Posner Center Announces Second Annual International Collaboration Fund Winners

Contact:
Doug Vilsack, Executive Director
Posner Center for International Development
719-647-7365
posnercenter.org

February 24, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Posner Center Announces Second Annual International Collaboration Fund Winners

The Posner Center for International Development's International Collaboration Fund supports innovative projects designed to foster partnerships between Colorado-based international development organizations working to combat global poverty. Projects selected for funding from the Posner Center's network of 57 Tenants and 100+ Members demonstrate creative approaches, risk-taking, and the opportunity for increased impact.

The Posner Center is pleased to announce the awardees of the second annual International Collaboration Fund. These grants are generously supported by CoBank, Harvey Family Foundation, Joanne Posner-Mayer, the Shuyler Family, and Western Union. For information on how to support the International Collaboration Fund, including targeted funding for projects in agriculture, water, energy, infrastructure, health, education, children, and many more areas, contact: Doug Vilsack, Executive Director at 719-647-7365.

The 2016 Collaboration Fund winners and projects:

Children’s Future International, Sustainable Schools International, Empowering Youth in Cambodia, Trailblazer Foundation, and Asian Foundation - $3,450
Colorado is home to a strong community of organizations working in Cambodia. The ICF-funded Colorado-Cambodia Consortium will foster collaboration between these organizations by promoting sharing of resources and best practices, reducing duplication of effort, and identifying future avenues for partnership.

Children’s Future International and Write Our World - $5,250
Children’s Future International (CF) and Write Our World (WOW) will collaborate to implement WOW’s ebook authoring project at CF’s Learning Center in Battambang, Cambodia during the 2016 summer session. WOW is working alongside the CF teachers to lead the initial ebook creation project and is also training them to implement future ebook projects independently. The students at the Learning Center will generate creative bilingual materials that will be shared in the WOW ebook library and will be made available to individuals worldwide.

Denver Urban Gardens, Friends of ENCA Farm, and Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance - $10,000
Denver Urban Gardens (DUG), Friends of ENCA Farm (FoE) and the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance (RMSA) will conduct seed-saving educational, training, and capacity-building programs in the Philippines and Denver throughout 2016. This partnership will support the creation of appropriate seed-saving curricula, a one-day seed school in Denver serving
Burmese farmers and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) participants, a farmer-to-farmer exchange between Denver and the Philippines, and a seed school in the Philippines.

Edge of Seven, AfricAid and eight additional Posner Center Tenants - $8,500
Led by Edge of Seven and AfricAid, this cohort of Posner Center Tenants will pilot a shared fundraising effort, dubbed the 'fundraising event support test,' or 'FEST.' This grant will fund dedicated support for soliciting in-kind donations, sponsorships, and event marketing on behalf of the group of 10 organizations. The aim is to develop processes that create efficiencies and therefore improved returns for the test group and help identify the utility of such a service.

iDE and Engineers Without Borders - $20,000
iDE and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) will accelerate the design, testing, and construction of a post-harvest cooling and storage system for use by smallholder farmers in Mozambique who have little or no access to grid power. In rural communities worldwide, there is often large post-harvest crop spoilage that results in income loss for farmers and reduced access to nutritional produce for families. The planned design addresses the three critical steps in the supply chain, thereby maintaining an unbroken cold chain: onsite field storage, crop transportation, and cooling at a large collection center.

Into Your Hands-Africa, AfricAid, Africa Development Promise, Edge of Seven, and Global Livingston Institute - $20,000
Building upon a 2015 ICF scoping grant, this group of five organizations will implement the Women's Entrepreneurial Training Program (WETP) and create additional tools as a resource for organizations delivering business trainings. They will use a human-centered design approach to revise and customize the existing curriculum for delivery in two locations
in Uganda. In addition, they will develop a replicable implementation framework which will serve as a tool to support organizations in successfully delivering business trainings across a variety of contexts and geographies.

Technology Partnership, Hope Online Learning Academy, and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance - $5,000
Technology Partnership is collaborating with two local organizations, Hope Online Learning Academy and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, to create a cross-cultural exchange between Denver and Meru, Kenya using dance and the arts as a catalyst. Utilizing the IEEE Global Classroom at the Posner Center, the group will conduct four dance exchanges, supplemented with facilitated pen-pal relationships. Through this project, participants from diverse communities locally and internationally will have the opportunity to change their views about technology and their own abilities, and begin to see broader opportunities for themselves in a global world.

World Child Cancer USA and Project C.U.R.E. - $5,000
World Child Cancer USA and Project C.U.R.E. are partnering to deliver a 53-foot shipping container of medical supplies and equipment to the Hospital de la Niñez Oaxqueña (HNO) in Oaxaca, Mexico. The goal of this project is to strengthen the medical infrastructure at HNO, to outfit the new pediatric oncology ward to care for more childhood cancer patients, and to improve outcomes for all children treated at the HNO. The partners will work directly with hospital staff to deliver capacity building training and implement effective systems for monitoring and evaluating long-term health outcomes.