Rebuilding a Sense of Home and Hope in Honduras
By Alberto Vásquez Padilla Martha’s broad and welcoming smile begins to fade as she starts to tell her story. Originally from a small village in Lempira, in the western region of Honduras, she left her town for the city when she was 18 years old. Now 43, Martha says she was looking for better opportunities…
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…
Read MoreReflections on Programming Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact communities beyond what many thought would be a few weeks of quarantine. As we recognize the second anniversary of the pandemic, we reflect on Global Communities’ country teams that are hard at work to help mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on their communities. We were able to…
Read MoreFacts about Human Trafficking and COVID-19’s Impact on the Illicit Industry
By Lizzie Hickman Although Human Trafficking Awareness Month is coming to a close, Global Communities continues our work to diminish human trafficking in San Diego by educating children, parents and teachers to identify the signs of exploitation and offer empowerment programs that reduce children’s vulnerability to traffickers. We also press on to mitigate the spread…
Read MoreSupporting Community Recovery in El Copantillo
The drive to the remote community of El Copantillo looks much different than it did almost a year ago. Roads once cleared by the municipality were swept away, along with the rest of the mountain face, when tropical storms Eta and Iota pummeled Honduras in November 2020, causing considerable damage to homes, livelihoods, crops and…
Read MoreEngaging Men in Women’s Economic Advancement in Guatemala
PCI, a Global Communities Partner, and Promundo-US launch pilot program to transform harmful gender norms Working with women alone is not enough to bring about their economic advancement. Recognizing this, PCI, a Global Communities Partner, is partnering with Promundo-US to involve men as allies in a new women’s economic development project in Cuilco, Guatemala. Journeys…
Read MoreCommunity La Reformada, La Lima, Heads Home from Storm Shelters
Community clean-up efforts after tropical storms Eta and Iota, implemented by Global Communities under the USAID’s BHA-funded Honduras Emergency WASH and Shelter (HEWS) program, have enabled a majority of displaced families in La Reformada, La Lima to return to their homes. With the support of the community, program volunteers, and staff provided by Aguas de…
Read MoreEquipping Families to Build Climate Smart Communities in Guatemala
In the dry western highlands of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, families prepare food over traditional open fires, consuming far more wood than would be necessary with a modern stove. Cooking this way not only results in greater deforestation, it also results in greater carbon emissions and causes families smoke-related health problems. PCI, a Global Communities Partner, is…
Read MorePCI Champions Movement to Advance Black Maternal Health, Rights, and Justice
Black women are three times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women. Many of these deaths are preventable, and research indicates their causes are rooted in systemic inequities and implicit bias. To build awareness around this issue and ultimately change the state of Black maternal health in the United States, PCI, a…
Read MoreMarket Analysis of North American Gold Jewelry Market
USAID’s Commercially Viable Conflict-Free Gold Project, known locally as “Zahabu Safi” (Clean Gold), is a five-year program, implemented in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by Global Communities and Levin Sources. The project aims to establish a responsible, commercially viable and conflict-free ASM gold supply chain from eastern DRC. A key objective for achieving…
Read MoreSchool WASH Protects Students and Promotes Healthy Learning
Almost half of schools worldwide have no hand-washing facilities and around one-third of schools do not have safe water supplies or adequate sanitation (WHO/Unicef 2020). Without access to clean water at schools, student health is at risk and they lose valuable learning time by having to walk long distances to collect water, often from unprotected…
Read MoreRising the Tide with Michele Gay
If you ask LimeLife by Alcone, the perfect foundation to any beauty routine is contributing to a cycle of empowerment. Since 2017, the cosmetic line’s charitable arm, the Brighter Together Foundation, has donated more than half a million dollars to PCI’s Women Empowered Program. Contributions are raised by LimeLife Beauty Guides and go toward funding…
Read MoreShining a Spotlight on Sex Trafficking in San Diego
In recognition of Human Trafficking Awareness Month, PCI, a Global Communities Partner, has teamed up with Eleanor Roosevelt College at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) to shine a spotlight on one of the city’s largest underground economies. Over the weekend, the partners kicked off the first of two Saturday workshops to…
Read MoreWaterloo Community Needs Assessment
Global Communities was asked by John Deere to design and conduct a participatory community needs assessment in Waterloo, Iowa in partnership with local community members and local partners. The assessment used an participatory-based approach to develop an in-depth understanding of the assets, opportunities, and gaps existing in the Waterloo community in order to inform and…
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