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"At a Glance": A Decade of Service
Mission Statement
We empower impoverished people with the skills and tools they need to create positive change in the lives of their families and in their villages. The Hope Alliance also educates and exposes volunteers to the situation of those in developing countries. The Hope Alliance partners with local groups in developing areas of the world to co-create change in quality of life. Local organizations and villages lead projects that include health worker training and medical care, clean water and sanitation projects, economic opportunity and education projects.
From Idea to Reality
Recognizing the critical need and driven by commitment to a shared vision, pastor, Joe Mitchell, and physician, John Hanrahan, formed The Hope Alliance organization in November 1999. The purpose of The Hope Alliance is to provide unique combinations of services that address what we feel are the root causes of poverty: unhealthy populations and the lack of economic development. By working collaboratively among constituencies toward accomplishing a sustainable vision, the quality of human life stands to be significantly improved around the globe. Evidence supporting the need for increased efficient and effective humanitarian assistance delivered across the globe is strong; demand for these services significantly exceeds supply worldwide.
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Since Inception- The Hope Alliance Key Numbers:
Return on Investment = For every $1 spent on administration, we generated $22 in donated services, donations of medical and school equipment and supplies, and donations for sustainable projects such as water and sanitation systems, medical clinics, schools, libraries and economic development projects.
Total number of expeditions: 68
Total Gifts in Kind: $18,925,194
Total of 15 Rotary Grants: $388,338
Total number of people benefiting from (8) health clinics built: 15,950
Total number of people benefiting from micro-loans: 90 plus their families and communities
Total number of communities benefiting from micro-enterprise projects: 3 villages with 4 more "in the works"
Total cumulative volunteer service: $6,195,705
Total number of volunteers: 2,545
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B.A.S.I.C. Necessities for Change in the Quality of Life in the Developing World
The Hope Alliance brings volunteers, medical equipment and supplies to impoverished communities around the world, working side-by-side with local leaders to determine the needs of the community that encompass five areas:
Basic short- term and long-term health care
Assistance in developing educational and literacy programs
Sanitation, water purification systems and other health-related projects
Instruction and partnership in micro-enterprise and micro-credit loans
Collaboration in leadership development training
Basic Short-term and long-term health care
- What: Short term we arrange for donated medical equipment, supplies and surgical volunteers to address critical needs of developing villages. Long-term our goal is to increase the skills and resources for health care delivery by providing medical education for health care workers, hygiene training for village trainers and equipment supplier relationships. We also partner with locals to build medical centers and hospitals. A new program we have is to teach villagers to start medical savings programs so they can access the health care that is available on a fee for service basis in their countries.
- Where: Right now, we work in Peru, Guatemala, Nepal, Kenya and Haiti. Our decision to work in a village is primarily based on three things; 1) A high Maternal/Child mortality rate. 2) A local partner willing to work with us such as a Rotary Club. And 3) A high desire in the village to change their current situation.
- How: All volunteers donate their time (including the local health professionals we recruit). Generally, all expedition costs are also paid by the volunteers or their family members. Sometimes, we have donors help pay for the trip costs of nurses since their annual pay is below that of other medical professionals. We frequently partner with other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and Ministry of Health departments when they have strengths we need in the area. We sign memorandums of understanding with our partners, outlining each organization’s responsibilities, before any work begins. We assist the locals in doing extensive health assessments of an area and build data files using GPS systems to provide information to the Ministry of Health on the village families’ health. Typically none of these families have official addresses.
Assistance in developing educational and literacy programs
- What: We believe that three things must be present for a village to really improve their situation: 1) Access to good health care. 2) Economic development programs like micro-credit loans. And 3) Access to education for their women and children.
- Where: The strength of The Hope Alliance is in our health and micro-credit programs. For the literary projects, we bring in one of our partnering organizations like Rotary International. But, when a village committee determines the community development project they want is, for example, a new school or library, we will assist them in building it and furnishing it with equipment and supplies.
