In our darkest times, there’s one thing that always gives us a glimmer of hope: our own family.
Family is everything to us at Charlie’s Heart. It’s why we’re even here, trying to make a difference on behalf of our son. It’s what pulled us through the months of mourning his loss. It’s what keeps us going now.
A Glimmer of Hope, a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas, also prioritizes the family unit. They truly believe family is the foundation of everything. By focusing on a holistic approach to the issues Ethiopian families are facing, they help communities build a sustainable, resilient community that can respond to economic shocks and break long-term poverty.
We’re so proud to be a part of supporting A Glimmer of Hope. When we first synced up with them, we knew we wanted to help achieve their mission of creating intergenerational wealth for folks in rural Ethiopia in any way we could.
In particular, we’ve been working with A Glimmer of Hope in the remote community of Kola Tembien in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. There are over 14,000 households located in the villages of Kola Tembien, and they are facing tremendous, heartbreaking challenges. To give you some insight, 41% of people don’t have clean water within half a mile of their home, 50% of schools in the area lack water access and 25% of the population is made up of landless, unemployed youth.
One of the reasons why A Glimmer of Hope’s process resonates with us so deeply is that they believe in the power of creating jobs so families can earn their own income. While the nonprofit also helps by working on local schools to make them safer, improving health facilities to save the lives of children and mothers and establishing girls clubs for students, they do it all with the hope that families in the area will become self-sustaining and create generational wealth.
A Glimmer of Hope works directly with woreda (or neighborhood) administrators and residents to understand exactly what they need and the best way the nonprofit can get involved. Outside of their current work being done in the villages of Kola Tembien, A Glimmer of Hope has completed more than 10,000 projects in the country which has, in turn, affected more than 5,000,000 lives. That kind of impact on families is huge, and we’re so honored to be a part of it by helping them financially so they can reach their goals.
For us, it was really important to look at the root of generational poverty in Ethiopia. Typically, generational poverty stems from the rural areas of Ethiopia, or areas that are desolate, hard to reach and without access to healthcare, sanitation, proper schools, and poor irrigation.
Glimmer, empowers communities, working with them to develop income-generating activities and help families improve their lives from the root of the matter so they don’t have to send their children into cities—where many believe there are more opportunities, but in reality, life is just as difficult and poverty is just as rampant.
A Glimmer of Hope guides the communities, which are the ones doing the real work to help their fellow Ethiopians. Communities invest some of their own money to make these projects happen. We’re so proud to help supplement some of this investment through Charlie’s Heart.
