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	Find a Project The Corporate Goat Project Funding Priorities (Updated August 2007) 1. Operation Mango Tree Mama Laadi's Foster Home (Ghana) Background Mama Laadi’s Foster Home is located in Bolgatanga in the poorest upper Eastern Region of Ghana. Bolgatanga suffers from many deeply embedded economic and social problems, extreme poverty and poor educational and health facilities. In this context, there is next to no provision for people with special needs and extreme prejudices affect those suffering from taboo issues such as HIV / AIDS, learning difficulties, teenage pregnancies and conditions such as epilepsy of which there is little understanding. Mama Laadi, was born into poverty and spent years begging as a street child until she was found by a charitable nurse who paid for her to complete secondary education and train as a community nurse. As a nurse she lived in a tiny room with 12 children she had rescued from the streets. Afrikids has since built her a permanent home where she lives with up to 50 children, many of whom are orphans who made their way to Bolgatanga to beg for food. A number of the children have disabilities and many are very troubled when they arrive. Where Laadi’s children have families who are too poor to feed them, every effort is made to reintegrate children with their families by providing a package of support including micro-finance loans. Maria and Pauline spent time at Mama Laadi’s home. It is a place full of fun and energy with laughing children tumbling over one another everywhere you turn. The older children care for the little ones – some as young as two - and help to prepare the evening meal. Maama Laadi gets up at 3.30am each day to prepare breakfast and lunch boxes for her children. The children leave for school at 6.30 am on a bus organised by Afrikids and arrive at school at 8am. Every child is provided with a uniform and books and completes primary and secondary education. They then have a real chance of further developing their skills through a number of options or of finding employment. Operation Mango Tree is a project of Afrikids, a charity supported by The Corporate Goat. Without the care and support Mama Laadi provides, the children she helps would live in abject poverty and some would die. Instead, over the years, hundreds of children have been given a real chance to look forward to a future that means, in simple terms, that they and their families don’t go to sleep hungry every day of their lives. For a small cost, the lives of hundreds of little children in the world we all share have literally been changed forever. Operation Mango Tree - Mama Laadi's Home Corporate Goat Projects for Funding Support 2007 Mango Tree Project 1 Extension of Mama Laadi's Home to provide three new dormitories and a washroom to cater for increased number of children. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 4 organisations giving £5,000 each as a contribution to the total project cost of £60,000. Mango Tree Project 2 Salary for one year of Patience, a home help who helps Mama Laadi to care for her children. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £637. This represents the full one year cost. NOW FUNDED BY: OSBORNE PROPERTIES Mango Tree Project 3 To Provide all of Mama Laadi’s children with milk each day for a year. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £75. This represents the full one year cost. NOW FUNDED BY: Private Donor – As a thank you for the life of a much loved aunt Kathleen Tumelty (Birmingham) Mango Tree Project 4 Ghana is a very poor country and all children attending school in Ghana have to pay fees. To pay the fees, for one year, for all Mama Laadi's children to attend school. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £5062. This represents the full one year cost. Mango Tree Project 5 To meet the cost of two teachers Thomas and Boniface to provide additional learning support to those children who need extra help, for one year. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 2 organisations giving £375 each to pay for (i) Thomas and (ii) Boniface’s salaries and the cost of travelling to Mama Laadi’s home. Mango Tree Project 6 Cost of the school bus to take Mama Laadi’s children to and from school every school day for one year. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £1,125. This represents the full on year cost. NOW FUNDED BY: OSBORNE PROPERTIES 2. Operation Sunlight (Ghana) Background The mining communities of the Talensi Nabdam district in Ghana's poorest upper East Region are isolated outposts in the hot, dusty scrubland, miles from the nearest dirt road. People go there for one reason only - to try and escape the abject poverty and hunger that blights their lives. The compound homes are crumbling; there are no medical facilities, no water supplies and the few schools that have been set up by compassionate locals house in excess of 100 children of all ages who are taught in single tumbledown shacks. Whilst child labour is technically regulated, young children are used to support the mining industry, particularly the 'informal' mines. They are exposed to a myriad of health risks including TB, mercury poisoning and even serious injury or death. The hopeless poverty faced by their families' forces them to knowingly allow their children to face these risks. Other young children arrive at the mines alone having left families who simply cannot feed them In Ghana, Maria and Pauline saw boys, as young as twelve, strap a torch to their heads and then scurry 100ft down a makeshift hole to crawl a further 100ft along a tunnel to commence a 12 hour shift. In a community where we were surrounded by skinny children with bloated bellies, these little boys had upper torsos that looked as