| Poverty Eradication Partnership (PEP) Toolkits PEPs are locally adaptive action frameworks designed to catalyze collaboration amongst local and global Partners In Empowerment (PIE) in the implementation of EW's 7 Stage Sustainable Development Model. |
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| Micro-grants for Social Entrepreneurs Local change-makers create lasting social impact Investing in local knowledge, talents and other sustainable resources, EW Micro-grants unleash the potenital of grass-roots social entrepreneurs to address critical global issues in their communities. How it works: EW offers extraordinarily dedicated individuals, institutions, or local service committees with $200-500usd to invest in income generating and other long-term social benefit projects. At the grass-roots level, grantees have a great responsibility to produce tangible results out of this opportunity. Empowerment Works provides a flexible, locally adaptive framework and the appropriate guidance so grantees maintain project ownership and accountability. |
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Evolution: EW made its first micro-grant for social entrepreneurs in March 2006 in the Amazon village of Abenastone, Suriname. With just 300usd a local man with only partial use of his arms started a chicken cooperative employing other handicapped citizens. In January 2007, EW delivered this project to the slums of Nairobi Kenya, empowering volunteer teachers to create a youth business practicum at Amani Children's Center enabling their students to develop businesses to pay for books, shoes and other basic needs.
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Community Trusts for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) Revolving income generation start-up fund In February 2007, building on its 2002 school scholarship support program, EW asked able-bodied citizens in in rural Zimbabwe what they could do to meet the needs of vulnerable orphans. Building on its Micro-grants for Social Entrepreneurs pilot project, EW piloted 3 new EW Community Trust for Orphans and Vulnerable Children- a revolving income generation start-up fund. How it works: With grants starting at 200usd, women's groups, teachers, church leaders, and grandmothers work together to build and manage locally based income generation projects optimizing unique local skills and natural resources. Currently there are 3 such community trusts (ranging from community gardens, soap making, uniform sewing to cow trading) raising funds and food for vulnerable orphans in the rural Chivu district. |
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Doing more with less: In addition to preserving community relationships, vital to psycho-social development, this method, of supporting children where they ARE, is up to 6 times more cost effective when compared to orphanages or institutionalized care in meeting the same basic needs.
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| Beyond Fair Trade™ Cooperative Marketing Promoting economic opportunities that value & protect indigenous heritage Using their local resources, cultural arts and specialized talents our grass-roots partners create beautiful music, handmade fabrics and other crafts. To foster these economic opportunities and conserve traditional heritage in the communities we serve, EW provides marketing assistance directly and by linking local projects with fair-trade groups and community conscious businesses. With the right access to markets and design savvy, income from Beyond Fair Trade™ products not only fosters sustainable livelihoods, but can also support local programs of social entrepreneurs following the model of T&J Designs in Zimbabwe and EW Music in Senegal. Challenge: While isolated, village-based efforts are unable to gain the critical mass needed for brand recognition, collaborative, corporate sponsored cause-based marketing campaign (RED)® has become the 7th largest donor to the Global Fund in its first year of operation. While a tremendous success in the delivery of AIDS treatment, it created no jobs for impoverished beneficiaries - which would address a primary cause of the AIDS pandemic. Imagine if those products, and the massive distribution networks of the companies involved used products or elements, (such as fabrics) made by the beneficiary groups them selves? Strategy: With the worthy aim of creating economic self-sufficiency, thousands of non-profits struggle to market self-help crafts from their programs, however our expertise and capacity is not in marketing. By linking local projects with fair-trade groups and community conscious businesses, Beyond Fair Trade™ seeks to integrate the private sector to help assure consistent markets for products that value and protect indigenous heritage. How it works: Sponsoring businesses apply their expertise in marketing and sustainable product development while collaborating non-profits monitor local impacts where the products are made. With the benefit of in-kind donations in marketing, the price points are kept fair, allowing for 10-20% of gross sales support grass-roots health, educational and environmental programs in the communities where the products are made. |
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Global Impact: Working together with businesses, artisans and non-profit stakeholders, the Beyond Fair Trade™ global brand will reverse this inequity, while advancing the sustainable localization of our world economy.
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| EW Music: Ethnomusicology Recordings Program Musical heritage is vital to local communities, both culturally and economically. EW Music supports the arts and creates small independent economies on the one hand; on the other, we give people in the West the opportunity to buy authentic fair-trade recordings that keep traditional heritage alive. How
EW Music Works:
EW-Music
offers African musicians the opportunity to record their music
for free. We issue each recorded artist with a professionally
mixed Master CD for reproduction and a simple cassette cover
with their picture and name. The musicians hold all rights
to their recordings for the African market; they can freely
duplicate, promote and sell their work. EW-Music does not
look for established artists. On the contrary, we offer our
services to the many bands, choirs and individuals who play
music to a high standard in remote areas and who have no means
to record their work. Therefore, almost all the music we record
is traditional. We are interested in collaborating with skilled
musicians on their terms, in representing their art form to
the best of our ability as musicians and in learning about
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| Evolution: In the Casamance region of Senegal, West Africa the local Diola culture and the vital eco-systems they cherish are at risk. EW Music is the foundation of a multi-sector strategy to reverse desertification, combat malaria and assure food security by advancing economic opportunities that value indigenous heritage. Through EW Music, indigenous people lend their voices, talent and cultural assets to raise awareness and funds for locally-based solutions.
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| Village-Direct Carbon Offsets - Climate Response Initiative While 75% of emissions come from cities, those most vulnerable to climate change subsist in remote rural areas. In the face of globalization, global warming and the spread of HIV/AIDS in the developing world, the carbon credit industry offers economic opportunities for people who need them most. Purpose: Village Direct Carbon Offsets (VCDO) seeks to prevent desertification, build food security and create sustainable livelihoods through the development of a world-wide trading platform supporting community-based ecological restoration programs. Empowerment Works is reaching out to climate change experts and organizations to establish implementation criteria and help measure the carbon impact benefit of locally tailored agro-forestry initiatives. |
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| The initial VCDO program is being piloted in the southern Sudan by local ecologist and community health expert, Dr. Suad Sulaiman. EW's primary implemetning partner is the Sudanese Environmental Conservation Society (SECS). EW seeks private, public and international voluntary groups to share in its development.
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| New Life Access Pass - Health Education Project Empowering those most at risk to stop HIV/AIDS and take control of their health Originally launched in 2002 in Zimbabwe, the New Life Access Pass is a collaboration between artists, community centers and health education groups engaging those most affected by the spread of AIDS to fight it on the front lines. How it works: With EW’s encouragement and minimal transportation financing, homeless youth, peer educators from "Streets Ahead" community center & artists from local craft markets were trained in health awareness outreach through DESERET International's Education for Life" course. Together, they led a voluntary HIV testing & counseling movement in their communities advocating SAFE-SEX-OR-NO-SEX & guiding people to FREE HIV testing. |
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Evolution: Based on this pilot project, EW is now reaching out to high-risk communities in South Africa, where EW program director, Dr. Juliana Dahl is working to save lives where we can in KwaZulu-Natal provivince, where 50% of pregnant women are living with HIV/AIDS. Our aim is to prevent the anticipated doubling of orphans here in the next 5 years, the same way it has in Zimbabwe over the past 5 years. Visit EW South Africa Page  |
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