Notes from the field #1: This was a different kind of trip

John and Judy got back from Africa on March 21. We had intended to post every day or so as usual, but the internet connections were problematic. We were only able to post to the blog on March 5 ("So much for taking it easy our first day in Nairobi") and March 11 ("Little Rock Scholars: I had no idea it would be like this"). So this is the first in a series of field notes we'll be filing now that we're back. Not wanting to overwhelm you, we'll space them out over the next few weeks.

Lilly of Little Rock ECD and her family

There is always a roller coaster aspect to these trips, and this one was no exception. Somehow, I never remember that I'm going to finish one day giddy with the good news, and the next day flattened by the difficulties.

John with Sammy (l) and Stanley (r) of Nanyuki Handcrafts

This was a different kind of trip in some ways. Earlier trips have involved lots of new experiences: visiting new and unusual places (remember the De Pat Palace?), meeting new friends,

Members of Rotary Club of Nairobi East

and seeking out new opportunities to invest in hardworking people who - like all of us - only want to make a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. While there was some of that this time, most of our time was spent visiting existing projects - evaluating progress and results to date, considering what changes need to be made, etc.



This is important stuff. Eliminate Poverty Now is a public charity. We have a responsibility to be sure your donations are used properly, and we're honored that you entrust us with that responsibility. But managing existing projects is a very different sort of activity.

John and Father Godfrey (Songhai Centre)

As you'll see over the next few weeks, another theme that emerged out of this trip was that of financing women entrepreneurs (RockPads, JOYWO, Songhai Women's Capital Fund, Farmers of the Future Mother's Gardens).

Balkissa (l), Hamani (LIBO Niger) and Ramissa (r)

Shariffa (l) and Nadia (r)

Finally, there were golden opportunities to make new friends and visit old friends in their homes, sometimes meeting their families for the first time. Those were among the highlights of the trip.

John and Pete (Brach Family Charitable Foundation)

Little Rock Scholars: I had no idea it would be like this

Today we'll give you the opportunity to honor an amazing group of young people.

Eliminate Poverty Now started the Little Rock Scholars program to enable the brightest graduates of Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre to attend secondary school. We are very excited about this program. We believe it will give these children an opportunity to escape the extreme poverty of the slum, and that their success will inspire other children. 


The funds required are not minimal, but they are not exorbitant: $3,600 per child ($900/year for four years). So far, about $8,000 has been pledged, enough for at least two children. But these kids are doing so well in the after-school program that we expect 7 of them to qualify for the top national secondary schools!

Today we met with the scholarship candidates. We thought it would motivate you to donate if you could "meet" these children and hear their stories. The natural light in the room was too dim for clear photographs, but you can still appreciate these incredible young people.

Teacher Evelyne asked the kids to talk about themselves: their family, their interests, their goals. She herself spoke first to give the children an example, then I spoke a bit about my life. All very upbeat.

I had no idea what would happen next - neither did the teachers.

The first child spoke so powerfully and emotionally about her life that she ended up in tears. Child after child wanted to talk about being hungry, being derided for living in the slum, having parents abandon them, experiencing the death of a parent. Many of the children were crying as they told their stories.

But all the children ended up saying something positive. They spoke about wanting to be doctors, teachers, airline pilots, writers. They know they need to work hard and get good grades, but they believe that they WILL achieve those goals. And they thank God for keeping them alive and enabling them to be what they know they can be.

Words cannot express how inspiring these children were.  I kept thinking how strong and brave they were just to come to school each day. 

Founder Lilly Oyare and the teachers explained later that it was therapeutic for the children to share these stories. Simply having someone listen to them provides healing. 

I "know" about the difficulties of life in Kibera, but when a child tells you that after both her parents died she lived with a series of other families and now lives in an orphanage in the slum - and then says she thanks God for the opportunity to go to school and work hard - well, it puts everything in perspective. 

I want to honor how brave these kids are, and even though it was wrenching to hear these stories, it certainly made me feel that it would be a privilege to send any of them to secondary school. These are children who can change the world.

