Ladi, Hannatu and Mary have a few things in common…they are women, they live in Takalafia community, they are traders; and they need support to grow their businesses so they can better support themselves and their families.

The community they live in – Takalafia – is a village located abut 20 miles outside Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Though that doesn’t seem really far in terms of distance, this community is really remote. There just isn’t any easy way to get there. All “roads” are almost impassable. Just from that perspective alone, the challenges the residents of this community face are considerable.

Poverty Stops Here began our partnership with this community in 2009. About 500 people lived there. They were mostly farmers (still remains the case today), with little access to clean water, and no access to sanitary latrines. Most of the residents continue to survive on just one meal per day.

PSH built a hand-pump well for the community back then. At the time, a local church was in the process of building a school. This well would serve as a source of clean water for the children at the school. Since then, we have provided other forms of support, including school supplies.

However, in addition to Clean Water and Sanitation, PSH also works on providing access to business microloans to try to help individuals launch and expand ventures to improve the general economy of the community.

On that note, we return to the ladies we mentioned at the start of this post. Ladi and Hannatu are both foodstuff traders, while Mary deals with textiles. Each of these ladies needed funds to expand. They were each recommended to us through the process we have in place to identify potential trustworthy individuals (with the help of our partner organization and local institutions). In the middle of this year, 2011, PSH provided them with microloans for the amounts they required to get things moving.

Women preparing food in Takalafia

They are now well on their way to taking their ventures to the next level and, in the process, uplifting the community. We have provided similar loans to others in Takalafia, and are working on doing even more.

In 2012, we plan on investing much more in Takalafia, as in our other partner communities. In addition to microloans, we will also be concentrating on clean water and sanitation. We will stay with them for the long haul, to ensure that the change we bring to their lives is truly transformative.

As always, we are grateful for your support. You make all of this possible.

Please go to our website to get a T-Shirt and support our cause.

The PSH Team

Tags: Communities, Updates

Everyone will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the United States this week. The origins of this celebration are rooted in giving thanks and rejoicing together with one’s community after all the work done.

In that spirit, we at Poverty Stops Here will be celebrating with all of you…you who support us as we fight poverty in vulnerable communities. You continue to lend us your resources…time, money, voices. For that, we can’t thank you enough.

While we’ll be joining in the celebrations, we want you to know that our efforts continue. In addition to new projects we have lined up, we try to pay regular visits to our partner communities. During these visits,we sometimes find that there are new issues that we might have to address.

For instance, in October 2011, these visits uncovered a number of issues with some of the facilities that had been provided in the past. In Takalafia, these included problems with hand-pump wells, which are the primary source of water, aside from rivers or streams. There has been an increase in water-related illnesses, especially among the children in the community.

Hand Pump in Takalafia

We are now working on addressing these issues. We hope to be able to re-use some of the infrastructure that is already in place. More importantly, we are looking at understanding how the faults came about in the first place, and attempting to minimize the chances of that in the future.

This highlights the challenge that we face in doing our work. It also highlights the importance of a long term partnership with these communities. We work with them over a period of time to ensure that the progress made in the past is not undone because we are not there to help maintain momentum.

As always, you can keep up with our progress on our website.

We wish you a fantastic Thanksgiving! Save some turkey for us!

The PSH Team

Tags: impact, Updates

As promised, we are bringing you more news now on how things are going with the communities we are working with. The needs of every community are unique, so we try to tailor the solutions we provide to make sure we have the most impact.

In Ilaje, we have partnered with Hands-At-Work to sponsor 154 orphans. Ensuring that these kids get a good education is a big part of what we are doing there.

All the children (in both nursery and primary sections) enjoy basic free education. Children get free book supplies, pencils, pens, school uniforms, bags, etc. In the Nursery section, we have pre-nursery and regular nursery classes. In Primary, we have from Classes 1 – 5. Class 5 students are actually being provided with extra-curricular classes (by a community-based organization) in preparation for the Common Entrance Examination into High/Secondary School.

Ilaje Children learning at school

All the children come regularly to school and are taught by various subject teachers. They receive homework to ensure they understand and practice all they are taught in class, and to help keep them occupied. Knowing what the children are up to outside of school hours is important. It can help prevent them from falling under the influence of individuals or groups that would be detrimental to them. Gangs can be a problem for these kids – even at such a young age – so keeping that interface going can provide a lot of help for the families.

