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We would like to include you on our e-mailing list to ensure you receive our monthly newsletter reporting on the progress being made.  Tools for Hope, Inc., incorporated in Tennessee,  is an IRS 501 c 3 tax exempt corporation.   We look forward to your engagement; helping us to improve how we work to improve the lives of subsistence farmers in Rwanda and in east-central Africa.

Tools For Hope and the Twisungane Cooperative

The Twisungane group is a group of smallholder farmers living in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, Bugesera district, in the Ntarama sector. Twisungane, the name picked by the farmers for their group means the “Hard Workers”. This group was founded in 2012 by 7 members, all men, who tried to share agricultural activities. They combined their efforts to support their families.

In 2015 when Tools For Hope (TFH) started working with the group, group membership increased to include 10 men, 9 women and 34 children. The farmers recalled that before starting working with TFH, the Twisungane group could barely afford to survive, many of its members had no shelter and were totally dependent on vending locally made beer to earn a living.

Now there are 68 family members of which 15 are men, 13 women and 40 children. Of the 40 children 29 are in primary schools while the remaining 11 are still young but in 2 years they will be all in school.

Twisungane Cooperative Progress

TFH has improved the standard of living of the Twisungane members through its support of agricultural equipment and training. Working with the TFH mentor (Frank Mutesa) in Rwanda the Twisungane have managed to learn and implement much better agricultural, administrative, and business systems.

Below are some of the benefits;

1. Irrigation equipment which help them in agriculture production, such that on 0.99 acres they used to get only 220 pounds of produce but after getting the irrigation equipment and the technical support from TFH, they are over getting 2 tons of produce. The diesel pump and the pipes for irrigation are still in service and are very important in increasing their agriculture yields.
2. They can now afford to keep their children in school and can afford to buy the necessary school materials. The number of children attending school has increased to 100% in 2018.
3. They can afford to pay for health insurance. Previously only 4 families were able to pay for this service. Now in 2018, all members of Twisungane can pay for health care for their family members.
4. Through the training conducted by TFH staff, now all the families have opened bank accounts for the group and their individual accounts. And 3 of them have already gotten loans to buy pigs and goats.
5. Families are now able to cultivate and harvest vegetables even in their home gardens. This was made possible through training and support from the TFH agronomist, who encouraged and helped the farmers to plant what locally are called call kitchen gardens.
6. TFH staff have also obtained for the farmers cassava seeds (from the Rwanda Agriculture Board) which they have now planted in their individual farms. Usually in their village each family / house has at least 4 trees of cassava planted, but the cassava trees they had were destroyed by diseases and they needed a new variety. Therefore, we negotiated with Rwanda Agriculture Board and managed to get the farmers the new cassava variety. This has also helped stabilize their food supply and peels from the cassava can easily be processed into high quality live-stock feed.
7. Farmers have benefited from TFH training on how to record their activities. They are now able to calculate their assets and their profits, simply by calculating and recording every planned activity in a book and keeping track of all records and each activity. And in doing so they have adapted the culture of sitting down and planning together what they are going to plant and calculating all necessary costs for each agricultural activity from preparing the land, ploughing, planting, fertilization, irrigation activities, weeding, spraying of pesticides, harvesting, and storage up to transportation of the yield to the market.
8. Now the farmers know when to use pesticide before it is too late. As this used to happen and they would lose all the production as a result of poor knowledge about pests and pesticides.
9. Twisungane cooperative members are now respected in the community and the local leaders are highly praising them and promoting them to other villagers and encouraging them to keep on and encouraging other community members to join and work in similar groups.

How to give

 
Wondering what gifts to give?  Consider making a tax-deductible donation in honor of a loved on this year.  As you consider your charitable gifts between now and the end of the year, remember that gifts made now could generate income tax deductions that may help reduce your tax bill.

Gifts by Check and mailed via the USPS may be mailed to the following address:

Tools For Hope, Inc.
1540 Robinson Road
Knoxville, TN 37923

Online gifts via PayPal

• The most convenient way to ensure that your gift to Tools For Hope, Inc. is received on time is to make it online via PayPal. Please follow the link on the sidebar for to go to PayPal.

Gifts of Securities

• Giving stock worth more than you paid for it may result in tax savings.  Stock transfers initiated and received on or before the close of the market on December 30, 2016, will be credited for 2016.  To ensure proper gift credit to you, please notify us in advance when you are ready to make a transfer.

Gifts via Wire Transfer
Our wire transfer instructions are as follows:

• Financial Institution: Enrichment Federal Credit Union
• Address: 1009 Bradford Way, Kingston, TN 37763
• Routing number: 264281364
• Account Name: Tools For Hope, Inc.
• Account Number: 778271106305
  • Wire transfers must be received on or before December 31, 2016, in order to be considered a 2016 contribution.  Please contact Tools For Hope and provide the name of who is making the wire transfer. You may email richard@toolsforhope.org.

Gifts via IRA Charitable Rollovers

• The charitable IRA rollover, also called a qualified charitable distribution, was made permanent in 2015.  Donors age 70 1/2 or older may use this option to make qualifying charitable gifts that are excluded from taxable income and counted toward their required minimum distribution.  To qualify, gifts must be transferred directly from the IRA provider to Tools For Hope, Inc. and meet certain other requirements.  We encourage you to check with your financial advisors about the best ways for you to take advantage of this opportunity.

Giving Tuesday 
Celebrate Giving Tuesday by supporting Tool For Hope, Inc. See https://www.givingtuesday.org/.

Amazon Smile
Amazon gives 0.5% of eligible purchases to Tools For Hope, Inc. when you sign up for Amazon Smile and select Tools For Hope, Inc.  See https://smile.amazon.com.

Use our Amazon smile link when shopping

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Tools For Hope, Inc. every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you will find the exact same prices, selection, and shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to Tools For Hope, Inc.

How do I select Tools For Hope, Inc. to support when shopping on AmazonSmile? On your first visit to AmazonSmile, smile.amazon.com, you need to select Tools For Hope, Inc. to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.

To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same.

How much of my purchase does Amazon donate? The AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases.

Which products on AmazonSmile are eligible to support Tools For Hope, Inc.? You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.

 copyright Tools for Hope, Inc. 2021

"Tools for Hope, Inc." is a 501(c) 3 non-profit Tennessee corporation.

1540 Robinson Road, Knoxville TN 37923