What We Do
Woontanara Aid Programs
Helping Poor and Orphaned Children
 Food
Woontanara Aid stimulates the local Guinean economy by purchasing needed food and supplies from the markets and distributing them among our poor and orphaned children. Many of these children have been taken in by families who are in need themselves, and some live in orphanages.
 Medical Care
We strive to provide medical care for poor and orphaned children in our programs. Currently, Woontanara Aid does not have its own medical team. We transport sick or injured children to the hospital for diagnosis and support them through their prescribed treatment. We buy their medicine and pay for their hospital stay, or if they are an outpatient, we accompany them back and forth, to and from their doctors’ appointments. Throughout their healing process, we take the child under our wing and care for him or her until they are once again healthy.
In Our Future:
Volunteer nurses and/or doctors will be invited to join our team and come to Guinea on a regular basis to see to the medical needs of our poor and orphaned children.
 Education
Woontanara Aid encourages poor and orphaned children to stay in school by paying their tuition, costs of uniforms and school supplies. There are some free schools that accept poor and orphaned children. Woontanara Aid helps to keep these schools running by providing food, classroom furniture and various supplies needed.
We provide free French and English classes for teachers and students who are interested in learning. We also bring in local artists to teach Traditional African dance, song and music to these children who would not otherwise be exposed to their cultural arts.
Home for People with Disabilities Sewing School
 In keeping with the philosophy of women's empowerment, Woontanara Aid started a sewing school in March of 2010. This school was created to teach young women whose mother and/or father have physical handicaps and are unable to work. Educating the young women of these families provides them with a marketable skill with which they will eventually be able to support themselves and their family.
Our sewing school started with five teenage girls, one sewing machine and one teacher, Mr. Alama Sangare. We recently brought in a second sewing machine and have doubled the number of students!
In Our Future:
Woontanara Aid will hire another teacher and continue to bring in additional machines and supplies. We will also add classes in tie-dye and hair braiding. This will continue to create more jobs and more opportunity because we will hire more teachers and be able to educate more young women. We will eventually create a market place where our students will be able to sell the products they make at the school.
Outreach: Women's Empowerment Program
Woontanara Aid's Women's Empowerment Program offers aid to single mothers by providing:
- Scholarships and/or free classes that enable single mothers to learn marketable skills,
- Food for the single mother and her family so that she will be able to focus on learning her new trade,
-Tuition and school costs for uniforms and supplies so that single mothers' children can stay in school and continue their educations.
Woontanara Aid will also provide all women and teenage girls in our programs with educational materials on family planning so that they can make wise choices about birth control.
In Our Future:
We plan to create a program that will make birth control available to our participants at no cost to them. With this program in place, participants will be able to choose condoms and/or the birth control injection.
Medical Care For People In Need
Woontanara Aid provides medical care for people in need. Priority goes to women and children, but we will help anyone in need.
Currently, Woontanara Aid does not have its own medical team. We transport the sick or injured to the hospital for diagnosis, and support the patient through their prescribed treatment. We purchase medicine and pay for their hospital stay, or if they are treated as outpatients, we accompany them to and from their doctors' appointments. Throughout their healing process, Woontanara Aid stands by and assists the patient and their family by buying food and looking out for their needs.
In Our Future:
Volunteer nurses and/or doctors will be invited to join our team and come to Guinea to expand our ability to provide medical care.
Employment Program
 Woontanara Aid started this program by hiring locals to help carry out our various projects. Originally, all of the people we hired were only employed on a weekly or monthly basis. Currently, we employ three full-time, year-round employees and many part-time, project-based employees. Due to the lack of jobs available in Guinea, we are providing jobs to people who would not otherwise have one. For more information about our full-time Guinean employees, please visit Who We Are.
Currently, we have hired Guinean people for the following jobs:
French Teacher / English Teacher
Dance, Song and Music Teacher
Tour Guide / Translator / Driver
Carpentry / Electrical
Housekeeping / Sewing / Cooking |
