My Nonprofit Reviews

Yambi Rwanda is a non-profit designed to empower the people of Rwanda to develop and use their gifts and abilities to improve their lives as the country continues to heal from the effects of the 1994 genocide. The founders have strategically chosen organizations and projects in Rwanda to build capacity and support. We know that the money is carefully used for exactly what it is intended for - we have personally donated toward sewing machines and then seen the products sewn by the women in the Sunzu village. The founders Fram and Julie Virjee guide with wisdom, love and joy - developing deep relationships with the people in all of the projects. True long-term development requires long-term relationship, not just items, and Yambi Rwanda embraces this concept and the country of Rwanda.

My husband and I went to the very first fundraiser for Plant With Purpose in 1984 - it was called Floresta then. They had a holistic vision of development which caught our hearts and minds - empowering people to overcome poverty with economic, environmental and spiritual renewal. We began giving and volunteering in various ways and thirty four years later, Plant With Purpose has now planted over 27 million trees in 8 deforested countries (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Thailand, Tanzania, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia (new), and has enabled thousands of people to feed their families and escape poverty by teaching them the skills they need. We have visited 5 of the 8 countries where Plant With Purpose works and have met firsthand the women who learned to tend their own family gardens and chicken coops, and people who now have less sickness by growing their own organic vegetables and drinking clean water from the teachings of Plant With Purpose. I am now a board member and am very proud to watch the way this NGO has grown and impacts the world. Plant With Purpose conducts studies to assess its impact and has found that their villages have 50% less water-borne disease, poverty is reduced over 65%, girls are twice as likely to attend secondary school in additional to planting millions of trees to shore up hillsides and renew the land. Children learn how to plant and care for the land in many schools and Plant With Purpose also works through local churches to teach the importance of creation care, the Theology of Work and how to build communities.