Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Help Buy Textbooks for Impoverished High School Students
After the success of the Pilot Project, RSA is now working to raise funds for the first and only high school in the impoverished community of La Carpio, Costa Rica.
For years, education in this community of 20,000 people has ended after middle school, and the over 300 students who graduate from La Carpio's only school each year are forced to halt their studies. While a small percentage of students are able to afford transporation to high schools ouside of the community, most cannot, and therefore never get the opportunity to study again.
Thanks to Carlos Sandoval Garcia and Karen Masis of the University of Costa Rica, THIS IS ABOUT TO CHANGE! They have been working tirelessly over the past year to open La Carpio's first high school, allowing a new generation of youth to continue their studies and giving them hope for a better future. The school is scheduled to welcome its first class of 120 students in February, 2008.
But- WE NEED YOUR HELP! RSA has pledged to donate $1000 to the first class of students so that they can have textbooks and school supplies. If you are moved to donate to our cause in this season of giving, please click the "ChipIn!" button above. Thank you!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Pilot Project Complete!
We just got back from our trip last night, and we are proud to announce the completion and success of the pilot project. We researched microcredit through both MFIs and the borrowers themselves, and learned an immense amount about the industry. Most importantly, we learned that the best and most successful MFI is one with a strong social mission, one that truly invests in the education of its borrowers, and one that cares about the borrowers' abilities to create successful businesses and pay back their loans with ease.
Unfortunately, we were not able to loan the money to our consituents in La Carpio this trip, due to the short time were there and the fact that our partner MFI, ADAPTE, requires a 3 month training program in advance of the loan. However, we now have a solid promise of working with ADAPTE, and will keep you posted about how are relationship with them, and how our organization as a whole, develops because of our trip.
Thanks to all who have been staying updated with our blog- we appreciate your interest and hope you are just as excited as we are about the future of this organization. Please stay tuned for pictures on the website, www.redscissors.org, as well as updates about how the organization is going to work. We have a lot of work to do!
And remember, we are still raising money for the High School in La Carpio. To donate, please scroll down to the "Chip In" widget below.
Sarah & Ezra
Unfortunately, we were not able to loan the money to our consituents in La Carpio this trip, due to the short time were there and the fact that our partner MFI, ADAPTE, requires a 3 month training program in advance of the loan. However, we now have a solid promise of working with ADAPTE, and will keep you posted about how are relationship with them, and how our organization as a whole, develops because of our trip.
Thanks to all who have been staying updated with our blog- we appreciate your interest and hope you are just as excited as we are about the future of this organization. Please stay tuned for pictures on the website, www.redscissors.org, as well as updates about how the organization is going to work. We have a lot of work to do!
And remember, we are still raising money for the High School in La Carpio. To donate, please scroll down to the "Chip In" widget below.
Sarah & Ezra
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
First Meetings in Costa Rica
Today we met with both my old professor, Carlos Sandoval Garcia, and Kenlor Howells, Executive Director of ADAPTE (Asociación de Ayuda al Pequeño Trabajador y Empresario- Association for Helping Small Businesses and Entrepeneurs). Carlos is our contact for the La Carpio High School Project, and Kenlor obviously for our microcredit project.
1. Meeting With Carlos:
He explained to us the need for the high school, and invited us to take a look around the temporary location in La Carpio this week. The school is being hosted at La Carpio's Lutheran Church for its first two years, until they can find a larger/more permanent site- the Catholic Church would be perfect, but the priest there is apparently very conservative and narrow minded, and doesn't think a high school is a good use of space....too bad. Building a new building is almost out of the question, as there isn't really anywhere else to build. The settlement is surrounded by two rivers and a garbage dump, and it has pretty much reached its limits.
The plans for the high school are as follows: In February, in time for the new school year, the Lutheran Church will be the first high school in the community. It will start out with two sections of first years (around age 13), about 60 students in total. Each year they will take on new students, and eventually expand to a secondary school serving young people from 7th grade to 12th grade.
Right now, they are running tight on resources. We are helping to raise $1000 for books and school supplies. If you are moved to donate, you can do so in the entry below. Thank you!!
