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Over 600 million Indians defecate in the open every day because they have no toilet. This practice cripples health, economic, and social outcomes. Open defecation (OD) causes the spread of infectious diseases that kill an estimated 300,000 children under five every year. The economic costs of OD total nearly $54 billion lost each year in India, with rural households bearing the highest per capita loss. Furthermore, women and girls who lack convenient access to toilets often miss school and work while they are menstruating. SHRI ends open defecation in India by constructing community toilet facilities that are free to use. They include eight toilets for women, eight for men, hand-washing stations, and a biogas digester (a large underground tank). Human excrement is stored in this tank where it decomposes to produce methane gas. SHRI uses this energy source to produce electricity, which powers a water filtration plant that uses a patented resin filter to remove arsenic, fluoride, iron, and bacterial contaminants. The resulting potable water is sold for $0.008 per liter, less than half the current market cost, helping SHRI to generate revenue to offset its monthly facility O&M costs. This ensures facility cleanliness, a key predictor of sustained toilet use. Thus SHRI fights alongside rural Indian communities to end open defecation as a key step in the struggle for health equity, and social and economic justice.

Washington state ranks among the top states in the nation in the concentration of STEM jobs, and opportunities are increasing rapidly. By 2030, 70% of high-demand, family-sustaining wage jobs available in our state will require postsecondary degree credentials; 67% of those will require postsecondary STEM credentials. But Washington students are not equitably or adequately prepared to take advantage of these opportunities. Today, only 40% of all students are on track to attain postsecondary credential. Worse yet, students of color, rural students, girls and young women, and students living in poverty still lack access to these pathways—they face disparities early on and fall further behind as they move through the education system. In our state STEM is at the forefront of discovery, on the frontlines of creative 21st century problem-solving, and serves as one of the largest pathways to family-sustaining wage careers and long-term economic security. STEM pathways have promise like few others in Washington and it is imperative that Black, Brown, and indigenous students, rural and low-income students, and girls have access. Washington STEM is working to ensure that all students have equal opportunity to benefit from the transformational possibilities that STEM has to offer.

Mission: "Girl Scouts build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place." The Value proposition is that Girl Scouts is where girls find their voices and make them matter. The Girl Scouts of Central Maryland has served the Metropolitan area since 1962. In the ensuing five decades, the neighborhoods and communities of Baltimore City and certain surrounding counties have changed. The GSCM has endeavored to change to be responsive to these changing demographics and keep current with the needs of girls in Central Maryland. GSCM conducted extensive research into the needs of girls and young women who live in Baltimore City. The families in these areas are typically single-parent families with income levels near the poverty line. Many parents work more than one job to make ends meet. And then there is the special group of girls, often forgotten, who are separated from their mother for reasons over which they had no control. Delivering the extra-curricular activities that are necessary for girls to achieve later in life is a founding principle and goal of Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. This includes learning the real meaning behind the Girl Scout Law of "I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout. In underserved communities there is a lack of availability of programs, and lack of transportation. GSCM intends to continue to fill this void with its Beyond Bars program and needs your support to assure we can continue to transport girls from their neighborhoods to the facility which houses their mother. Overall, for the entire council, the goals for 2015-2018 were established for a target population of girls in kindergarten through 12th grade, the goals and are: (a) to empower a culturally diverse population of girls through engagement in a Girl Scout leadership pathway; (b) to increase the reach of GSCM's programs and unique experiences by enrolling an increased number of girls, particularly girls from underserved communities, as members of the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland; and (c) to recruit, screen and orient new and existing adult volunteers, who are guided and trained to mentor a culturally diverse Girl Scout population.

