At the moment, we’re in this process of refining what we want to achieve as a society. We have this list of things we want to do, but it starts with this idea of building a community. No doubt we’ll write more about this as our vision evolves. As a part of this, we’ve decided to support this brilliant initiative – Kiva. Kiva is a micro-lending service which allows you to lend to people in developing countries (and recently the US). It’s a great way to support sustainable development. We have a two-pronged strategy here. First, is our lending team. We’ll be promoting this in our literature, and we hope you’ll join us and make a loan. Secondly, we’re putting together our program of speakers and it’s hard to know what to choose as a “speaker gift”. We’ve decide to give out Kiva gift certificates.
If you haven’t heard of Kiva, there’s a fantastic article in the New York Times. It’s long, but very worth reading. You can loan as little as $25, and at less than a meal for two you can give a women, who might otherwise be overlooked by society, thousands of miles away in a developing country the opportunity to improve her life, the lives of her children, her husband, and her community. From the article:
“Perhaps the lesson presented by both Abbas and Saima is the same: In many poor countries, the greatest unexploited resource isn’t oil fields or veins of gold; it is the women and girls who aren’t educated and never become a major presence in the formal economy. With education and with help starting businesses, impoverished women can earn money and support their countries as well as their families. They represent perhaps the best hope for fighting global poverty.”
5 minutes and $25 to change a life. That’s incredible. Please join us.
uOttawa WISE 