2. Meeting with Kenlor (ADAPTE)
This was EXCELLENT. ADAPTE is 1 of only 30 MFIs in Costa Rica. Furthermore, it is 1 of only 4 MFIs that have a social mission, the rest are simply banks. Even more interesting, ADAPTE is the ONLY MFI in Costa Rica that serves the poorest of the poor- the others only work with middle class workers. They charge only 22%-28% interest anually on their loans, as Costa Rican law caps all interest at 30%. They have an excellent success rate. The best part about ADAPTE- they conduct a comprehensive, 12 week training program for their borrowers. We saw some of the training materials- very impressive. Kenlor gave us testimonials, and explained that their model is extremely successful because of this training program.
So, why are there so few MFIs in CR?
According to Kenlor, its because the world of microfinance, at some point 20 years ago, decided that Costa Rica was no longer a poor country, and that resources were better needed elsewhere. Prior to that, there were 3,000 MFIs here. Now there are 30. But, as Kenlor reminded us, it is not true that there aren't poor people here. We have to remind the microfinance world of this.
How can RSA work with ADAPTE in the future?
My idea was to support the training program, so that their clients did not have to pay. Kenlor liked this idea very much. We also spoke about doing a sort of "Kiva model" with them- financing their microcredits through our website. He also loved this idea, and is willing to work with us. He said he is also filling out papers with Kiva to begin working with them, but he would work with us as well.
This week, we will take a trip to La Carpio, as well as meet with Karina Fonseca to hopefully connect our women borrowers in this community with ADAPTE for our pilot project.
So far, so good!
Sarah
1. Meeting With Carlos:
He explained to us the need for the high school, and invited us to take a look around the temporary location in La Carpio this week. The school is being hosted at La Carpio's Lutheran Church for its first two years, until they can find a larger/more permanent site- the Catholic Church would be perfect, but the priest there is apparently very conservative and narrow minded, and doesn't think a high school is a good use of space....too bad. Building a new building is almost out of the question, as there isn't really anywhere else to build. The settlement is surrounded by two rivers and a garbage dump, and it has pretty much reached its limits.
The plans for the high school are as follows: In February, in time for the new school year, the Lutheran Church will be the first high school in the community. It will start out with two sections of first years (around age 13), about 60 students in total. Each year they will take on new students, and eventually expand to a secondary school serving young people from 7th grade to 12th grade.
Right now, they are running tight on resources. We are helping to raise $1000 for books and school supplies. If you are moved to donate, you can do so in the entry below. Thank you!!
2. Meeting with Kenlor (ADAPTE)
This was EXCELLENT. ADAPTE is 1 of only 30 MFIs in Costa Rica. Furthermore, it is 1 of only 4 MFIs that have a social mission, the rest are simply banks. Even more interesting, ADAPTE is the ONLY MFI in Costa Rica that serves the poorest of the poor- the others only work with middle class workers. They charge only 22%-28% interest anually on their loans, as Costa Rican law caps all interest at 30%. They have an excellent success rate. The best part about ADAPTE- they conduct a comprehensive, 12 week training program for their borrowers. We saw some of the training materials- very impressive. Kenlor gave us testimonials, and explained that their model is extremely successful because of this training program.
So, why are there so few MFIs in CR?
According to Kenlor, its because the world of microfinance, at some point 20 years ago, decided that Costa Rica was no longer a poor country, and that resources were better needed elsewhere. Prior to that, there were 3,000 MFIs here. Now there are 30. But, as Kenlor reminded us, it is not true that there aren't poor people here. We have to remind the microfinance world of this.
How can RSA work with ADAPTE in the future?
My idea was to support the training program, so that their clients did not have to pay. Kenlor liked this idea very much. We also spoke about doing a sort of "Kiva model" with them- financing their microcredits through our website. He also loved this idea, and is willing to work with us. He said he is also filling out papers with Kiva to begin working with them, but he would work with us as well.
This week, we will take a trip to La Carpio, as well as meet with Karina Fonseca to hopefully connect our women borrowers in this community with ADAPTE for our pilot project.
So far, so good!
Sarah
Monday, October 15, 2007
New High Shcool in La Carpio
Hello from Costa Rica!
It has been a long holiday weekend here due to Columbus Day, so we haven't yet met with our MFI ADAPTE or our constituents in La Carpio. No worries though, that is coming soon! However, we have been able to partner up with University of Costa Rica Social Research Director Carlos Sandoval Garcia and his associate Karen Masís for our next Costa Rica project.
Carlos and Karen are helping to construct La Carpio's first and only High School. As of right now, education in this community only goes until 8th grade, whereupon students usually drop out of school altogether for lack of resources that would enable them to travel the long bus ride to the neareset high school. We have pledged to help them raise $1000 for textbooks and school supplies before the start of the next school year in January.