WE CARE Solar promotes safe motherhood and reduces maternal mortality in developing regions by providing health workers with reliable lighting, mobile communication, and blood bank refrigeration using solar electricity. The Problem Maternal mortality worldwide accounts for more than half a million deaths a year; 99 percent of these occur in underdeveloped countries. For every maternal death, at least 20 women suffer severe complications from childbirth. Major causes of maternal death include obstetric hemorrhage, obstructive labor, eclampsia, and sepsis. These emergencies cannot always be predicted, nor are they always preventable. However, with prompt, appropriate and reliable medical care, they are unlikely to result in loss of life. Sporadic electricity impairs the operation of surgical wards, delivery wards, essential hospital equipment, and hospital communication devices. This compromises the ability of health workers to provide safe, appropriate and timely medical care. Labor and delivery nurses cannot quickly notify on-call physicians of emergencies. Midwives and physicians are forced to make treatment decisions without the benefit of necessary diagnostic tests. Obstetric procedures and emergency surgeries are conducted under grossly suboptimal conditions, and can have tragic consequences. Our Background Co-founder Dr. Laura Stachel went to Northern Nigeria in 2008 to study ways to lower maternal mortality in state hospitals. She witnessed deplorable conditions in state facilities including sporadic electricity that impaired maternity and surgical care. Without a reliable source of electricity, nighttime deliveries were attended in near darkness, cesarean sections were cancelled or conducted by flashlight, and critically ill patients waited hours or days for life-saving procedures. The outcomes were often tragic. Laura wrote to her husband, Hal Aronson, a solar energy educator back in Berkeley, California. Together, Laura and Hal co-founded WE CARE Solar to improve maternal health outcomes in regions without reliable electricity. Hal designed an off-grid solar electric system for the hospital Laura was studying, targeting the maternity ward, labor room, laboratory and operating theatre. A Portable Solution Hal created a suitcase-sized prototype of the hospital solar electric system so Laura could show Nigerian hospital workers the LED lights, headlamps and walkie-talkies planned for deployment. When Laura returned to Nigeria toting the "solar suitcase," her Nigerian colleagues immediately grasped its significance and began using this kit to charge headlamps and walkie-talkies while they awaited the larger solar installation. In addition, hospital employees introduced Laura to clinicians in outlying health facilities who begged her to bring solar lighting to their own clinics, too. Our five-year goal is to serve 5 million mothers in remote areas by deploying 10,000 Solar Suitcases to health care facilities around the globe.

The core ideas that underpin the mission of Ujyalo Foundation are: Innovation, Gender Inclusive Leadership, and Social Enterprise. Based on these core ideas, Ujyalo Foundation's mission is "to empower communities through technologies, innovation, social enterprise, and gender inclusive leadership, collaboratively locally and globally". We strongly believe that the best way to create sustainable development in any community is by investing in its young women. With initiatives like EmpowHER, and Women Leadership Summit, we provide safe platforms for young women to enhance their leadership skills, explore their unique selves as leaders in their communities, and develop their ideas into potential livelihood opportunities in Nepal. These programs give women a safe space to learn and lead without any social stigma or fear of discrimination. After going through our programs, our women have become confident, independent leading their ideas in different capacities, and creating their own strong collectives of young women. After leading these initiatives for two years and working with 1600 young women, we have discovered just how much such an effort can contribute in the advancement of young women and their causes, especially in a society driven by patriarchy. We want young women in Nepal to believe that a space where young women can lead fearlessly on the basis of their merit and idea, not their gender is possible. Our vision is to create a world where young women can live, learn and lead without any prejudice and discrimination, and have men as the champions to promote women safety and leadership.

To foster sustainable and vibrant Ugandan communities through unique partnerships focused on education, women's empowerment, food security, and health.

We are a foundation responding to a humanitarian crisis affecting the innocent men, women and children forced from their homes by climate change, poverty and war. We identify needs not being met and aim to fill these needs by activating our network of logistical, financial and structural partners to provide these needs thoroughly and without hesitation. In addition to providing urgent needs, our mission is to deliver a more dignified, sustainable, and innovative response to the refugee crisis in Europe. We believe that refugee camps should be more inclusive, more self-sustaining and providing refugees with a better quality of life and adaptation process to their new environments. With collaborative efforts with interested corporations, other charities, refugees, volunteers, and donations, we are activating a network that re-defines the global refugee camps.