2022

November 2022 St Raphael’s Garda Credit Union have made a donation of €200 to the Female Genital Mutilation Project in Masanga. The prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the Mara region of Tanzania is very high at 32% of the female population aged 15-49 years old. nine out of ten women in Tanzania are against the practice but it is culturally entrenched and therefore hard to abolish. The Daughters of Charity in the Masanga run an FGM project that provides a refuge to between five and six hundred girls between November and December, engages families and communities to raise awareness of the harm it causes, and aims to transform the social norms that uphold the practice. A lack of education and poor employment prospects keep women in poverty so the project also has a vocational training centre to help girls learn skills such as sewing that can provide them with a sustainable livelihood.

September 2022 VLM is delighted to have partnered with Navillus, a construction company in New York, who are sponsoring the salary of a teacher at the St Catherine Laboure School run by our partners the Daughters of Charity in Tanzania. This is part of Navillus’ extensive social responsibility programme and their very generous donation will help the school continue to provide quality education to local children living in this area of extreme poverty. VLM would like to build more corporate social partnerships, and businesses would have the chance to donate to projects that have a tangible and long-lasting impact on communities. As well as sponsoring the salary of a teacher for a year, we have opportunities to contribute to the building of a centre for a women’s empowerment project or donate towards the purchase of a bus for a rural school. If this fits in with your business mission and values, please get in touch at info@vlm.ie.