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AFUW-ACT
Inc. Meeting Report
Topic: Virginia Gildersleeve
Speaker: Mary Kane
Mary Kane of AFUW - NSW spoke to us about Virginia Gildersleeve an
international fund, which is closely associated with IFUW.
It began in Uganda when someone said ‘If only we had money we could
get some of our girls to University’. There were at the conference some
educated women who took some younger women to conference. In 1969 11
women in New York formed the Virginia Gildersleeve fund to help their
people. Projects come from the grass roots.
The focus of Virginia Gildersleeve fund is women and children in developing
countries. Its mission is their health, nutrition, physical security,
economic stability and education. Grants are for people at the bottom.
An example of how the money is spent -
First year $600 was used to help improve literacy
Second year $600 was to teach embroidery
Third year $600 was used for marketing the goods.
In the 1980s at an IFUW conference in Canada VG worked to put on a show
of work then went out to small groups. There is $120,000 to distribute
this year. Applications are already coming in. Some people don’t want
to give money to University women but the VGIF meets with their approval.
Many applications come from Asia so $5000 a grant can be given. There
are also many from Ghana, the committee tries to spread the grants around.
In the United Nations VGIF has consultative status. Applications for
grants have to be in by 1st November and are sorted out at the AGM.
Progress reports are required after 6 months. There is no tax deductibility
here. 40% of the world’s people don’t have electricity, 1 in 5 have
no health care.
Some examples of where the money has been spent are - Nigerian women
who have had to walk 20 km to get food Indian mothers - a grant of $1700
for health education to prevent malnutrition Solomon Islands - $800
to teach embroidery South Korea - women wanted to fend for themselves
so learnt about peanut growing Women who come here from overseas are
encouraged to get grant applications from their country. There are clear
goals - must meet a demonstrated need, must be planned and ready to
implement and must be for a non-profit organisation. There are many
committees and rules for staff. They meet twice a year in Temple Church,
NY. A US woman is going to leave $1 million for a new office.
HOW TO JOIN - A Pamphlet is available from the secretary.
VGIF ADDRESS - 3 West 29th Street Room 1002,
New York, NY 10001 USA.
WEBSITE - www.vgif.org
or email vgif@vgif.org
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