GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROJECTS
OUR MISSION PARTNER
Alaffia partners with Global Alliance for Community Empowerment (GACE, a 501(c)3 organization) to empower women and their communities in West Africa by investing in fair trade, maternal care, child education, and addressing climate change.
The Global Alliance for Community Empowerment (GACE) executes projects in Togo and Ghana, West Africa. GACE implements projects in Fair Trade producer communities that provide shea and other agricultural products to Alaffia. It provides a platform for individuals and organizations from around the world to partner with Alaffia, by sharing resources, skills, time and money. Through this collaboration GACE has impacted over 1 million people.
Continue reading to learn more about the real-world impact of the Global Alliance for Community Empowerment Projects in the lives of Togolese and Ghanian communities and make a donation.
MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES
When a mother dies, her surviving children’s nutrition and health suffer. Saving a mother saves a family.
Since 2005, GACE has donated medical supplies and partnered with the Togo national health care system to provide underprivileged mothers with prenatal and delivery care, reducing their risk of maternal death. GACE also provides health education for women and their children, and provides needed medical equipment and supplies to over 50 clinics (in partnership with Project CURE, the Portland NeoNatal Hospital, and others).
SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION
Building schools not only gives a place for children to learn but empowers communities.
Since 2011, GACE has been building kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as latrines, and ensured drinking water for students. Parents, village leaders, and school employees help with the construction and provide materials. School construction has been funded by Alaffia, Whole Foods Markets, Earth Fare, Sprouts Farmer’s Market, Mother’s Market, and Presence Marketing. In total, the Global Alliance for Community Empowerment has built 17 schools.
CLIMATE CHANGE
On average, Africa is disproportionately affected by increasing global temperatures. Our goal is to increase resilience of our West African communities to these changes.
Africa’s Sahel forms a vulnerable “green wall” against encroaching deserts of North Africa. It also forms a critical carbon sink for mitigating climate change. GACE builds and operates tree nurseries and provides capacity building to women in conservation and parklands management. The Namare Tree Nursery has been overseen by 60 women who worked together to prepare and build a tree nursery site. The women also help irrigate the newly planted seeds so they germinate into seedlings and young trees.
GACE is also building deep water wells (boreholes) at schools, to ensure children have access to safe drinking water.
ACCESS TO WATER
On average, Africa is disproportionately affected by increasing global temperatures. Our goal is to increase resilience of our West African communities to these changes.
GACE installs deep water wells in villages in northern Ghana, providing clean and safe water to meet the daily needs of over 100 families a day. In addition to potable water, wells also help build a sense of community through shared ownership.
LEGACY PROGRAMS
Our legacy programs provided immediate solutions to obstacles to education and productivity in our target communities.
90% of girls & 80% of boys in rural Togo do not finish secondary school (UNICEF, 2016). Many of those who do attend must walk up to 10 miles a day to get to school and then return home to complete their daily chores, fetching wood, carrying water, tending gardens, and preparing food.