National Office Blog

The Nourish Chapters at Brown University and Cornell University are collaborating together to go to El Salvador for their International Project this year. These are two out of many Chapters that have decided to team up to go on Projects this year, and we are excited to see and facilitate increasing level of collaboration and communication between all Nourish chapters. The Brown Chapter and the Cornell Chapter decided their geographic proximity would make it easy to partner up and allow both Chapters to combine their funds to make a greater impact.

Beginning in June, 4-6 Members from each Chapter will travel to the Morazan region of El Salvador for five weeks this summer to help elementary-school student build and sustain organic, community gardens. The Project participants will also have the opportunity to teach the children on topics related to gardening and nutrition. Hopefully, the children will take this knowledge home with them and share it with their families and communities, ultimately raising the awareness of health and nutrition areas in Morazan. This Project is being accomplished through FUNDAHMER, a social non-profit focused on the development and empowerment of impoverished communities in El Salvador.

If you would like to contribute to this Project, donate to it and other Nourish Projects at http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/nourish-international-challenge/

Two weeks ago, while the rest of the world was getting ready for the Olympic Games in Vancouver, the Nourish Chapter at Ohio State University was hosted their own exciting version of the Olympics. OSU's Nourish Olympics was a three event event tournament, in which students teamed up into countries and competed in basketball, dodge ball, and mat ball. The team with the highest number of points was crowned the tournament champions and awarded with prizes, and each individual event winner also received a prize. The Ohio State chapter also decided to award an individual who adhered to his or her country’s colors and style with title of “Best Dressed”.
This is a very unique and creative venture in the history of Nourish International, and we look forward to seeing how the OSU Chapter can extend upon this venture's success in future years.

For the full story of how the OSU Chapter planned and implemented this venture, stay tuned for Nourish's first "Best Venture Handbook".

Check out the video!

OSU\'s Olympic Venture

is being held at 5 pm EST on Monday, March 1st. The number is 712/775/7100 pw 933372#. Fundraising Specialists Alison McQuade and Manmeet Metha from Global Giving will be joining.

First, it should be noted that these moves are unrelated… it just happened to be the right time for two members of our team. Now we’ll give them the floor:

James: For me, it came down to a personal decision. I’ve been living in Chapel Hill since I graduated from high school in 2004 and felt like to continue my personal growth, I needed to get out of the town where I went to college. When I’m done, God willing, I’ll be moving into a job that prepares me for my ultimate goal: owning an NBA team.

Jenna: My decision to move on was both personal and professional. I'm a sucker for public health, and have been waiting for the right time to go back to school and get my MPH. I'm also a sucker for a boy from Idaho, and have been waiting for the right time to marry him. As these are both big transitions, it just seemed right for them to coincide, so I'll be getting married this summer and going back to school in the fall.

Timeline:

We’re accepting applications between now and March 10 for both positions. From there, we’ll be narrowing down our list of applicants to those we’d like to interview and making offers, with the goal of having new people in and ready to go by June 1.

Job Descriptions are available on Idealist.org for Executive Director and Chapter Coordinator.

Executive Director: Student Board Member Pallavi Garg will be as involved as she wants to be. Unless she declines, we’re hoping she’ll be intimately involved with interviewing and selecting our new Director, since ultimately this organization exists for its students.

Chapter Coordinator: Currently there are no active roles for students/Chapter leaders in the selection and interview process for our new Chapter Coordinator. With that said, we’d love to have a student sit in on the interviews and help us pick a candidate — so if you’re interested in this, please send us an email to info “at” nourishinternational.org

If you feel like we’ve missed something here, just send us an email — we’re not wedded to any particular part of the process.

So many of you noticed a provision at the bottom of the Global Giving Leaderboard mentioning that only projects that cross the $3,000 and 50 donor leaderboard are eligible for prizes and wondered why we didn’t mention this from the beginning.

The honest answer is that we didn’t know — it was news to us as well.  In our conversations with Global Giving, it wasn’t something we discussed — mostly because we didn’t anticipate it being a problem. With that said, it’s a standard Global Giving procedure to set a “minimum bar” that projects have to meet to stay on the website and be eligible for prizes. In past Challenges, that “minimum bar” has been 50 donors and $5,000. In this Challenge, we asked Global Giving to lower the bar for staying site to $3,000 to be more “in line” with the typical amount of a Nourish project, but the prize eligibility never came up.

We’re looking into whether or not anything can be done about this, Chapter/Project leaders should work as hard as possible to make this a non-issue — 50 donors and $3,000 is a reachable goal (to see some strategies for reaching this goal, check here).

In addition to these strategies, there's a Global Giving Tool Kit available here.

