Little Wings Foundation - Links

Client Testimonials

• Megan, ZanaAfrica
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“Little Wing's donation of $1,000 helped us to get Kenya-wide market insights about what girls want for a sanitary pad pad in order to feel supported as they become women. Thanks to this donation we were able to recruit a pro-bono Creative Director from MTV Network for seven months to help develop our pad's brand. We now have a brand name, and hope to finalize the brand this summer, 2012. By the middle of next year we will test our pads in the market and prepare to break ground for our factory. It's amazing how the simple solution of pads and health education can keep girls in school and allow them to pursue their dreams. Thank you!!

ZanaAfrica is US-based 501c3 and a social enterprise in Nairobi, Kenya. Our mission is to create opportunity for education and financial freedom for Kenyan girls and women through health education, empowerment and delivery of sanitary pads. In Kenya alone, over 800,000 girls miss 6 weeks of school each year due to lack of pads and related health information. ZanaAfrica is solving this problem by making radically affordable, eco-friendly pads that support girls aspirations, delivering health information, and informing gender-based policy. Our funders include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Nike Foundation, and phenomenal individuals who believe in the power of girls and women to change the world and in organizational self-sustainability. Learn more: www.zanaa.org or contact our founder directly, megan@zanaafrica.org.”
-- Megan

ZanaAfrica

• REACH Prep
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“Thank you for the donation of $1000! In June 2012 our 19th group of students will begin 15 months of academic enrichment. The texts with which they work form an important springboard for thought, discussion and learning. Thanks to the Little Wings Foundation for providing the texts our students will read this summer and cherish in the years ahead.

REACH Prep helps motivated and talented Black and Latino students from low to moderate income families gain admission to and thrive in competitive independent schools in Fairfield and Westchester Counties and The Bronx. Upon placement, students benefit from an eight-year educational continuum--including comprehensive academic enrichment, leadership training and supplementary individual and family guidance--which prepares them to succeed at competitive colleges. REACH Prep provides selected students the academic, cultural and social enrichment essential to independent school success. The six week summer session of the 15-month Prep Academy, for rising fifth and sixth graders begins at the end of June and ends the first week in August. During the academic year, 5th graders attend the program on Saturdays.”


REACH Prep

• Sacred Valley Health
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“Sacred Valley Health trains and supports locally-elected community health workers (promotoras de salud) in some of the poorest and most isolated communities in Peru's Sacred Valley. Little Wings' generous gift of $1,000 funds the First Aid supplies, such as bandages and antibiotic cream, that the promotoras use to treat common injuries. It also helps to underwrite the training sessions in which promotoras learn about topics such as vital signs, the Heimlich maneuver, and prenatal nutrition. Thank you, Little Wings!

Sacred Valley Health was formed in early 2012 to improve health care access and equity in Peru's Sacred Valley. With a dedicated staff and team of volunteers, we are recruiting and training community health workers (promotoras de salud) in the Ollantaytambo District to launch a frontline health worker program. ”


Sacred Valley Health

• Rwandan Girls Initiative
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“The Rwandan Girls Initiative is so very grateful for the $2,000 donation that was made by Little Wings. That generous donation allowed Little Wings to sponsor one girl for an entire year at the Gashora Girls Academy in the Gashora region of Rwanda.

The Gashora Girls Academy is an upper-secondary boarding school for 270 girls, which is located in the Gashora Sector of Rwanda.   Our vision for our students is that they will graduate as inspired young leaders filled with confidence, a love of learning, and a sense of economic empowerment to strengthen their communities and foster Rwanda's growth.

In addition to offering high quality college-prep academics, the Gashora Girls Academy is focused on addressing the needs of the "whole girl" and eliminating the impediments that exist to her receiving an education. The girls are provided nutritious meals, mental and emotional support, access to healthcare, and a supportive learning environment with optimal conditions for assuring their future success. The school opened in February of 2011 with the first incoming class of 90 students.”


Rwandan Girls Initiative

• Life Haven
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“Life Haven is so grateful for the donation made by Little Wings which enable us to buy supplies, start cooking classes, and a healthy food education program for our tenants. We strive to teach the women and children at our facilities healthy lifestyle tools and this donation of $2,000 was able to allow us to further that mission.

Life Haven Inc is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing temporary shelter to homeless pregnant women and women with young children and assisting in the development of skills that will enable them to live independently and achieve success.  The families who seek shelter at Life Haven are experiencing a crisis.  Many are experiencing homelessness for the first time, others are experiencing a longer housing instability.  We are compassionate and respectful, yet professional and disciplined in our approach.  The number of families experiencing homelessness has been steadily rising the past five years.

In 2005 Life Haven opened a licensed child care program to serve women and children living at the shelter and in the community. Our Child Care Program provides a safe, consistent and stimulating environment for the children while their mothers work to build healthy lives for their families.  All staff meet the educational requirements set by the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Our Child Care program is currently operating a school readiness program for 3-5 year olds and  maintain a 5:1 ration of children to caregivers. The daily activity schedule includes circle time, outdoor gross motor activities, music and movement, art, story time, snack and lunch time and a rest period.”


