PangeaGiving.org

About Pangea

Governance

Africa pod

Pangea's three geographic pods direct the grantmaking in their region and organize region-specific educational discussions.

Focus

Pangea has made grants in Africa since 2005. Initially, the grants focused on community-based responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis. We have been particularly interested in those groups caring for and educating orphans and vulnerable children, widows and caregivers. Over the past four years, we have broadened our focus to include food security and economic sustainability issues with an emphasis on helping women in these areas. We look for proposals that are based on community-identified needs; have tangible community support; and foster women as leaders. We focus our grantmaking on East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), primarily to rural community-based organizations.

Key Learnings

• Local leadership – The countries in which we work are relatively stable politically; however, communities cannot count on regional or country leadership to further their progress. We have learned that committed and competent local leaders are the key to accomplishing community goals. We are exploring how to foster and support these leaders both through and beyond the grantmaking process.
• Women in leadership – Since 2005, we have sought to support women's efforts to develop sustainable income sources. Over the past year, we have become increasingly committed to supporting women in leadership based on the continuing research showing that women are the key to developing sustainable futures for their communities.
• Capacity building – Although individual leaders can accomplish much, we are becoming more aware of the importance of depth of knowledge and capability in the communities with which we work.

Future Directions

The Africa Pod is interested in expanding its geographical reach. In summer 2010, we plan a trip to visit our current grantees in Tanzania and Kenya and will visit one additional country in East Africa (either Ethiopia or Malawi) to begin exploring additional potential grantees. Based on our growing understanding of the need to support strong leaders and build capacity, we are planning to sponsor one African community leader in an iLeap international fellowship for three months next year.