Elsa Miller Foundation - Year in Review 2024

The Elsa Miller Foundation participated in 20 projects in 2024. Areas of focus were in health

and education in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia as well as in the USA.

Africa

Rwanda

We provided a collaboration between architecture students and faculty at Aalto University in

Finland with counterparts at the University of Rwanda in Kigali, Rwanda, to address a patient

flow problem as well as infrastructure issues at a district hospital near Kigali. This experience

resulted in an in-country architectural workshop where the ideas generated were shared among

other students in Rwanda thus expanding the knowledge and possibilities to improve other

hospitals.

Follow-up will be in 2025 when Aalto University students will again travel to Rwanda to

implement the most immediate plans for improvement.

In September, we sponsored a health conference, hosted by Rwanda in Kigali, addressing the

pervasive problem of babies being born stunted, both cognitively and linearly, in the developing

world. Titled HEALTHYSTART, we brought together recognized experts on global health from

Finland, Canada, USA, India, and Belgium to discuss the issue and plan of action. The next

step will be a four-year feasibility study to take place in Rwanda to gather essential data and

explore interventions.

We continued our support of E-Heza - the digital tool for proactive maternal care at the village

level - to prove its success in scalability. Indeed, it is this system being in place that set the

stage for the pilot project on stunting.

We helped establish the first research laboratory at King Faisal Hospital where work began

immediately on drug resistant malaria. Having a laboratory in place, has helped inspire the establishment of the new King Faisal Medical School.

The needs within Nyamata Hospital in the Bugesera District near Kigali, remains a focus of our

attention. We provided stronger metal beds, new mattresses, and linens as well as instruments

to support the work of an ENT doctor on staff. We provided for break rooms. And, we continued

to support a hospital seamstress to make and repair sheets and scrubs and gowns.

We provided for more wheelchairs at the hospital and asked that walkers be added and given to the nearby home for the elderly.

We supported the publishing of traditional Rwandan stories, in the local language of

Kinyarwanda, by ImagineWe, a Kigali based publishing house. Book sets of every title were

distributed to 15 schools as well as the Kigali Community Library.

We funded a workshop for teachers in a local academy and gave financial support for books

and learning tools.

Zambia

We provided 180 locally-made new desks to accommodate the dramatically increased student

population at Mt. Makulu Basic School in Lusaka.

We, also sponsored the building of a new separate toilet facility for the school. The toilet block will be finished in February 2025.

Sudan

We continued to fulfill our five year pledge with African Mission Healthcare for the work of Dr.

Tom Catena at the Gidel Hospital in the Nuba Mountains helping establish and sustain a school

to educate midwives and physician’s assistants.

South Africa

We granted a small sum to Hope Cape Town, for a health center.

South Asia

Nepal

Along with the Karya Foundation of France, we helped with projects initiated by young adults

known to us by their affiliation with the former organization, Next Generation Nepal.

Among these have been sewing classes for women seeking trade and life skills. And, helping a

pharmacist build and stock a health post in the remote village of Humla.

Southeast Asia

Laos

We continued an annual donation to Community Learning International in Laos to bring books

and hygiene materials by boat to children in rural villages along the Mekong River.

Cambodia

We have supported the Cambodian Self Help Demining organization which clears farmland of

unexploded ordnance and has built schools in rural communities.

USA

Arizona

We restored the library at Village Meadows Elementary School - a Title I school serving a

diverse population - with new shelving and furnishings and completely updating the collection of

books.

New Mexico

We pledged three-year support for the library at the St. Joseph Mission School in rural San

Fidel, NM that serves a Hispanic community as well as Acoma and Laguna Pueblos.

Michigan

We have honored our three-year pledge to sustain the former Finlandia University established

Folk School and Art Gallery and NorthWind bookstore newly acquired by the Finlandia Foundation preserving Finnish heritage in Hancock, MI.

We have initiated a landscape project to develop a Park on the grounds of the Menominee Range Historical Museum in Iron Mountain, MI to serve the local community as a celebration of its heritage.

New York

We have continued to support the study of the Finnish and Swedish languages at Columbia

University in NYC.