A savings initiative is helping workers in Rwanda save up for their retirement years. The Evo Heza program helps create a security net for retirement, as well as disability, and is open to anyone: employees, contractors, and entrepreneurs.

The WOMAN ORGANISATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY (WONETHA) provides free condoms to sex workers in Uganda to end the spread of HIV. The group distributes about four to five million condoms to regional centers. Everyone can access the free condoms simply by request, without facing stigma or discrimination. The group also carries out “sensitization” campaigns that teach sex workers how to practice safe sex and feel empowered to require condom use among clients. They also work with health care systems to address discrimination and social stigmas that sex workers often face when seeking health care.

Drug Aid Africa supports low-income Nigerians by providing free medications to help ease burdens of healthcare affordability. The NGO partners with organizations that serve low-income communities, including hospitals, orphanages, elderly care homes, and other grassroots community groups. They provide each organization with boxes of donated medications that are tailored to the needs of the population being served. For example, orphanages receive boxes stocked with the supplies most needed by children. The supplies are mostly bought using cash donations but some pharmaceutical companies also donate materials.

An alternative to traditional banking and ATMs is gaining popularity in Nigeria. Point of Sales centers bring banking services to people in both urban and rural settings, promoting financial inclusion and accessibility. The new way of banking has helped small businesses and rural Nigerians in addition to creating many jobs for POS agents as demand has skyrocketed.

A team of sign language interpreters across Nigeria translated into indigenous Nigerian sign language, the internationally acclaimed book “My Hero is You” which helps children, their parents and caregivers understand and answer questions about the coronavirus. With the signing of this book into an indigenous Nigerian sign language, deaf signers can now reach out to their communities. They teach them in the sign language they understand, using local words to explain how the virus came to be and how to prevent its spread and protect their communities.

The Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria enrolled 200 children living in Koro Afoju in a primary school near their homes. They covered the families' costs for Parents/Teachers Association levies and they provided the students with uniforms, textbooks, and other learning materials. The children live in a settlement that was established for people who are blind and have largely met their daily subsistence needs by begging on the street. Parents expressed optimism for their children’s opportunity to redefine their futures rather than joining their parents on the street.

An all-female mechanic staff is turning heads in Nigeria. Their workshop provides jobs to dozens of women who have limited work opportunities in the region. The female staff also breaks barriers in a society where only men have typically worked as professional mechanics.

The Skilled Women Initiative provides training around mindset, technical skills, entrepreneurship, and marketing to women living in Nigerian camps for people who have been internally displaced due to Boko Haram. The program trains roughly 500 women each year and past participants say they are now able to better afford expenses such as sending their children to schools.

The Festus Fajemilo Foundation teaches parents how to care for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and helps fund treatment and surgery costs for families who can’t afford it. The foundation connects with parents through social media, radio, TV, and public lectures like its annual “Go-Folic” campaign which encourages women on the importance of folic acid and has reached 10,000 people so far.

The Center for Ability, Rehabilitation, and Empowerment (CARE) helps people with disabilities navigate the boarding and departing process at airports by setting up a disability desk with resources including people trained in navigating the challenges people with disabilities often face at airports.

Sightsavers is an international organization that focuses on the prevention of avoidable blindness and the promotion of equality for people with visual impairments and other disabilities in the workforce through its Inclusion Works project. Since its inception in 2020, Sightsavers has helped more than 200 individuals with visual impairments transition into new employment.

Using grant funding from the Stand With a Girl Initiative, a group of women in a camp for Nigerians who have been internally displaced created Adashe, a collective savings program that helps families in times of need. Participants contribute regular payments toward the fund, which rotates to benefit each of the participants with lump-sum payments that can be paid back without fees or interest.

The Handicap Opportunity for Positive Engagement Society is a nonprofit in Nigeria that provides free, specialized education for children with disabilities. Since the teaching is specific to their needs, students tend to improve in areas they’ve had difficulty with at other schools while here.

Listeners of the Nigerian radio program KaraKata have access to business education, financial literacy information, and empowerment — as well as crowdsourced seed funding to get their own business off the ground. Listeners call in to make a case for why they should become a beneficiary, and the program has awarded funds to 1,250 people since it began distributing seed money in 2017.

The “one cow per poor family” initiative in Rwanda seeks to increase household income and fight malnutrition by giving families a cow to raise. Once the cow gives birth, the calf is given to another family to raise, keeping the process going. Since the program started in 2006, a total of 341,065 cows have been distributed and residents say it has improved their livelihoods.

Angel Rider Wheelchairs provides free wheelchairs to children across Rwanda. The group constructs and distributes the wheelchairs themselves and coordinates with the National Council of Persons with Disabilities, who provides a list of children nominated to receive one. Access to the wheelchairs have changed the quality of life for many of the children, allowing them to attend school and other social activities for the first time in their lives. The non-profit has donated over 2,000 wheelchairs in the last five years.

The Uganda Cancer Institute placed a tent and mattresses outside of their Kampala hospital as a free shelter for cancer patients and their families. Before the shelter, patients who could not afford transportation to and from hospital visits were sleeping outside in the elements which reduced their chances of recovery.

The Uganda Child Helpline is a 24/7 toll-free line, whose goal is to encourage children and adults to report cases of child abuse. The Helpline then links at-risk children to support and protection through case management services. Currently, there are call centers in 68 districts and the line receives an average of 9,509 calls a day.

Albicare for Cameroon works to fight cancer and provide palliative care to cancer patients and their families. The organization offers free skin cancer treatment, and operations, as well as educational services and consultations to those with albinism. Since its launch in 2020, Albicare has reached about 300 people living with albinism and performed 30 skin cancer operations.