Fonkoze empowers Haitians, primarily rural women, to lift their families out of poverty by providing access to the tools, resources, and support needed to overcome and thrive. The organization’s approach to empowerment is holistic - addressing the many systemic roots of poverty: lack of access to education, financial and health services, and more.

Fonkoze’s health program Boutik Sante, in particular, serves approximately 250,000 households each year, offering health resources to communities throughout Haiti that include vitamin distribution, screenings for child malnutrition and therapeutic feeding treatments, hypertension screenings for cardiovascular disease, and preventative healthcare trainings. This program alone, which won the 2021 European Microfinance Award, has increased access to health services and education for more than 3.3 million people since its inception in 2014. More information.

Keystone Moldova is addressing the immediate and long-term needs of Ukrainians with disability, women, and children seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine. In addition to partnering with others to provide hot meals, heated tents, hygiene supplies, and urgent medicines, Keystone Moldova offers a free hotline support service so Ukrainians with disability, their families, and caregivers in Moldova can access information, counseling, and referrals to services. Keystone Moldova is working with all refugee shelters and local authorities to identify, map, and address the immediate needs of children and adults with disability. More information.

On March 25, 2022, the Ibrahim Khalilullah Community Center, sponsored by LIFE, opened in Malicounda Bambara, in Mbour. The center's floor plan was expanded by 96 square meters with restrooms and wudu (prayer) areas built to accommodate more members of the community. The center will serve a community of more than 1,500 people.

In January 2022, a snowstorm in northern Syria caused significant damage to a refugee camp, putting refugees at risk due to the low temperatures and exposure to snow and ice. LIFE for Relief and Development organized a winterization project to provide refugees with heavy blankets. One blanket was given to each family, and those with more than five members per family received two blankets. In all, 19,642 individuals were reached by the winterization project.

InterAction provides tailored Media Alerts highlighting the work our Members are implementing around the world. This update includes the most recent information from InterAction Members working to support Ukraine, including Mercy Corps, Project HOPE, Americares, World Vision, FHI 360, Global Communities, Hunger Project, Heifer International, the Center for International Private Enterprise, Humanity & Inclusion, the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Read full release including organizational contacts.

Lutheran World Relief and our Corus International family of organizations is committed to addressing crises through a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) lens, engaging women as change agents and investing in their leadership before, during and after disasters. To elevate women’s voices and leadership in disaster risk reduction (DRR) programming, Lutheran World Relief developed the IDEAL approach: intersectionality, delivery, equity, access and leadership. More information.

The Starbucks Foundation and Lutheran World Relief are building on the success of Kopi Nande project which reached over 26,000 individuals (15,000 women) in five communities across Karo Regency to promote health and hygiene using LWR’s Learning for Gender Integration methodology with the new MECIHO project just launched in the same region. MECIHO will continue to use women-led approaches to improve health, hygiene and living conditions in Karo Regency, reaching 25,000 people across an additional six rural coffee-growing communities. This project is part of The Starbucks Foundation’s new goal to positively impact 1 million women and girls in coffee-, tea-, and cocoa-growing communities by 2030. More information.

Lutheran World Relief implements the USAID-funded Women’s Global Development Prosperity: Expanding Women’s Labor Force in Lebanon (W-GDP: EWLFL) Project. One of the pioneering women taking part in the project is Nancy Ghannam, a Lebanese entrepreneur and activist who is breaking gender barriers and creating jobs for other women in her community. More information.

Amid one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time, Lutheran World Relief staff and partners conducted an urgent distribution of cash assistance for internally displaced people (IDP) taking refuge at Al-Khora camp in the Ash-Shamayatayn District of the Taiz Governorate. The besieged capital has faced some of the most intense violence more recently, and blockades have resulted in critical shortages of food, water, cooking gas and medicine. More information.