We hope you agree and ask you to donate to the Little Rock Scholars Program. Every little bit helps.

Click on the Donate page and change a young person's life forever!

International Women's Day

March is Women's History Month, and today, March 8, is International Women's Day!

When we signed up to take part in Blog for International Women's Day, I immediately thought of one of the first things I see when I go to EPN's website: "Eliminate Poverty Now promotes economic development and educational opportunity in Africa, especially for women."

One of the questions bloggers are asked to consider on this day is: "how can we, as a culture and members of the global community, involve, educate, and inspire girls in a positive way?" While there is no single answer to this question, we believe education is at the heart of the issue, and the heart of many EPN projects. And getting involved in some of these projects is a step that almost anyone can take.

Of course, Judy and John are busy in Africa, seeing the project sites, meeting with the wonderful people involved, and making fantastic plans for the futures of these projects. I won't go into great detail here, as Judy has some great blogs planned, but I do want to let you all know (if you don't already) which EPN projects involve women specifically.

Women gathered for a Pads for Peace meeting, 2011

There's the work being done with Pads for Peace, and RockPads, which not only is providing sanitary kits to girls, but also education. Lunapads tweeted, "Women can't take control of #reprohealth unless they understand their cycles/menstruation #sheparty #iwd #sheparty" and that is exactly why the education piece of the project is so crucial.


There are the Women's Sewing Centers, which provide training and economic opportunities, and also the Little Rock ECD, which will send the top-scoring girl (and boy) to secondary school. And don't forget the Women's Cooperative Garden and the Women's Elevage project!

We live in a time where it is easy to share knowledge and opportunities, and so educating our girls and women, and encouraging them pay it forward, is the place to start. This is one of the reasons we ask you to share EPN's news with your family and friends!

Mawa, head of the Women's Cooperative, 2010

The second question posed to bloggers is "Describe a particular organization, person, group or moment in history that helped to inspire a positive future and impact the minds and aspirations for girls." At EPN, we don't need to look far out of our own community to find people who inspire and impact girls every day. What about Little Rock's Lilly Oyare? Here is a woman of grace and passion, changing lives and futures. And the same can be said for Mawa, the head of the Women's Cooperative.

Lilly, with EPN's own Judy (another woman helping to inspire and educate!) 2009

We're so glad you took some time to read this today, and hope it's gotten you thinking about women: whether about how you can help, or what women inspire you, or even just about women's issue in general. This post is part of a day, a month, that are all part of a larger conversation. So have the conversation with us! Comment here, or on Twitter and Facebook. We'd love to hear what you think!

So much for taking it easy our first day in Nairobi

John and I do suffer from jet lag. So we planned a very limited first day in Nairobi - just visiting the new site of Little Rock Early Childhood Development Center would be exciting enough.

But Lilly Oyare - founder and director of Little Rock - thinks everybody has the boundless energy that she has. So we had a very full - and wonderful - day.

Judy Craig, Lilly Oyare and Judy Gration at the Residence

First, we met Judy Gration! Judy's husband Scott is the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, and Judy was enormously helpful by shipping fabrics and supplies for the RockPads project and books for the Little Rock library. Judy is warm, welcoming, and passionate about Kenya. And despite her very busy schedule,  Judy was very generous with her time; we spoke about Eliminate Poverty Now for quite a while! The Residence for the Embassy is a tranquil, beautiful home and, as I hope you can see, the grounds are lovely. As Americans we can be very proud of it.

Lilly Oyare and Edward Mwenda

Then we visited the new Little Rock site and is it ever buzzing with activity! When it's at full capacity, the new school will quadruple in size and be home to 1000 nursery school and disabled children. Today, a 30-person crew was installing steel rods in preparation for pouring the concrete foundation and walls. The Site Manager, Edward Mwenda, said they are on track to finish construction by October! There is already electricity and WATER at the site: parents will no longer need to bring water for cooking, washing, and toilets. Plans include a computer center and a multipurpose area which will generate income as a catering facility when school is not in session. Once construction is finished, the site will be landscaped. It will be a true oasis for the Little Rock community.