Anything you can give towards this cause would be wonderful, thank you!!
It has been a long holiday weekend here due to Columbus Day, so we haven't yet met with our MFI ADAPTE or our constituents in La Carpio. No worries though, that is coming soon! However, we have been able to partner up with University of Costa Rica Social Research Director Carlos Sandoval Garcia and his associate Karen Masís for our next Costa Rica project.
Carlos and Karen are helping to construct La Carpio's first and only High School. As of right now, education in this community only goes until 8th grade, whereupon students usually drop out of school altogether for lack of resources that would enable them to travel the long bus ride to the neareset high school. We have pledged to help them raise $1000 for textbooks and school supplies before the start of the next school year in January.
Anything you can give towards this cause would be wonderful, thank you!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Now in Chiapas
A quick rundown of a few of the wonderful things that have happened in the last two days.
1. Left our host family in Jungapeo. That was actually super sad.
2. Had probably the most exciting airport encounter ever. Our bus dropped us off at the airport 30 minutes before our plane left. Not knowing where the ticket counter was, we ran until we found a security guard, and ran more tossing a rushed "gracias" his way as we continued in the direction he indicated. Before we even got to the ticket counter, Sarah shows one of the Click Mexicana employees our boarding passes and says that we only have 25 minutes to get ourselves on the plane. He says it's possible but very difficult. At this he leads us ducking under the barriers they use to control the flow of lines at airports. We cut the line at security, get waved through (as opposed to the 20 minutes TSA took to search the bags in SFO) and run to the gate. At this point our tireless guide leaves us with 15 minutes to spare. Of course, the plane isn't at the gate. It's somewhere else (which was expected) and we continue down to the tarmac with two Japanese women in the same predicament. Mind you, Sarah and I are still lugging all the bags we expected to check since there was no time for that. We pile into a van on the tarmac, get stuck in traffic for a few minutes (yes, the tarmac has traffic, apparently) and get onto the plane in time to stuff 3 bags into the overhead and two down below before taking off. Epic.
3. Tacos Arabes. Made with pita bread and pork. I don't think any Muslim has ever eaten them. Ever.
4. We toured two indigenous communities with Raúl of the Alex and Raúl tour company. That's right. The Raúl. I'll leave it to Sarah to fill in the rest.
Ezra
-----------------------------------------
We are here in Chiapas- San Cristobal to be exact. What an incredible place. It feels pretty much nothing like Mexico, in fact I keep thinking I´m back in Antigua and start to look for the hostel we stayed in there. Seriously, it feels identical. We did experience indigenous culture in a whole new way here though. Yesterday we went to two small indigenous villages nearby, Chamula and Zinacantan. They are both home to Tzotzil Maya, but each town has a completely different culture and set of customs.
In Chamula, they specialize in wool, so the women all wear black fuzzy wool skirts and the men where black or white fuzzy wool ponchos. It is a polygamous village, and girls are often married there at age 13 or 14, and begin having kids right away. The religion there is probably the best hybrid I`ve seen. It is indigenous Maya beliefs and customs, such as using the traditional medicine men for soul purification, in conjunction with catholic saint worship. The church there is mind boggling- a colonial Spanish Catholic church on the outside, but when you go in, its like a parallel universe. Pine needles cover the entire floor, and groups of women and men can be found sitting amongst the pine on the floor, each with their own personal medicine man or woman. There are hundreds of candles burning, most of them on the floor with the groups of praying people, each candle with a different color to signify what is ailing the "patient:" health, financial problems, relationship problems, etc. There is incense burning, and people talking and praying out loud. Every once in a while you here a shriek- its a special instrument they use to call back their souls to their bodies when they`ve had a traumatic experience and the soul has left them. Along the walls are images of saints and Jesus with candles burning in front of them. One of the best aspects- Coke has a very important role in these ceremonies- it "purifies" the soul (I imagine because you burp after you drink it?), so it is present at each group of praying people, along with the other four sacred objects- a chicken, eggs, posh (a sugar cane alcohol), and candles. The chicken does not make it out of the church alive.
Zinacantan was almost the opposite- a monogamous village where they weave cotton and attend regular Catholic mass in a regular church. They wear cotton skirts with woven flower designs. We were welcomed into a home of three Maya women there, where they demonstrated how to weave textiles on a loom, gave us tacos made with fresh tortillas, and allowed us to try three different types of sacred alcohols- the posh, a cinnamon liqueur, and a liqueur made from Jamaica flower. Yum.
