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Reclaiming their Voices: One Community’s Struggle to Overcome Fear and Build Peace in Rural Colombia
Reclaiming their Voices: One Community’s Struggle to Overcome Fear and Build Peace in Rural Colombia Alfonso spent most of his youth living in fear. Twenty years ago when he was just an infant, 16 community leaders in his small village of Pijiguay were massacred by a paramilitary group that publicly crushed their skulls with rocks…
Read MoreWarriors for Peace: Preventing Post-Election Violence in Kenya
Warriors for Peace: Preventing Post-Election Violence in Kenya In the wake of Kenya’s contested 2007 election, ethnic violence ripped through the country, killing over 1,000 and displacing as many as 600,000. Now Kenya is gripped by another disputed election, as the Supreme Court has annulled the recent Presidential election due to voting irregularities, with a…
Read MoreCollaborating, Learning and Adapting to Build Resilience in Fragile States
Collaborating, Learning and Adapting to Build Resilience in Fragile States Development programming in fragile and conflict-affected states can present daunting challenges, not the least when trying to generate learning for adaptive programming. Settings are fluid and actors are transient, while limited access to many parts of a country hampers the delivery of quality research and…
Read MoreBuilding Small Agribusinesses in East Africa
Building Small Agribusinesses in East Africa Agribusiness Investment for Market Stimulation (AIMS) is a five-year initiative of Global Communities to bolster trade in key agricultural sectors, grains, pulses, dairy, and horticulture in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi by increasing access to financing and markets for small and medium-sized agribusinesses. AIMS is funded by the U.S. Department…
Read MoreHate paying taxes? Think again.
Hate Paying Taxes? Think Again. By David A. Weiss, President and CEO of Global Communities | This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post. In an age of strained budgets and increased scrutiny about the effectiveness of foreign aid, many donors are rightly looking to get the greatest possible impact for each dollar they spend.…
Read MoreFive Steps to Successful Employee Engagement in a Global Organization
Five Steps to Successful Employee Engagement in a Global Organization By Janie Payne, Director of Human Resources, Global Communities | This article originally appeared in the Society for Human Resource Management. Global Communities is a global, non-profit that works closely with communities around the world to bring about sustainable development. With a team of more…
Read MoreImproving Community Sanitation and Preventing the Spread of Ebola in Liberia
Improving Community Sanitation and Preventing the Spread of Ebola in Liberia Report highlights the link between improved sanitation practices and the spread of Ebola Read the full report online | Download the full pdf report An assessment demonstrating the correlation between Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and Ebola prevention in Liberia was published in the Journal of…
Read MoreSaradar Bank SAL Acquires 49 Percent Stake in Vitas SAL
Saradar Bank SAL Acquires 49 Percent Stake in Vitas SAL Saradar Bank SAL announced the acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Vitas SAL (“Vitas” or the “Company”), a subsidiary of Vitas Group. Saradar Family Office SAL (“SFO”) acted as sole buy-side financial advisor to Saradar Bank. Based in Lebanon, Vitas is engaged in the…
Read MoreWorld Humanitarian Day: Beyond the Headlines
World Humanitarian Day: Beyond the Headlines This article originally appeared on Medium What are the needs in a complex, intractable conflict like Syria? On World Humanitarian Day, Global Communities reflects on some of the needs that conflict-affected populations have in Syria that are not covered in the news. Beyond the immediate essentials of food, medicine,…
Read MoreVitas Group Publishes 2016 Annual Report
Vitas Group Publishes 2016 Annual Report Vitas Group was created in 2006 to help unite the commercially-oriented microfinance institutions owned by Global Communities under one brand and one mission: Financing a Better World. Vitas Group’s staff around the world still worked tirelessly to bring that mission to life. Vitas Group is proud to share this…
Read MoreCollaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA): An Analysis of What CLA Looks Like in Development Programming
Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA): An Analysis of What CLA Looks Like in Development Programming About the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting Framework While the practices of collaborating, learning, and adapting have long been valued by USAID and international development partners, they often do not happen regularly or systematically and are not intentionally resourced. To address…
Read MoreServing No’aimeh, My New Home
Serving No’aimeh, My New Home Young Woman Joins the No’aimeh CET as its First Syrian Member to Give Back to Her New Home Durieh receives recognition for her voluntary work. Durieh Neqdeli is only 25 years old, but she has already experienced a lot. Five years ago her parents made the difficult decision to leave…
Read MoreBseira Women’s Gym: Much More Than Just Exercise
Bseira Women’s Gym: Much More Than Just Exercise Women in Bseira Find Health Benefits and Unexpected Social Benefits Through Exercise Bseira CET members in the newly equipped Bseira Female Youth Center. “During all dialogue sessions related to the women’s sector, all I remember is women repeatedly saying, ‘We wish we had a gym,’” said Siham…
Read MoreTafileh Town Unites Against Drugs
Tafileh Town Unites Against Drugs Citizens Commit to Combatting Drugs Together An HTM community member signs a commitment at a public ceremony. Hid, Tein, and Mansoura (HTM), a community of 6,000 in Tafileh, identified drugs and negative youth behaviors associated with a lack of avenues for positive engagement as a key threat facing the community.…
Read MoreWorking Together to Improve Public Health in Wasateyeh
Working Together to Improve Public Health in Wasateyeh CET and DOH Work Together to Improve Health Services and Reduce Tensions in the Community A Wasatyeh community member receives services in the dental office equipped through USAID CEP. The sudden influx of Syrian refugees put significant pressure on the already strained health services in Wasatyeh. As…
Read MoreUSAID CEP Supports the Ministry of Interior to Draft First Decentralization Manual
USAID CEP Supports the Ministry of Interior to Draft First Decentralization Manual Stakeholders review and propose edits to the draft procedures manual at an MOI workshop supported by USAID CEP. When the Government of Jordan (GOJ) passed the new decentralization law in November 2015, the USAID Community Engagement Project (CEP) had a unique opportunity to…
Read MoreInnovation at Work: Plastic Latrine Slabs Address Ghana’s Sanitation Challenges
Innovation at Work: Plastic Latrine Slabs Address Ghana’s Sanitation Challenges USAID WASH for Health Project Providing Improved Sanitation to Households with Disabilities Anani Abeena, a 54-year-old farmer with five children, never knew owning a household latrine could be so easy. Like the most of the other 643 people of Taviefe Dzefe, a community located about…
Read MoreGlobal Communities: Partners for Good
Global Communities: Partners for Good Global Communities is a global development organization committed to working in partnership with communities worldwide to bring about sustainable, impactful changes that improve the lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable. Development is not something we do for people; it is something we do with them. We believe that the people…
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