We finished up the day at the existing Little Rock site. We'll be spending more time there this week, so I'll save the details for a later post. Because now the jet lag is really catching up with me.

By the way, last week a ship dropped its anchor onto the fiber optic cables that supply Kenya's high -speed internet. So our connectivity is very limited. But I'd still love to hear back from you. Please share your thoughts, comments, good wishes, constructive criticism, etc. as comments right here rather than sending them as emails. I'll be sure to see them and respond as soon as I can.

Bill Gates Likes What EPN is All About

Have you heard the news? Last week, the Gates Foundation announced $200 million in Agricultural Development Grants!

In the speech he gave at the IFAD conference, Bill Gates confirmed the approach we take at Eliminate Poverty Now, saying:

“If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture...Investments in agriculture are the best weapons against hunger and poverty, and they have made life better for billions of people. The international agriculture community needs to be more innovative, coordinated, and focused to help poor farmers grow more. If we can do that, we can dramatically reduce suffering and build self-sufficiency.”

There's a great blog post at ICRISAT, an article on the Philanthropy News Digest, and you can read the speech posted in its entirety on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website.

Here's another quote from Gates, which reflects our own mission at EPN:

“The goal is to move from examples of success to sustainable productivity increases to hundreds of millions of people moving out of poverty...If we hope to meet that goal, it must be a goal we share. We must be coordinated in our pursuit of it. We must embrace more innovative ways of working toward it. And we must be willing to be measured on our results.”

This thinking is what drives Eliminate Poverty Now's projects, like Farmers of the Future, The Women's Cooperative Garden in Mali, the warehouse cooperative in Uganda, and the elevage program in Niger.

At work in the Women's Cooperative Garden in Mali

Some Farmers of the Future!

The sentiments expressed by Bill Gates are what EPN is all about, and the goals mentioned are very much our goals.

Help us on our way! Follow or subscribe to the blog, and encourage your friends and family to do the same, and to visit our website, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. We can't do it alone. As Gates said, if we hope to meet our goal, "it must be a goal we share."

A Preview of John and Judy's Trip to Africa

In less than a week, John and Judy will be in Africa, seeing the progress of Eliminate Poverty Now's projects in person! They have a packed schedule, and we thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what they'll be doing while they are there.

In their first week, they will be in Nairobi, where they visit the new site for the Little Rock Early Childhood Development Center!

As I mentioned in my first post a few weeks ago, the new buildings will serve 1,000 nursery school children, four times the number of children being served at the current location. We are so excited that this wonderful program is growing.


 John and Judy will meet with Lilly Oyare, founder and director of the Little Rock ECD to discuss the RockPads project, and possible partnerships between U.S. and Kenya Rotary clubs. They will also meet with groups of girls from the Kibera slum who will be receiving sanitary pads through the RockPads project at GlobalGiving.

Early the following week, they will be in Benin to visit the Songhai Center, and to officially launch the Songhai Women's Capital Fund! We are really excited about this project. EPN will be providing start-up capital to the most promising women who graduate from the school to create dozens of successful agricultural entrepreneurs.

Then it's off to Niger, where there will be days of in-depth meetings regarding Farmers of the Future, the Galbal Sewing and Literacy Center, and the Women's Elevage program (referred to in the previous blog entry as "embouche"), among other topics. Judy and John will also be co-hosting the official opening of the Farmers of the Future program! There is hope that the National Minister of Education and representatives from the U.S. Embassy and USAID, as well as other officials, will be in attendance. It promises to be a super exciting event celebrating a truly wonderful program.

And this doesn't cover everything they'll be doing! They will be busy-busy, with lots of wonderful, exciting things, and as promised, they'll be blogging regularly to keep everyone up to speed with news and updated photos. If you're not already subscribing, now's a great time to start, so you don't miss anything! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We'll always let you know when another post is up.

Great News from the Senegal Sewing Center

Hello again!

