At the G8 in Scotland, world leaders pledged to steer a more sustainable and equitable course for Africa. Through GlobalGiving, you can invest in Africa's future by supporting local project leaders who are driving change from the bottom up.

Committed to reshaping the social, political, and economic landscape of Africa, these leaders work tirelessly to promote a range of grassroots causes, from education to health to the environment. With your support, they can purchase textbooks for AIDS-orphaned children, train public health nurses, and pursue other innovative solutions to intractable problems facing their communities.

The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), a 2005 Marketplace winner praised for its work on the Oprah Winfrey show, works with families in Nepal to end bonded labor. Offering economic incentives to parents, including funding for education, the NYOF reaches out to save children from harsh living conditions and prostitution. The NYOF has already helped 800 girls escape from bondage.
With your help, they can reach hundreds more.

In the poorest areas of Nepal, desperate families are making unsettling choices to improve their economic future, which in many cases endanger their children's lives. Torn by the need for immediate income, a staggering number of parents in Nepal not only forego education for their children, but also sell their daughters into bonded labor. In turn, these girls find themselves dehumanized, with little recourse to legal entitlements, education, social services, or protection against predators.

To help reverse this trend, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation offers families incentives to rescue their daughters from dangerous conditions. The NYOF purchases farm animals, such as piglet and goats, for families to sell; these animals generate enough revenue to keep girls in the household. Once the girls are home, the NYOF pays for education costs such as school uniforms, shoes, supplies, kerosene, and kerosene lamps.

Today, many of the girls that return to their communities demonstrate against bonded labor during the Maghe Sakrante festival. Once a place where parents sold their daughters, the festival has evolved into an anti-bondage rally. The evolution of this event is symbolic, but only one step in the NYOF’s broader mission. Through the generosity of the GlobalGiving community, the NYOF has already achieved more than 80 percent of its funding objective to rescue 250 girls from bonded labor. Learn how you can support this mission today.

We salute Amazon.com for its first Nonprofit Innovation Award Program recognizing and rewarding nonprofit organizations whose innovative approaches and breakthrough solutions are improving their communities or the world at large.

The program allows the general public to "vote" by donating to one of ten finalists who were chosen from nearly 1000 qualified entries. Three of these organizations are friends of GlobalGiving: DonorsChoose, KaBOOM!, and KickStart. We want to cheer them on and hope that you’ll show your support for one of them, or any of the other innovative finalists, by going to Amazon.com and making a donation. In addition to the donations received through the Amazon.com site by September 30th, the winner will receive a matching grant from Amazon.com up to $1 million!