[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

We've moved!

The hodgepodge of wizards, sprites, and flamethrowers have moved! But don’t worry, we’re still granting wishes and sprinkling fairy dust on the most awesome ideas around! 

Please come visit us at www.awesomewithoutborders.org. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 50: Volunteer Handymen

Home repairs become a lower priority in dishing out finances when the bank account is low and bellies need to be fed. Hiring a handyman is likely out of the question, and fixing leaks and creaks oneself…? Well, that’s just not so simple when you’re working full-time or lack the equipment and/or skills to perform maintenance work.  

This week’s grantee has recruited retired men with experience in basic home repair to volunteer their time to help families in need. The Handymen Volunteers come equipped with their own tools and transportation as well as the compassion to help the folks in their community. The volunteers are mentored and supported by the St. Jeanne Antide Foundation, an NGO in Malta that works hard to identify and support vulnerable communities with their door-to-door outreach program. In 2012, the program had 3 volunteer handymen and they completed a total of 581 hours of service benefitting 77 individuals from 23 families. Amazing!

With this AWB grant, basic materials such as sockets, plugs, drain pipes, energy saving bulbs, paint and paint rollers will be purchased and then installed for free by these wonderful handymen. Talk about forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe! 

Learn more about the incredibly valuable work of the St. Jeanne Antide Foundation by visiting their website and Facebook page. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 49: Take A Seat, Make A Friend

Fulbright Program Manager by day, roller derby girl and community service junkie by night - Ali Edelstein has a knack for bringing people from different cultures and communities together. Her most recent undertaking will make you want to book a flight to Belgium so that you can experience her re-creation of Soul Pancake's “Take a Seat, Make a Friend.”

"Take a Seat, Make a Friend" involves turning a large wooden crate into a ball pit with questions written on each of the balls. There’s enough room for two people to sit in the crate and talk to each other at a time. For one day each month, the ball pit will “hit the streets” and relocate to new areas in Brussels where strangers can plop down to talk about life’s big questions in… a freestanding pit of colorful plastic balls!

For those a little wary of hopping into this pit of awesomeness, Ali and her team will also set up a second project with hot chocolate and paper slips with questions similar to those in the pit.

We’re excited to see this project  inspire friendships, build community, and move people to get involved in this year’s Serve the City projects by the time the 10th annual Big Volunteer Week rolls around in July.

We're all hoping "Take a Seat, Make a Friend" shows up locally in our neighborhoods so we can take a dive! But until then, stay in touch with Serve the City Brussels on Facebook and see how Ali's project unfolds! 

*Photo credit: SoulPancake

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 48: Solo No Puedo

78-year-old retired cardiologist, Dr. Luis Vasquez, had a dream: build a state of the art, volunteer-run hospital in the middle of a Peruvian jungle. 

His desire to bring universal healthcare to Yantaló -- his mother's hometown -- has not only resulted in an internationally run and sustainably designed scientific campus, but a haven for patients as far away as Lima.

Sounds like an undertaking worth documenting, right?! Director/Producer, Angela Snow and Cinematographer, Josh Gibson thought so, and spent 7 years capturing the story. Under the tutelage of the duo's company To the Moon Productions, the film Solo No Puedo: I Cannot Alone was born.

Learn more about the film and corresponding social impact campaign, where you you can find resources for volunteering, donating, and taking action on behalf of Dr. Vasquez’s hospital and similar opportunities around the world. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 47: Warmth in Afghanistan

Over 20 million low-birth-weight and premature babies are born every year around the world, and over 4 million die within their first month of life. 

The biggest problem? Temperature regulation. The good news? This week's AWB grantee has developed an innovative & cost-effective solution. Enter the Embrace infant warmer.

Embrace is a social enterprise aiding millions of vulnerable babies with the infant warmer (pictured above) that costs a fraction of the price of existing solutions, works with or without electricity and is portable, safe and incredibly intuitive to use. The mini sleeping bag design  stays at a constant temperature for up to 6 hours - maintaining premature and low birth weight babies' body temperature to help them survive and thrive.

Embrace’s first project in the Middle East  launched in April 2013 at Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, where infant and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world. 

The results so far have been astounding! In the first 3 months, Embrace has provided side-by-side training to nearly 200 mothers and health care workers and served over 1,700 infants.

The AWB team see a tremendous opportunity to expand Embrace’s work in providing affordable and accessible solutions to prevent hypothermia and impact the lives of babies around the world. We’re thrilled that this grant will purchase more infant warmers to deliver to Rabia Balkhi Hospital and contribute to the narrowing of a huge inequity gap in global health. 