Life Haven

• Morgan Hansow, Founder Light Gives Heat
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“As we all have heard many times, Africa has been hit hard by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Uganda alone, over 1 million people are living with AIDS. With all of this information in mind, Light Gives Heat hosted our second annual AIDS day. Thanks to a financial gift from Little Wings Foundation (www.littlewingsfoundation.org), on June 9, we partnered with the AIDS Information Center (AIC) to offer free testing to all our SUUBI women, all our EPOH tailors, and all their spouses. We made the day into a fun party! We rented out the community center in Walukuba (one of the villages where our women live) and invited everyone to come enjoy some soda, chapati, and kabobs of meat. AIC set up a testing area in the back of the community center, and while the testing was going on they had a group of dancers dancing inside a big room in the community center. People who were waiting for their test results or who had already received their test results could hang out, watch the dancing, and eat. After all the tests were administered, AIC performed a drama for the entire group emphasizing the importance of being tested, especially with your spouse. At the end of a long, but fun day, we got an overview of the testing results. 78 tests were preformed. 70 of those were given to females, and 8 were for males. Out of all those tests, no one tested positive for AIDS! AIC also was able to distribute 100 condoms to the men and 1915 to the women. We also took 1000 condoms with us to continue distributing, as the women need them. Overall, this was an extremely successful day, and everyone had so much fun! Light Gives Heat realizes how important it is to help curb the rate of HIV in Uganda, we therefore hope to make this an annual event!”
-- Morgan Hansow

Light Gives Heat

• Abbas Hassan, Founder Global Glimpse
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“Thank you Little Wings Foundation for your $1500 contribution—a second year in a row. Your continued support enables Global Glimpse to provide a scholarship to a low income high school junior to attend our after-school workshops and summer study and service program abroad. You have changed the life of an under-privileged youth who lacks the opportunities so many of us take for granted.

Global Glimpse is an international NGO that provides 250 low income and needy youth an after-school leadership and service program along with a summer international study and service experience. Our program emphasizes college attendance and retention as well as inspiring youth to take action to solve local and global challenges. Our vision is to serve a million youth annually by 2030.”
-- Abbas Hassan

Global Glimpse

• Beth Rasin, Executive Director, Power Play
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“Hello, my name is Khera Bailey. I am a participant in the PowerPlay Summer Leadership Academy. PowerPlay is a great and enriching program for young girls. On behalf of the PowerPlay girls and myself, I would like to say thank you to Little Wings Foundation for providing us with new softball gloves. Before joining the PowerPlay program I had never tried playing softball and witout the program I don't think I would have. I am planning in taking my newfound love of the game with me to school. I am hoping my principal will be able to start a softball team, so I do not have to stop playing this game.

PowerPlay is dedicated to educating and empowering girls through sports, teaching life skills and building self-confidence and self-esteem for life. Our programs provide girls, ages 7-18, with the opportunity to feel connected, competent and confident, so they can make positive decisions about their lives and learn how to "live healthy."”
-- Beth Rasin

Power Play

• The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
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“Little Wings donated $2500 to The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp this year. That donation will allow one camper, like the child in Green 13 who is quoted below, to spend an entire session at camp free of charge.

Camper
Green 13
Session 2 (June 2007)

Thank you so much for another wonderful year at [The Hole in the Wall Gang] Camp.... I loved all of my counselors and LITs (Leaders-in-Training). This was my third and favorite year at Camp! Being at Camp makes me feel normal again. Before my diagnosis, I was very active and involved with dance, theater, singing, sports, and playing with my friends. Then, when I got sick, I felt alone and isolated. I was in the hospital so much and none of my friends could really understand what I was going through. At first I was nervous about going to Camp - but when I got there everyone was so friendly. I have so many friends at Camp. We can just be ourselves and not worry about feeling different because we have a bald head or are in a wheel chair. I have so much fun doing all the activities that are planned and all of the night activities too, especially the Silly Olympics and Stage Night. I also loved receiving the horse award! Camp means so much to me. Thank you so much for another great year. My parents said that I got my smile back at Camp. Camp is my favorite place to be.”

Founded in 1988 by Paul Newman, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, Connecticut is a nonprofit, residential summer camp and year-round center serving children and their families coping with cancer and other serious illnesses and conditions. Through Camp programs, year-round outreach to hospitals and clinics, and ongoing services for children, families and caregivers, the Camp serves more than 15,000 annually. All of the Camp's services are provided free of charge.  

[The Hole in the Wall Gang] Camp

• Bruce Charash, Founder of Doc to Dock
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“Thanks to the generosity of a $1500 gift from the Little Wings Foundation, Doc to Dock was able to send $30,000 worth of vitally needed medical supplies to a children's medical center in Nairobi, Kenya. These supplies included pediatric blood pressure cuffs, intravenous lines, sterile intravenous fluid, bandages, wheelchairs, syringes, oxgyen masks, needles, sutures, scaples, etc.

