The Helmsley Charitable Trust funds holistic approaches and programs to help ensure the well-being of vulnerable children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa. We work in remote communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia where it is difficult to access healthcare and clean drinking water, children are malnourished, and there are few, if any, options for school.

Building resilience is at the core of our grantmaking. At the community level, resilience is the ability to bend, but not break, when a crisis hits. By learning from communities about the underlying problems that impede progress, we support the changes to turn that around — with a clear focus on increasing access to essential health services, clean water, finance solutions, enhanced sanitation infrastructure, and nutrition.

We work with our grantees, their local implementing partners, community leaders, and government agencies to ensure that the efforts we support have the endorsement of relevant ministries to help advance long-term success.

To help create pathways for people to live better lives, leaders need access to the right information to make informed decisions that can drive positive changes. Our funding of Digital Earth Africa marks our commitment to ensuring governments, entrepreneurs, NGOs, and citizens alike have critical data and up-to-date technology to both monitor and make smart plans related to water quality and management, land use, and agriculture for food security, climate resilience, and more.