Overview
Inspired by three sisters Isla, Qitarah and Raziela, IQR foundation aims to encourage and influence the girl-child to use school and a tool to overcome poverty and empower herself. The foundation was established when the three sisters had an opportunity to visit Luapula province, one of the most impoverished regions in Zambia.
The three had an opportunity to interact with poor communities living on lands abundant in natural resources such as water and mineral wealth, yet, are deprived of their right to participate in decisions about development, and so reap few benefits from the region’s abundant natural resources.
Many people, especially, girls and women, in these communities live in abject poverty, feel abandoned, and are disillusioned about their ability to meaningfully improve their lives. These challenges are compounded by harmful cultural norms such as early marriages, discriminatory laws, and high rates of violence that inhibit and constrain the public and private aspects of their lives.
The organisations working in these regions especially those involved in mining activities , do very little to preserve the environment despite immensely benefitting from these natural resources. These activities if left unchecked can have devastating impacts on natural lives through disruption of rain patters, further compounding the problem of poverty in these regions.
Climate change is not receiving the required attention in rural areas due to poverty. You cannot achieve climate change objectives without prioritising poverty eradication. Poverty eradication cannot be achieved without education and a malnourished child cannot concentrate in class and the malnourishment itself will lead to poor health.
IQR is sponsoring programmes aimed at sensitizing school going and non-school going girls on the importance of education to fight life inequalities as well as eradicate poverty in our communities. Further, IQR is involved in climate change sensitization programmes in order to contribute to the preservation of the environment for tomorrow’s generations. Our aim is to turn young girls into sustainability leaders of tomorrow.
This is the premise on which our priorities are predicated:
- Gild-Child Education and Inclusion.
- Financial assistance to the vulnerable, NGO’s and Faith based organisations.
- Solving environmental or climate change problems with sustainable solutions
- Malnutrition eradication
- Improvement of Child health.
Some of our programmes include:
- Refurbishing schools in rural areas
- Donations of learning equipment and tools
- Improving access to college and university
- Enhancing teaching skills, particularly maths and science
- Maintaining sports facilities especially in rural areas
- Building self-esteem (from providing school uniforms, shoes and books)
- Income generation (particularly youth development)
- Community development