One of the most urgent environmental problems in Sri Lanka is deforestation. There was a significant and dangerous decrement in the forest areas over the years to create space for agriculture, businesses, and building lots.

The impact of COVID-19 on the NGOs assisting the most vulnerable communities and at-risk individuals is devastating – reduction in activities, cash-flow problems, difficulty in maintaining employees, and even the risk of closure. All of this is in addition to the new vital needs of some of the poorest and most vulnerable beneficiaries.

Children in rural areas of India often do not have access to quality education, especially those from low-income families and lower castes. According to Indian law, all children have the right to free education, but in practice, the education they get in state schools is not good enough to get out of poverty. Only good schooling and special attention can give them a chance to change their lives and not share the fate of their underprivileged parents. That's why Shanti India school was created.

The Warka Water project is based on the Warka Tower, the ingenious invention of an Italian designer Arturo Vittori. The Warka Tower is designed to harvest water from the atmosphere (rain, fog, dew) providing an alternative water source for rural populations that face challenges accessing drinkable water. It is a passive structure functioning only by natural phenomena such as gravity, condensation, and evaporation. Easy to maintain it is operated autonomously by the villagers.

According to the 2004 World Report, UNAIDS in 2003, Cameroon had 8 million children, of whom 12% (930,000) were orphans for various reasons. Our project is building an orphanage in Yaoundè. Today, the orphans are in extreme poverty - they search for food, spending their days and nights on the streets.

Currently, more than a thousand students of different ages are receiving the Alice Project training in India in three schools in Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh), Bodhgaya (Bihar), and Bodhisatta Deban Village (Arunachal Pradesh). From primary to secondary school, the Alice Project Universal Education School has formed an innovative programme that focuses not only on children’s education but also on developing their rational, emotional, and intuitive intelligence.

The rainforests of Malaysian Borneo were facing an uncertain future. By 2012, less than 1,200 orangutans remained in the Kinabatangan wilderness - the deforestation was taking away their natural habitat.

Access to solar electricity is radically transforming living conditions in the villages. Children can finally study and do their homework in the evening. As it gets dark very early, daily chores (cooking, washing up, etc.) and social life seemed almost impossible after the sunset.

In the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, the illiteracy rate in remote villages remains very high, especially among women. To combat this scourge, our partner Karuna-Shechen offers free literacy classes to village women, as well as courses in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography.

Through its medical centres, mobile clinics, and medical camps, our local Partner Karuna-Shechen offers medical aid, quality health care, and health education to the poorest populations in eastern Tibet, India, and Nepal. The medical centre's programmes include general medical consultations, a program for tuberculosis, family planning, and safe motherhood.

The general objectives of the project are increasing attendance rates of school-aged children, improving and enlarging the educational system in the village of Bogdaun, and increasing the ability of non-profit operators and organisations to implement social projects.

Shining Hope was chosen by artist Jean Remy to join the Shining Forks project.