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Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

Helping Rural Communities Build Resilience

About

The Helmsley Charitable Trust funds holistic programs to help ensure the well-being of children and families in remote communities in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Building resilience is at the core of our grantmaking, and we work with rural communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia so that villages and towns have the ability to bend without breaking when a crisis hits.  

We learn from communities about what they need in order to thrive, and we support the changes that help improve healthcare, particularly for mothers and children, increase access to clean water and enhanced sanitation infrastructure, foster agricultural development, and boost education and economic growth. 

We collaborate 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 people create pathways to better lives, leaders need access to the right information to make informed decisions. 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. 

Robust healthcare is vital for community resilience, and a cornerstone of our healthcare work in sub-Saharan Africa is eliminating neglected tropical diseases, which affect more than 1.7 billion people around the globe, cause chronic disability, and contribute to poverty. We support the treatment and elimination of onchocerciasis (river blindness), lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. 

Pillars

Increasing Access to Quality Healthcare

Increasing Access to Quality Healthcare

We support programs that improve prenatal, neonatal, and postpartum care, and improve quality of healthcare services for the whole community. This has included establishing primary healthcare sites for communities, funding diagnostic tools, and expanding training for medical professionals. 

We seek to eliminate onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis in East Africa, trachoma in Zambia, and schistosomiasis among children in Ethiopia. We support work to accelerate treatment of the diseases, which cause disability, decreased productivity, and caretaker burden. 

We support efforts to make essential medicines accessible, affordable, and high-quality, and we invest in the organizations and programs that train physicians and other clinicians. 

Building Rural Infrastructure and Strengthening Economic Development

Building Rural Infrastructure and Strengthening Economic Development

We support a variety of initiatives to ensure that individuals and families have the chance to thrive. Strengthening rural infrastructure is a key element of the strategy. We fund programs that increase access to safe and sustainable water supplies and sanitation services. In the face of climate change, communities must plan for water management and flood mitigation in order to maintain long-term survival and growth. 

We fund trailbridges that connect rural communities to schools, jobs, healthcare, and markets. 

We look for opportunities to help smallholder farmers increase their productivity and move from subsistence farming toward cash crop production and agricultural commercialization.

Recent Grants

International Water Management Institute

Amount: $ 5,999,749.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 01.24.2024

Living Goods

Amount: $ 1,100,222.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 01.24.2024

Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH)

Amount: $ 1,014,170.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 01.24.2024

Share Trust Inc

Amount: $ 4,195,677.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 01.24.2024

Catholic Relief Services-USCCB

Amount: $ 4,500,000.00
Term of Grant: 36 Months
Date of Award: 01.08.2024

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