This Christmas, if you’re looking for a meaningful gift that will change lives, then a Foxglove Gift Card is ideal.

By purchasing a Foxglove Gift Card, you are supporting a woman into a self-help group for life.  Here she will learn the tools to start her own micro-business so she can make her way out of poverty.

When you support a woman, you also impact her family and help transform her entire community. It’s brilliant! ???

This Christmas, give a gift that will change a woman’s life forever.

>>BUY A GIFT TODAY<< 

John Kalenzi is smart, driven AND compassionate. It’s an unusual combination in a world where many are consumed with personally getting ahead. John wants to see everyone get ahead. Including some of the world’s poorest women.  

John Kalenzi leads AEE Rwanda, Foxglove’s partner for the women’s Self Help Groups in Rwanda. He’s led the organisation for 15 years, resisting many far more lucrative offers to join other NGOs. He stays because he believes. He believes in grassroots organisations focused on local needs with local solutions.  

John was born in a poor rural village in Eastern Rwanda. His family fled to Uganda during one of the many outbreaks of violence in the 1980s. He was educated and raised in Uganda until the end of the genocide. Once it was over, the diaspora was encouraged to return. And return they did. In droves.  

But life remained very difficult. His father was a teacher but there was no local school. John was a very bright student but needed to care for the family’s cattle so struck a deal with a cousin…they’d go to school day about and on the other, care for each other’s livestock.  

Overcoming everyday challenges of rural life and lack of access, John graduated high school and won a full scholarship to the national university. By his final year, he was not only a leading academic student but head of the student body.  On graduation, he was expected to take on a leading government or business role in the community. But he chose service. Chose to raise funds and profile of a small NGO. The one he now leads. And along the way, he has changed the methodology (adopted the SHG approach), grown the organisation to over 240 local staff, raised millions of dollars in support, and changed thousands of lives. Maybe more. There are now more than 200,00 women in Self Help Groups across the country which directly impacts over 1 million family members alone.  

Small beginnings need never be despised. John’s dad recently passed away but his mum continues to live in the small rural village where it all began. John continues to care for her and the family home.  

John is smart, driven AND compassionate. And it’s a combination that’s served his family, his community and his country. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet John in Perth at our 2020 Sundowner on Saturday 26th October.  ? Book your tickets here >>> https://www.trybooking.com/BFNMN

“I met Mrs Gariyali online. Yep, it was Facebook! But, the background story is amazing.

I had been to Rwanda and seen the women’s Self Help Groups. It had such an impact on me that I enrolled in a Masters of International and Community Development with a plan to do a research project on the groups. I wanted to know IF they were really working, and if so, then WHY.

Then in 2014, when reviewing the literature around Self Help Groups, there was one recurring name — CK Gariyali. I didn’t know if it was a man or woman but read that the person was living in Tamil Nadu, India so set about trying to make contact. I wrote to NGOs, government departments and publication houses connected with her books. But try as I may, there was no progress.

Until one day, in seeming desperation, I turned to Facebook. And there she was… a brief message from me met with a brief response and, before I knew it, we had connected and I was on my way to Chennai.

That was May 2016.

Today, Mrs Gariyali leads our Indian in-country partner for the Birds Nest India project. She is an absolute wonder and I don’t use this language lightly!  She really is an amazing woman who has committed her life and talents to serving the people and women of India.

For most of her life she has served in the Indian civil service running government departments focusing on community health and development, as well as wider administration portfolios. It was during one of these periods of service that she hit upon the idea that sharing communication and gathering women were two sides of the same coin. If you brought women together to discuss issues of the community then they became the best source for disseminating the information and implementing any new approaches or systems.

In this way, she made remarkable headway in reducing the birth rate in Tamil Nadu, improving nutrition and health practices for children, increasing the enrolment and attendance of children into schooling, and creating training and business opportunities for local women.

This is the background to the Self Help Group approach making such a spectacular impact through Foxglove’s Grassroots Rwanda project. And it is wonderful to know that the Foxglove threads wind between projects bringing shared resources, knowledge and partnerships. I love it!”

— Kelley

Foxglove is on the move…. in the 2019 City to Surf Fun Run!

The best part is, YOU can join us! It’s on Sunday 25 August and you can tackle the 4km or 12km… or for the fitness fanatics out there, the half or full marathon! ?‍♀️?‍♂️

You can walk, run or shuffle, but whatever you do, let’s work together to raise $3000 supporting 100 women into Self Help Groups in Rwanda. Every $30 raised will support one woman so she can begin her journey out of poverty. ?

Kelley’s had her running shoes on since the beginning of the year and she is pumped!  If you need some motivation and training tips then stay tuned…the videos are coming!

The Next Steps:

1️⃣ REGISTER FOR FOXGLOVE’S CITY TO SURF TEAM
2️⃣ ASK FRIENDS TO JOIN YOU – share our Facebook event page with all the details
3️⃣ SIGN UP AS A FUNDRAISER – all the steps are below.

IT’S EASY TO FUNDRAISE FOR FOXGLOVE:
1. Create a fundraising profile
2. Once signed up, click “Find A Team” on your dashboard
3. Search for “Fox on The Run”
4. Click on the group and then “Join Team”
5. Share your page with family and friends!  Make sure you tag @foxgloveproject and #FoxOnTheRun

Note: Our fundraising page isn’t listed on the main City to Surf website, so please use this link to Foxglove’s fundraising platform.

Let’s get foxy! ??