The First Peoples Worldwide’s Keepers of the Earth Fund provides grants to projects “to control, utilize, leverage, retain, create, and increase the assets of Indigenous communities. Among these assets are land, culture, language, kinship networks, subsistence activities and personal efficacy. Projects may be geared toward addressing issues such as food security, securing rights to ancestral lands, mitigating the effects of climate change, or preserving and renewing cultural values and traditional knowledge.”
To understand more about the approach of this particular fund, we can go through some of the previous projects that have received support from it. AWISH (A World Institute for a Sustainable Humanity) is Sierra Leone received US $32,600 spread over a period of four years to develop the agricultural capacity of Indigenous communities in a war-torn region of Sierra Leone.
The LADA (Literacy Action and Development)in Uganda with grants of US $19,248 over a two-year period “worked with and for the Banyabutumbi, constructing water tanks in fourteen villages, and training community members to maintain the water resource.”
Keepers of the Earth Fund provides funding to projects which have a holistic approach towards development of communities.
Another important grantee was the Bundu Tuhan Native Residential Committee in Malaysia that received grants of over US $4,000 to support the Community Day and pilgrimate to Mt. Kinabalu, a sacred place to the Dusun people.
From these grantee projects, it is clear that this donor agency is willing to fund and re-fund the same partner NGO to further continue its work over a period of several years. This kind of approach ensures long-term sustainability and stronger impact. Besides, the grantees have been covering a wide range of issues from livelihood to conflict management to cultural preservation.
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