1. Target groupsSending out emails to friends and family is great… but you max out on those pretty quickly. The key thing is to bring in NEW people that will support your work now and in the future.One of the things that worked well for us when we placed 3^rd in the Causes/Facebook Giving Challenge (when we raised more than 1100 donations of $10 or more in a little bit more than 6 weeks) was targeting groups — fraternities, sororities, etc and asking the whole group to donate at once on the spot.
2. Partner with businessesFind a business that is willing to partner with you to get the word out. One of the things that’s been successful for us in the past is working with a Yoga studio that is willing to give a free session to a person that donates (this is particularly popular with sororities). This helps introduce a business owner to new potential customers and benefit your Chapter at the same time.
3. Use a prizeTurn the competition into a raffle. As long as the person doesn’t make himself or herself anonymous when they donate, you’ll be able to see his or her email address and other information. Making the competition into a raffle will help you get people who might not be interested in “just” making a donation get involved with your chapter.
4. Cross promote with your existing VenturesAnytime you can make your effort with one event count more than once, you want to do it.

Details of the Nourish Global Giving Challenge

Dates: February 17^th to March 9^th

Leaderboard: http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/nourish-international-challenge

Prizes:

• Most money raised (1^st place): $2000
• Most money raised (2^nd place): $1500
• Most money raised (3^rd place): $500
• Most donors (1^st place only): $1000

Chapters must meet a $3,000 and 50 donor benchmark to win the prizes.

Check out the great new projects that our chapters have planned for 2010! We can’t wait to see the success that comes out of our partnership with GlobalGiving and the upcoming GlobalGiving Challenge!

Competing Projects/Chapters

Project: Reinventing the Lives of Women Through Eco-weaving
Chapter: Miami University of Ohio
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/reinventinglalimonada
Description: La Limonada, one of Guatemala City’s poorest slums, has many unemployed, widowed, or single mothers. This project will provide job opportunities and marketing and financial assistance for ladies in La Limonada in business creating hand-made eco-products. Improvement in the eco-weaving business will stimulate the local economy and improve the environment and lives of several families in Guatemala. The city also suffers from a major waste disposal problem because the people cannot afford a waste recollection service. This project provides a recycling center to help alleviate the waste disposal problem.

Project: Building a Clean Water System in Moche, Peru
Chapter: Ohio State
Website: http://www.globalgiving/projects/cleanwaterproject
Description: Most families in Cerro Blanco subsist on less than $150 per month and don’t have running water. Public health surveys conducted by MOCHE reveal high rates of parasitic disease and diarrhea from contaminated drinking water. These factors are partly responsible for high rates of infant mortality in the community. This project will construct a portable water pipeline connecting the more than 500 inhabitants of Cerro Blanco, Peru who currently have only access to contaminated water, to clean water. With a clean water system, Cerro Blanco will be able to raise the standard of health and allow for progress in areas held back by poor health. The project consists of finishing a water pipeline, at which point the local government will fund and construct a reservoir. Those that go to work on the project will help to construct the remaining mile of pipeline.

Project: Rebuilding Women’s Community Center in Jamaica
Chapter: Stanford University
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/bluemountainproject
Description: Currently, women in Jamaica are excluded from traditionally male social and educational opportunities. We will be rebuilding a women’s community center in the Hagley Gap District in Jamaica to provide local women with a place where they can safely convene and build support networks within the community. This community center will provide a safe environment that will empower women through educational programs promoting literacy, personal safety and health. We need to build tables and benches as well as install bookshelves and paint walls, refurbishing the center in time for its reopening.

Project: Construct an Animal Farm at a Bolivian High School
Chapter: UCLA
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/childrens-sustainable-animal-farm
Description: Arampampa, Bolivia is an area with rampant unemployment and little food security. This project will build an animal farm at the community high school in Arampampa, Bolivia. Agricultural certification will improve nutrition, food security, job skills and local development. The project will empower students and community members to manage small animal farming, produce meat, eggs and milk, and transform products like milk into cheese. The products are needed to improve nutrition, food security, job skills and local development. The technical training that UCLA students will provide to 400 community members will improve local economic development by enhancing output and employability while ensuring increased food security at the family level.

Project: Youth Education and Food Sovereignty in Rural Honduras
Chapter: University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/honduras-youth
Description: The Foundation for Participative Research with Honduran Farmers (FIPAH) engages subsistence farmers as researchers to regain power over their food supply. Nourish will fund a FIPAH computer lab in Yorito, Honduras and lead computer literacy and journalism workshops for youth, to increase access to information and facilitate the sharing of the farmers’ research to promote food sovereignty. The project’s focus is youth engagement, and Nourish students will train FIPAH youth to continue to lead these workshops. Additionally, Nourish students will assist in English classes taught in rural schools supported by FIPAH. Nourish will set up a computer lab and develop workshops on the use of Microsoft Office, internet literacy, photography, and reporting. The long-term goal is to make the project sustainable by training youth to lead the workshops.

