Blog
The Vitas Lab: Building Brighter Futures Through Financial InnovationÂ
By Rohit Kulkarni and Lizzie Hickman Low- and middle-income countries were hit hard by COVID-19, as revenue streams dried up and government enforced lockdowns shuttered workplaces. Cracks in Lebanon’s financial system started in 2019 but were exacerbated by the pandemic. As a result, the Lebanese economy has undergone one of the worst peacetime collapses in…
Read MoreExpanding Possibilities for Women Entrepreneurs in Guatemala
By Jessica Ayala Just over a year ago, Sucely Rocsana Reyes Molina never would have imagined that she would own a flourishing formal dairy business with so many opportunities in the market. Today, the 30-year-old single mother has multiple people who help her deliver 15 types of cheeses and creams, expanding her business well…
Read MoreWorking to End Period Shame and Poverty in Parts of Africa
Lack of education on menstrual hygiene and health, persisting taboos and stigma, limited access to menstrual products and poor sanitation facilities undermines the educational opportunities, health and overall social status of women and girls around the world. As a result, millions are kept from reaching their full potential. In recognition of Menstrual Hygiene Day, learn…
Read MoreUSAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project Launches Refiners Community of Practice to Help Set Up Responsible Gold Supply Chain from Eastern DRC
By Rachel Brass – Director, Market Linkages and Investment, USAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project Gold refiners Heimerle + Meule, IGR, Italpreziosi, L’Orfebre, MKS PAMP, PX Precinox and Rand Refinery have joined a pre-competitive and collaborative group of refiners interested in learning and sharing the realities of sourcing artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold from…
Read MoreRebuilding a Sense of Home and Hope in Honduras
Over the course of 14 months, the HEWS program aimed to address both the immediate needs and early recovery of 100,050 people by organizing access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, safe living conditions through improved shelter and settlements, and multi-purpose cash assistance.
Read MoreQ&A with Arwa Alkhawaja, COVID Outreach Specialist in San Diego
By Natalia López-Thismón When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Global Communities (then operating as PCI) moved quickly to collaborate with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the community through contact tracing. Since then, our programming has shifted into education and vaccine outreach as…
Read MoreBuilding Demand for Responsibly-Sourced Gold from Eastern Congo
Many communities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) rely on artisanal and small-scale mining as a primary livelihood. While a significant drive of DRC’s economy, it tends to be an informal and risky business that has also been used to fuel conflict. As a key source of income for armed groups and criminal…
Read MoreIndispensable: Recognizing & Rebranding the Work of Brazil’s Trash Recyclers
By Roseli Bianchi and Lizzie Hickman In Brazil, some low-income families make ends meet through recycling. However, the process is not as simple as sorting trash into neatly labeled green bins. Rather, ‘catadores de materiais recicláveis’ are informal waste pickers who spend long, back-breaking hours scouring the streets of their urban communities for discarded materials they…
Read MoreAddressing Housing Challenges through Cooperatives
By Ashley Holst One of the global victims of rising inequality and climate change is access to decent housing. Housing costs are increasing, while the supply is waning. In many countries, including Kenya, where the USAID Cooperative Development Program – Cooperative Leadership Engagement Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), is being implemented by Global Communities, land affordability…
Read MoreResponding to Humanitarian Needs in Ukraine
Since the war began in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, an estimated 5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, while over 7 million people have been displaced inside the country in search of safety, protection and assistance meeting basic needs. As the scale of this humanitarian crisis continues to grow, Global Communities is working…
Read MoreReducing Black Maternal Deaths by Raising the Standard of Care
Rooted in institutional racism and implicit biases, and impacted by the social determinants of health, Black women are three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than their white peers. At least 60 percent of these deaths are preventable, which is why Global Communities’ Healthy Start program provides a continuum of high-quality maternal and infant care for diverse Black and immigrant communities in San Diego, CA.
Read MoreConfronting Climate Change with Bold, Community-Based Actions
By Tanner Roark Climate change is here. It can be seen in every corner of the world, from heatwaves in India and winter storms in Texas to hurricanes in Guatemala and drought in Madagascar. Climate change is cruel. It spares no people or place, and its slow creep of destruction results in the loss of…
Read MoreFinding a Safe Space in Syria: Hamida’s Story
For more than half of her life, Hamida has been exposed to the trauma, violence and instability of war. The 20-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is one of 14.6 million people currently in need of humanitarian assistance due to the ongoing crisis in Syria. Recognizing that women and girls often…
Read MoreGiving Kudumbimalai a Lifeline
By Rukshana Rizwie and Lizzie Hickman In Sri Lanka’s Batticaloa district, deep within the jungles of Koralai Pattu South, sits a village of abandoned wells — all deep, dirty and depleted. For many years, over 400 families living in Kudumbimalai had to drink and cook with contaminated water from the repositories, even though they knew…
Read MoreIncreasing the Climate Resilience and Productivity of Emerging Farmers in Zambia
In Zambia, agriculture is a key employment sector and one that is essential to local food security. However, emerging farmers are facing many challenges, including fall armyworm threatening their fields, climate variabilities and poor agricultural productivity. Global Communities, Corteva Agriscience, John Deere and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered in 2020 with the…
Read MoreLocal Solution to Improved Transparency in Responsible Minerals Trade in Congo’s Ituri Province
How USAID’s Zahabu Safi (Clean Gold) Project is strengthening local civil society to carry out due diligence through a new information management platform By Kevin Eze Patrick, Guy and Yves* are lawyers from the city of Bunia in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who work for Justice Plus, a…
Read MoreLessons from Kenya on Empowering Women in Housing Cooperatives
By Fredrick Nyagah and Tindi Sitati According to data from the International Cooperative Research Group, women represent only 30 percent of cooperative membership in Kenya. This under-representation extends to the leadership level and to the number of staff employed by cooperatives as well. At the same time, as the number of cooperatives increases nationwide, women’s…
Read MoreReflecting on USAID YouthPower Jordan’s Long-Lasting ImpactÂ
By: Carrie Hessler-Radelet, President of Global Communities We at Global Communities believe that today’s youth should not have to wait to become leaders, because they already have a vision of the world in which they want to live. With access to the right tools, training and networks, youth can build an enabling environment and simultaneously…
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