Thanks to Little Wings, hundreds of children in Nairobi will be recieving basic health care that they otherwise would have been denied. Little Wings has been a true Guardian Angel to the children of Kenya.

Doc to Dock is an NGO that sends vitally needed medical supplies from the United States to developing countries, primarily in Africa. Every day in the United States more than 7000 tons of unused medical supplies are either incinerated or sent to landfill. At the same time, in developing countries, thousands of patients are turned away from hospitals and medical centers due to the lack of thes supplies. Doc to Dock's mission is to correct this imbalance.

Doc to Dock has established a rapidly growing recycling program to collect medical suppies from hospitals accross the United States. These supplies are then sorted by volunteers, creating an exact inventory, which is then posted on our virtual warehouswe. Hospitals and clinics in Africa are then given access to this inventory, and then they are permitted to order the supplies that they need, filling their own 40 foot shipping container. The total operation cost to Doc to Dock is $20,000 per container, delivering a cargo value, on average, of $400,000. Hence Doc to Dock is able to leverage the value of each donation given to our organizaiton by 20 fold.” -- Bruce Charash

www.doctodock.com

• Joseph Bamford, President of the Board of the Kagando Foundation
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“The Kagando Foundation has gratefully received a $1000.00 donation from the Little Wings Foundation for the construction of two water tap stations which will provide clean water to two villages in south western Uganda, East Africa. The lives of the 160 people served wil be enriched in many ways, not least of which will be drinking a cup of potable water. In areas where taps are located, there is a dramatic decrease in water related diseases such as dysenteries, typhoid fever, cholera, and infestation with parasites.

The Kagando Foundation funds gravity flow clean water projects which pipe water from mountain springs to communal taps in communities in the valleys. By the use of this simple method, many lives are saved.” -- Joseph Bamford

Kagando Foundation

• Jacob Lief, Founder Ubuntu Education Fund
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“Thank you for your generous $1,000 donation! Our holiday camps for orphans and vulnerable children in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa now have the supplies necessary to run two weeks worth of activities. The 150 children that are invited to attend each holiday camp are most vulnerable during school holidays and after-school hours. In most cases, this is one of the first times in their lives where they have felt completely safe and had the opportunity to play and socialize with their peers. Your donation has funded educational and creative activities such as computer classes, sports, discussion groups, lifeskills classes, arts and crafts, debate, and intensive tutoring services.” -- Jacob Lief

Ubuntu Education Fund

• Jon Alpert, Co-Director PRO-TV
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Downtown Community Television Center
“Little Wings Foundation's grant will help PRO-TV staff provide personalized college counseling to ten PRO-TV students including nine that are targeting high school graduation or GED achievement in June of 2009 as well as helping one second-semester junior to research and identify possible colleges for his application list.

PRO-TV college counseling is an ongoing process that encompasses encouraging students to stay on track for high school graduation; research and identification of possible colleges; personalized assistance in the preparation of college and financial aid application packages including essays and the compilation of portfolios; and holding an Annual CollegeJam event, an all-day seminar where students learn about the college experience from PRO-TV alumni who are currently enrolled in college.”

Little Wings Foundation's support will be used throughout the spring semester.  At least ten students will benefit from PRO-TV's college counseling efforts. -- Jon Alpert

“PRO-TV really provided a great outlet for me.  I knew I wanted something great in my life.  PRO-TV taught me everything about documentary filmmaking. Now, I am pursuing a career in filmmaking. Learning filmmaking has helped me navigate better through life. I have learned the basic skills of life.”
Freshman at Briarcliffe College
PRO-TV
Student

PRO-TVs

• John Sanchez, Executive Director East Side House Settlement
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“Thanks to the generous $300 donation from Little Wings, our program has been able to provide additional hats and mittens this winter to our young children. In these hard times, many of our families are not able to provide for basic necessities. The hats and mittens keep our little ones healthy, warm and dry, and give them the gift of enjoying program activities outdoors.

Our Early Childhood programs are proud to serve 245 children between the ages of 2 and 5 each year. The Head Start/Day Care program provides services to children which develop their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills. We work with the parents to assist them in appropriately meeting their child's needs. Our children and families receive a broad range of educational, nutritional, preventive health and transition services in a safe and vibrant environment. All are treated with responsibility, respect, and dignity.

Our South Bronx neighborhood is like many in New York -- people trying to gain a foothold in the American mainstream. They face tough challenges. First generation immigrants, minorities, single parent families, individuals on their second or third chance who know it may be their last. They come to East Side House because our programs help them develop the skills and capabilities they need to get ahead. Our programs focus on basic learning, GED and college preparation, adult education, technology skills and leadership training. Our staff emphasizes self-reliance, self-respect, and self-determination. The results people achieve with the help we provide -- in terms of degrees, jobs, college placement, making the most of their chance -- demonstrates how effective we are.”
-- John Sanchez

East Side House Settlement