Today we've spent the day interviewing people at Grameen Trust in San Cristobal. We spoke to Randall Blair, Director of the Mexico Program for Grameen Trust, two loan officers, Maricela and Maria Eugenia, and a borrower who, for confidentiality purposes, we shall call Maria. We basically learned that microcredit is extremeley successful here. The women receive about 300 dollars their first loan, and after they pay it back after the first 6 months, they receive another loan for twice as much, and so on. They begin paying back within a week of receiving the loan. Maria said that it was definitely possible to pay within a week, but of course she felt that the interest was a bit high ( 4.5% monthly). The fact that she actually could pay it back is very meaningful, compared to our experiences in Jungapeo. From talking to Randall and the loan officers, the secret to their success seems to be this: they primarily loan to women who are exapnding their businesses, not starting them from nothing. This is something for us to consider for Costa Rica.
Also, we spoke to them about borrower education. They LOVED the idea. At the moment, they have no program that trains the borrowers in business skills, etc, and they said it would be very useful. This is a pattern in our findings!
All in all, everyone we`ve spoken to seems to like our pilot project, and has just reminded us to really research our borrowers before giving them the money. Hopefully ADAPTE will help with this.
Tomorrow is Costa Rica...
Sarah
1. Left our host family in Jungapeo. That was actually super sad.
2. Had probably the most exciting airport encounter ever. Our bus dropped us off at the airport 30 minutes before our plane left. Not knowing where the ticket counter was, we ran until we found a security guard, and ran more tossing a rushed "gracias" his way as we continued in the direction he indicated. Before we even got to the ticket counter, Sarah shows one of the Click Mexicana employees our boarding passes and says that we only have 25 minutes to get ourselves on the plane. He says it's possible but very difficult. At this he leads us ducking under the barriers they use to control the flow of lines at airports. We cut the line at security, get waved through (as opposed to the 20 minutes TSA took to search the bags in SFO) and run to the gate. At this point our tireless guide leaves us with 15 minutes to spare. Of course, the plane isn't at the gate. It's somewhere else (which was expected) and we continue down to the tarmac with two Japanese women in the same predicament. Mind you, Sarah and I are still lugging all the bags we expected to check since there was no time for that. We pile into a van on the tarmac, get stuck in traffic for a few minutes (yes, the tarmac has traffic, apparently) and get onto the plane in time to stuff 3 bags into the overhead and two down below before taking off. Epic.
3. Tacos Arabes. Made with pita bread and pork. I don't think any Muslim has ever eaten them. Ever.
4. We toured two indigenous communities with Raúl of the Alex and Raúl tour company. That's right. The Raúl. I'll leave it to Sarah to fill in the rest.
Ezra
-----------------------------------------
We are here in Chiapas- San Cristobal to be exact. What an incredible place. It feels pretty much nothing like Mexico, in fact I keep thinking I´m back in Antigua and start to look for the hostel we stayed in there. Seriously, it feels identical. We did experience indigenous culture in a whole new way here though. Yesterday we went to two small indigenous villages nearby, Chamula and Zinacantan. They are both home to Tzotzil Maya, but each town has a completely different culture and set of customs.
In Chamula, they specialize in wool, so the women all wear black fuzzy wool skirts and the men where black or white fuzzy wool ponchos. It is a polygamous village, and girls are often married there at age 13 or 14, and begin having kids right away. The religion there is probably the best hybrid I`ve seen. It is indigenous Maya beliefs and customs, such as using the traditional medicine men for soul purification, in conjunction with catholic saint worship. The church there is mind boggling- a colonial Spanish Catholic church on the outside, but when you go in, its like a parallel universe. Pine needles cover the entire floor, and groups of women and men can be found sitting amongst the pine on the floor, each with their own personal medicine man or woman. There are hundreds of candles burning, most of them on the floor with the groups of praying people, each candle with a different color to signify what is ailing the "patient:" health, financial problems, relationship problems, etc. There is incense burning, and people talking and praying out loud. Every once in a while you here a shriek- its a special instrument they use to call back their souls to their bodies when they`ve had a traumatic experience and the soul has left them. Along the walls are images of saints and Jesus with candles burning in front of them. One of the best aspects- Coke has a very important role in these ceremonies- it "purifies" the soul (I imagine because you burp after you drink it?), so it is present at each group of praying people, along with the other four sacred objects- a chicken, eggs, posh (a sugar cane alcohol), and candles. The chicken does not make it out of the church alive.
