GFC Awards Over $850,000 in Spring 2006

The Global Fund for Children (GFC) awarded a total of $861,500 in grants in spring 2006 to community-based organizations in 40 countries working to advance the dignity of vulnerable children and youth. Of this amount, $794,000 were program grants and $67,500 were additional funds for emergencies, organizational development, and tracking grants.

Program grants were awarded to 22 partners in Africa, 22 partners in Asia, 21 partners in Latin America, 4 in Eastern Europe, and 4 partners in the United States.

Schools and Scholarships

Twenty-two grants, totaling $218,500, will support alternative education, skills training, youth empowerment programs, and scholarships to formal schools.

• In Peru, Asociación Solas y Unidas operates a day school for children of HIV-positive mothers.
• In Vietnam, Friends for Street Children helps street children to build productive lives by providing nonformal education, vocational training, shelter, and healthcare.

Hazardous Child Labor

Fourteen grants, totaling $141,000, will support educational, skills training, and other programs specially tailored to the needs and circumstances of working children.

• In India, Door Step School provides nonformal education classes serving 140 children who work at the fishing docks and at the market.
• In Senegal, Association La Lumière works to decrease the incidence of child labor in the gold mines and to increase school enrollment and retention among children living near the mines.
  

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Twelve grants, totaling 116,000, will support programs to protect children from initial or continued exposure to the commercial sex industry and other forms of sexual exploitation.

• In Mongolia, the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation provides vocational training and individual and family counseling to girls at high risk of leaving their families for the streets and becoming prostitutes.
• In the United States, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services helps sexually exploited young women exit unsafe and abusive lifestyles by offering a range of educational, vocational, counseling, and crisis services.

The Distinctive Needs of Vulnerable Boys

Eleven grants, totaling 119,500, will support programs that address the unique issues and concerns facing poor and marginalized boys and young men.

• In Mexico, El Caracol helps street boys build skills, attitudes, and assets to transform their lives, through life skills workshops, enterprise and vocational training, a youth-led bakery and restaurant, and a youth-led radio program.
• In South Africa, Men on the Side of the Road provides young men with skills training and certification in the trades, including carpentry, plumbing, construction, and landscaping; a comprehensive skills assessment; update training where appropriate; and placement services.

General

Fourteen grants, totaling $111,000, will support partners whose work does not fall into the above portfolios but that demonstrate creative new approaches to problems facing children in their communities.

• In Brazil, Instituto Fazer Acontecer uses a combination of sports and citizenship training to promote teamwork, discipline, and physical well-being, as well as awareness of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, among youth in marginalized communities.
• In Kenya, Integrated Community Health Services transmits critical health messages to young people through a youth-led edutainment model that uses media such as soap operas, radio dramas, theater, and storytelling.
• In Romania, Fundatia Noi Orizonturi engages youth in IMPACT Clubs that give them the opportunity to participate in service learning projects, engage with local government, and build leadership skills.

Click here to view a full list of GFC’s 2005–2006 grant awards.