To learn more about this amazing product with a mission, watch THIS. Then visit embraceglobal.org and follow Embrace on Facebook and Twitter. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 46: Wishes and Wellness

“Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna to be alright.” 

Bob Marley’s song “Three Little Birds” is beloved worldwide for it's breezy spirit and hopeful message; for Ashely Swip, it also evokes the philosophy of her brother Guy "Tyler" Gifford. “He always had a unique way of making each and every person around him smile, laugh and remember that every little thing gonna be all right, no matter the circumstance,” she said. It was in this spirit that 3 Little Birds 4 Life came to be.

The mission of 3 Little Birds 4 Life is both simple and ambitious: enhance the lives of young adult cancer patients with any type of cancer at any stage. Their approach includes granting wishes to young adult cancer patients 18-40 years of age (by fulfilling bucket list wishes and delivering personalized gift baskets to patients during treatment), providing resources throughout all stages of cancer, and creating awareness around cancer risks for young adults. 

Currently, the organization is the only one of its kind in the United States, and since July 2012, Ashley and her team have granted over 55 wishes.

We're thrilled to contribute this AWB grant to 3 Little Wishes 4 Life and to support these life changing experiences. Make sure to visit 3littlebirds4life.org on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about the wishes they're granting. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 45: Donkeys for Development

Eliot Chisango is a changemaker.

Born in Zimbabwe and educated in Johannesburg, his personal mission is clear: “To help people in rural South Africa out of poverty by creating jobs and cleaning up communities through recycling initiatives.” Obviously, our AWB team was more than happy to throw a little fairy dust his way.

After identifying the lack of an effective waste disposal and recycling system in Senwabarwana, a small community in deep rural Limpopo province of South Africa, Eliot called on his studies in Environmental Management, and experience working with the  P.E.A.C.E Foundation, to mastermind an unlikely solution: donkey carts.

While some of the waste collection will be completed using the Municipal system, not all areas of the rural community can be reached. Donkey carts provide access to areas the Municipality will not service, strengthening the recycling buy-back initiative and creating jobs.

So far, Eliot and the P.E.A.C.E. Foundation have helped a cooperative of women improve their working conditions, by transitioning an unprotected dumpsite to an operation with water, electricity and the essential machinery. With this AWB grant, they are also able to purchase a donkey cart and provide trash bins labeled “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle from Trash to Cash."

To learn more about Eliot, watch this short video, and to connect with the P.E.A.C.E Foundation, you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 44: Sweet Dreams

Alexis and Jennie had a dream to start a business that made taste buds happy and hearts feel good. In 2007, their dreams were realized and the doors to NYC’s beloved Blue Marble Ice Cream were opened. Two years into their ice cream adventure, Blue Marble Dreams was founded, a nonprofit initiative to support the joy and prosperity of communities in need through the unlikely medium of ice cream.

The new social venture was prompted by a most unexpected request… to help a group of women in Butare, Rwanda open up their very own ice cream shop. Behind this request was a special Rwandan woman named Odile Gakire Katese (or Kiki, as she is affectionately called). In her reasoning, here's what Kiki said: 1) it would create training and employment opportunities for the women, 2) it would support local farmers and producers, and 3) it would serve as a place for people to gather, indulge and heal wounds inflicted during the country's devastating genocide.

The women Kiki had in mind to lead the shop were the members of Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda’s first and only all-women drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the conflict. There was only one requirement: to leave the categories of the past at the gate.

Kiki created this group in an effort to bring women across ethnic lines and into a special circle that promoted friendship, creative expression and fun. 

Inspired by Kiki’s idea, Alexis and Jennie signed on and launched Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams in English) in June, 2010.  Since then, they’ve trained and employed dozens of women, indirectly supported 200+ family members, buoyed the local economy and provided a special place for the community to feel safe, happy and renewed.

Inzozi Nziza is off to a very successful start and this group of women are still dreaming!  Plans for expansion are in the works and with this AWB grant, Blue Marble Dreams is developing a meal subscription program for the many University of Rwanda students who frequent the ice cream shop. 

"Because of our history," Kiki says, "people know how to fight against, but not for. We want to change that equation." Stay connected with Blue Marble Dreams and Inzozi Nziza. Watch their story here and stay up to date via their Facebook page and Twitter channel.

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 43: The Mlangarini Project

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela’s words came to mind when reading the application from 17-year-old Olivia Leventhal, a creative and entrepreneurial senior at Crossroads High School in Santa Monica, California.

