The Funds
USAID's three special funds are working in more than
40 developing countries to improve the social, economic, and
developmental status of those most in need.
Displaced Children and Orphans Fund
|
Former Brazilian street
children participating in the
Bagunçaço project |
The U.S. Agency for International Development's Displaced Children and
Orphans Fund (DCOF), established in 1988, began with the
realization that increasing numbers of vulnerable groups of
children were slipping through the cracks of larger
child-centered programs. These children were losing the
care and protection of their natural families, were
being affected by war or HIV-AIDS, and were increasingly
at risk of or were actually living or working on the street.
Their natural resiliency was being developed, but only for
basic survival purposes and in ways that posed grave
consequences for themselves, their communities, and in the
long run, their countries.
The concern for these children has
manifested itself in many ways, among
concerned citizens, service organizations,
and large and small donors. The Displaced
Children and Orphans Fund is one of those
donors, and in the more than a dozen years of
its existence, has identified principles,
approaches, and methodologies, which it
currently supports through more than 28
programs in 19 countries.
Leahy War Victims Fund
|
Weavers in the Joom Noon
silk project |
The Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund (LWVF) responds to the needs
of victims of conflict in war-affected developing countries. LWVF provides
financial and technical assistance for people living with disabilities, primarily
those suffering from mobility related injuries—caused by
unexploded ordnance, including antipersonnel landmines— and other direct and
indirect causes of physical disability (polio and other preventable diseases
that might result from interrupted immunization campaigns).
For more than a decade, LWVF has maintained a primary objective
of expanding access to affordable and appropriate prosthetic and orthotic
services. Since 1989, LWVF has provided more than $92 million in
26 countries.
Victims of Torture Fund
In keeping with its legislative mandate under the Torture
Victims Relief Act of 1988, USAID works thought the Victims
of Torture Fund to assist the rehabilitation of individuals
who suffer the physical and psychological effects of torture.
Additionally, the fund recognizes that communities, along
with survivors, need to heal and recover. To this end, the
fund supports programs that affirm the dignity of the survivor
by restoring his or her position as a functioning and contributing
member of the family and the community. The fund works through
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) overseas that (1) provide
direct services to survivors, their families, and communities;
(2) strengthen the capacity of country-based institutions
in their delivery of services to survivors; and (3) increase
the level of knowledge and understanding about the needs of
torture victims.
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