From January – June, 2011, 60% of the children being supported by Poverty Stops Here – in addition to the free school supplies – have also received new school uniforms. The others will have received theirs by the end of the third quarter of 2011. Currently, the school has 7 teachers and they are supported monthly by incentives which are given to them regularly. The care workers (who help out with After-school visits, for instance) are not currently receiving any incentives yet. However, we are finalizing Income Generating Activities (IGAs) which will be implemented to help provide some compensation for these people.

To see more information on PSH’s activities, you can head over to our Impact page.

There is still much Poverty Stops Here needs to do, in Ilaje as well as all our other partner-communities; but we know that, with you help, there is also much we can achieve.

So, if you’ve got a minute, why not check out what you can do to assist us by checking out this page. It’ll only take a couple of minutes!

Thanks for your support.

The PSH Team

Tags: Africa, impact, Updates

Poverty Stops Here is throwing a party!

Join us at 7PM on the 22nd of September at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI. It’s going to be a great night featuring local bands and artists. See more details of this event HERE.

The PSH Team

Tags: Updates

Our goal at PSH is ultimately about Transformative Community Development. We really want to change the lives of the people in the communities we work with, for the better. While the challenges are common in many of these places, the approach we must take in every community is different, depending on the results of our studies.

We have been involved in a partnership with Hands-At-Work to sponsor 154 orphans and vulnerable children in Ilaje Community to provide them with food, healthcare and basic services. This partnership forms part of our strategy of working with like-minded organizations who also have experience with the communities we work in.

We can report that the progress in Ilaje has been most encouraging. The 50 children sponsored by Poverty Stops Here have been provided with access to these services.

Health Workers with Children

In the last 6 months, the children have been receiving healthcare services on a needs-basis. First Aid treatment and Anti-biotic drugs have been administered for infections. In May 2011, all the children in the community school took part in a “De-worming” exercise conducted by the care workers. This is an important measure in an area where the children are constantly at risk from disease. Reports show that the children are doing well healthwise.

Volunteer Doctor examining child during de-worming program

In the last two quarters (January – June 2011), some of the children have also received parental home visits. A lot of these chldren live with family members who might be illiterate, and are therefore unable to help these children out with school or academic work. These care worker visits provide access to individuals who can assist them in this respect. The care workers also help with children who have no siblings or are isolated at home. They are able to build trust with the children, so they have someone to turn to if they have any problems.

We’ll keep bringing you updates from the communities we work with, so we can show you just how much impact your contribution to PSH makes.

Click HERE to find out more about our projects.

JOIN US! And it isn’t all about money…click HERE to find out all the ways you can help us combat poverty.

The PSH Team

Tags: Africa, Communities, Updates

Yusuf, Samuel and Timileyin (10, 6 and 3 years old respectively) are orphans. Their mother died 3 years ago during childbirth. After her demise, they were abandoned by their father who would not care for them. The children had no parental care and were exposed to a lot of environmental hazards. There was no food for them to eat, clothes or shoes to wear.

At some point in time their grandmother, who is a petty trader (selling oranges and bananas by the road-side) in Ilaje community (Lagos State) was informed about the plight of these three kids. She traveled 250 kilometers to rescue her grandchildren and bring them back to Lagos.

This lady – a widow by the way – now had a total of 7 of her grandchildren staying with her in a one-room apartment in the community. It was very difficult for her to manage them, while still trying to earn an income to provide for them. Consequently they roamed the streets, exposed to danger and getting involved with smoking, buying drugs, stealing and other destructive habits.

These children are amongst those that have been adopted under the PSH/Hands-At-Work program. We help ensure they get basic needs…food, healthcare, education.

Yusuf and his brothers are doing much better now. They have uniforms and basic writing materials for school. Yusuf in particular has been receiving a lot of attention from a care worker to help counter some of the negative influences he has been exposed to over time. The community school has an after-school skill training program for some of the kids to teach useful vocational skills. They receive one hot meal a day at school. They are taught basic personal hygiene; how to take care of their bodies, brushing their teeth, washing clothes etc.

This highlights what Poverty Stops Here is trying to achieve…combating Poverty, on child at a time.

JOIN US!! Buy a T-Shirt…Help us spread the word.

See our ongoing projects by clicking HERE.

The PSH Team

Tags: Updates

Greetings all,

We wanted to take this time to inform you on how individuals like you are making a difference through Poverty Stops Here in the life of one boy.