Honor student, volleyball player and social activist, Olivia founded the Mlangarini Project, a grassroots non-profit which provides direct assistance to the local primary school of Mlangarini, a small village near Arusha, Tanzania. (Not bad for a girl not yet out of high school!)

Inspired by a five-week trip she spent building a classroom in the Mlangarini village, Olivia founded the organization in an effort to do more for students at the primary school. With this AWB grant, Olivia and her small team will provide resources, including uniforms, fees and supplies, for the children, so they can return to school in the spring! 

Learn more about The Mlangarini Project here, and stay up to date on their work by following them on Facebook.

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 42: No, No Estamos Locos

Nicola Twilley is a busy gal.

She writes a blog called Edible Geography, co-founded the Foodprint Project, and runs Studio-X NYC, a cities think-tank/event space, for Columbia University. In her “free” time, she obsesses about refrigeration, curates an exhibition exploring North America's cryosphere, and traveled around North America with a pop-up interview studio and multimedia rig. Did we mention, she’s also made a scratch 'n sniff map of New York City?

It should come as no surprise then that her idea for AWB was a grand one: a two-week story-telling residency in La Central de Abasto in Mexico City.

La Central is one of the largest wholesale markets in the world — up to 30% of all the food sold in the entire country passes through it every day. Accompanied by a Mexican photographer and translator, Nicola will spend one workday at a time in different sectors and with different actors -- from flowers to fruit and from cargadores to cleaners -- recording their stories and documenting their day-to-day activities.

Each day, at the market’s close, they will put together a beautifully designed broadside of their findings: photographs, stories, and infographics that bring to life the people and unpack the mysteries of this "Axis of Food." Each day’s broadside will thus focus on one facet of the market: ice vendors, carrot cartels, truck drivers, etc. Then Nicola and co will print and distribute these broadsides as food wrappers at the city's public and street markets, where much of the produce sold at La Central ends up. They will also publish them online (in collaboration with the BBC), and, at the end of the project, display them in tear-off pads as an exhibition in DF and then NYC. The market is amazing and mysterious, even to 99% of the residents of Mexico City: this project will help bring its daily operations and idiosyncrasies to life for the people it feeds.

To learn more about Nicola and her adventures in La Central, follow her on Twitter @nicolatwilley and check out her blog ediblegeography.com!

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 41: Community Canvases

Who would have thought that decorating light poles and garbage bins could unlock the solution to ending vandalism in Buffalo? Apparently, Jim Montour and Alex Cornwell.

Community Canvases “was founded on the idea that neighborhoods with a strong sense of place make people better connected, more involved and strengthen economic and community development. Using the established landscape and local artists, Community Canvases turns the geography of a neighborhood into works of art that properly display the cultural, historical and geographical aspects that make each community diverse and unique.”

With this grant, Community Canvases will pay homage to The African American Heritage Corridor. Home to many important icons of Buffalo’s history, including a Baptist Church that played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad, the group will turn signal boxes, light poles and other city infrastructure into works of art that will illustrate the respect and pride the community has for this corridor.

Learn more about Community Canvases on their website, Facebook page and Twitter channels.

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 40: Hope Through Common Threads

Graduate student Amber Dodge has a long history working with the refugees of Thailand and Myanmar. For two years, she worked in the refugee camps bordering those countries, and now she’s applying her knowledge and passion to the refugee population in her native state of Florida.

A teacher and friend to those exiled, Amber has developed a deep appreciation of their culture, and in particular, the handmade textiles woven by Burmese refugee women. 

Intricate, colorful and functional, women often use the fabric to transport vegetables from the market or garden, and to strap their babies to their backs while they work. Woven on a back-strap loom, the traditional and ancient technique is used by indigenous peoples around the world. For many women, the hours spent weaving is one of few opportunities they have to discuss social and economic issues, whereby the art provides an outlet for self-expression, creates supplementary income and community building.

To better equip the women arriving in Florida (the majority of which speak no English) with employment opportunities and financial independence, Amber will use this AWB grant to provide refugee women with the materials necessary to build their own looms and start weaving, and assist them with the marketing and sales of their finished textiles. She also plans to organize “sewing circles,” which will include refugees from Iraqi, Afghan, Cuban, Colombian, Congolese and Ethiopian, as well as Burma. 

The end goal: provide a space for women to improve their English, preserve their cultures, and transition more as seamlessly as possible into the American culture. Learn more here!

