Echo Connections: Connections That Y ield R esults

1. Echo Connections: Connections That Yield Results

2. Introduction Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

3. Echo Connections is an Industry Canada registered non-profit NGO registered. Our organization aids social development projects and NGOs in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania by finding them partners able to assist in a financial and logistical capacity. Echo Connections represents the interests of those groups working on social development projects by finding and securing key benefactors to ensure the projects’ success. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

4. Echo Connections helps the implementation of social development projects in different ways depending on the circumstances and needs of the project and group in question. The standard working model is that of Echo Connections finding and securing sources of funding for a project already in existence or conception in Africa. Our organization also has partnerships in place that are able to implement social development projects as conceived or otherwise commissioned by benefactors with a specific project in mind. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

5. Principles Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

6. Echo Connections endeavors to allow the social development project to enjoy the greatest autonomy possible. As such Echo Connections does not impose conditions on its partners, provided that the development partner has already met Echo’s requirements for partnership. By extension the organization also tries to stress this element to potential benefactor partners, though the nature of their relationship is to be entirely determined by the two partners in question. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

7. Echo Connections strongly believes in the distinction between money and capital. The difference being that capital is funding specifically earmarked for projects while money is development-destined cash with no tangible results objectives; for money to be considered capital it must be institutionalized. A development policy predicated purely on maximizing the total amount of development-destined money is akin to trickle down economics. Our approach is to supply social-development projects directly with capital. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

8. In his 2007 TED lecture former US President Bill Clinton spoke of the difficulties of development projects in Africa. He stated that one of the most difficult obstacles for projects and organizations in the continent was inassurance;that in the developed world we enjoy certain assurances that provide the necessary stability to assure that as a result effort and predictability of success are proportionately correlated. In countries that lack of stability there arises inassurance that most be overcome for development projects and organizations to succeed. Benefactors and stable financing represent an assurance that effort will correlate to success for our partner development projects. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

9. Why Partner with Echo? Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

10. Echo Connections is a non-profit organization so we provide our services at no charge to both development and benefactor partners. • For development projects we offer connections to partners who can offer either financial or logistical support to achieve development goals. • For benefactor partners we offer the opportunity to actualize tangible micro-projects in partner countries in Africa at low cost. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

11. Organization Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

12. Echo Connections is a small but diverse organization with eleven members in Africa, Europe and North America. Echo Connection’s operations are overseen by a small board of three directors that direct the general direction of the NGO. Members volunteer their time to assist the organization in various capacities as charged by the board of directors. Echo’s global membership maximizes the organizations reach in terms of partner projects and potential benefactors as well as yields certain logistical advantages afforded us by our multi-national composition. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

13. Partners Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

14. Echo Connections collaborates with projects and organizations that are either development partners or benefactor partners. Our development partners are those projects and NGOs working towards social development goals in West and East Africa while benefactor partners are the organizations that collaborate with the development partners to help them achieve results. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

15. AIESEC-Cote d’Ivoire signed on in December 2013 as our inaugural partner. AIESEC is an international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. Present in over 124 countries and territories and with over 100,000 members, AIESEC is the world's largest youth-run organization having AIESEC-CI as a partner is tremendous for our organization because they have experience implementing projects and their extensive membership is a valuable resource. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

16. Ariel Assistance is an social enterprise providing educational services in Cote d’Ivoire. The company has a dedicated NGO component that provides rural and urban education services to those who otherwise would not be able to afford them. Ariel Assistance runs alphabetization programs in rural villages, free professional accreditation for those in need of work, and women’s only professional development courses. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

17. Projects Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

18. Through our partnership with Ariel Assistance Echo Connections is helping implement a women’s-only alphabetization program for the Ivorian village of Azaguie. The project, funded by the Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit, allows 15 women to receive alphabetization lessons twice a week for a three month period. This is a pilot project that Ariel and Echo hope to replicate in other Ivorian villages. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

19. Echo Connections also has a partnership agreement with AIESEC-CI to implement two projects in 2014. The first of these projects is the distribution of 100 footballs to children in poorer districts within Abidjan in July 2014. The plan is to use AIESEC-CI members and interns to distribute the balls in Abobo and Youpogon. • The second joint-project involves creating an AIESEC internship position in Cote d’Ivoire to have an AIESECer travel to schools in Abidjan and the surrounding villages to discuss peaceful conflict resolution techniques to a generation of youths that experienced a decade of civil war. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

20. Additional Plans Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

21. In 2014 Echo Connections is actively seeking funding for a mosquito net distribution program. Sumitomo Chemical has already agreed to provide their insecticide-infused mosquito nets at production cost and 200 mosquito nets could be distributed in two rural Ivorian villages for a cost of $1,000cdn. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

22. The Office National d’Eau Potable (ONEP) in Cote d’Ivoire has also expressed strong interest in pursuing a project to distribute iodine tablets or Lifestraws (insert link) in the rural north. While access to northern Cote d’Ivoire is normally quite limited due to transit security concerns ONEP can provide access and distribution for a part of the country severely lacking basic life necessities like access to clean water. Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results

23. Contact Us • Echo Connections • 3085 Apple Hill Dr., Ottawa, Canada. • 613-241-9898 • echo.connections@gmail.com • Founder and Managing Director: Matin Fazelpour • mfazelpour.echo@gmail.com • Communications Director: Marie-Danielle Smith • mdsmith.echo@gmail.com • Policy Director: KelseaBeadman • kbeadman.echo@gmail.com Echo Connections: Connections that Yield Results