Palms for Life

Palms for Life Fund is a non-profit organization committed to giving access to basic human rights (food, water, education, and sanitation) in the world's poorest areas.

After a more than 30 years career at the United Nations, Hannah Laufer-Rottman wanted to found an organization that worked effectively on a local scale to break the cycle of poverty. The organization's strategy is to target poverty at its roots by raising funds and partnering with pre-existing regional groups focused on the following issues of hunger, girls' education, adult literacy, microfinance, and health care for mothers and children.

The organization works with these local groups to design effective strategies to expand the reach and scope of their existing social services. Moreover, it assesses the progress of each partner organization, and provides each with the necessary tools to effectively implement such strategy. In many cases, this means providing local organizations with training skills and material, as well as simple equipment such as telephone lines, computers with internet access, offices and means of transportation. It also means connecting local organizations with each other and therefore allowing them to gain force and authority at the higher levels of decision. It also entails providing local organizations with necessary advice and capacity to establish themselves as legal entities.

By starting at the base, Palms for Life is able to finance local organizations of the people and to provide these people with new opportunities for a better future.