Almost as soon as we published our blog post updating you on two programs we did in partnership with the Millennium Villages Project, we received fantastic news from Serigne Kandji about our sewing center in the Millennium Village in Senegal!

Have you been reading the headlines coming out of Senegal lately? You can get a good idea of what's going on from these NPR and New York Times reports. The reports are focused on regime change and rioting, which makes the good news we received from Senegal mean that much more to us. It proves what we always say: Africa can seem totally hopeless if you read the American press, even when there are wonderful things happening all over the place! Unfortunately, good news doesn't sell.

But we're not selling news here, and we LOVE  to share good news! The Leona sewing center, Jigeen ca Waarwa (Women at Work), is located in the Potou, Senegal Millennium Village cluster and was fully operational in 2011, with four girls enrolled. A photo slideshow from the center can be seen on the Women's Sewing Center project page of our website. Due to the resounding success--ever growing activity and demand for training in other villages in the cluster-- two decisions have been made by the management committee.

The first is to move the Leona center to a more spacious and centralized location! This space has already been found--a stall along the Leona-Potou main road--and a contract signed with the owner. The machines will be moved before the end of this month.

The second decision made is to open another sewing center! This center will be located in Potou, with the money generated by Jigeen ca Waarwa. Again, a stall has been found, and the contract already signed. Very soon, there will be two or three machines purchased. A tailor will be hired for this center, and girls will be recruited for training!

Tailor and Student

 With all of this success, the training of the first class of girls in the Leona center will be accelerated so that they are able to graduate before the next rainy season.

This kind of news makes me think of an January article I came across recently, in which Millennium Promise founder Jeffrey Sachs makes the point, "We're not arguing for a culture of dependency. We're arguing to end it." This is exactly reflected in the success of Jigeen ca Waarwa, and we cannot wait to see this project continue to grow and generate good news from Senegal!

Work-in-progress

A finished product

Updates from Two Millennium Villages Projects

Hello, hello, happy blog-readers!

We are happy to say that we have recently heard from our partners in the Millennium Villages Project that two of Eliminate Poverty Now's earliest projects are continuing to grow and achieve their original goals! 

The news isn't very specific at this point, but we wanted to draw your attention back to these projects since they haven't been featured recently, and we are really excited about both of them. In general, these projects have been well received by the people in the communities, with potential to help even more people than had been originally thought. There have been growing pains, as is to be expected, but the overall message of the news we've been receiving has been encouraging!

 

The first of these projects is the Women's Cooperative Garden in Sama, Mali, which is part of the Tiby, Mali Millennium Village cluster. As you can see in the photo below, things are going well! The grass is green, and the people are happy, and those are two very wonderful things.

Mawa, head of the Women's Cooperative, with Judy, 2010

Judy wrote a great, in depth blog post about the garden when she and John were in Africa two years ago, so be sure to check it out. At the bottom of that post, there is another photo of Mawa, where you are better able to see the necklace she is wearing in the picture with Judy here. This necklace is made of African glass beads, and was a gift from Judy to Mawa. Have you seen the Nanyuki Handcrafts site? For all of you jewelry lovers, the pieces are gorgeous, and help Kenyan artists support their families.



Speaking of photos, we owe special thanks to Nina Sharma from Millennium Promise for the beautiful photos in this blog post!

Mawa, 2012

The Women's Cooperative Garden was started in 2009. That same year, EPN also started a cooperative commodity warehouse in the Ruhiira, Uganda Millennium Village cluster. The official name of the warehouse is Kigarama Marketing Cooperative Society, Ltd.

In spite of the risk of loss of harvested crops due to moisture, mold, vermin, theft, etc, we are happy to say that in its first year, there was less than a 5% storage loss! This news means many good things for the future of this project, and we're excited to see it continue to grow.

A front view of the warehouse

That's all for today! John and Judy will be blogging while they are in Africa, so there will be tons of new photos and updates coming during March, on all of EPN's projects.
  
Oh, and have you looked around the blog recently? We've been updating and adding pages, to make it more user friendly. Please take a minute to scroll back to the top and see what we've been working on! 

