Pangea’s Annual Celebration of Grant Awards and Meeting took place on Saturday, April 14. The 2100 Building Community Room was converted into a colorful, joyful place with a slide show of previous site visits, music, photos of our grant partners, colorful table cloths, flowers, and the smell of delicious Mediterranean hors d’oeuvres. A collection of forty-five Pangea members, friends, and visitors attended. Anne Sively welcomed the group and spoke about how site visits provide an opportunity to combine tourism with meaningful learning from inspiring leaders and organizations (read more about insights from our grant partners in Guatemala here). Betsy Hale,...[ Read More ]

In January 2018, five Pangea women landed in Antigua, Guatemala to the familiar textile rich AirBnb where we have stayed before, five rooms around a lovely garden which lent itself to gathering in the evening to debrief the day. The site visit, a mere seven days, seemed much longer as we dove deep into the culture. ~Betsy Hale This was a visit of deepening our knowledge about and connection with four grant partners that we have funded from 2 to 7 years. In addition to visits to known and trusted organizations, we learned about the ever-changing political, social, and economic...[ Read More ]

Continuing its global support of rural, grassroots organizations, Pangea Giving is awarding $128,433 in grants to be distributed in March, 2018. We are proud to partner with groups in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa to help them address critical issues in their local communities, ranging from education access and economic opportunities, women’s health/sexuality training to sustainable agricultural methods for increased yields and improved nutrition. Thousands of program participants are expected to benefit in areas around the globe. Individual grants range from $4,600 to $10,000. Highlights:   A total of 17 Partners - 8 Project grants & 9 Operating Grants ...[ Read More ]

Pangea Giving site visits are taking place this week in Guatemala, January 14-21. To start, the group of five Pangea members are basing out of Antigua, for day trips to three Pangea Giving grantees: Asociación Comunidad La Esperanza, Women’s Justice Initiative, and ASOGEN (Asociación Generando Equidad, Liderazgo y Oportunidades). The team kicked off the week yesterday with a day of context meetings and presentations by various English-speaking expats who are well versed in the Guatemala non-profit world, as well as the history of political and other violence which have restricted human rights. Pangea’s grant to AC Esperanza, now in its...[ Read More ]

Pangea Giving partner, Asociación Generando (ASOGEN) launched an educational initiative this year called “New Masculinity” for men from various communities, ages, and professions that has been having a huge impact. Working on a local, national and international level, ASOGEN is preventing violence against females by working with men and adolescents to change their belief systems around what it means to be a man. The purpose of "New Masculinity" program is to empower participants toward responsible paternity, child spacing, etc.; and personal empowerment to facilitate positive changes in the men’s lives and help them to take on personal development on an equal and...[ Read More ]

Pangea Giving was honored to host a private gathering with Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís, creators of the “Resistance Saga Trilogy” documentary on Guatemala’s struggle against genocide, impunity and discrimination on November 4, 2017 at the Century Ballroom in Seattle. A wide-ranging conversation on issues relevant to the work of both our organizations preceded the Northwest Film Forum’s showing of the trilogy: “When the Mountains Tremble” (1983), “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator” (2011) and “500 Years”, screened this year at Sundance, the London Human Rights Watch Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival. The trilogy will be...[ Read More ]

In 2009, in the Rift Valley of Central Kenya, Wendo Aszed started Dandelion Africa to work in the communities around where she was born after two very close friends died of AIDS. She wanted to serve the most vulnerable in the community so she began developing programs for women and girls who experienced high levels of poverty, gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and harmful gender practices sanctioned by long held social norms. It wasn’t long before she realized that to address these problems you can’t just work to empower girls and women, you need to work to change the attitudes of...[ Read More ]

My name is Daw Aye Li. I am 32 years old and live with my husband and two children in Na Mat village in Myanmar. We live with my parents. Our village is located in the western part of Lashio District and is a long walking distance, 18 miles, from the nearest town. A STORY OF MY VILLAGE: Before this year, everyone was limited to planting a single annual crop, corn, during the rainy season and vegetables at home. We didn’t have an irrigation system so were dependent on the rain. Often there wasn’t enough rain water to grow vegetables...[ Read More ]

Claudia Aju participated in a Women's Justice Initiative (WJI) sponsored Women’s Rights Education Program. Claudia isn't pictured here for security reasons. This is her story: WJI taught me about violence and the law that protects against it. I didn’t know what violence was until WJI talked to us about it in the training workshops. When it was explained what violence against women was and the different forms in which violence is committed, I finally realized that it was what I suffered from in my marriage. My husband treated like an animal and because I was so afraid of him, I endured everything...[ Read More ]

Perpetual is a mentor at Vanessa Grant Girls School in Kenya, who herself was mentored by Dandelion Africa since grade 7 in their Girls for Leaders program supported solely by Pangea Giving grants.   Perpetual Mahojha Awino, now 16, attends the Vanessa Grant Girls School with a full scholarship from Education For All Children. She achieved this honor by passing her national KCPE examination with a very good grade, scoring 343 marks out of the 500 possible. Perpetual comes from a very humble background. Her father was laid off from work and her mother is a housewife. Her siblings struggle to...[ Read More ]