Project: Community-Led Total Sanitation Program in Peru
Chapter: University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/mochesanitationproject
Description: MOCHE, Inc. and Nourish International will partner to end open defecation in Ciudad de Dios. Sanitary latrines are essential to the protection of the town’s water system and health. Currently, open defecation and unhygienic latrines contaminate the water and threaten public health. The project will help build and subsidize the construction of private latrines in Ciuidad de Dios and will implement a community-led sanitation, awareness, education, and training program. With members of the community, we will raise awareness of better sanitary practices, subsidize the construction of latrines for ¼ of the community and train members in building and maintaining hygienic latrines.

Project: Support CDV, a Secondary School in Ndera, Rwanda
Chapter: University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nourishRwanda
Description: CDV provides an education for students directly affected by the 1994 genocide, who are at risk of being unable to secure a secondary education. Project members will help CDV meet the requirements of the new English-only curriculum established by the Rwandan government in 2008 by working with faculty to increase their proficiency in subject-specific English and assist in lesson planning and instruction. This project will provide English instruction and lesson plan assistance to College Doctrina Vitae instructors. The team will also work with students to expand a sustainable learning garden to lower food costs.

Project: Marketing With Women’s Cooperative in Düzce, Turkey
Chapter: University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/turkey
Description: Lacking a social network, job skills and affordable childcare, most women do not have the chance to work outside the home. In addition, without affordable early childhood education, most children do not have the chance to attend kindergarten. Students will be developing a marketing strategy for Nilüfer Women’s Cooperative that includes providing computational workshops and creating advertisement materials. An increase in finances resulting from the Nourish marketing strategy means the cooperative can expand, increasing the number of children that benefit from early education and number of women who work; more women working means greater gender equality.

Project: PaperMaking: Empower 100 Ugandan Women with AIDS
Chapter: UPenn
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/papermaking
Description: Women living with AIDS in Africa face many difficulties, from generating a steady income to planning an uncertain future for their families—even to communicating with their families given the stigma of AIDS. We will be providing resources and assistance for the training of 10 NACWOLA women to establish a paper-making business that will provide much-needed income. The paper will create Memory Books, which help children cope with losing a parent, and educate them on AIDS and its effects.

Project: Helping the Kichwa of Peru earn income
Chapter: University of Texas at Austin
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rainforestKichwaPeru
Description: There are 1,300 people in the Mushuk Llacta de Chipaota tribe depending on unsustainable rates of Piassaba fiber harvests for crafts from the rainforest. They face over 50% malnutrition in the community and travel long distances to find the Piassaba tree because of deforestation. Nourish-Austin will build a workshop and train Kichwa women in business skills to ensure steady income from traditional handicrafts. This workshop will provide 50 Kichwa artisans with workshops and training to start a handicrafts business and earn steady income and will allow conservation of the rainforest and the Kichwa lifestyle in Chipaota, Peru. Creating the plant nursery will allow the Kichwa to harvest fibers from there instead of in the Rainforest. The workshop and business training will generate steady income and help fight malnutrition with better food.

Project: Organic Urban Agriculture in Quito Ecuador
Chapter: UVA
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/NourishUVA
Description: Since dollarization in 2000, the cost of food in Ecuador increased dramatically, causing thousands of peasants to go hungry. This project is the start of a joint venture to build greenhouses and wormeries, buy seedlings, and plant vegetables to develop a sustainable way for the local community to provide food for themselves and their children. Students will also provide training through workshops to ensure that community members can help the greenhouses flourish after Nourish leaves the area.

Project: Educating 300 kids in Barahona about nutrition.
Chapter: Yale University
Website: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nutritionaleducationprogram
Description: Peñon is a community of around 4,000 people, and is suffering greatly from nutritional issues. Children in the community are among the hardest hit, with 14 percent of children under 5 chronically malnourished. These problems stem from: 1) not having enough food to begin with, and 2) not having any education system in place to teach about nutrition. The project will benefit the entire area, by working through groups of teachers and parents to educate children and plant a vegetable garden.

This summer, members from the UCLA chapter will be journeying to Arampampa, Bolivia to work with a community high school to build a sustainable animal farm. The animal farm will provide the community with animal products such as meat, milk, eggs, and secondary products such as cheese, as well as many employment opportunities. UCLA chapter members will develop a curriculum to teach students about the various facets of running a farm- including how to produce secondary products and other foods from animal products, proper safety procedures when working closely with animals, and general job skills training. Completion of the project will help improve nutrition and food security for the high school students and surrounding community residents, alleviate the extreme malnutrition that plagues the area, and improve local economic development in an area where agriculture is the primary economic output.

You can view a video about the project by clicking on the link below.
http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/escuelas-productivas-arampampa-potosi-bolivia/5053687