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 39: Dances Made to Order

Kingsley Irons is a choreographer, filmmaker and the Artistic Director of online film series Dances Made to Order. The concept is simple: every month, three talented artists are invited to create a five-minute dance film on a theme selected by the group's online community.

Dances Made to Order also produces the En Route Dance Film Festival each December. This live streamed program includes a global selection of dance films unavailable anywhere else online.

In the past year, the company's audience has doubled! And with this AWB grant, Dances Made to Order can finance a content delivery network that allows viewers around the world to access the films from their computers and mobile devices.

Learn more about Dances Made to Order on their website, or check them out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Inspired? Do this.

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 38: Performance, Potluck & Punch

Potlucks include two ingredients key to cultural transformation: food and shared experience.

That recipe was top of mind when Sherrine Azab and her partner Jake Hooker decided to plant their own artistic roots in Detroit. By infusing the potluck concept with another special additive, theater, they believed they could further the rehabilitation and community building already underway.

Part of Detroit-based theater company, A Host of People, the price of admission to a Performance, Potluck & Punch event is a shared dish. Before watching a performance (or two), curated for that particular evening, guests gather around a punch bowl to meet and get to know one another. Afterwards, they return to the bowl for a discussion on the piece and a meal.

Says Sherrine, “We invite our audience into our art as we would guests into our home, whether it is in a house, on the street, in a gallery, or in a theater…. By sharing a communal art experience in a familial way we hope more people will feel invited into alternative art.”

Learn more about A Host of People via their Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram channels and website. 

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 37: Employee of the Month

Does anyone remember that scene in Steel Magnolias when Truvy (Dolly Parton’s character) says to M’Lynn (Sally Field) “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion”? That’s what runs through my mind when I think about how comedian Catie Lazarus turned her own struggles, and the struggles of folks around her, into an inspiring and critically acclaimed talk show. 

In the midst of a plunging economy, Catie was struck by the number of people then unable to find work. In an effort to provide support and a few laughs along the way, she invited influencers in a variety of fields to join her for informational interviews, during which they shared their own secrets to success and offered career advice.

To date, Catie’s show, Employee of the Month, spans two cities, a podcast with over 40,000 subscribers and a thriving online community. Her guests, Gloria Steinem, David Carr, Stacy London, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Rachel Maddow among them, have contributed to nearly 100 interviews and resulted in a number of fans finding employment, and creating and/or pursuing their dream jobs.  

To grab tickets and learn more about the show, visit Employee of the Month's website and Facebook page, then follow Catie on Twitter and check out the podcast here.

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 36: Best of the Fests

Tammy Lynn Gilmore is a filmmaker and actor with Festivus for the Rest of Us on the brain.

Read: After a ten-year stint working at Austin’s renowned SXSW, coupled with various engagements at other festivals worldwide, Tammy decided to share her deep love and appreciation for the festivarian culture with, well, the rest of us. 

Calling on her movie making chops and storytelling skills, Tammy plans to use this AWB grant to launch an exciting new travelogue series.

Through the individual stories of an ensemble cast, featuring influencers and tastemakers specific to each event, Tammy will explore the most established and eclectic festivals in the world.

Cast members will be asked to share anecdotes, so that viewers are afforded an intimate look at the histories, obstacles, legends and missions -- among other things -- involved in creating a successful happening.

Follow Tammy on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about this upcoming project. Then head on over to our chapter's page and apply to fund some awesome of your own!

[awesomewithoutborders-blog]

Grant 35: Burn Survivor Conference

After the oh so awesome Dustin Wise sustained 3rd degree burns from a cooking fire, he developed a passion for supporting other burn survivors.

First, he founded the Wise Foundation, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit health organization dedicated to providing help, hope and healing to young adult survivors of burns and disfiguring scars. Soon after, he hosted a conference (and other retreats), which brought together survivors from across the nation. There they received the recovery and psychological support necessary after enduring a traumatizing event. 

With this AWB grant, the Wise Foundation will hold it’s second annual conference. The empowering 3-day weekend, revolving around self-acceptance and self-discovery, will employ breakout sessions, doctors, and burn community leaders from across the nation to assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of participants. The goal: provide the attendees with a smoother transition from their teenage years to the adult years of their life, by developing coping skills, building self-esteem, and learning self-acceptance.

To learn more about this remarkable foundation, visit the Wise Foundation website, Facebook and Twitter channels. 

What's the craziest idea you've ever had? Could you make it happen with $1,000? We think you should try. Apply now!