Collaboration

 

Organic Farming in Guatemala

This project started in 1997, when Earthways Foundation supported a permaculture specialist to train four members of a Guatemala NGO, AFOPADI (Association for Integrated Development) in organic food production. AFOPADI set out to re-introduce organic agriculture into a traditional Mayan village which was suffering from extreme poverty, malnutrition, and even starvation as a result of the war and deaths of a large percentage of men in the region.
GBF was the central funding of Building of community silos for the large-scale storage of grain, and home silos, where individual families could store personal supplies of grain (corn), was a major objective of the project.  A Resource House and a factory were established to produce both communal and individual silos.   In addition,  training was provided to local people in how to build silos.  The project also featured a number of activities to support organic farming including organic composting, vermiculture and composting toileers, grey-water recycling and solar power.  Reforestation was undertaken using both nurseries and medicinal gardens.

In (date) there was a hurricane which destroyed virtually all the corn crops in Guatemala.  including all the crops in Casaca and the surrounding region. What little corn was available had to come from far away, and was triple the anticipated price.

Global Bridge provided funding enough to fill community  corn silos, so people in the village of Casaca were able to eat and the project was able to continue.  This resulted in the saving of many lives.

 

Developing a Soy Industry in Afghanistan

In an effort to address the significant problem of malnutrition throughout Afghanistan, Nutrition and Education International (NEI), a California-based foundation, in partnership with the Marshall Plan Charities, has launched a project to develop a soybean-based industry in Afghanistan. Farmers and housewives will be taught how to grow soybeans.  Facilities will be established to process soy and soy products.  Families will be able to combat malnutrition by consuming soy products.

As s secondary outcome of the project, Afghan farmers will be motivated to raise soybeans rather than poppies, thereby reducing the raw materials for the production of drugs for export or internal use.

The Global Bridge Foundation is supporting this project by providing management consulting, grant writing expertise, and resource brokering services to NEI.

 

Tilganga Eye Center - Uveitis Research Fellowship

Dr. David Heiden approached Global Bridge foundation to assist in the funding of The project below.   Without this funding the project was in jeapordy.

Tuberculosis is epidemic in Nepal, and the country, unfortunately, seems on the verge of a major problem with HIV.  These types of diseases often lead to serious problems with the eye, as well as other body systems.  Uveitis  is the sub-specialty of ophthalmology that deals with inflammation and infections inside the eye, and the sub-specialty that deals with systemic infections, such as tuberculosis and HIV infection when the eye is involved.

Dr. Sanduk Ruit, Director of the Tilganga Eye Center  (a WHO Collaborating Center for the Prevention of Blindness) requested funds from the Pacific Vision Foundation to support the training of a Uveitis specialist for the country of Nepal..  There was no Fellowship-Trained Uveitis Specialist in the entire Kingdom of Nepal.  The Pacific Vision Foundation responded positively to the request by financially supporting the Uveitis Research Fellowship, which was awarded to  Dr. Anu Manandhar  

Global Bridge Foundation contributed funds to supplement the resources granted by the Pacific Vision Foundation to support the Uveitis Research Fellowship program.