About the charities
Instigating meaningful change and measuring the genuine impact of the donation was at the heart of the initiative for the Elbas and Christian Louboutin who imagined the initiative to support specific grassroot programs.
CASA 93 - France - Season III & II
CASA 93, an innovative, and free-of-charge fashion school in France, serving diverse and talented young adults from economically distressed and underserved communities.
The WAMIMS donation supports The Post Casa training program, a personal and tailored support program dedicated to the orientation and professional integration of their trainees in the fashion and design sector. Lasting 9 months, it is structured around group and individual work sessions, and gives the young people the opportunity to complete a 2 to 6 month internship with one of their partner companies.
The donation from previous season of WAMIMS Initiative supported CASA 93’s unique mission, including the expansion of their professional development and career services program at Post Casa. Through Post Casa, alumni can access free and ongoing career support services, educational workshops, and tools such as sewing machines and digital multimedia equipment to further secure their prospects for future employment.
AfriKids - Ghana - Season III & II
Founded in 2002, AfriKids is the leading organization for children in northern Ghana; working with communities to ensure that vulnerable children are healthy, safe and in school. Their award-winning projects are designed and delivered entirely by local people, using the simple philosophy of listening to communities and empowering them to make sustainable changes themselves. Because of AfriKids, 100,000+ people every year are healthy, safe and learning. 
The WAMIMS donation will help support their main mission for the next two years: keep 64,000 disadvantaged children healthy, safe and in school – especially children with disabilities, street children and girls. Through an holistic approach of providing rural communities with the means to earn an income, the motive to protect their children’s rights and the opportunity to break their cycle of poverty, together we can provide brighter futures for all children.
The donation from previous season of WAMIMS has benefited the transformative work of AfriKids including their education programs which ensure that vulnerable children - especially street children, children with disabilities and girls - receive a quality education so that they can transform not just their own futures, but their communities and the future of Ghana.
The Raining Season - Sierra Leone - Season III & II
The Raining Season, a charity based in Sierra Leone with a mission to provide orphaned children with hope, education, housing, and holistic care so that they will in turn bring hope for generations to come.
The Raining Season currently houses 94 orphans in Sierra Leone, Africa. The organization is a 24/7 childcare center and also provide food, clothing, education, and medical care. In order to provide quality care for their children the most basic necessity is a roof over their heads, the WAMIMS donation will support their yearly rent. The rest of the donation will be put toward their building project as they recently obtained 100 acres of land and have plans drawn up to build The Raining Season’s expanded dream center and campus.
Proceeds from the Season II of WAMIMS Initiative have benefited the overall work of TRS including the expansion of their Roots program, which provides ongoing support to children who are out of the childcare center through the provision of education, mentoring, vocational skills training and familial housing that includes a house mother and other young adults from the center. The Roots program is designed to “root” participants in their country by teaching them life skills that are needed to thrive.
Elman Peace - Somalia - Season III & II
Elman Peace Center, an organization based in Somalia dedicated to promoting peace, cultivating leadership, and empowering the marginalized brackets of society to be decision makers in the processes that ensure their wellbeing.
The proceeds from the Season II of Walk a Mile In My Shoes collection directly supported young women and men disassociating from armed forces and groups in Somalia by giving them access to quality education, psychosocial support and counseling, alternative dignified livelihoods and will invest in character development through sports and arts to help them transition into civilian life as productive members of the community.
For this season, the WAMIMS donation will continue support the Elman Peace Centre's who successfully launched a multifaceted program in Somalia empowering Somali youth to build a future free from violence. This year-long initiative not only provided immediate protection for vulnerable, war-affected youth but also established sustainable pathways for longterm impact. By integrating creative expression, sports, and peacebuilding workshops, the project addressed both internal well-being and community conflict resolution, utilizing innovative approaches that overwhelmingly resonated with Somali youth. Building on this momentum, the project's continuation will focus on scaling successful interventions, expanding reach, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of these positive changes introduced to Somalia through the Walk A Mile in my Shoes Initiative.