Zinacantan was almost the opposite- a monogamous village where they weave cotton and attend regular Catholic mass in a regular church. They wear cotton skirts with woven flower designs. We were welcomed into a home of three Maya women there, where they demonstrated how to weave textiles on a loom, gave us tacos made with fresh tortillas, and allowed us to try three different types of sacred alcohols- the posh, a cinnamon liqueur, and a liqueur made from Jamaica flower. Yum.
Today we've spent the day interviewing people at Grameen Trust in San Cristobal. We spoke to Randall Blair, Director of the Mexico Program for Grameen Trust, two loan officers, Maricela and Maria Eugenia, and a borrower who, for confidentiality purposes, we shall call Maria. We basically learned that microcredit is extremeley successful here. The women receive about 300 dollars their first loan, and after they pay it back after the first 6 months, they receive another loan for twice as much, and so on. They begin paying back within a week of receiving the loan. Maria said that it was definitely possible to pay within a week, but of course she felt that the interest was a bit high ( 4.5% monthly). The fact that she actually could pay it back is very meaningful, compared to our experiences in Jungapeo. From talking to Randall and the loan officers, the secret to their success seems to be this: they primarily loan to women who are exapnding their businesses, not starting them from nothing. This is something for us to consider for Costa Rica.
Also, we spoke to them about borrower education. They LOVED the idea. At the moment, they have no program that trains the borrowers in business skills, etc, and they said it would be very useful. This is a pattern in our findings!
All in all, everyone we`ve spoken to seems to like our pilot project, and has just reminded us to really research our borrowers before giving them the money. Hopefully ADAPTE will help with this.
Tomorrow is Costa Rica...
Sarah
Monday, October 8, 2007
Last Thoughts From Jungapeo
Today is our last here in Jungapeo, and while we´re excited to move onto San Cristobal and really get into our research there, we are very sad to leave. We woke up at 6am this morning to say goodbye to the girls, our "hermanitas," before they left for school. Vicky bought us flan for our trip, which will be very delicious this afternoon. It will be hard to say goodbye to her and Alejandro, and little Ale of course, but we feel good that we have been able to maintain our friendship through time and distance! We will definitely be back.
Regarding the project, yesterday and the day before were excellent days. On Saturday, we interviewed Doña Mago, a woman who has been borrowing from Compartamos for over a year. She had mixed feelings about it. Her biggest issue was that she could not manage to pay back her loans pretty frequently, and the other women in the solidarity group were always having to cover for her. She felt that the interest rates were just way to high for her, and the fact that the first payment was due a week after receiving the loan made it extremely difficult. Our neighbor, Porfiria, felt that the problem had to do with the fact that there arent any available jobs in Jungapeo, so starting your own business within a week of receiving the loans would be impossible. This is reflected by the fact that Doña Mago has never used the loans to start a business, but rather for her personal expenses, which explains why she can´t pay it back sometimes.
Then we spoke to Claudia Sanchez, the employee of Compartamos that works in Jungapeo collecting on the loans. We had a great interview with her. Her main point was that the loans are to start small businesses, like a fruit stand or selling clothes from a catalogue, not large businesses like Porfiria and Mago expected. In that way, she said, Compartamos has helped people.
My interpretation is that Compartamos probably does help people, especially those who already know what small business they want to start and how to go about doing it. For people who need to have more of an income, and/or have no idea how to start a business, they are pretty much just put into debt. For example, Compartamos has let Mago take out more loans even though she has no proof of a business. They also don´t educate or train their borrowers really. They give them a simple orientation about the payments and when and how they are due, and thats it. I think there is definitely a lack of business knowledge that is contributing to the problem. They say they have a social mission, but they don´t really follow up on it.
More from Chiapas...
Sarah
Regarding the project, yesterday and the day before were excellent days. On Saturday, we interviewed Doña Mago, a woman who has been borrowing from Compartamos for over a year. She had mixed feelings about it. Her biggest issue was that she could not manage to pay back her loans pretty frequently, and the other women in the solidarity group were always having to cover for her. She felt that the interest rates were just way to high for her, and the fact that the first payment was due a week after receiving the loan made it extremely difficult. Our neighbor, Porfiria, felt that the problem had to do with the fact that there arent any available jobs in Jungapeo, so starting your own business within a week of receiving the loans would be impossible. This is reflected by the fact that Doña Mago has never used the loans to start a business, but rather for her personal expenses, which explains why she can´t pay it back sometimes.
