AFRICA
CITY OF JOY
City of Joy (COJ) is a transformational leadership center in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for Congolese women survivors of gender-based violence. Through its revolutionary Vagina Warrior Program, COJ has provided more than 1,300 women with a range of critical resources including psychosocial counseling, leadership training, computer literacy, English classes, culinary arts and farming lessons. With support from Ray of Light, COJ has empowered more than 70 women with the tools they need to thrive and successfully heal from past trauma.
RAISING MALAWI
Founded by Madonna in 2006, Raising Malawi’s mission is to support orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi through health, education and community support. To date, Raising Malawi has led a coalition of governmental and private-sector partners to public and operate Malawi’s first paediatric surgery and ICU, which performs nearly 2,000 life-saving paediatric surgeries annually. The organization has also built 14 primary schools serving more than 10,000 children annually and has provided more than 800 orphans and vulnerable children with basic care, education and enrichment programs annually.
SHINING HOPE FOR COMMUNITIES
Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) combats gender inequality and extreme poverty in Kenya’s largest slums. SHOFCO provides holistic community services including clean water, quality health care and economic empowerment opportunities.
In July 2016, Madonna traveled to Nairobi to see SHOFCO’s work first-hand in the slum of Kibera. Through Ray of Light, she helped SHOFCO launch and grow a program to reduce gender-based violence. The programming includes psychosocial and legal support, economic empowerment programming, sexual reproductive health education and the provision of a gender safe house for children and women who have been victims of gender-based violence.
BUILDON
buildOn works to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education, building schools in areas that lack school structures in some of the poorest countries in the world. To date buildOn has built more than 1,300 schools globally and runs programs in 28 high schools across the U.S.
Ray of Light supported the construction of buildOn’s first-ever secondary school in Mali, building opportunity in a country where lack of access to education results in one of the lowest adult literacy rates in the world. The new secondary school serves 300 students per year and educates girls and boys in equal numbers.
GLOBAL FUND FOR WOMEN
For more than 25 years, Global Fund for Women (GFW) has worked to advance the rights of women and girls by investing in women-led organizations and women’s collective leadership for change. In response to the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria in 2014, Ray of Light supported GFW’s work in Nigeria to help combat escalating violence and human rights abuses against women, including trafficking and child marriage. Ray of Light’s support provided safe spaces for girls and women, as well as counseling, support services and support groups.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION
International Organization for Migration (IOM) works to ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people.
In 2016, Ray of Light partnered with IOM to secure the release of 53 Ethiopian boys incarcerated in Malawi and their safe return to Ethiopia. In addition to funding their release, Ray of Light monitored the reintegration of the boys into their home communities and provided them with educational and economic resources needed to ensure a successful transition.