Immediate Theatre - UK - Season III & II & I
Immediate Theatre, a organization based in Hackney, London involving communities in creative projects dear to Idris Elba who is also a patron. The organization also participated to the first season of the initiative. 
The WAMIMS donation will support the Immediate Theatre Project which aims to continue supporting their Estate-based Youth Theatres programme, delivering high-quality arts activities in deprived areas to enable young individuals to express their stories and begin their personal journeys. Furthermore, they strive to utilize the concepts and narratives generated by these youths to produce new performances that can be shared with the wider community. Their goal is to ensure that young people feel that their voices are heard and that they have the power to make a better future for themselves and those around them
The donation from WAMIMS Season II supported Immediate Theatre’s powerful work and several key initiatives including a 14-week schools tour reaching at least 1000 youth living in areas of social deprivation across London, expansion of their state-based Youth Theatre and employment program, and the establishment of a fund to help youth create and produce their own projects.
The donation from WAMIMS Season I supported Can I walk in your shoes? a multi-disciplinary arts production that will explore the hopes and dreams of young people living in poverty in Hackney, East London and identify the barriers they face to achieving their aspirations. Using theatre, film, and social media youth will explore the still prevalent social injustices they experience, and in doing so they will identify a future that has purpose and prosperity.
The Gathering for Justice - US - Season III & I
The Gathering for Justice is an organization founded in 2005 by Harry Belafonte after he witnessed a news report of a 5 year-old black girl being handcuffed and arrested in her Florida classroom for “being unruly”. The Gathering for Justice’s mission is to build a movement to end child incarceration while working to eliminate the racial inequities that permeate the justice system.
The WAMIMS donation will support the Gathering’s Policy & Advocacy mission, to reimagine public safety by advocating for policies that promote youth justice and empowerment, police accountability, and true criminal justice reform. Their project objective is to convene our second Youth Policy Roundtable (YPR) to drive policy and systems change. They aim to build a platform for long-term, youth-led advocacy on intersecting issues that impact the lives of marginalized young people. In addition to helping to educate, activate, and mobilize young people to lead change efforts, key activities of this project include cultivating youth leaders and providing pathways to leadership, implementing arts and cultural programming, meeting directly with systems stakeholders, and providing educational opportunities to study and honor past movements, understand history, and adapt strategies and tactics for our current youth movements.
Proceeds from the Season I have supported Justice University, an intergenerational, intersectional and intercultural movement school for the 21st century, organized by The Gathering for Justice. The curriculum is designed to deepen social thought while also uplifting people who've been directly-impacted by injustice as the experts and teachers. Whether it's courses in Black liberation, Chicana feminism, organizing 101 or Kingian Nonviolence, the Justice University curriculum provides a foundational basis and connection to the legacy of the past needed in order to move forward collectively.
Purposeful - Sierra Leone - Season I
Established in 2016, Purposeful is a feminist movement-building hub for adolescent girls. They amplify girls’ voices, resource their resistance, build solidarity between and across girls’ movements, catalyse collaborative philanthropy and support innovation in grassroots programming with and for girls.
From January 2020 until June 2021, Purposeful and its partners worked across six districts of Sierra Leone to reach over 15,000 out-of-school adolescent girls. Purposeful then shifted to focus on Girls Circle Collectives, bringing together girls to analyze their oppression and strategize for change. Young women mentors are the backbone, leading life skills sessions and community building.
Through the Feminist Mentors' Academy, Purposeful has helped 50 mentors begin a deeper journey over 12 months. The experience is co-created by the mentors and centered in healing, joy, solidarity, consciousness raising, and collective action. Through convenings, exchanges, and micro grants, mentors gain social and political awareness, define what leadership means to them, expand their vision for their futures, and create change in their communities—with and for girls.