Many thanks for reading!

An Introduction

Hello, blog readers! I am Anna, the new "social ninja" for Eliminate Poverty Now, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to you all, as I will be taking over a good portion of the blogging for Judy.

This is me, giving my graduate lecture in Montpelier

I graduated with my MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts this past summer, and quit my job in order to pursue my passion. A crazy thing to do, these days, right? The job I was holding was working at a small, independent health food store, and I learned a lot about sustainability and the importance of what we put in and on our bodies, whether it was for health reasons (organics) or just knowing where these things come from in the world (is it local? fair trade?). I worked at the store for four years, and made a lot of good friends, and as much as I will carry the knowledge I gained with me for the rest of my life, I just knew it was time to move on.

In addition to working on my own creative work, having writing be at least a part of my job was the goal. When our mutual friend, Meg, put Judy and me in touch with one another, and told me the job would involve blogging for a non profit, I was immediately interested. Judy and I spoke on Skype, and immediately hit it off, ideas flying all over the place. After a second conversation, the deal was done, and I became a member of the Eliminate Poverty Now family, an opportunity that appeals to me on every level: a company I believe in, a job description that involves writing, and an opportunity to learn about so many different things!

So here I am, at your service. For the past week or so, I've been in a "gathering" mode, learning about
the different projects. How about the great news from Farmers of the Future that Judy posted last week? It's so exciting to see this project get going, and I, for one, can't wait to see it blossom.

One of the first things Judy sent me as material for learning about the different EPN projects was the video of Lilly talking about the Little Rock Early Childhood Development Center. I was immediately struck by her beauty and strength, and the amazing things being accomplished. Lilly's passion is truly inspiring. If you haven't already seen it, please check it out.

And there is news this week from Little Rock! Lilly recently went to the UK and raised the money to buy the land for the new building at the center. This addition will mean that the center will be able to have 1,000 children-- that's four times the current size. They have already had the ground-breaking, and Judy and John will hopefully see the site when they go to Africa next month.

Also, an event that took place just over a week ago (1/29/12) resulted in four boxes of children's books being shipped to the Little Rock Library. John presented Lilly's video at the event, as well as photos. Many thanks to board member, Margie Samuels, for organizing the event, and to everyone who donated the books. Judy sent them out at the end of last week, so they are en route to the Little Rock kids! An extra thanks to Judy Gration, wife of U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, who covered the shipping.

So lots of great things going on at Little Rock, and more on the way! 2012 is the year when the first graduating class of Little Rock Scholars will take the test for secondary school. The score determines whether or not a child goes on to secondary school at all, and within the qualifying scores, the higher the score, the better the school. The top scoring boy and girl will each receive full scholarships for secondary school.

2012 is still new, and here's to a great year ahead of us! As a newcomer to EPN, I have to mention the page on the website that tells you how you can help because it really stood out to me that even people with not a lot to spare (like aspiring writers, perhaps?) can give $10, and it will make a difference. I think this is important for people to realize, who feel like if they can't spare anything big, then they can't make a difference. It's just not the case!

Some might say this is the year when the world will end, but from my experience so far, great things are beginning all over the place! There are endings and beginnings all the time; life is a cycle, after all. A writer ends her formal education and the job she knew, and enters a world of uncertainty. Then she begins something new, something exciting, and something incredibly positive.

And really, that positivity is what I love most about Eliminate Poverty Now.

So thanks for having me! I'm looking forward to being on this journey with all of you.

Oh, and part of being a social-ninja is reminding you all to please like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. We'll be posting more often on those sites, as well as here, so be sure to check us out! Also, if you're not already, subscribe to this blog. Thanks!

Farmers of the Future Takes Root

This week was a major milestone in the Farmers of the Future project, as we began training the teachers from the three pilot schools. Farmers of the Future, the brainchild of Professor Dov Pasternak, which Eliminate Poverty Now and Pencils for Kids is bringing to fruition, helps to sow the seeds of Africa's green revolution by teaching modern agricultural practice to primary school children.

