7 August 2017, New York City, USA – Five grantees have been selected to receive funding for their grassroots projects from the Global Youth Empowerment Fund.
The Global Youth Empowerment Fund; a partnership of JCI and the UN SDG Action Campaign with the support of kountable, Inc., offers grants, financing and training to five youth-led projects and social enterprises that advance the Global Goals for Sustainable Development in local communities around the world.
The five grantees are Health is Wealth, Summer Camp for HIV Infected Adolescents and Youth, Food 4 All Africa Programme, AsyLove and Young Women for Good Governance: A Prerequisite for Sustainable Peace in Local Communities.
Health is Wealth is a project created by the Civilian Welfare Foundation in India, which aims to both improve the transgender population’s access to basic health care and reduce discrimination against this group. Their project will include conducting an in-depth study to improve understanding and data, creating a documentary that presents data findings and first hand difficulties faced by this group, facilitating workshops and conferences to sensitize and mentor medical professionals and developing advocacy efforts to affect policy change.
HIV Infected Adolescents and Youth is a project developed by MUJHU Young Generation Alive (YGA) that seeks to support Ugandans affected by HIV/AIDS. MUJHU YGA will lead a 3-day summer camp for 50 adolescents living with HIV/AIDS to educate and counsel them on how to positively live with their disease. Through team building activities, trainings with healthcare professionals, and educational workshops on medication and prevention of transmission, the camp will work to achieve complete suppression of the disease in at least 90% of participants.
Food 4 All Africa Programme is a project initiated by Food 4 All Africa that will apply a community-based approach to address the challenges of both food waste and hunger in Ghana. Through partnering with like-minded organizations, a mobile and web-based application will be developed to connect farmers, distributors and civil society to serve impoverished children. The application will enable stakeholders to sell their surplus of food products at a heavily discounted rate or donate it to those in need.
AsyLove is a project started by JCI Zagreb of JCI Croatia that aims to help refugees and asylum seekers through targeted actions to better understand the needs of these individuals in order to raise community awareness, combat inequalities and empower and promote the social and economic inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers in Zagreb. Furthermore, the project will engage the media to promote greater understanding of the refugee situation and foster a peaceful and prosperous community.
Young Women for Good Governance: A Prerequisite for Sustainable Peace in Local Communities is an initiative started by Impart Change. Through this initiative, young women will be the primary focus and gain further understanding and education on the Kenyan constitution. By partnering with a variety of stakeholders including the Ministry of Public Service as well as the U.S. Embassy, a variety of workshops, field visits and practical learning opportunities will be offered to empower the women and their peers.
The grantees were recognized on Friday, 4 August during the 2017 JCI Global Partnership Summit at the United Nations in New York City, USA.
Grant funding is due to the support of Admicom Systems B.V., Brand South Africa, kountable, Inc., Green Delta Insurance and many generous individuals.
For more information on the Global Youth Empowerment Fund please visit www.gyefund.org.
About JCI: JCI is a worldwide membership-based nonprofit organization of young active citizens ages 18 to 40 who are dedicated to creating positive change in their communities. Through projects in more than 5000 communities across nearly 120 countries, members seek targeted solutions to local problems, creating a global impact.