Working to Build Economic Resilience in Guatemala’s Crises-Stricken Highlands
By Gesler Castillo Guatemala’s Western Highlands continue to suffer long-term impacts from widespread destruction caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota, including the loss of livelihoods and damage to infrastructure and public services. The region is home to a significant portion of Guatemala’s rural population, many of whom rely on subsistence agriculture to survive. Unfortunately, prolonged…
Read MorePass the Mic: Reinvigorating Global Efforts to Reduce Maternal and Child Mortality
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs at Global Communities In 2012, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Governments of India and Ethiopia to convene the Child Survival Call to Action, which galvanized unprecedented commitments from governments and civil society around the…
Read MoreImproving Access to Safe Drinking Water in Honduras
By José Alberto Vasquez Padilla Despite possessing a large amount of water resources, many communities in Honduras suffer from a shortage of safe drinking water, which leads to a series of public health and quality of life problems across the country. According to the National Survey of Demography and Health (ENDESA 2019), only 50% of…
Read MoreStriving to Find and Serve Missing Children in HIV Treatment & Care
By Betty Adera Despite tremendous progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS, outcomes for treatment and care among children remain low. Sadly, disparities in the HIV response continue to result in failure to meet the unique needs of children living with or are at high risk of HIV. At the end of 2019, an…
Read MoreRight to Care: Family-Centered Approaches for Vulnerable Children and Adolescents
By Betty Adera The impact of disasters, complexities of humanitarian crises and ongoing effects of climate change pose major threats to the lives of children. These challenges impact the most vulnerable among us and expose them to health, water and food insecurity; exploitation and sexual violence; deprivation and neglect. Long-standing, systemic human and child rights…
Read MoreSowing Futures and Lots of Hope in Argentina
By: Sergio Scheffer and Natalia Lopez-Thismon Translated by: Samuel Lau In the peripheral neighborhoods of cities in Argentina, it is not uncommon to find large empty lots gathering junk. Giuliana (Yuli) and her four children, including her 13-year-old son Tiziano (Tizi), lived next to one of these vacant lots. Over the years, she and her…
Read MoreInsuring Resilience against Climate Change in Colombia
As climate change continues to create global challenges, Global Communities is working to create innovative, community-focused solutions to help mitigate the impacts. The city of Medellín, Colombia, faces unique risks associated with climate change due to the city’s topography and rainfall patterns. Heavy rain can result in flooding and mudslides across Medellín and as a…
Read MoreSupporting Community Resilience and Economic Recovery in Guatemala
By Noah Steinberg-Di Stefano When speaking to families in rural communities throughout Huehuetenango, Guatemala, almost everyone mentions that things have gotten more expensive. For them, this is not quantified as an inflation percentage but rather the price they pay for staples like tomatoes or beans when they go to the market or buy fertilizer for…
Read MoreGiving San Diego Infants a Healthy Start through Lactation Education and Access
By Lizzie Hickman The recent baby formula shortage in the United States (U.S.) has brought attention to infant nutrition needs and costs. The scarcity highlighted a larger conversation around the importance of breastfeeding/chestfeeding, inequity in healthcare and barriers parents face to accessing lactation services. In the U.S., Black birthing parents are nine times more likely to…
Read MoreReflecting on the COVID-19 Response Program’s Impact in San Diego
In May 2020, the world could not fathom what the future had in store, nor could Global Communities (then Project Concern International) envision the myriad of needs we would serve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in San Diego. Fast forward more than two years and what began as a community-centered contact tracing program…
Read MoreUsing the New Digital Savings Group Hub to Eliminate Paper, Inspire Savings
Digitization can feel overwhelming — and even risky when considering inherent equity and access issues. Yet, with the right resources, organizations can go paper-free, or at least reduce that paper output, and save money in the process. We chatted with Paulina Rudnicka, Senior Technical Advisor for Gender Integration at Global Communities, about the launch of…
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 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 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 MoreShaping the Future of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in International Development
Achieving equity in all facets of the international development sector, from why and how we do this work to who is involved in decision-making and implementation, requires critical self-examination as an organization. Recognizing this, Global Communities began a more concerted effort to mainstream diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in our policies, procedures and practices by…
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…
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