Fountain of Hope Africa

As a charitable nonprofit organization Fountain of Hope Africa is founded on non-discriminatory principles that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion that make us a beautiful example of how people who may appear so different can work together and change their communities for the better. As humanitarians gathering efforts to thrive and change the lives of the most vulnerable in Sub-Sahara Africa, with a special focus on marginalized women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Malawi.

FOH is a community rooted development and humanitarian organization, with a broad and deep understanding of the challenges that the communities we serve must overcome and how best to do it. With local knowledge and in partnership with our communities, we remove barriers and restore the abundance of our people’s potentials.
With our dedicated team and partners, who live and work with and for our communities, we listen to the priorities of the people and together design adapted programs that lead to sustainable transformation.
We are driven by a deep love for our communities. We are there before others come, and we remain after they leave, this is the definition of continuity and sustainability.
We believe in change; we trust the process and we believe to see our communities thrive. We are the Fountain of Hope for Africa. We are the ones.

Vision

Equal access to resources and opportunities.

Disparities in access to resources and opportunities is a complex issue in Sub-Saharan Africa. This region faces various challenges, including historical inequalities, economic disparities, and social inequalities in several ways such economic, gender, education, disability and more.
Addressing these issues requires a multifaceted approach, including advocacy for policy changes, capacity building, improved infrastructure, social awareness, and efforts to promote equity, inclusivity, and diversity. In collaboration with various partners, local governments, and communities play crucial roles in combating discrimination and promoting equal access to resources and opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mission

To craft adapted and long-lasting solutions for the most vulnerable via Education, Empowerment, and advocacy.

We made helping others, changing their lives our reason of living.
We believe that watching the way people are suffering and keep complaining will worsen the situation, but standing up, doing what you are able to do, saves lives. Our Founder and Executive Director has a deep and broad understanding of the community problems we are resolving. Marcel lived in Dzaleka refugee camp Malawi for 11 years after fleeing insecurity from the Eastern of DRC his home country. Being a refugee, he knows well what it means. In DRC Marcel knows well how better life before the conflicts; this gives us have and clear understanding of the context of the current humanitarian crisis but also the ability to conceive adapted and long-lasting solutions. We do this work because of having experienced the same life in the same communities but also, we are passionate about it, brief, serving with compassion is our passion. Being part of these communities, their challenges are our challenges, we are conscious that if we do not do anything no one will do it.

Values

Hope
Dignity
Diversity
Integrity
Compassion
Excellence
Impartiality

SERVICES

Our current intervention has its greater attention on Education, Economic empowerment and livelihood, Food Security, and water and Sanitation (Wash).

A. EDUCATION

1. Primary and secondary school

   Since 2015 we are running a school that provides access to primary school to over 1000 forcibly displaced children (refugee and asylum seekers) at Dzaleka refugee camp Malawi. Every year we have 40 students’ refugees and Malawians under our Secondary School Sponsorship program, 90% are girls.

2. Take the Lead

Fountain Of Hope Africa in collaboration with Mexoxo and the eCornell University to promote education for the most disadvantaged.
Through this collaboration we provide access to skills-based instruction to refugees, asylum seekers and other underserved people especially women. Program participants complete online courses delivered through eCornell in leadership, entrepreneurship, time management, and career exploration to prepare for entrepreneurship, employment, and community involvement.
The content is designed for pairing with other social and educational programming and provides participants with a foundation for launching careers that earn a living income and promote sustainable self-sufficiency.

3. School recovery program

In the Eastern of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we are running a School Recovery Program in Bukavu and the surrounding territories, that is currently serving over 500 children. This Accelerated Learning Programs provides education opportunities to out-of-school minors survivors of armed conflicts and poverty who are between the age of 12 and 17. The program compresses the equivalent of the six-year primary program into three years, allowing students to re- enter the formal education system at the secondary level or qualify for vocational training. To promote inclusion in education, this program prioritizes teen mothers due to their higher level of vulnerability due to stigma and exclusion from education while boys are all accepted even when after impregnating girls.

4. Higher education sponsorship

This program is designed to Empower girls Enhance women education in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It creates high education opportunities for marginalized girl by sponsoring their College/University learning cycle. The program supports the beneficiaries with tuition fees and learning materials and it gives a special consideration to those survivors of SGBVs. This program sponsors a number of marginalized girls in the Eastern of the DRC every year since 2021.

B. ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Our Economic Empowerment and poverty alleviation program aims to build a strong and long-lasting self-reliance among individuals, families, and communities. We provide business literacy to women and youth, access to capital, mentorship, and coaching; 93% of the beneficiaries supported during the last 5 years were able to sustain and grow they business, and 78% were able to employ at least one more person from their communities. I addition to this we provide vocational skills to women to boost entrepreneurship and maximize the utilization of their potentials for their economic independence. For COVID-19 response 1002 vulnerable households benefited from our unconditional social cash transfer that allowed them to overcome the socio-economic effects of the global pandemic.

C. FOOD SECURITY
Using ecology friendly methodologies, we are supporting smallholder farmers with agriculture technics through training, mentoring, and coaching, and help them access agriculture inputs. These efforts are revitalizing farmland, improving food security, rural livelihood, and economic recovery. We mobilized the communities in cooperatives and give them access hybrid seeds and trained them in organic fertilizer production. This program is extended to a food relief Aid for in need communities that are vulnerable to food insecurity, due to armed conflicts, climate and or economic shocks.

D. WATER AND SANITATION (WASH)

Due to the water crisis and the congestion of Dzaleka refugee supply, we deliver potable water to over 1000 refugee households and 9 community schools in the camp daily on daily basis.
In the Eastern of the Democratic Republic of Congo we are actively engaged in easing the access to clean water and sanitation facilities in rural areas, schools and health facilities; according to UNICEF over 30 million people in DRC have no access to clean water and nearly 30% do not have access to sanitation facilities. This program is extended to a Fairfood Relief Aid for in need communities that are vulnerable to food insecurity, due to armed conflicts, climate and or economic shocks. FOH intention is to support families that are food insecure, especially during the lean months where the cost of food and the scarcity of food increases significantly in Malawi and the Eastern of DRC.

E. FUTURE PLANNED ACTIVITIES

We are not limited to advocacy for diversity and inclusion in the education system in the Democratic Republic of Congo where teen mothers face stigma and exclusion from the formal education regardless of the circumstances of their pregnancies while boys are fully accepted even when they have kids; same for other children who might appear physically different.
We are also planning to promote digital inclusion in the education system in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the majority of students from primary to high school level without access to digital resources.
For food security we are planning to include advocacy for land access and ownership in rural areas where traditionally women do not own land while they constitute over 60% of the agriculture labor. Another planned component for our school recovery program is to rescue children who are victims of child labor and exploitation in mining.
At Dzaleka refugee camp Malawi where less than 40% of the school aged children have access to education, our projection is to double the number of refugee children who are accessing primary and secondary school by expanding our school with new classrooms, furniture and personnel by the end of 2024. In Bukavu DRC building a modern vocational training center in order to empower the thousand of young girls and boys victims of armed conflicts and who missed the opportunity to access formal education du to conflicts; the priority will be given to teen mothers, former child soldiers who were forcibly enrolled in armed groups, street children and those living with physical disabilities.