though they had spent every day of their lives working out in a gym. At the end of their shift, they would lie on a blanket at the mouth of the mine and sleep till their next shift began. Seven days a week, week in week out, they worked and they slept - so that they might have something to eat. This small scale mining is one of the worst forms of child labour in the world because of the hazards it involves. It thrives only because of abject poverty. Operation Sunlight, which will be delivered by Afrikids, a charity supported by The Corporate Goat, is a ground breaking project to tackle child labour in the mines of the Talensi – Nabdam. Its goals are to prevent 450 children from entering mining and to manage the withdrawal, placement and rehabilitation of 150 children who are already working in the mines. The project, which is part funded by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is necessarily holistic in its approach and includes working with all local stakeholder organisations, organising community awareness, advocacy and education programmes, providing local mothers with micro-finance loans and skills training so that they can increase their families' income and alleviate the pressure felt by the child to work in the mines and providing support, rehabilitation and skills training / work placement programmes or a return to school for the children who leave the mines. The Corporate Goat is aiming to provide investors to support unfunded elements of the part of this project that will achieve the withdrawal of 150 children currently working in the mines. Operation Sunlight The Corporate Goat Projects for Funding Support 2007 Sunlight Project 1 Contract with master trainers to enrol 50 children currently working in mines in appropriate vocational training for formalized apprenticeships. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £590 (The total cost is £2350. The balance is being funded by the International Labour Organisation. The gap funding is critical if all 50 children are to be enrolled as planned.) NOW FUNDED BY: Private Donor – Proceeds from the sale of a book signed by Diana Princess of Wales Sunlight Project 2 Provide the 50 children in training with a lunch allowance for the 2 years of their training The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 2 organisations each giving £3212. £3212 is the cost of providing lunches for all of the children for one year. Sunlight Project 3 Provide the 50 children in training with a suitable uniform The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £882. This represents the full cost of providing uniforms for the 50 children. NOW FUNDED BY: OSBORNE PROPERTIES Sunlight Project 4 Pay apprentice fees and required dues to association and welfare for the 50 children in training The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £235. This represents the full project cost. NOW FUNDED BY: OSBORNE PROPERTIES Sunlight Project 5 Provide 2 T-shirts each for the 50 children in training (these have a special significance in Ghana making children, who have never had anything, feel proud to be associated with something that gives them a sense of purpose and achievement.) The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £300. This represents the full project cost. Sunlight Project 6 Provide 2 goats for each of the 150 families of the children withdrawn from the mines as part of a support programme to help them to climb out of poverty and remove the pressure for their children to work in the mines. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 150 organisations each giving £30 (or multiples of £30.) £30 is the cost of two goats which can be bred and sold. FUNDED TO DATE: 8 Sets of 2 goats - OSBORNE PROPERTIES 3. Operation Smiles (Ghana) Background Operation Smiles is grass roots, rural development programme working with communities in Ghana’s Northern Region to tackle the root cause of poverty endured by, in particular, young women and children. The Northern Region is one of the poorest areas of Ghana and poverty is compounded by the out-migration of the young, economically active population to Southern Ghana. For those left behind, life is dependent on the increasingly infertile soils. Over 70% of the Northern Region's population relies on subsistence agriculture for survival and in the rural villages where Operation Smiles is based. Virtually no NGO's work in the area, which is difficult to access. Afrikids, a charity supported by The Corporate Goat, is working to: · provide short term emergency residential care to orphaned or abandoned children · To give access to micro-credit, business training, support and monitoring to young mothers · To give vocational skills training to young mothers · To work towards making the project sustainable by 2009 through income generation initiatives such as a piggery, a purified water distribution and a mango plantation. During a recent visit to the area, Maria and Pauline found extreme hardship and malnourished babies three of whom were, in one village, judged by the project leader, a trained nurse, to be within weeks of death. One little boy aged 11 months lay across his mother's lap lifting his head from time to time to cry out in hunger before wilting back on to her lap. He tried to raise his arm towards us but the effort was just too much and his poor, skinny little arm just drooped beside him. Arrangements were made to provide short term nutrition to these babies and, very importantly, to arrange microfinance loans for their families. Enabling people to increase their income generation is fundamental to the goal of making assistance sustainable in the long term. Income generation projects may vary widely from breeding pigs, goats, sheep, guinea fowl and other livestock to a wide range of small businesses - for example, hairdressing, weaving, production of foodstuffs, a variety of crafts, furniture, shopfittings. Local people know what they can sell; they just need help to take that first all important step that will enable them to help themselves. Micro finance is given by Afrikids in the form of interest free loans. Repayment schedules are agreed and invariably delivered. Often the money enters a community welfare fund and goes on to help more and more new people. Operation Smiles The Corporate Goat Projects for Funding 2007 Smiles Project 1 To provide two year vocational training scholarships for 20 people, at £250 per person, in order that they can generate an income to feed and support themselves and their family. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 20 organisations giving £250 each (or multiples of £250.) Smiles Project 2 To provide batches of 15 micro-finance packages at a cost of £60 per loan, to help to kick start the income generation capacity of a community. A micro-finance package includes a financial loan (which is repaid and passed on to a new individual or family when income generation is secure), ongoing monitoring of progress, business support and admin support. To date, 100% of Afrikids micro-finance loans have been re-paid. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 2 organisations each giving £900 to provide one community or village with a batch of 15 micro-finance packages. 30 organisations each giving £60 (or multiples of £60.) Each £60 provides one person or family with a micro-finance package. FUNDED TO DATE: 15 micro finance packages OSBORNE PROPERTIES 6 micro finance packages Gordon K Hairdressing, Newry 4. School Nutrition Programmes (Madagascar) Background An estimated 130 million children in the world are not enrolled in school due to hunger and malnutrition. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, 170 million school-age boys and girls receive no food during school hours. In the thirty developing countries where the United Nations experimented with pilot school lunches, enrolments doubled within a year. Children who used to be too lethargic to walk to the village school and then sit through six hours of teaching, started to look forward to the experience. Academic performance, enjoyment of learning, athletic ability and overall health improved dramatically when empty stomachs were filled with nutritious meals. It is a scientific fact that a child ill-fed is dulled in curiosity, lower in stamina and distracted from learning. During The Corporate Goat's recent visit to Madagascar, we were hugely concerned at the impact on school children of malnutrition and feeling hungry. Whilst a very small number of schools in the poorest areas have some food provided, this is not generally the case. Teachers told of children arriving at school exhausted and then going to sleep. Teachers in a primary school talked of children deprived of food, because of the destruction of the rice crops by the recent cyclone, eating the leaves on the plants in the field by the school. A teacher in a secondary school told of finding a twelve-year old boy quietly sobbing at the back of her classroom because he was too hungry and weak to walk home. He asked her for food but she had nothing to give him. The Corporate Goat therefore determined that for each school build project it recommends to donors for financial support, agreement should be sought with teachers, parents and local officials, to include a sustainable plan to provide the children attending the school with a meal during the school day. This may, for example, involve growing potatoes, rice, or/and vegetables or/and buying hens, cows or goats. We consulted widely on this suggestion and it was generally considered to be feasible provided assistance was available as a contribution to start up costs. Everyone with whom we consulted felt that children would be better able to learn and concentrate if they ate during the school day. School Nutrition Programmes (Madagascar) The Corporate Goat Projects for Funding 2007 School Nutrition Project 1 - To provide a 12 week emergency feeding programme for the 171 malnourished children in Mahazina Primary School in the Rural Commune of Sahamadio. - To also support the implementation of a long term food security programme by the local parents association which will involve planting potatoes, beans, vegetable gardens, maize, rice and fruit trees. This school is being re-built by a Corporate Goat sponsor and is located in a village by the Fisakana river where all the rice fields were flooded and destroyed in January/February of this year. No rice has, therefore, been stored. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £3.500 This represents the total project cost. School Nutrition Project 2 To support the implementation of a long term food security programme for the 150 children attending Ambohipo School in the Rural Commune of Milamaina. This will be developed and maintained by the local parents association. It will include planting vegetable gardens and rice, rearing chickens and building a storage facility. This school is located in an area where the rice fields. This school is located in an area where the rice fields were destroyed by cyclones in January 2007 and it has no, therefore, been possible to store rice to meet the needs of local families. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £770 NOW FUNDED BY: OSBORNE PROPERTIES School Nutrition Project 3 The School District of Manjakandriana has developed a plan to implement a nutrition programme for 51 (out of 145) of the most vulnerable primary schools in the District. 