From January through March, smaller clubs made a big impact through the Kiwanis Children’s Fund.

By Erin Chandler

In January, February and March, 12 Kiwanis clubs from around the world received microgrants, thanks to a Kiwanis Children’s Fund program that awards grants of US$250-$1,000 to clubs with 35 or fewer members. The following three projects highlight some of the ways Kiwanis clubs are using microgrants to give young people of all ages a more promising start in each of the Kiwanis cause areas: education and literacy, health and nutrition, and youth leadership development.    

Health and Nutrition
Improving Child Health Through Deworming Outreach in Nakivale Refugee Settlement
Kiwanis Club of Likasi DRC-Virtual, Uganda
With help from a Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrant, the Kiwanis Club of Likasi DRC has launched an initiative to improve the health and nutrition of 500 vulnerable children, including orphans, in Uganda’s Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Volunteers traveled 31 miles by rented motor scooters to the city of Mbara for medication to treat intestinal parasites. Led by two Kiwanians who are nurses living in the settlement, they distributed the medication over the course of three weeks, going house-to-house in villages without easy access to schools or clinics. While food scarcity is a severe and ongoing problem in the settlement, with most residents receiving only one meal a day, eliminating intestinal parasites helps children better absorb the nutrients they do receive. Club members hope this effort will increase the children’s strength and energy, reduce illness and lay the groundwork for future efforts to address health and nutrition among Nakivale’s refugees. 

Education and Literacy
Kiwanis Improves Education
Kiwanis Club of Dooly County, Georgia, U.S.
With just 17 members, the Kiwanis Club of Dooly County is working to strengthen literacy and encourage a lifelong love of learning for at least 50 students per year. A Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrant will help the club purchase books for the community’s students in kindergarten through second grade. The goal is to turn these students into confident readers before standardized testing begins in third grade, so club members work with local schools to select a wide variety of books that will capture kids’ imagination and appeal to their diverse interests and experiences. The club also provides continuing motivation for learning by working with local organizations to present STAR Student scholarships to graduating high school students each year. 

Youth Leadership Development
Bridges to Success: Community-Based Mentorship and Career Pathways for Youth
Kiwanis Club of Rosiorii De Vede, Romania
The Kiwanis Club of Rosiorii De Vede plans to use a Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrant to help members reach young people when they are most in need of guidance: while planning their future education and career pathways. The club will host approximately 100 high school students at five mentorship and career guidance sessions that will include structured activities and discussions with mentors in the areas of career exploration, goal setting, leadership development and understanding educational pathways. The mentors will be former Key Club members — many of them reengaging with the Kiwanis family for the first time since graduation — in professional fields such as medicine, law, engineering, journalism, agronomy and entrepreneurship. The program will culminate in the Community Education and Career Fair, where high school and eighth-grade students can interact directly with educational and professional organizations. The club hopes to support students making difficult decisions, lead them to be confident in their futures and strengthen intergenerational bonds in the Kiwanis family. 

How you can help 
To learn more about Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrants, visit kiwanis.org/microgrant-program.     

If you want to help the Children’s Fund provide grants like these that reach children around the world, you can make a gift to The Kiwanis Possibility Project. Your club also can apply for a grant to help kids in your community today.