A small charity with a simple idea

Who we are

GIFT International stands for Grassroots Initiatives Funding and Training. We are a small registered charity based in Northern Ireland, supporting some of the most challenged communities in Kenya through education, training, capacity building and funding at grassroots level. At home we raise awareness of global sustainability issues with our donors and supporters.

GIFT was founded by Janet Wilson and Catherine Gleave, who between them had 30 years of experience in environmental education and community development, both internationally and in Northern Ireland. In 2001 they travelled to Kenya as self-funded volunteers to run teacher-training workshops. They kept going back, and in 2007 they took "a leap of faith" and applied for charitable status. Read our story.

How we work

Experience has taught us that the more we can help local enterprise grow, while keeping a strong focus on protecting the environment, the more sustainable communities become.

• Ideas come from local people. We hold consultations with each community every year. These meetings make sure women are included in decisions.
• Local people run the projects, using local resources and skills. Our funding provides the start-up capital.
• Communities buy in. Each community plans with us how its project will keep going in the long term. Our goal is for every project to be self-sustaining within five years.
• We budget a year ahead. That is how projects kept running through the pandemic, when our fundraising stopped.
• We stay accountable. Projects are monitored, money is accounted for with receipts, and trustees review the work in person on their visits.

What we aim to do

• Find, develop and provide start-up funding for sustainable community and individual projects in Kenya.
• Train community representatives, and train teachers and environmental educators in Education for Sustainable Development.
• Work in partnership with organisations and local agencies in Kenya.
• Raise awareness in Northern Ireland of environmental and sustainability issues in the developing world, and give people here ways to support community initiatives.
• Provide an accountable way to receive donations and sponsorship.

Our work contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially quality education (SDG 4), good health (SDG 3), clean water (SDG 6), decent work (SDG 8), affordable clean energy (SDG 7) and life on land (SDG 15).