Groundwork Opportunities

Groundwork Opportunities (GO) is a charity that supports groundbreaking ideas and projects to reduce poverty in the developing world.  They empower local visionaries and entrepreneurs to engage their communities and design sustainable futures.

GO identifies and partners with local leaders in the developing world who have designed sustainable programs to address community-based issues, such as a lack of clean water, healthcare, or education. Once a partnership is established, GO provides the community with the start-up capital and guidance needed to turn their vision for a better world into a reality. GO then invites their global support network, comprised of both local supporters as well as other developing-world leaders, to help scale the impact of these micro-development programs across multiple countries. In this manner each of their project partners gets the opportunity to collaborate with other local leaders from around the world to implement sustainable futures beyond poverty.

For more information, please visit http://www.groundworkopportunities.org

Pictures of our well in Cambodia! Sponsored by GO and SF Rotaract!

La Casa de Las Madres

Thirty years ago, La Casa de las Madres opened San Francisco’s first domestic violence shelter for women and their children.  The once-quiet shelter has grown into the city’s leading voice for abused women, their children and teens – educating, promoting awareness and changing the community’s and the media’s perceptions about domestic violence and its victims.  Through a broad service continuum, they also provide expert intervention and prevention services to more than 10,000 community members annually.  Their service continuum offers emergency residential shelter and community-based services to women, teens and their children while providing advocacy, counseling, family-based services and referrals.

For more information, please visit http://www.lacasa.org.

Otinibi Library Project in Ghana

With a clear intent to promote peace, education and international understanding, SF Rotaract teamed up with the Rotaract Club of Adentan (Ghana) in the construction of a 50-seat library for Otinibi D/A Basic School in Ghana.  This library will also be open to the community in general.  With 344 students, the school already has more than 2,000 books and is in need of the infrastructure to store and provide an independent learning sanctuary for its students.  SF Rotaract helped the Rotaract Club of Adentan by contributing to their $33,000 fundraising goal to make this project a reality.

For more information about the Rotaract Club of Adentan, please visit http://adentanrotaract.org.

Slum Soccer

Slum Soccer, which operates in India, tackles the issue of homelessness (specifically among children) through the medium of soccer.  Soccer not only empowers them and enhances their fitness, social and communication skills, but it also prevents them from falling into some of the all to frequent paths reserved to homeless children, such as drugs, alcohol and sex trade.  Slum Soccer Tournaments are organized in numerous states across India, and the best players are selected to compete in the Homeless World Cup.  The results so far have been tremendous in bringing a positive influence to the lives of nearly 70,000 men, women and children in over 63 districts all around India.  The founder of this organization has just received the “2012 Reliance Real Hero Award’ from the Reliance Foundation, hosted by CNN and IBN.

For more information, please visit http://www.slumsoccer.org.

Lizie Dans La Main (Our Hands Are Our Eyes)

Lizie Dans La Main is a non-profit organization that offers a comprehensive range of services to the visually handicapped in Mauritius.  SF Rotaract is working with the Rotaract Club of Quatre Bornes in Mauritius to help fundraise a total of $3,500 for the purchase of a Braille printer and scanner for their organization.

For more information, please visit http://www.ldlm.intnet.mu.

Larkin Street Youth Services

Larkin Street was founded in 1984 by a group of local business owners, church members, and neighbors who were concerned by the rising number of young people engaging in risky behaviors on the streets of San Francisco. With 25 comprehensive youth service programs located throughout San Francisco in over 13 sites, Larkin Street Youth Services is now an internationally recognized model successfully integrating street outreach and emergency shelter, primary medical care, transitional housing, and job training and scholarship assistance to get homeless and at risk kids off the streets.

Larkin Street Youth Services provides homeless, runaway and at-risk kids between the ages of 12 and 24 with the help they need to rebuild their lives. Each year, more than 3,600 kids walk through Larkin Street’s doors seeking help. They give them the care, nurturing, and support they need to resolve the immediate crises in their lives and take steps toward a brighter future beyond the streets. The service continuum is comprehensive; it is designed to meet the myriad and evolving needs of kids without a safe place to call home.

For more information, please visit http://www.larkinstreetyouth.org.

Raphael House

For nearly fourty years, Raphael House has been a leader in family services in San Francisco. Through a “homeowners” approach to social service, they work with parents and families to lay the foundations for a lifetime of healthy development, achievement and stability. Long after a family departs to stable housing, the Raphael House staff, volunteers and Board of Directors remain committed to the lifetime success of each of those families through a spectrum of AfterCare services. The Raphael House residential shelter program has a proven history of providing the foundation for healthy growth and development of children and families. What began as a homeless drop-in shelter has grown into a full service family support center where families thrive.

For more information, please visit http://www.raphaelhouse.org or view our flyer Raphael House Clothing Drive

Collaboration with International Rotaractors

In its continuing effort to bridge communities and clubs throughout the world, San Francisco Rotaract is honored and grateful to have participated in the newsletters of the Rotaract Club of Bangalore and the Rotaract Club of Kathmandu. May these collaborations be the beginning of a long journey of “Service Above Self”.