1. Educate-a-school for Three Years!

The Citizens Foundation, described above, is creating opportunities for Pakistani schoolchildren. Our new project will help support the ongoing needs of students for their entire schooling. This will allow families to send their children into TCF schools worry free rather than wondering if there will still be an opportunity from one year to the next.  We strongly believe that quality education is the only way to provide a better future for the people of Pakistan.s. For just $120, you can provide a year of schooling for a child and change his or her life forever. All donations to Educate-a-school for 3 years are being matched by the Stahl Family Foundation up to $2500!  Donate to this project here.

1. Sughar, Women with Wings

Sughar brings women to village centers in Pakistan, where they learn how to do traditional embroidery for the fashion industry. In the process, the women learn how to read and write and speak out against oppression and violence. Just $10 buys books for a basic education course for one woman, and $30 buys embroidery materials for a month.  Donate to this project here.

 

As a young girl growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, Benafsha Tasmim loved school. “I would put on my school uniform at night so I wouldn't be late for school,” she says. “Everyone would laugh at me.” But her school days were cut short when the Taliban came to power and shut down girls’ schools.

That could have been Benafsha’s fate, like that of so many Afghan girls. But instead, her parents supported her dream of going to school. First they sent her to a school held secretly in her teacher’s home. When that became too dangerous, they moved the family to Pakistan so she could continue.

Thanks to an organization called Strongheart, today the vibrant 24-year-old is training to become a future leader in her country. She is working on her master’s degree at the School for International Training in Bratteleboro, Vermont thanks to the support of Connecther and Camps to Campus which provides exceptional young women from conflict and post-conflict zones with support while they pursue world-class educational opportunities. These Strongheart Fellows are able to make the life-changing leap from the challenging circumstances in their home countries to become leaders and outspoken advocates. Strongheart has been featured on Oprah, BBC, CNN, NPR, and ABC World News. Help create visionary female leaders of tomorrow.  Donate to this project here.

Train 1,000 Midwives is one of our ongoing projects to help the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital (described in story below) reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in Somaliland.  The 1,000 Midwives project trains nurse-midwives to provide lifesaving health services. In a country where the prevalence of female genital mutilation increases the risk of obstructed labor, access to a trained health care worker can mean the difference between life and death. Donate to this project here.

           A Midwife at the Edna Adan University Hospital

In Somaliland, a woman has a 1 in 12 chance of dying in childbirth. But those dangerous odds are getting better thanks to Edna Adan and the generosity of Connecther donors. Adan, whom New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff called “a force of nature” in her native Somaliland, used her own money to build the fledgling country’s first maternity hospital, which is saving lives of women and infants. Last year Connecther presented Adan with a check for $10,000 to train nurse-midwives, who will provide critical support for women across the country who currently have no access to health care.

Connecther donors are also helping improve the odds for women and girls in other countries. In Pakistan, a bright young woman named Aquila Qasim could easily have been one of the 20 million school-age children who are at home or in the streets or fields instead of in school. But at age 7, she became the first person in her family to get an education when she got the opportunity to attend a school run by The Citizens Foundation.

 

Today she is a teacher in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Karachi—one of 250 former TCF students, all female, who teach at the foundation’s 1,000 schools. A member of the Clinton Global Initiative and winner of the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entreprenuership, the Citizens Foundation runs widely praised schools that are open to all children regardless of faith, ethnicity, or the family's ability to pay.

Now more children like Qasim will have the hope of a bright future thanks to the generosity of Connecther donors. We recently funded $5,000 to help support TCF schools and scholarships. It’s a no-brainer that education is key to developing a stable and peaceful society, so supporting TCF’s award-winning work—and improving the odds for children—is a smart move indeed.

We count on your support to continue our work to help advance women and girls globally.  Please support us by donating to our Connecther General Fund!

Help Fund Your Favorite Connecther Project By Creating Your Own Online Fundraising Party Web Page! Your online fund raising party page can include asking people to donate in place of gifts for your birthday, wedding, anniversary, marathon, dinner celebration or even just a personal occasion that you'd like to create.  Start here and start NOW!