User:Dana at Embrace/sandbox

Wiki quick facts

Founded: 2008

Type: International Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

Headquarters: Fairfield, New Jersey, U.S.

Focus: Clean Water, Cure Cataract, Refugee Relief, Hunger Relief

Area served: Worldwide

Staff: 11-50 employees

CEO: Osman Dulgeroglu

Website: https://www.embracerelief.org/

About Embrace Relief Foundation (ERF) is a 501 (c) (3) research-based international humanitarian aid and development organization. It started as disaster relief in 2008 and then became international humanitarian in 2013.

The organization's program service activities focus on health initiatives, refugee relief, education, women's empowerment, disaster relief, clean water relief, and hunger relief. ERF's programs reflect its commitment to providing aid to people who otherwise have little to no other means of support in the form of food, monetary funds, supplies, educational materials, and personal assistance. The organization seeks to leave a lasting impact on lives through a multitude of initiatives that provide both immediate, short-term assistance as well as long-term solutions.

In order to efficiently supply for those in need, Embrace Relief has partnered and collaborated with grassroots organizations. This has given them more access to a wider audience, supporting the distressed with any given need. Additionally, Embrace Relief works to invite younger generations to learn the process of helping others. This is achieved through their internship program, which is a four-month-long mentorship from the staff. The overall goal of this program is to enhance the student’s learning experience and grant them sufficient exposure to this line of work.

Programs

Clean Water

Embrace Relief dedicates time researching which areas are in most need of access to clean water and determines where to build wells accordingly. This process can sometimes take more than 3 weeks. In 2020, they started focusing on the Madélia region in Chad and the city of Koussér in Cameroon with a goal of building 50 wells in each. They constructed 10 in Chad and 14 in Cameroon.

Embrace Relief has succeeded in building 365 water wells in total as of December 2020. They have been able to do so because they have reasonable prices for the wells — roughly $4,500 or $6,000 per well. They dig to a depth of 45 meters — or roughly 147.64 feet. All water wells are operational and guaranteed to grant communities clean water for 5 years.

In 2017, Embrace Relief worked with Slingerlands Elementary School to help launch a global community outreach project in which money was raised to build a water well in Chad, Africa. Embrace Relief also partnered with New York University’s Turkish Student Association in 2015 to help raise funds for a water well in Kenya.

Hunger Relief

Embrace Relief’s International Hunger Relief Campaign is dedicated to food distribution. In 2019, the organization succeeded in feeding over 16,800 families suffering from food insecurity worldwide.

On Oct. 14, 2020, the organization joined Wellsprings Community Center in Connecticut to deliver 210 pounds of ground beef to the West Haven Emergency Task Force. According to the executive director of WHEAT Rose Majestic, the beef fed 4,000 city families in need. Congressman Max Rose partnered with Assembly Member Charles Fall, the Turkish Cultural Center and Embrace Relief Foundation on Aug. 20, 2020, to deliver food to Staten Island’s Salvation Army. More than 950,000 food packages were distributed among struggling families.

In an effort to help families in need, Embrace Relief collaborated with the Turkish Cultural Center in Queens, transporting 500 pounds of ground beef to clients at the Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement senior center on Aug. 13, 2019.

Embrace Relief provided $3,883 to Winston Strong and 400 pounds of meat to the Turkish community in Louisville after their 2014 tornado.

The organization collaborated with New Jersey’s Turkish Cultural Center on Nov. 19, 2016, in facilitating a food drive outside of Palisades Park’s ShopRite. All items collected were donated to the Center of Food Action (CFA) in Hackensack.

On Oct. 22, 2014, the Turkish Cultural Center of Albany, NY organized a food drive with the help of Embrace Relief. Together, they succeeded in delivering 100 pounds of packaged beef cutlets to the Albany Emergency Center of Interfaith Partnership.

During the final days of Ramadan in July 2014, the Turkish Cultural Center of New Hampshire and Embrace Relief unloaded non-perishables to a food bank and served dinner at New Horizons, feeding just over 200 people.

On Sept. 5, 2016, Embrace Relief administered a worldwide food distribution, distributing approximately 350,000 pounds of fresh meat the year before.

Embrace Relief and Turkish Cultural Center-Brooklyn were joined with the borough’s president, Eric Adams, on Oct. 1, 2015, to distribute 1,500 pounds of meat to food pantries throughout Brooklyn.

Health/Cure Cataracts

Embrace Relief partners with volunteer doctors and medical professionals to help people who do not have access to adequate healthcare. Their Mobile Health Clinic travels with volunteer doctors to remote places in Mali, where people have little to no access to healthcare. This mobile clinic allows certified doctors to perform up to 30 cataract surgeries and hundreds of health screenings over the course of two days. Since 2013, Embrace Relief’s volunteer doctors have performed over 47,000 health checkups, of which 3,000 cataract surgeries were sponsored by donors.

In addition to the Mobile Health Clinic, Embrace Relief has provided funding and operational support to two clinics in Bamako, the capital of Mali. These health clinics provide general and specialized care to residents of Bamako.

Pacifica Institute and Embrace Relief worked toward collecting and delivering gift bags of hygienic items including toothbrushes, shampoo, and soap to Making a Difference in Community (MDC). This was sufficient to supply approximately 60 women in Tacoma on Feb. 26th, 2020.

Refugee Relief

Embrace Relief’s English Program offers refugees the opportunity to learn English from a volunteer teacher. They also place refugees into emergency housing until a new home is found. Additionally, they provide translators to assist with their search, asylum paperwork, and placing their children in school.

Donors are also able to help families on a much smaller scale in the organization’s “Adopt a Refugee Family” program. They are expected to make a monthly payment of $500 to sufficiently fund the family’s needs.

