Current focus:
Care Through Action selects one “area of focus” every two years. This single-issue focus allows us to pool our dollars to make a significant impact. Once chosen, we personally evaluate local organizations working within our focus, and choose one or two with whom to partner. With these partners, we then choose specific projects to fund. Our board meets monthly and continually discusses areas of research and evaluates our progress to ensure we are meeting our objectives.
Our current focus is on survivors of sexual violence in the war-torn region of the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our goal for 2011 is to raise $75,000, which will allow us to construct two new safe houses, as well as continue supporting programming and staff in our current safe houses in Alimbongo and Nyamilima. It will also provide literacy, small business, sewing, soap-making and bread-making training for the average of 70 new survivors that come to our houses monthly and provide rotating micro-credit funds for these women to start their own businesses.
We will evaluate our 2012 plan in November 2011.
What we accomplished:
Since 2007, Care Through Action has assisted over 100,000 survivors of human rights abuses. In Darfur, through our partner, the World Food Program, we have fed over 100,000 refugees and in the DRC, through our partner in the North Kivu Province, HEAL Africa, we have provided shelter, counseling, support, small business training and micro-loans to approximately 2300 women. Through our partner in the South Kivu Province, Centre Kitumaini, we have provided soap-making training to 300 women.
In 2007 and 2008, Care Through Action concentrated its effort on Darfur. We held four photography exhibitions in SF, LA and NY to raise awareness and funds for both hunger relief for refugees and funding for school feeding programs. We published a photo essay and related story in Marin Magazine, presented to three school groups, from university to grammar level, and were featured in five media outlets.
In 2009-2010, we continued our work by driving awareness to our new area of emphasis, sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We held three photography exhibitions in San Francisco, New York and Dallas, had four fundraising events in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and conducted three successful online fundraising campaigns.
