food, shelters, latrines, medical services and income-producing activities. The Lester Fund supported the Earthquake Fund with a $15,000 grant to expand sustainable agriculture and increase opportunities for sustainable income sand livelihoods. http://www.lambifund.org/

Partners in Health

Partners In Health (PIH) is a Boston-based non-profit health care organization that partners with poor communities to combat disease and poverty. Though its first major programs were in Haiti, it currently operates in Rwanda, Peru, Russia, USA, Malawi and Lesotho, and supports projects in Mexico and Guatemala. There are several unique features of PIH’s model of health care delivery. It focuses on providing free primary care to the poor and access to the food, shelter, education and employment that alleviate poverty and disease. PIH has also developed an innovative model to hire and train villagers and former patients to bring treatment to residents in their homes and to those that cannot easily access its hospitals and clinics. After the 2010 earthquake, PIH began building a state-of-the-art teaching and referral hospital in central Haiti. The hospital will provide hundreds of jobs, and potentially serve as an economic development anchor for the region. The Lester Fund supports training and the salaries of 30 community health care workers and helps support a NYC office led by Dr. Farmer to keep an international focus on Haiti and its need for funding and support. http://www.pih.org/where/haiti/