One of the things people have long admired about Portland is they way we do things – as well as what we do. It’s collaborative.
Well, maybe it’s too collaborative sometimes. Yep, it can take forever on occasion.
But compared to most cities, we make decisions with lots of information from the people who are most affected.
So when a man named Barry Childs wanted to make a difference in Africa, he did it the Portland way: he asked. According to the Africa Bridge Web site, he interviewed more than 70 people, including children and others living with HIV, as well as businesses, support organizations, educators, journalists and health care workers.
Today, Africa Bridge works with local organizations to address fundamental issues affecting Africa’s children. For example, Africa Bridge
- Provides school uniforms (required in most African schools), shoes and writing materials to children for only $25 a year, as well as providing scholarships to more than 600 students annually;
- Organizes community-based support to orphans and foster children through its “Most Vulnerable Children Committees;”
- Supports environmental preservation by tree planting projects in an area that’s losing nearly 200,000 acres a year to deforestation. A long-term goal is to find a substitute fuel to reduce the trees cut for firewood.
Africa Bridge does a lot – mostly with volunteers, and always at the direction and in harmony with the values of the community in which it works.
On Aug. 29, you can join Africa Bridge at its annual Harvest Gala – an important fundraiser for this Portland-based organization. You can be a part of this innovative approach to international support. Read more about it at the Harvest Gala page of the Africa Bridge Web site.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Fair Trade. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.