The Spirited Grannies, a group of socially-engaged Grandmothers from both Canada and the U.S.A, have contributed over 4 full-year, comprehensive scholarships for Basotho students!  This group, working to raise money in Mesa, Arizona, has demonstrated the power of how a committed few can create meaningful and monumental change in the lives of others.  Thank you Spirited Grannies for your ongoing support and commitment.  We at G.R.O. consider you Global Heroes and thank you for your efforts!

Posted under The Movement

100% of donated funds for the Grandmothers` Support Group, the G.R.O. Artisans Collective, and the Family Scholarship Fund are spent directly on those Lesotho-based projects. However, the Canadian team also requires support to scale-up our advocacy, fundraising and awareness activities here in Canada. By engaging Canadians, we can spread the message about global development issues and what can be done to relieve poverty. A gift to the Canadian GROwth fund will allow us to expand our Canadian operations as we seek to establish a permanent Toronto office, extend our campaigns across Canada, and maintain our administrative and operational needs. Give this gift.

Posted under The Movement

In a country like Lesotho there is no shortage of talent, commitment, passion or belief. There is a distinct lack of resource, the funds and capacity needed to put plan into action, inspiration into actuality.  During my time at Tsepong clinic in 2005-2006 I met so many people in our community that were in need of support, that had dreams of a better life but no real opportunity to achieve them.  I spoke to so many students, mothers, grandmothers and community leaders about the concept of hope – about that unexplainable quality that makes some people bravely face incredible obstacle.

Life in Lesotho is not easy.  Despite the incredible ability and inner strength of so many of the people I met, the realities of extreme poverty and the ravages of the AIDS pandemic make even the simplest of dreams an incredibe struggle.  The vision of The G.R.O. Foundation was and is to connect these inspirational people to the resources and support that they need in order to make their dreams a reality.

In Lesotho, The G.R.O. Foundation has been incorporated as a non-profit organization where committed community groups and individuals can work together co-operatively to ensure that their separate projects succeed.  They can share resources, ideas and talents in order to support each other and benefit the community as a whole.  We have sought to ensure that project ownership in Lesotho is, and always will be, locally controlled, locally organized, and locally led.

The G.R.O. Foundation in Canada seeks to support the work in Lesotho by procuring the funds needed for project work, but more importantly by creating a movement of committed individuals that will increase awareness and advocacy about the situation in Lesotho.  Since I returned from Lesotho in 2006 I have been inspired to see a shift in the mentality of ordinary people in Canada.  People are finally beginning to see the realities of global poverty, AIDS, injustice and genocide.  They are starting to ask the right questions, most commonly “What can I do to support these people?”.  The vision of The G.R.O. Foundation in Canada is to give these individuals, committed to engaging in the developing world, an outlet for their inspiration, beliefs and passion for change.  One individual, when given the opportunity, can absolutely impact the lives of our global brothers and sisters in crisis.  We are seeking to provide an opportunity for that partnership to flourish, for people in North America to directly and significantly impact positive global change through simple acts and collective endeavors.

Social change has always been driven by small, committed groups of individuals - and our hope is that with every person that joins the G.R.O. movement we can provide more substantial support to our project partners in all parts of the world.

Posted under The Vision