The Green Children Foundation

Our Projects

The Grameen Green Children Eye Hospital

The Grameen Green Children Hospital was opened on May 12, 2008 and is working towards giving 10,000 people their sight back per year. With over 1.6 million people blind, Prof. Yunus saw the urgent need for a new hospital and spoke with us about it during our first visit to Grameen Bank. As part of the Nobel Peace Prize celebrations, we sold a CD/DVD package in stores throughout Norway. With this campaign we managed to raise the necessary funds for the first hospital.

The hospital performs simple operations for the poor of Bangladesh who have gone blind due to cataracts. Importantly, the hospital was created as a sustainable model, which covers it costs by charging a small amount for it’s operations. People are only asked for what they can afford and those with nothing receive treatment for free. We believe this type of sustainable ‘social business’ is a great framework for the helping poor people in the long term.

Microloans

Supporting Whole Planet Foundation

We believe in giving the poor opportunity, microloans (microcredit) allow the poor to develop their small businesses and bring themselves out of poverty. Why loans? When the small loan is repaid, the money can then be lent to another poor person. The objective of micro-finance is to create a long-term solution for the poor, which becomes sustainable and doesn’t rely on recurring donations. Millions of women have been empowered through microcredit. The poor have great ability, but they lack opportunity.

We are proud to be supporting the work of Whole Planet Foundation, who have successfully established new Micro-finance Institutions all over the world. They have done this by working closely with Prof. Yunus and Grameen.

If you’d like to help us support a new Whole Planet MFI in India, please click here. The MFI will be in Kerala region of India and aims to reach 22,000 impoverished  people.

Green Children Orphans

Supporting children who have no parents is something we’ve always dreamed of. We established The Green Children Foundation to help give people opportunity. By supporting orphans we are helping those who have the least and cannot currently help themselves.

We are working together with ARC Kenya (Action Resort for Change) who we visited in 2007, during that trip we established The Green Children Orphan’s Garden as a place of recreation and education for local children. ARC Kenya provide a range of care services from their ARO center in the Nyanza Province of rural Kenya. These services include 3 nutritious meals at ARO every Saturday, cultural activities, practical education, monthly health checks and school uniforms.

To support an orphan, please click here.

Green Children Scholarships

During our trips to Bangladesh we met many children of the Grameen Bank borrowers. It was incredible to hear them speaking English to us and listen to their passion for education. Their parents were totally illiterate which really demonstrated the powerful effect that microcredit had made, and the doors it was opening for the next generation.

We are supporting a program run by Grameen Shikkha (Education) which provides scholarships to talented but underprivileged children. These scholarships support students of different ages allowing them to fulfill their potential. We are currently supporting 100 student scholarships. Many are studying in higher education to become Doctors, Engineers, Teachers and Lawyers.