Extreme poverty is on the rise due to climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. Chronic hunger has increased to 9.2% of the world's population in 2022. The cost of delivering food assistance is at an all-time high. By 2030, the World Bank predicts that about 600 million people will live in extreme poverty, CARE needs your support to reach more people and respond as quickly as possible. Flexible funding through the Impact Fund provides a lifeline. In addition, these resources build a stronger core, setting us up to scale our impact exponentially.
CARE - a poverty-fighting leader for more than 75 years – is committed to creating lasting change in the lives of 200 million people by 2030. Since we rolled out our Vision 2030 two years ago, CARE has impacted more than 31.7 million lives (16% of our goal). To meet our target, we need flexible resources to drive our strategic priorities forward and fill critical funding gaps in our ongoing humanitarian and development programming.
CARE’s Impact Fund focuses on anticipating people’s needs and building their resilience. This includes supporting climate change adaptation to prevent losses and damage from disasters; strengthening health systems; developing learning options for out-of-school children; and increasing women’s representation in community development and humanitarian leadership positions
Examples of how your support is helping us make progress in key program areas:
• WOMEN’S ECONOMIC JUSTICE: CARE’s pioneering village savings and loan association (VSLA) approach helps women form groups, save money, and access loans to start businesses, pay for their children's education, and meet household needs. This approach has been implemented in 64 countries, creating 802,400 VSLAs with nearly 18 million members, including 5 million reached through other organizations and governments. The approach is being integrated into national programs in Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire and adapted to emergency settings in Syria and Yemen.
• RIGHT TO EDUCATION: CARE’s Strengthening Opportunities for Adolescent Resilience (SOAR) program addresses the challenges related to school dropouts, which are especially harsh for adolescent girls. Implemented in India, Malawi, Nepal, Somalia, and Zambia, SOAR schools equip out-of-school adolescents with a fifth-grade education in just 11 months and prepare them to re-enter formal schools. Beyond academics, SOAR delivers life/leadership skills, sexual and reproductive health, and financial literacy. SOAR links students not transitioning to formal schools with livelihood opportunities and vocational training, such as water system repair. In Malawi, the Ministry of Education recently announced it will adopt and scale up SOAR as the national community-based education model.
• RIGHT TO HEALTH: CARE is addressing the massive shortfall of health workers around the world that has led to a spike in preventable illnesses and deaths. CARE trains frontline health workers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to provide last-mile healthcare. We’ve already trained 12,000 people and reached 5.6 million individuals. Our goal is to develop the skills of 2.1 million healthcare workers in 10 countries, serving 46 million people annually. Support from the Impact Fund will help us develop a mobile app-based training program, scale up our social enterprise network to distribute healthcare products and services and introduce a real-time data collection system for rural health service areas.