Lekan Oyeniyi is 15 years old. He lost his parents to disease when he was young and has no known family. He bounced from house to house in his childhood often being abused. Recently a pastor in the Ilaje community saw him roaming the slum. This pastor brought him to his church and gave him a place to sleep in safety.

About a month ago, Lekan was brought by this pastor to the Ilaje community school, run by the Eagle Foundation. When Lekan started school he was unable to write letters and numbers. Now his is able to write a little and is improving every day. Lekan is also getting treatment for a skin infection he has. There are many more children like Lekan in Ilaje that are in need of someone to sponsor them. A sponsored child will recieve education, medical services, and one free meal like Lekan.

Would you consider joining PSH in helping an orphan and vulnerable child in Ilaje find the education and care that Lekan did for just 15 dollars a month?

Please follow this link to sign up for electronic deposit…HERE -note that paypal takes 65 cents.

A big thanks to everyone that has helped out. If you want to get involved with PSH in a different manner than mentioned above please feel free to reply to this email as well and we can discuss where you would best be able to serve in PSH.

Pat Murack
PSH – Ilaje Liaison

Tags: Communities, Updates

The theme of World Malaria Day 2011 is “Achieving Progress and Impact”. Much has been done over the years to try to combat malaria, but there is still much to do.

Efforts are being stepped up worldwide. Malaria No More put on a live show on April 16th featuring comedians like Sarah Silverman and Conan O’Brien, and managed to raise 750,000 dollars to combat Malaria.

Malaria has a massive impact, particularly in Africa. As with the challenges of clean water and sanitation, it is often the poorest that are most at risk. Here are some facts (courtsey of the World Health Organization):

- There are 250 Million Malaria cases each year

- There are nearly 1 Million deaths as a result each year

- 1 in every 5 deaths amongst children in Africa is due to Malaria.

- Every 30 seconds, a child dies from Malaria

Poverty Stops Here has joined the fight by investing in Mosquito Bed Nets in our Partner Communities to help increase economic productivity in these communities.

We hope you will lend us a hand as we continue our efforts. It’s easy to help! Just click HERE to see how.

Thanks for your support!

The PSH Team

One of the core areas of interest for PSH is giving individuals the opportunity to be able to generate income for themselves and their families.

For most of the people in communities we work with, access to “standard” lines of credit are out of reach because of a lack of assets to use as collateral. This is where microfinance comes in. Using this model, PSH is able to provide loans to allow investment in small business ideas in our partner communities.

Loan amounts are typically small; enough to invest in the purchase of raw materials for a wood-worker’s shop, or to purchase a motorbike to use as commercial transportation; enough to give someone a chance to make something of themselves.

PSH works with organizations with knowledge of each community to help make sure that we channel the resources to those who are most likely to capitalize on it. We also help educate people on saving, budgeting and running a business. Individuals also have a support group within their community to help monitor their progress.

While PSH continually works to ensure that communities have the basic necessities such as clean water and sanitation, microloans provide a follow-up to help foster sustainable economic development.

Please join us in our efforts by purchasing a T-Shirt HERE. You can check our Impact page to see what we are doing with your money.

The PSH Team

Tags: impact

The world has been watching Japan ever since a magnitude 8.9 Earthquake (and Tsunami) hit on the 11th of March 2011.

The effects have been devastating. The loss of human life, of homes and property…it’s been truly shocking. And that’s without the damage to the nuclear plants and possible effects of radiation that also have to be dealt with.

Through it all, we have watched the Japanese people show remarkable resilience in the face of this disaster. They have stood together to deal with the crisis. We have not heard a lot of news of looting, or of riots, or of opportunists trying to gain from the chaos. Instead, what we have heard are heart-warming stories of neighbors helping one-another, of people sharing even the most meagre of resources.

The ability to share, to have empathy for our fellow men and women…that’s part of what makes us Human. To be able to extend a hand and help those who are down…this is what we have seen on display in Japan; and it is what we stand for here at Poverty Stops Here.

Seeing these actions reminds us of why we do what we do. We can’t afford to turn away from those in need. Let’s all do what we can, however little.

In that spirit, if you would like to help out our friends in Japan, please click HERE. There are many Non-Profit organizations involved in the relief effort.

Our Hearts and Prayers go out to the Japan in it’s time of crisis.

The PSH Team

Tags: World