Elsa Miller Foundation - Year in Review 2023

Elsa Miller Foundation participated in 16 projects in 2023. All of them were health or

education -related projects in Africa, Asia and in the US.

Africa

Rwanda

Elsa Miller Foundation helped upgrade the hygiene level of the Nyamata Hospital in Bugesera District. Patient toilets, showers, and the hand washing stations were renovated, hand washing stations added as well as new plumbing installed. We helped acquire professional scrub sinks for all operating theatres, an autoclave, two defibrillators with monitors as well as several wheelchairs. We continued our support for the ‘in-house’ sewing room.

Aalto University in Finland received a grant from EMF to improve the patient flow at Nyamata hospital in Rwanda. In 2023, Aalto University professors and students began a collaboration with the University of Rwanda to work on the project. Planning phase started in 2023, and the actual workshop will take place in 2024.

As during the previous years, we supported E-Heza, a digital tool that provides efficient,

scalable primary healthcare for families.

Sudan

We also continued to fulfill our pledge to African Mission Healthcare and Dr. Tom Catena at the Gidel Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan to educate physician assistants and midwives. The school is established and the first students expected to graduate in spring of 2025. We provided the student dorms with beds, the classrooms with critical teaching materials and helped the hospital acquire a squad bike, which is much needed in a desert environment void of roads.

Southeast Asia

Cambodia

We supported the Landmine Relief Fund to clear landmines and to organize training to

avoid explosives injuries.

During the previous year, 2022, the Elsa Miller Foundation helped convert a pagoda building into a library. In 2023, we supplied the library with furniture, books, games, computers and printers.

Laos

We gave a grant to the Community Learning International to construct a girls’ dormitory making it possible for girls from faraway villages to continue attending school, and to run a “Book Boat” bringing books and hygiene supplies to children living in remote villages along the Mekong River.

Europe

Ukraine

We contributed to RAZOM, a non-profit organization providing much-needed aid to Ukraine to resist the aggression by Russian armed forces.

USA

Michigan

We supported the Finlandia Foundation to run Finlandia Folk School, Art Gallery and NorthWind bookstore in Hancock, Michigan.

New York

We have pledged a three-year grant to the Finnish and Swedish language and culture program at Columbia University in New York. The program has caught the attention of an increasing number of students both at both Columbia and Yale.

These institutions preserve the Finnish heritage in the United States.