Then we spoke to Claudia Sanchez, the employee of Compartamos that works in Jungapeo collecting on the loans. We had a great interview with her. Her main point was that the loans are to start small businesses, like a fruit stand or selling clothes from a catalogue, not large businesses like Porfiria and Mago expected. In that way, she said, Compartamos has helped people.
My interpretation is that Compartamos probably does help people, especially those who already know what small business they want to start and how to go about doing it. For people who need to have more of an income, and/or have no idea how to start a business, they are pretty much just put into debt. For example, Compartamos has let Mago take out more loans even though she has no proof of a business. They also don´t educate or train their borrowers really. They give them a simple orientation about the payments and when and how they are due, and thats it. I think there is definitely a lack of business knowledge that is contributing to the problem. They say they have a social mission, but they don´t really follow up on it.
More from Chiapas...
Sarah
Friday, October 5, 2007
Day 4: Jungapeo/Zitacuaro
Things worth noting: we had a meeting with Compartamos, an MFI operating in Zitacuaro, the "big city" right next to Jungapeo. It was just a preliminary meeting, so hopefully we'll get a follow-up to find out more about the wonder that is microloans.
Other things worth noting: Sarah and I are enjoying the many things a bigger city has to offer, such as faster internet cafés, hustle and bustle in copious amounts, and police officers in uniforms instead of the more alarming army fatigues. It's a wonderland over here. We also made the purchase of a pair of computer speakers for our host family's computer. Theirs broke, and we've been looking for ways to pay them back, since it's been nigh impossible to compensate them monetarily.
Last but not least, the Mexican political process is awesome. As far as I can tell, it consists of driving hours to get to broken down elementary schools in the mountains and making speeches. What really makes it special though, is that every few sentences a group of women will interrupt the speaker with a cheer, culminating with noise makers. When these quiet down the speaker is allowed to continue stumping, soapboxing, filibustering, or relieving his lungs of an excess of hot air. It's pretty great.
Hope everything is good wherever you are. I assure you, it's not as great as here.
Best,
Ezra
Red Scissors Alliance Coolguy
PS: (From Sarah)
Yesterday, I spoke with the PRI candidate for president of Jungapeo Javier Ayala and his Wife Margarita Gallegos a little bit about microcredit opportunities. One of his campaign promises is to create more jobs for women in the area, and they were saying that microcredit would be extremeley beneficial to this population of women. They are mostly interested in starting up small businesses, such as sellnig fruit, or this certain type of mushroom that grows on the oak trees. Also, craftmaking is a desireable job here, but they need the start up resources of course. Also, at the campaign event, one of the main issues was the horrible state of the highway (if you could call it that). To get there, we had to cross a river, causing the car to smoke and/or steam, and then we almost got stuck in a ditch right in the center of the road that was about 2 feet deep and 1 foot wide. If we wanted to do a grant project, helping the local government fix these roads would be an incredible thing.
Other things worth noting: Sarah and I are enjoying the many things a bigger city has to offer, such as faster internet cafés, hustle and bustle in copious amounts, and police officers in uniforms instead of the more alarming army fatigues. It's a wonderland over here. We also made the purchase of a pair of computer speakers for our host family's computer. Theirs broke, and we've been looking for ways to pay them back, since it's been nigh impossible to compensate them monetarily.
Last but not least, the Mexican political process is awesome. As far as I can tell, it consists of driving hours to get to broken down elementary schools in the mountains and making speeches. What really makes it special though, is that every few sentences a group of women will interrupt the speaker with a cheer, culminating with noise makers. When these quiet down the speaker is allowed to continue stumping, soapboxing, filibustering, or relieving his lungs of an excess of hot air. It's pretty great.
Hope everything is good wherever you are. I assure you, it's not as great as here.
