As a volunteer with BERUDA this summer I launched a project to support single mothers, who are often stigmatized in the community and left alone to raise their children. I had the opportunity to meet 10 young women who have an aspiration to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, but lack the resources to do so. They are very hard working and have tried to earn an income by working in someone else’s farm, selling food, or by relying on their families. However, this is not enough to provide for their children’s basic needs such as food and school fees.

By supporting this project, you can empower them by enabling them to start their own business in tailoring, cosmetics, and hairdressing. This will give them a stable source of income which will empower them financially so they can provide for their families.  With your contribution, you will be improving the situation of these 10 single mothers, their children, and even improving the situation of the community by creating more jobs for people who face similar circumstances.

This is an open invitation to make a direct impact on their lives and improve their situation for the better, let’s help them help themselves!

For more information about where the funds will go to, their individual stories, and how to get involved, please follow the following link:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/smep

Happy New Year to you all, from all of us here at BERUDA!
We are really looking forward to 2018, with work moving on well and setting us up to achieve great things for the community this year.

We are really proud to have finished building our own guesthouse reserved for our volunteers that can accommodate up to 6 volunteers at a time. BERUDA has used a variety of accommodations over our long history of welcoming volunteers into our community but we are excited to be able to guarantee a higher standard of hospitality with the creation of our own new and comfortable guesthouse.

Also in 2017 we put time and effort into increasing our capacity to successfully seek international donors and as a result we're currently writing projects about forestry, beekeeping and vetiver. Keep an eye out for projects like these in our news in 2018.

We've started selling the pigs we've successfully bred and raised for the main purpose of generating income for all the great projects we can't wait to get started on. In recent years through an injection of funds from the Ramboll Foundation, BERUDA invested in 100 pigs and pens so that the breeding and raising of these livestock would serve as additional income generation for BERUDA projects in the region. This has been a successful strategy and we are now breeding and raising a wider range of livestock and poultry. You will see the fishpond here in the photos, an initative that provides income from the sale of Tilapia fish, great nutrition for the community and also has spin off benefits for the environment in collecting and storing rainwater and increasing the local water table.

So, how about visiting us in 2018 and being a part of all we have going on? We'd love to have you!

​Most of us want to make the world a better place, but we often ask ourselves where to start.

Meet Cristina Clopatofsky, a recent volunteer and inspiring changemaker. Watch her video and support this great project working with entrepreneurial women in the BERUDA community.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/smep