Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

Help empower one girl or woman with better access to education or economic opportunity.

The mission brief suggests that we do this via Global Giving, and rally support in our communities to make small donations to these causes.

BUT,

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner for his ground-breaking work in microcredit, explains its success here, saying

"For one thing, we're very close to the real economy. One of the problems with the economic crisis, the financial crisis, because the financial system got de-linked from the real economy, became a paper chaser, and kind of speculative, and a sort of gambling along the way. So we are still based very much in a personal relationship, in the real economy"

So I've chosen, rather than going via Global Giving, to do some local giving.

As a start: a friend of mine, a young woman, needed R1200 to pay the registration fee to study to become a maths teacher. She was later able to access financial aid to fund the rest of her studies, but this amount was an insurmountable barrier to entry. Even with the money, she needed assistance in finding out where to go to pay the fee, and needed transport to get there.

She is currently performing very well in her studies. On occasion, this young woman and her family go hungry. Within the past year, she fell pregnant, and has recently given birth to a child. Her mother has agreed to look after the child, and she will complete her studies.

The point: The R1200 alone was not enough. The "personal relationship" is vital.

If we can live in a way that allows the people around us to ask for help, we can give in a way that really makes a difference, through personal relationships and continued support.

This is local giving. And this is the strength of microcredit.


Views: 26

Comment by Samiran Roy on April 11, 2010 at 12:10pm
A kind act can result in a chain of events that change many peoples lives. The person you helped may grow up to become an excellent teacher, and she may give the same help to her students, who will again help others...

God bless you, keep up the good work :)
Comment by Chris Ke Sihai on April 11, 2010 at 1:22pm
I gave you +1 courage, because you're doing the right thing instead of the easy thing. Getting involved means taking responsibility, and few people want to do that.

Well done.
Comment by Edwige Lelievre on April 11, 2010 at 2:29pm
I feel myself unconfortable giving money and that's all. I was wondering how to do that the best way, so thanks for sharing your point of view, it is a real good way to do :)
Comment by PJE on April 11, 2010 at 2:45pm
This is great Yumna Moosa, it is true just having someone to believe you can do it and to help out when it is tricky and point the way makes an huge difference in our lives. Thank you.

Edwige, I feel unconfortable too, especially so publically to say what you are doing. I really don't like that. But I think the idea is that once you see the needs and how it is possible to raise money or give money or support projects in other ways it is going to seed all sorts of future activities and help learn to be social entrepreneurs!
Comment by Yumna Moosa on April 11, 2010 at 3:05pm
@Chris - I really believe that taking responsibility is the only way to change anything. If the solution was easy, we would've solved all the world's problems already :)

@Edwige - I feel uncomfortable too! I have no idea how to help people in any meaningful way. Not at all. And that's why I think that the best thing any one of us can do is make people feel comfortable to ask for help, and create a safe space for this to become normal, so that we can become responsive to people's actual needs with both our financial AND human resources.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on April 11, 2010 at 3:24pm
good going - i agree
Comment by Iyamuremye Jean de Dieu on April 17, 2010 at 4:47pm
well done
Comment by Jeremy Laird Hogg on April 25, 2010 at 5:53pm
maximize comfort in the system! let us be familiar with each other! chains of caring - expand!

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