Sightsavers works to combat blindness in developing countries.

Sightsavers works to combat blindness in developing countries, restoring sight through specialist treatment and eye care. We also support people who are irreversibly blind by providing education, counselling and training. We help the people who need it most - those living in poverty in some of the world's poorest countries.
Poverty and blindness

Poverty and blindness deprive people in developing countries of basic human rights. Loss of sight often leads to social exclusion, leaving people who are blind vulnerable to abuse, poverty and early death. Less than half of all children who lose their sight will survive to adulthood.
Restoring sight and hope

In partnership with local organisations in 33 developing countries, we are working to provide services that are tailored to meet the needs of people who are blind or have low vision. In this way we have helped restore sight to more than five million people and treated over 70 million for potentially blinding conditions.


* every five seconds a person goes blind
* 37 million people in the world are blind
* nine out of ten blind people live in the developing world
* 75% of global blindness can be prevented or cured

Inveneo Launches Partner Program for IT Entrepreneurs in Africa

Inveneo, a non-profit social enterprise, announced plans to formalize and scale its Inveneo Certified ICT Partner (ICIP) program. This is a program to recruit, train, certify and support in-country Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals with the goal of improving availability, affordability, and local support levels for ICTs in remote and rural communities in the developing world.


Inveneo is able to launch this program and rollout in East Africa due to the support from 50x15, a global initiative founded by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) to enable 50 percent of the world’s population with affordable Internet access and computing capability by the year 2015.

LINK: http://www.inveneo.org

A non-profit corporation is managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community.

Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community, specifically through the OSI Certified Open Source Software certification mark and program. You can read about successful software products that have these properties, and about our certification mark and program, which allow you to be confident that software really is "Open Source."


The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

Open source software is an idea whose time has finally come. For twenty years it has been building momentum in the technical cultures that built the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now it's breaking out into the commercial world, and that's changing all the rules. Are you ready?

Product (RED) initiative engages private sector to fight against AIDS in Africa .

Product (RED) is a global initiative whose primary objective is to engage the private sector in the fight against AIDS in Africa by channelling funds from the sale of (Product)RED products directly to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Companies whose products take on the (Product)RED mark contribute a portion of profits from the sale of that product to Global Fund-financed programmes in Africa. Current partners are American Express, Converse, Gap, Giorgio Armani and Motorola.



This is the first time that the world's leading companies have made a joint commitment to channel a percentage of profits to assist in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which kills three million people every year.

The Global Fund warmly welcomes this important new initiative from the private sector. Through (Product)RED and other initiatives, the Global Fund hopes to increase the private sector share of Global Fund income from less than one percent currently to ten percent or more in the long term.

the telecoms giant, supports inclusive education in Kenya with a grant of £20,000 per year.

Safaricom, the telecoms giant, supports inclusive education in Kenya with a grant of £20,000 per year.
There are over 10,000 irreversibly blind children in Kenya, a small fraction of whom receive an education. Safaricom supports the inclusion of those children who are blind into mainstream schools. A mainstream school provides a blind child with the opportunity to develop the skills necessary for life. Mixing and playing with sighted children breaks down stigmas and builds friendships and relationships far beyond the classroom.

Safaricom supports the production of Braille materials, and the provision and repair of Perkins Braillers (a typewriter which produces Braille pages) used by children through our partner The African Braille Centre. They also support the training of specialist teachers, who visit a number of schools in their local area teaching visually impaired children skills such as Braille, as well as supporting classroom teachers to help blind children in the classroom.

Promote economic development by impartially measuring and rating the effectiveness of enterprise

Whythawk Ratings (white-hawk) promotes economic development by impartially measuring and rating the effectiveness of enterprise, education and health relief interventions of development organisations and charities.

Whythawk also conducts research on behalf of donors to investigate regional development needs and assist in ongoing surveillance and vigilance of their social investment initiatives.

A Whythawk rating is an opinion on a development organisation's future performance. Whythawk’s goal is to provide ratings that embody high-quality and impartial delivery analysis. Whythawk evaluates weaknesses as well as strengths to determine the organisation's ability and willingness to deliver on the needs identified within their target sector.

Ratings components include:
A management and accountability rating
An effectiveness of service delivery rating
A strategic planning and execution rating
An overall rating
A Rand value statement of funding requirements

CharityWeb has been serving the non-profit sector

CharityWeb has been serving the non-profit sector for nearly a decade. As an industry pioneer –

we’ve watched online giving grow from a novelty to a necessity. At CharityWeb we are passionate about serving the non-profit sector because we truly believe in the vital role charities, churches, and colleges play in strengthening our communities and lives.

With a passion for client satisfaction, CharityWeb is known for the customization and flexibility we bring to online giving. We listen to what you want to accomplish and then help you achieve it. From donations, registrations and purchases to complex walk-a-thons – we can help you build the solution you need.

Network for Good: The Internet's leading charitable resource

Network for Good is the Internet's leading charitable resource, bringing together donors, volunteers and charities online to accomplish good. At www.networkforgood.org, users can donate to more than one million charities and search from among more than 36,000 volunteer opportunities.

In addition, non-profits can access tools for fundraising, volunteer recruitment and donor communication. Founded in 2001 by America Online, Cisco Systems and Yahoo!, Network for Good is an independent 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Bethesda, MD.

Since our inception in November 2001, more than 430,000 people have donated more than $100 million to over 20,000 charities through Network for Good. Another 232,555 people have found volunteer opportunities through Network for Good. We've also helped more than 6,000 nonprofits raise funds, cultivate donors and recruit volunteers through our online tools

 

Fahamu supports the struggle for human rights and social justice in Africa

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential.

Fahamu supports the struggle for human rights and social justice in Africa by:

• Supporting social justice advocacy through the innovative use of information and communication technologies
• Stimulating debate, discussion and analysis
• Distributing news and information
• Developing training materials and running distance-learning courses

Fahamu focuses primarily on Africa, although we work with others to support the global movement for human rights and social justice.

The word Fahamu means ‘understanding’ or ‘consciousness’ in Kiswahili.