- How: We strongly believe in getting “buy in” on any village project. Our in-country staff gets the locals to commit to something on the project, usually either a small amount of money or the labor and then works with them on how the maintenance and salaries will be paid and be sustained. We have learned that if we don’t have this “buy in” by the community, the library or school will be empty and abandoned in a few years after we’ve left to work with another village. We work with Rotary and other granting organizations to raise money to build and supply the schools and libraries. Our volunteers work side-by-side with the villagers building the projects. Also, many of our economic development projects in villages provide additional income for village families so they can afford to send all of their children to the government schools.
Sanitation, water purification systems and other health-related projects
- What: One of the biggest health improvements we can make in a village is to assist them with clean water projects, sanitation systems and other home health projects. A health project we are really excited about right now is our bio-gas digester project that we help fund and assist in building in Nepal. These digesters process human waste, animal waste and food waste into methane gas to provide heat and energy for the villager’s homes. The family’s health is greatly improved (especially respiratory and eye health) because they are no longer burning open fires in their homes. This also prevents deforesting because the families no longer have to cut down trees for their firewood.
- Where: Once again, we will only do a community project if the village committees choose it. These health projects are usually very popular though because our village health worker training stresses the need to drink clean water and to practice good sanitation and hygiene habits.
- How: After getting village “buy in”, we arrange for assistance with paying for and assisting with volunteer labor for the water system or latrines, etc. For example, over 100 bio-gas digesters in Nepal were funded by Rotary Clubs in Utah, Nepal and Rotary International.
Instruction and partnership in micro-enterprise and micro-credit loans
- What: We have been very successful in making a real difference in families’ lives by making them more self-sufficient with micro-credit loans and micro-enterprise projects. Typical comments we have heard from our client are “I can feed my family every day now” and “now I can send my daughter to school”.
- Where: Our most successful programs are in Peru because we have been doing them there the longest. We have provided over 150 families with loans and have worked with villages on micro-enterprise projects like fish farms to provide better nutrition and income for the village. We are now using what we have learned in Peru to expand our micro-credit and micro-enterprise projects to the other countries where we work.
- How: We follow the methods outlined in Muhammad Yunus’s book Banker to the Poor. We have 5 women (we have loaned to a few men also) in a group who are responsible for each others loans. This method allows us to have 100% pay back of our loans. Many of our groups have applied for additional loans to grow their businesses and hire additional employees. We appeal to donors to fund micro-credit loans which then get paid back so we can increase loans in a village or take the program to the next village. We hire a local person to “service” the loans and manage the process.
Collaborative training in leadership development
- What: In each country we work, we hire a local staff member (of the local culture) who works with the village throughout the year. The real sustainable work continues when our 1st world volunteers return home.
- Where: This work happens in the villages that meet our criteria.
- How: Our staff member narrows down the villages by determining which villages have the highest motivation and then he/she works with the villages to form effective committees and to identify and develop village leaders who can access needs for the community from different levels of government and other NGO’s. The communities choose their own village projects and we assist with a “hand up” not a “hand out”. The villages must give something in return for our help, like a small amount of money or labor in order to have the “buy-in” we so strongly believe in.
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Exploratory Travel
The exploratory phase of a Hope Alliance project identifies a community in need. In most cases, individuals want to improve conditions in their community, but lack the material resources to realize their goals.
In the short term, we network with community leaders to assess local needs and requests. Together, we define the immediate needs of the community and devise a long-term plan for executing more comprehensive projects. Our long-term goals are to provide ongoing, self-supporting solutions with a strong emphasis on education, sustainable construction techniques and local materials.
In every project, The Hope Alliance operates on the core values of:
- Integrity. We are committed to the highest integrity at all times and in all interactions, with donors, program recipients, staff and volunteers.
- Effectiveness. We will achieve maximum effectiveness through excellence, quality projects, communication and a dynamic work environment.
- Sustainability. We work to create sustainable and long-lasting change in partnership with local communities and organizations.
- Stewardship. We will maintain financial strength and practice impeccable stewardship of all our resources.
- Inclusiveness. We are a nonsectarian, humanitarian organization and therefore practice inclusiveness of all faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds. We value diversity at all levels of our organization.
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