You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.
– Anonymous
Last year while on a business trip to San Francisco I stopped by an event organized by the amazing people at GO (Groundwork Opportunities) / The mission of GO is to invest funds and resources into the most vulnerable communities, promoting a cycle of self-sufficiency and sustainable micro-development that will enable the improvement of the human condition. It's a mission that I want to fully help fulfill!
-Ben Stauss-Malcolm
THE PROJECT
This project is aimed at dually improving health and education standards in Ghana by sponsoring a surgeon through medical school in Kumasi and by building and staffing a primary school and foster care facility for over 80 street children in Adoteiman. There are currently thousands of people living in the slums of Accra, many without adequate opportunities to receive health care or even a proper education. Out of this group, those particularly at risk are children. Having lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, and often left to fend for themselves, these slum children often end up in gangs or even worse. By providing quality primary schooling, coupled with the residency layout of a foster care home, these children will be able to learn the skills and forge the relationships necessary to improve their lives and leave the slums. https://www.fsd.org/groundworkopportunities/
About Ben Strauss-Malcom http://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-strauss-7046a212
GO MISSION STATEMENT
Groundwork Opportunities (GO) operates off a simple maxim: The Power of Their Ideas and Our Support. GO aims to provide an alternative solution to failing international aid policies by empowering communities through sustainable and community-owned micro-development projects that alleviate poverty. Like micro-finance, "micro-development" is a demonstrably effective means for helping build the local human infrastructure necessary to support positive, long-term economic growth.
IMPACT STATEMENT
GO’s purpose is to identify and partner with developing world communities that envision and manage sustainable programs aimed at addressing these fundamental communal issues. Once partnerships are established, GO provides the community with start-up capital to bring their ideas to fruition and creates a global support network to scale the impact of their work. In this manner, each partner can focus on their core competencies making development work efficient; the GO staff leverages volunteers, resources, and partnerships that are abundant in the developed world and our local partners can focus on implementing successful programs that enable their communities to build a sustainable livelihood. Our ability to provide compassion and love is what makes humans unique in our world. We all have the inner strength to not only care for ourselves but also to help others less fortunate than us. This is the essence of of GO’s work and the essence of Ubuntu, a word from South Africa that means you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness and our generosity. More than 1 billion people struggle on less than $1 a day to build a life of hope and dignity for themselves and for their families. One of the most important things people in the developed world can do to help fight global poverty is devote sufficient resources and support to those groups working on long term, viable, and community run solutions.