The impact of your family friend donations

Donations received through the Family Friend programme directly support the country programme where the families featured in your updates are based. Right now, Family Friend updates feature the stories of families who are part of Ripple Effect projects in Rwanda, so your donations are currently used to support our work in Rwanda.

Donations made through the Family Friend programme do not go directly to specific families, as the cost of administering this would reduce how much we are able to spend on delivering life-changing training to families living in poverty. Instead, donations received through the Family Friend programme directly support the country programme where the families featured in your updates are based.

Since our Family Friend programme was launched in 2008, supporters have followed the stories of families from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. When Ripple Effect projects come to an end, typically after three years, and families are flourishing, we no longer feature these families' stories in our regular Family Friend updates. To show the real impact your donations are making, we introduce new families who are at the beginning of their journey with Ripple Effect. This ensures you can follow their stories throughout their time as part of a Ripple Effect project and the progress they make thanks to donations like yours.

Donations received through the Family Friend programme directly support the country programme where the families featured in your updates are based. Right now, Family Friend updates feature the stories of families who are part of Ripple Effect projects in Rwanda, so your donations are currently used to support our work in Rwanda.

A typical Ripple Effect project is three or more years long. That means, where possible, we like to feature families in your Family Friend updates for the duration they are part of a Ripple Effect project so that you can follow their progress over time and see the real impact of your generous donations. However, this may not always be possible as some families may choose to leave a project for personal reasons.

As a Family Friend supporter, we like to introduce you to new families in your Family Friend updates every two to three years. This is usually when the current families featured in your updates have come to the end of working directly with Ripple Effect. By introducing new stories from families who are just starting their journey with Ripple Effect, you can follow their progress over time and see the real impact of your generous donations.

To decide which families to feature in the updates, we look at which Ripple Effect projects have recently started. We then work closely with our colleagues in Africa to find families that are happy to share their stories and progress year after year with supporters like you. By introducing new families that are at the beginning of their journey with Ripple Effect, you can follow each family's progress over time and see the real impact of your generous donations.

Ripple Effect Rwanda is building the resilience of farmers and their communities to climate change, by ensuring their ecosystems are properly protected and maintained to meet their immediate needs and those of future generations. Programme measures include constructing terraces and contour ditches, irrigation powered by solar energy, promoting reafforestation and agroforestry, and introducing energy-saving stoves and renewable energy. Find out more here Ripple Effect | Rwanda