Wisdom Lab Update — Jan 2023

Prior to starting activities in a given community, Global Grassroots staff collaborate with venture teams to identify 40-45 households to participate in a two-part Community Impact Survey (CIS). The survey contains standard questions designed by Global Grassroots as well as a set of “venture specific” questions designed by teams themselves, based on their unique context and mission.

Dear Global Grassroots Friends,

As we move towards the end of the year, we’re taking a reflective gaze at the entirety of 2022, appreciating the challenges, the impact, the stories, friendships, and collective engagement that have made the year so rich. You are all a part of the Global Grassroots story and we thank you. We’ll be releasing our comprehensive Year-End Update in early January, but would like to share our gratitude today for the impact that we’ve had together this year.

We’re investing in young women this #GivingTuesday. Will you join us to ensure they have the support, mentorship, entrepreneurial training, and opportunity needed to implement their vision for community impact?

Your single action this week can make a huge difference in the lives of young women and their communities. Tomorrow is #GivingTuesday and we’re overjoyed to share that a generous supporter has offered to match all gifts until we reach $5,000!

Starting TOMORROW, November 29th through December 2nd, your gift will be matched, going twice as far in supporting our Young Women’s Academy for Conscious Change! $10 will become $20, $25 will become $50, or any gift you can give.

Dear Friends,

As we enter this season of gratitude, connection and sharing, we want to send our appreciation for your support and partnership. Your contributions of time, resources, ideas, and heart lead directly to meaningful conscious social change - from inner transformation to clean water for thousands, to trauma healing, community education, and so much more.

In July, Global Grassroots’ staff met with leaders, community members and partners of four of our longest-running women’s water leadership initiative teams in Jali, Rwanda.

Using Ripple Effects Mapping, a participatory research process, we collaboratively recreated a timeline of key events and documented the most salient impacts of each team’s efforts since they participated in our Women’s Academy for Conscious Change.

After 5+ years of implementation, these water ventures are still going strong! We’ll share more from this inquiry in our first Wisdom Lab report in late 2022.

We are overjoyed to share that Global Grassroots has been honored with the iF Social Impact Prize by iF Design, an international institution at the vanguard of innovative design and social engagement. Their distinguished panel of jurors has selected our Women’s Water Leadership Initiative as a uniquely impactful project that is deeply aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Thank you, iF Design, for recognizing the incredible work of Global Grassroots’ women change agents in Rwanda.

Together with your help, we’re investing in women, water and sustainability. Read more in this Mid-Year Update about how our Conscious Social Change work is impacting lives and communities. The change agents we work with are executing projects that are improving access to clean water for 30,000+ people since 2021 alone and training their communities to better respond to myriad challenges.

Today is the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. It marks the beginning of this horrific 100-day period from April to July of 1994 during which nearly 1 million Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were killed. This is also the beginning of Rwanda’s national mourning period that will last until July 4th. READ MORE HERE

Annie Protzmann started her 2,190 mile journey on the Appalachian Trail nearly a month ago, devoting this trek towards raising awareness and funds for the girls and women we work with in East Africa. She has already walked an incredible 275 MILES and counting! We’re cheering her on along the way and sharing our gratitude for her passion for water access, women’s rights and gender equity. READ MORE

The communities we work alongside in Rwanda often have to walk hours each day to access small amounts of typically contaminated water. This leads to less time for income generation, children losing the opportunity to attend school, an increase in incidence of sexual assault, and exploitation of vulnerable populations who can’t make these daily hikes.

Global Grassroots works with these incredible local women change agents to address this issue, integrating our theory of Conscious Social Change with life-changing, sustainable access to clean water sources. It’s exactly this impactful, community-led approach that has brought Annie Protzmann into the Global Grassroots community.

We’ve been on a mission over the last two years to ensure that we are living our values of being a truly African-led organization. The final step of this goal was to ensure that our Board of Directors is led by women leaders from across the African continent.