Best,
Ezra
Red Scissors Alliance Coolguy
PS: (From Sarah)
Yesterday, I spoke with the PRI candidate for president of Jungapeo Javier Ayala and his Wife Margarita Gallegos a little bit about microcredit opportunities. One of his campaign promises is to create more jobs for women in the area, and they were saying that microcredit would be extremeley beneficial to this population of women. They are mostly interested in starting up small businesses, such as sellnig fruit, or this certain type of mushroom that grows on the oak trees. Also, craftmaking is a desireable job here, but they need the start up resources of course. Also, at the campaign event, one of the main issues was the horrible state of the highway (if you could call it that). To get there, we had to cross a river, causing the car to smoke and/or steam, and then we almost got stuck in a ditch right in the center of the road that was about 2 feet deep and 1 foot wide. If we wanted to do a grant project, helping the local government fix these roads would be an incredible thing.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
In Jungapeo!
We arrived here yesterday after a four hour red eye flight, a two hour bus ride into altitud sickness-inducing heights, and a much better 2 hour car ride into our favorite little pueblo in Michoacan. Jungapeo hasn´t changed one bit, and our "family" is doinggreat! The girls are all grown up now, (12 and 17!) and little Ale is now 5! My favorite moment so far was yesterday when Ale and Ezra went to go wash their hands before dinner, and Ale was explaining to Ez how to do it: "First you get your hands wet, then you put soap on them, then you rinse them," etc. Ezra went along with it as if it was all new to him, and then clever little Ale says, "So, how come in your country people don´t wash their hands?" Ez replied that of course they did, and so Ale, very confused and distraught, looked at him and said, "Then how come you didn´t know how?"
Beyond our immediate relief to finally get here, see the family, and get some sleep, we have also been launched right into the pilot project. In speaking to our host father, Alejandro, about it yesterday, it seems that there are actually some functioning microcredit programs gonig on in Michoacan, and he believes there are even some borrowers here in Jungapeo. Our mission now is to find them! Also, yesterday, we found out that our host mother, Vicky, is running for vice-deputy of Jungapeo, along with two others from her party (PRI) who are running for the deputy and "president" of Jungapeo. We went to a political gathering last night and met the candidates. All of them spoke about creating a better Jungapeo, particularly for the women. It seems that a big problem here is that there aren´t enough jobs for women. Whether that is a resource issue or other, I´m not entirely sure. Also something else to find out, as microcredit could be very important to them. Well, we have our work cut out for us.
I don´t think we will be able to post photos until we go to Costa Rica...sorry. The internet is a bit slow as you might imagine. But I promise, they will come.
Beyond our immediate relief to finally get here, see the family, and get some sleep, we have also been launched right into the pilot project. In speaking to our host father, Alejandro, about it yesterday, it seems that there are actually some functioning microcredit programs gonig on in Michoacan, and he believes there are even some borrowers here in Jungapeo. Our mission now is to find them! Also, yesterday, we found out that our host mother, Vicky, is running for vice-deputy of Jungapeo, along with two others from her party (PRI) who are running for the deputy and "president" of Jungapeo. We went to a political gathering last night and met the candidates. All of them spoke about creating a better Jungapeo, particularly for the women. It seems that a big problem here is that there aren´t enough jobs for women. Whether that is a resource issue or other, I´m not entirely sure. Also something else to find out, as microcredit could be very important to them. Well, we have our work cut out for us.
I don´t think we will be able to post photos until we go to Costa Rica...sorry. The internet is a bit slow as you might imagine. But I promise, they will come.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Off we go...
Well, Sarah and I are off to Mexico and Costa Rica to learn first-hand about the wide world of microfinance. It'll be awesome. More updates when we get there and things start happening.
Thank you so much to the Forest Foundation who gave us the money to get this project off the ground, and giving it to us just in the nick of time!
And I want to give a big thank you to all the people who donated to our project. We raised a grand total of $0 out of our desired "More than $0", so all in all, we only missed the target by a little bit. Moreover, several billion people donated $0, which is an incredible participation rate for our first time doing this!
Rock and roll,
Ezra
Official Red Scissors Alliance Blogger
Official Red Scissors Alliance Photographer
UnOfficial Red Scissors Alliance Everything Else
Thank you so much to the Forest Foundation who gave us the money to get this project off the ground, and giving it to us just in the nick of time!
And I want to give a big thank you to all the people who donated to our project. We raised a grand total of $0 out of our desired "More than $0", so all in all, we only missed the target by a little bit. Moreover, several billion people donated $0, which is an incredible participation rate for our first time doing this!
Rock and roll,
Ezra
Official Red Scissors Alliance Blogger
Official Red Scissors Alliance Photographer
UnOfficial Red Scissors Alliance Everything Else
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