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Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Building Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa

About

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.

Pillars

Increasing Access to Quality Healthcare

Increasing Access to Quality Healthcare

We fund programs that improve maternal and infant healthcare for parents and communities.

Life-threatening communicable diseases and increasing rates of non-communicable disease present major challenges at all ages – and when parents aren’t healthy, it’s harder for their children to stay healthy, too. Our grants help to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and decrease the rates of non-communicable diseases.

Supporting the Whole Person Through Community Strengthening

Supporting the Whole Person Through Community Strengthening

We support a variety of initiatives to ensure that individuals and families have the chance to thrive. This includes expanding clean drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene best practices, ensuring food security, and creating access to financial tools and resources that are needed to reduce poverty, improve educational experiences, and put communities on a path to self-reliance.

Recent Grants

Stichting PharmAccess International

Amount: $ 1,999,607.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 09.19.2023

Ghana Rural Integrated Development

Amount: $ 751,636.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 09.06.2023

Catholic Relief Services-USCCB

Amount: $ 4,456,743.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 09.06.2023

Living Water International

Amount: $ 7,845,288.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 08.23.2023

Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc

Amount: $ 7,035,975.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 07.24.2023

Our Team

Trista Kontz-Bartels

Trista Kontz-Bartels is the Program Director of Helmsley’s Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa Program, which seeks to provide at-risk children with greater access to education, improved ...


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Trista Kontz-Bartels

Program Director

Sherilyn Goldammer

Sherilyn (Sheri) Goldammer is a Program Officer for the Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Program at the Helmsley Charitable Trust. In her role, she works closely with the Program Director to m ...


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Sherilyn Goldammer

Program Officer

Job Change

Job Change (Chan-gay) is an Associate Program Officer with the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa Program. Job was born and raised in Kenya before immigratin ...


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Job Change

Associate Program Officer