Two convening of mentors took place so far with the themes "my relationship with myself” and"relating with others." The final convening and celebration will be held in early 2023.
Mentors' lives have radically changed since they have become mentors in their communities. Some set up businesses, returned to education, or took actions like setting up a pre-school in their girls-only space.
Somali Hope Foundation - Somalia - Season I
Since 2008, the Somali Hope Foundation (SHF) has been dedicated to providing access to free, quality, and equitable education to youth in rural Somalia. They are a Canadian charity committed to bringing hope through education. Proceeds from the Season I have supported the Somali Hope Academy, founded in 2012 in Bursalah, Somalia to provide free education to the over 700 students enrolled. In 2021, they are celebrating their first graduating class. Proceeds have also been directed to their Community Education Committee (CEC) which works with local groups to offer a range of programs that includes CPR/First Aid, basic adult education, vocational training, health and hygiene courses, assistance with disaster relief, breakfast programs, and a well to provide clean water.
Be Rose International Foundation - Sierra Leone - Season I
Based in Maryland, USA, with offices in Nigeria and Sierra Leone, West Africa, Be Rose International Foundation was established in 2012 with a clear and singular vision: “To provide hope for people who have given up on life and believe they simply cannot make it.” They provide humanitarian relief for people in need of emergency assistance such as providing food pantry, rental & utility assistance to the vulnerable in the USA.
The walk a mile free breakfast project benefitted seven schools around Sierra Leone involves providing food to children in schools where children were provided free breakfast in underprivilege communities in Sierra Leone. Many low-income countries, tend to rely on government funding arrangements that is renewed annually, however it is always a challenged for nonprofit organizations to attain such grants.
Almost all the seven schools that benefitted from the free breakfast project saw an increase in enrollment, by 25%, increased in retention rates and a 30% reduction in gender and social gaps. Overall, there is strong will to continue to fund school feeding and to expand programs further, as far as possible.
The walk a mile in my shoes project enabled the Be Rose organization, to serve school going children across Sierra Leone, whose parents were unable to provide a meal for them. The widow's agriculture project also helped to train 25 widows in sustainable agriculture and increase regular fortification of the staple foods used in households and, to provide micronutrient for fortification of staple foods to home-based to strengthen food security.
The widows were able to increase regular fortification of the staple foods used in households from 25 to 500 households in two years lowering the risk of malnutrition.
Art Start - US - Season II
Art Start, a creative arts organization based in the United States that uses the creative process to nurture the voices, hearts, and minds of historically marginalized youth.
WAMIMS donation supported their Creative Connections Program, which offers youth in any circumstance, the opportunity to access and participate in drop-in sessions, creative residencies, paid internships, college counseling, and high level networking opportunities.
Public Creative Sessions and Open Studio Hours continue, which remain accessible for all Creative Connections participants, year-round.
2023 Emerging Artists cohort continues and graduates from residency programming, including:
Production and post-production of the 2023 Art Start Portrait Project
Weekly/monthly Creative Sessions, workshops, and group-based professional learning opportunities;
Individualized coursework, mentorship, portfolio development and critique, open studio hours, youth mental health support/services, and more;
Participation in the Spring Intensive, focusing on community building, creative careers, post-production and exhibition planning for the 2023 Art Start Portrait Project, and preparation for the annual Spring Retrospective;
Showcase and celebration of their progress portfolios at the annual Spring Retrospective.
About GlobalGiving
GlobalGiving is a top-rated nonprofit that makes it safe and easy to support important causes around the world. When disasters strike, we quickly deliver funds to community-led organizations that are best-suited to provide relief and long-term recovery. GlobalGiving promotes a virtuous cycle of good by helping companies find and support vetted, community-led projects around the globe. Since 2002, the GlobalGiving community has raised more than $913 million from 1.8+ million donors for 36,000 projects in 175+ countries. Learn more at www.globalgiving.org.