7942 children ranging from the age of 6yrs to 12 yrs will benefit from the programme by receiving at least one hot and balanced meal a day during school time. The children begin school at 7.30am and finish at 1pm. Most walk between 1 and 5km twice a day to get to and from school. In order to ensure sustainability, the project plan includes: market garden produce; cereal cultivation - wheat, rice etc; reforestation of school land; security arrangements through the construction of enclosures; the provision of nutritional education to ensure healthy and balanced diets; activities to ensure awareness and training of pupils' families. Schools / families will contribute labour and materials for the construction of canteens and storage rooms, will lay out the land for cultivation and will prepare and cook the food on a daily basis. Surplus food will be sold to contribute to project sustainability. The objectives of the programme, which will be measured and evaluated, are to: Reduce the rate of absenteeism to less than 5% To reduce the rate of children having to repeat a term to less than 5% To reduce the rate of children leaving school to less than 10%......all by offering children hot meals rich in nutritional value every day The Corporate Goat Target Investment: At least 20 organisations each giving £353. Because of the inputs from families and schools, the cost of this project is £18,000 for 51 schools, which is an average of £353 per school. It is hoped that the balance of funding required will be provided by other funding organisations. School Nutrition Project 4 Implementation of sustainable nutrition programme providing one meal each day for up to 200 pupils at Mahainza Primary School. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: This is a school build being supported Lavelle and McAlinden (See www.corporategoat.com) Community plans and costings for a nutrition programme are currently being prepared. NOW FUNDED BY: LAVELLE & MCALINDEN School Nutrition Programme 5 Implementation of a sustainable nutrition programme providing one meal each day for 120 children at Miantsoarivo Primary School. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: This is a school build being supported by PixelShift (See www.thecorporategoat.com) Community plans and costings for a nutrition programme are currently being prepared. NOW FUNDED BY: PIXELSHIFT PRODUCTIONS 5. Womens Group Projects Antsirafaly and Ankilimivony (South West Madagascar) Background This area is inhabited by the Vezo fishing tribe and suffers from intense poverty. The women are not educated and traditionally have concentrated on supporting their husbands and children. They are, however, very keen to develop new skills, become more economically active and develop their role in their community. The Sisters of the Saint Paul of Chartres who will deliver the project have already delivered similar projects in the villages of Anakao and Soalara. The women will be trained to produce garments, tableware and embroidery with a view to selling the items they produce in order to generate income. Womens Project 1 To purchase, and transport to this remote area, 20 sewing machines. The Congregation of the Priest Assomptionniste will transport the machines from Antanarivo to Toliary and then ship them on dug outs to the villages. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £890. This represents the full project cost. Womens Project 2 To purchase cloths, fabrics and required materials and tools - scissors, threads, needles etc to support training requirements The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £405. This represents the full project cost. Womens Project 3 To contribute to the cost of the training/ supervision provided by the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres. The Corporate Goat Target Investment: £100. This is a nominal contribution to meet essential costs. The nuns are volunteering their time as part of their commitment to encouraging and supporting the empowerment of the women in these villages. Note: One organisation may adopt this composite project in total for the all in cost of £1395. 6. Teachers/Tutors for Street Children, Teenagers and Single Mothers (Antanarivo, Madagascar) Background The Sisters of the Good Shepherd (Soeurs du Bon Pasteur) organise a number of activities targeted at women and children from their small centre in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Some 10% of Madagascar’s population of 17 million are estimated to live in and around the capital. Up to 70% of the population live on less than 1 dollar per day. The Sisters provide schooling for around 180 street children age 3 – 12. The children are provided with breakfast and lunch to encourage them to attend school as an alternative to begging. For most, this is the only food they get. Many spend their nights on the streets. By getting the children used to attending school and helping them to achieve a reasonable educational level, the Sisters get the children into State schools, providing them also with the required uniforms, pens and paper. Education is the first crucial step in giving the children the chance of a better future. The Sisters also provide food for undernourished babies and provide training for 105 single mothers and other teenagers in areas such as dress-making, craft, home arts and languages. The training improves the opportunity for young women to find employment or start small businesses in order to support themselves and their children. Teachers/Tutors Project To pay the salaries of 9 teachers/ tutors for the school year 2007 / 2008 The Corporate Goat Target Investment: 9 organisations each giving £230, the cost of one part-time teacher for a full year. FUNDED TO DATE: 5 Teachers at £230 (£1,150) OSBORNE PROPERTIES Download latest projects To invest in one of these projects please contact us info@thecorporategoat.com or call 028 417 54777

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