In December 2015, Embrace Relief partnered with humanitarian group Rocktown Rallies to collect winter apparel for Syrian refugees in the community. Embrace Relief succeeded in collecting 18,000 jackets for refugees the year before but was also key in distributing the coats and blankets to a refugee camp in Turkey.

Embrace Relief and local governments from Northern Virginia partnered for a blanket drive and donation campaign to help Syrian refugees in Turkey. Blankets were collected throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. 25,000 blankets were collected and $100,000 was raised. 18,000 blankets were distributed the year before.

Raise the Children

Raise the Children is a program dedicated to aiding orphans in need of food and improvement in overall health, hygiene, and wellness. Embrace Relief has especially focused on orphanages in Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. Embrace Relief has succeeded in helping 2,336 children and provides them with food, hygienic products, healthcare, and payment for their orphanage’s utility bills.

The Turkish community in Springfield hosted a Turkish Bazaar on May 16, 2019, at the Turkish Cultural Center of Massachusetts in collaboration with Embrace Relief. All profits raised were donated to the “Raise an Orphan” program facilitated by Embrace Relief.

On April 17, 2015, the organization visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to distribute clothing, food, and toys sufficient for 40 children. They also delivered 50-pound bags of rice, flour, and wheat. In one evening, the organization was able to deliver hygienic products and meat to over 90 children.

Education

In 2015, Embrace Relief and New Jersey’s Community Development Corporation’s Early Learning Network collaborated to bring 500 backpacks filled with school supplies to students from the Paterson Family Center in Paterson, NJ. The students enjoyed a continental breakfast, and one lucky student got a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card.

Every year, Embrace Relief collaborates with New Jersey F.B.I. Citizen’s Alumni Academy Association of Newark to donate backpacks filled with school supplies to students from low-income areas throughout northern NJ.

In collaboration with local and international partners, Embrace Relief has distributed educational supplies both in the United States and worldwide to over 47,450 students. Over 7,000 students have been granted access to ICT computer technology, 37,000 books were donated to schools and public libraries, and 1,450 backpacks and school supplies were donated. With educational assistance projects, Embrace Relief provided thousands of dollars worth of merit-based scholarships to college students in the U.S.

GradPlus

GradPlus is an academic support program designed to help at-risk students complete high school and successfully transition to college or vocational training in the Passaic County, New Jersey area.

Embrace Relief created GradPlus to offer training, mentoring, and support to at-risk students who want to attend college or learn a trade at a vocational school, but do not have the resources to do so. GradPlus offers a wide range of programs to help students plan their future. The program includes one to two sessions of tutoring a week that lasts an hour and a half. One session is focused on language arts skills, the other math.

Embrace Relief also preps students from Paterson and East Side High School who are looking into vocational training for the C.A.S.A.S. (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) test to gauge basic and academic skills. The C.A.S.A.S. test is practical and relates to everyday situations that apply to life and work, along with basic skills such as reading, math, listening, speaking, and writing. Students can earn up to $6,000 in scholarships through these tests.

ACT-US Through Accessible Computer Technology for Underserved Students (ACT-US), Embrace Relief offers Digital Literacy and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programs to people and communities who have little access to the internet or technology. Embrace Relief has partnered with Endless Solutions to help provide 324 computers to impoverished schools in Tanzania and Uganda.

Women’s Empowerment

RISE is an educational program that assists women who are seeking higher opportunities for themselves. Through this program, Embrace Relief encourages the pursuit of an education, influences change, and increases educational opportunities for women and girls.

There are currently 27 women in the RISE program. The RISE program consists of two separate initiatives: Higher Education Support and Educational Leadership and Management Training.

In Higher Education Support, young women in Tanzania have the opportunity to empower themselves, become self-sufficient and create a financially stable life for themselves and their families by receiving a higher education.

Educational Leadership and Management Training provides women teachers in Tanzania with funding to receive additional certifications in Educational Leadership, Management, and School Quality Assurance, enabling them to take on more prominent roles in schools.

Embrace Relief has helped 76 women in Haiti and Kenya become entrepreneurs. These women were taught how to make jewelry, sew and run a business on eBay.

Disaster Relief

In times of significant natural disasters, Embrace Relief facilitates campaigns to provide food, water, clothing, and funds directed toward affected communities. The organization has helped more than 422,610 people to date.

Over $1.4 million has been distributed to disaster relief efforts around the globe.

Embrace Relief and the Raindrop Foundation have opened shelters and donated resources to provide Hurricane Harvey relief.

On Dec. 2, 2015, Embrace Relief donated $51,000 to Bastrop County in Austin, Texas, in an effort to assist recovery from the Hidden Pines Fire, which left 64 families homeless that October.

In response to the Coronavirus, Embrace Relief hosted a fundraising event in May 2020. During this program, the team succeeded in raising over $103,000 with notable support from Enes Kanter, Helen Little, Ambassador Narinder Kakar, Joyce M. Davis, Edie Peters Liguori, Dr. Ron Messier, Dr. Katrina Swett, Father Thomas F. Michel, S.J., Eliz Akaeva, Gary Busey, Kareem Irfan, Dr. Joan Rivitz, Rabbi Michael Zedek, Ertugrul and Aslihan Erkisi, Reverend Dirk Ficca and Lisa Guerrero. Since then, they have succeeded in providing: 52,400 masks, 4,180 hot meals for frontline workers, 840 paper towels and 20+ gallons of antibacterial soap for hospitals, 840 face shields, 1,700 families with meat packages, and 81 families with monetary support.

Group FUNdraising

Group FUNdraising is a program implemented by Embrace Relief that allows groups to fundraise money for a campaign of their choice. These campaigns include water well projects, orphanage renovations, library renovations, school supplies, sponsor cataract surgeries, and certified health checkups. They currently have a major focus on developing countries in Africa including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad.