Vista Hermosa Foundation

Nurturing the roots of holistic wellbeing

 

Rather than focus on project-based outputs or services, we seek to invest in the holistic wellbeing of people living in vulnerable communities around the world.

Through our grantmaking, we prioritize community-led initiatives that seek to heal people’s connections to God, self, others, and creation. As communities embrace new mindsets about their own identity and purpose, and learn to steward resources in more innovative ways, new paths unfold.

 

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We believe if you heal the spirit of a people, they will lead themselves

We believe that it is not simply lack of access to such things as education, healthcare and job creation that keeps communities from flourishing, but a much deeper brokenness of spirit evidenced by lack of voice, purpose, meaningful relationships, agency and connection. (See Theory of Change)

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Choosing our Grant Partners

 

When exploring new partnerships, we use the following criteria in our evaluation process.

We focus on 4 geographic areas – Mexico, Haiti, Northern India, and East Africa – prioritizing community-based organizations in specific regions of each country that can be connected and learn from each other.

Our support goes beyond funding. We seek to be mutual partners, creating opportunities for networking and collaboration across regions.

We seek partners who share our values and approach to living and working in community.

We are place-based, prioritizing rural communities; we are faith-inspired, responding to God's call to service and justice; and we are healing-centered, prioritizing grassroots initiatives that promote healing and reconcilation.

If your organization meets all of our partner requirements and would be interested in future funding, please fill out our inquiry form.

Ramu and Gauda (pictured) are beneficiaries of the Bettiah Diocese Social Service Society, a CRS partner. While their children have migrated for work, they are active in the society's events and determined that their grandchildren complete their education. The project has also helped them with immunizations to keep their goats healthy and able to supplement their income. The projects aims to prevent labor trafficking in villages throughout Bihar state in India. Due to limited income options and poor quality of education, migration is a common practice, particularly for boys ages 8-14. These boys often travel to locations hundreds of kilometers away to work in brick kilns, construction, textile factories and other industries.

Our Global Partners

Our current grantees work in one or more of the following areas of community development.

Safe, Healthy Families:

Nurturing child protection, women’s and girl’s wellbeing, and violence prevention.

Mindful Leadership:

Building inclusivity, communities of healing and reconciliation, and care for the common good.

Sustainable Livelihoods:

Promoting indigenous knowledge, social entrepreneurship, and regenerative agriculture.

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Stories

Changing Mindsets and Livelihoods in India

Inderpaul is a cotton farmer in the Vidarbha region of India. Due to poor weather conditions, he fell into heavy debt with local creditors and could only afford enough to pay on the interest. In 2018, he attended a Men Care meeting with World Vision.  ...

Combatting Gender-Based Violence in Latin America

In 2018, VHF hosted our first international grant partner retreat in Mexico City. Forty people from 15 organizations attended. Following up on the interest of several of them to combat violence against women and girls, we hosted a second gathering in 2019. One of the ...

We For Others: Mindset Change in India

Welcoming ceremony in Bettiah When I (Joseph) joined Vista Hermosa Foundation as a Program Officer to steward relationships with partners in East Africa and India, I was excited about the possibility of visiting India. Recently I took my first flight to India with mixed expectations. ...

Huddle Up! Servant Leadership on the Job

By JMiracle | March 15, 2012

By Luke Hallowell When I first met Jay Ballinger, what first impressed me was his ability to listen. Jay has the unique ability to make you feel heard—like he’s listening with his entire being. Jay participated in the Center for Sharing’s six week course in Servant Leadership during the past year, and I quickly learned that…

Servant Leadership and the Immigration Debate

By JMiracle | February 7, 2012

  By Luke Hallowell First off, we want to share that our views are possibly a bit biased. Here at the Center for Sharing, we’ve been beneficiaries of the hard labor of immigrants, and are intentionally located in an immigrant community. Without the generosity of Broetje Orchards and the wonderful people who work there—many of…

Daring to Live the Future Now

By JMiracle | February 7, 2012

  Notes From: Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey Into Communities Daring To Live The Future Now www.walkoutwalkon.net (Wheatley and Frieze) Notes By Cheryl Broetje What does it mean: daring to live the future now? For those who try it, we experience what’s possible when we change our beliefs about what people are capable…

God hears our prayers

By JMiracle | January 23, 2012

                This is a story shared by our friends in the Philippines, who went through the servant leadership course as a community and as a result decided to form the Center for Servant Leadership, Philippines. This is a story of the  power of prayer and transformation that can…

How Servant Leadership Impacted my Service

By JMiracle | January 4, 2012

This is part of a series of stories from Servant Leaders who have been trained by the Center for Sharing over the past fifteen years. We will be highlighting leaders across the globe who have submitted their lives to serve and now find themselves in positions of leadership. Salome Meeme, who now works for CARE…

Wilson Dumelod, Servant Leader

By JMiracle | December 5, 2011

This is part of a series of stories from Servant Leaders who have been trained by the Center for Sharing over the past fifteen years. We will be highlighting leaders across the globe who have submitted their lives to serve and now find themselves in positions of leadership. This story is from Wilson Dumelod, who…

John Koskei, Servant Leader

By JMiracle | November 18, 2011

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”  – Jesus Christ,  from Matthew 5:9 This is part of a series of stories from Servant Leaders who have been trained by the Center for Sharing over the past fifteen years. We will be highlighting leaders across the globe who have submitted their…

A New Dream is Born

By JMiracle | October 28, 2011

  The focus of our Servant Leadership training efforts over the past five years in Kenya have focused heavily on educating the community leaders there from the Methodist Church Kenya to work to build better communities. Recently, Roseanne Mbaya, one of the leaders who went through our servant leadership course decided to start something new,…

Servant Leaders in Kenya

By JMiracle | October 27, 2011

CFS has been offering SL courses through MCK since 2005. Having trained some 20% of their pastors now, we felt this was the right time to hold some regional meetings in order to gather information about the impact of SL on them, and in what ways, if any, they have tried to apply it to…

True Wealth is Discovered

By JMiracle | October 26, 2011

By Ruth Ortega, from the Center for Servant Leadership, Philippines There was a time when we sat down and asked ourselves what wealth makes us and what poverty makes of us, who we would want to be identified with and to what will our lifestyle witness. On our second week of having no money in…