By Camelia Coupal

Abigail Burgesson, Program Officer of the African Women's Development Fund, works with former slaves in Ghana. Rita Pilkenton, a high-tech employee in Sunnyvale, California has a concern for women and their rehabilitation and integration into society. It was GlobalGiving that brought the two together.

Pilkenton was one of hundreds donors who chose to donate part of their paychecks to development projects overseas through their employee giving program.

"I like to support projects that help people help themselves," Pilkenton said.

Burgesson's project, Ghana: Vocational center for freed girl slaves, supports a training center where ex-slaves can acquire income generating skills and have access to a production center where they make and sell their products. The slavery is part of a religious tradition practiced in certain West African countries.

As Burgesson explained, "When a relative commits a crime, the family must offer their virgin daughter to the local shrine, where she becomes a slave to atone for the sin of the member. The priest to the shrine then has full ownership over the girl, demanding labor and sexual relations, and often denying her education, food, and basic health services."

Pilkenton chose to support this project because it helps girls who had little opportunity as slaves, gain opportunity.  "The project allows them to have choices in life that they were denied," she said.

"Ghana: Vocational center for freed girl slaves" is currently available for funding. Click here for more information.

Resources

• Read about "Ghana: Vocational center for freed girl slaves" a project on GlobalGiving
   
• Email Fortune with questions or comments about the project

Applied Materials, the world's largest supplier of products and services to the global semiconductor industry, has partnered with GlobalGiving for their 2004 employee giving program.

One of the world's leading information infrastructure providers, Applied Materials (AMAT) employs approximately 12,000 people in over 70 locations throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and the People's Republic of China, with over 7000 employees based in the United States.

GlobalGiving will be supporting AMAT's efforts to energize its employee giving campaign. For the first time, AMAT employees will have access to international projects. Each donation made by an employee during the campaign (September 15-30) will be matched by the corporation. In order to integrate this system smoothly with the current employee giving system, GlobalGiving has teamed up with Create Hope: GlobalGiving has created a customized giving portal that will integrate with Create Hope's tools that support payroll deductions and other workplace giving activity.

As part of its community involvement and social responsiblity activities, Applied Materials is also a sponsor for the Tech Museum Awards, a new project sponsor on GlobalGiving. The Tech Museum Awards honor innovators and visionaries from around the world who are applying technology to profoundly improve the human condition in the categories of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development. AMAT employees are now able to individually support the same initiative as the corporation.

Resources

• Learn more about The Tech Museum Awards award winners
   
• Learn more about Applied Materials

Through its partnership with The North Face, GlobalGiving connected donors and social entrepreneurs in last week's Outdoor Retailers trade show in Salt Lake City.  GlobalGiving representatives greeted visitors to the OR show with information about The North Face's international giving program while encouraging passers by to directly support the initiatives via the GlobalGiving platform. As an extra incentive, Outside Magazine agreed to match all contributions dollar for dollar. The effort raised roughly $2,100 for projects in Peru, Nepal and Pakistan.

GlobalGiving's presence at the trade show was part of a larger partnership with The North Face to promote philanthropy in areas where TNF sends its athletes. For each climbing expedition, TNF will donate $100 for each 1,000 feet climbed by its athletes.

The show culminated with a slideshow presentation by TNF climber Pete Athans. As the only westerner to summit Mt. Everest seven times, Athans shared his experience with an audience of 200 while pledging his support to the Himalayan Cataract Project. The initiative provides much-needed, low-cost eye surgery for the countless number of Nepalese who have lost their vision because of cataracts. 

Resources

• See more information about GlobalGiving's partnership with The North Face
   
• Read other recent news items about GlobalGiving