It took a while to get to this point. We waited until we had the approval and support of the National
Ministry of Education in Niger. We were also
delayed because the initial contractor responsible for converting technical material into age appropriate educational booklets could not complete the job.

But it was worth the wait: we now have the full and enthusiastic support of the Nigerien National Ministry of Education, and our material is being produced by pedagogues from the Ministry, which should serve us well in the long run.




The seven subjects to be covered are Water
Management; Environment; Growing Vegetables; Growing Cowpeas (a nutritious legume); Tree
Nurseries; Raising Animals; and Small Business.

The training is being carried out by technical agricultural experts, overseen by the venerable Saidou Abdoussalam (who splits his time between Farmers of the Future and his other ICRISAT  duties). Hamani Djibo,the administrator of all our projects in Niger, and founder of ONG LIBO, organized the meeting with his usual calm and cheerful proficiency. The participants included teachers, school administrators and local community leaders.

At the end of the second day, Hamani reported

Hi John,
The teachers are very happy and today at the end of the training the Educational Inspector of the Kollo region and the representative of the Ministry of Education encouraged them to enjoy their work and their students. You are going to receive a full report. It was wonderful! Thank you.

For more photos, please go to the Eliminate Poverty Now flickr site.

Good News, Not so Good News

We have had some very exciting news from one of our sewing centers.   The letter below is from Serigne Kandji, the cluster leader for the Millennium Village cluster in Potou, Senegal. The sewing center, Jigeen ca Waarwa, ("Women at Work") is in Leona. 

Girl working with tailor

Dear Judy,

Thank you once more for the great job you are doing to help alleviate poverty in Africa.  I just want to let you know that the sewing centre in Leona, Senegal, has now become autonomous. The committee is now capable of paying the tailor, the manager, meet the various expenses and remain with a profit. The initial fund has been totally spent, but the women have close to USD2,000 in their account.

The girls are learning well and we have plans of sending them to a training centre in Louga for a few days/weeks so that they can complete their training and get certificates. We will decide with the tailor when the right moment is. Once the training is complete, each of the girls will get a simple sewing machine on loan. I also personnally pledged to offer a machine as my contribution to what I see as a very noble cause.

With kind regards,

Serigne

It is so encouraging to see one of our sewing centers become autonomous, which is the goal.  We hope we can help many more to reach this point. That's one reason we're so excited about the success of the GlobalGiving campaign to support the RockPads project at the Little Rock ECD sewing center.

Foyer Kuluje de Galbal

Unfortunately, everything does not always go so smoothly.  At our newest center, Kuludje ("Joy"), in Galbal, Niger,  it has been a very dry winter and food is extremely scarce.  

There are 23 students enrolled in the sewing and literacy program.  Most of the students are married women who are finding that with the drought, they don't have the time  for vocational training.  Trying to feed their families is a more urgent responsibility.  Also because of the drought, they don't have enough money to purchase the basic supplies needed for the program.

We have changed the class schedule so that the women can come in a little later.  Hopefully this will make it possible for more of them to attend.  We are still trying to come up with solutions for the financial challenges.  It is important for the success of the project that the women  purchase their own supplies, so we can't just donate supplies.


Why are we sharing this bad news with you? For three reasons:

• We want all of our contributors to know that we are being completely open and transparent with you about how things are progressing with our various projects. We want to share all the news, not only the good news.  Eliminate Poverty Now values the trust you place in us to use your donation well.
• We want to know any bad news ourselves, because otherwise how can we get better?
• Finally, we realize what a great challenge we face. If eliminating extreme poverty were easy, it would have been eliminated a long time ago.

Hopefully, we will soon have better news to report from Galbal.

Generosity

Things have been going very well. Eliminate Poverty Now was successful in the GlobalGiving Challenge: more than 50 people have donated more than $4000. Based on our original budget, that was enough to pay for  sanitary pad kits for 160 girls in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.


But wait - there's more: two fabric companies have offered to donate ALL THE FABRIC we need to manufacture the pads!  A.E. Nathan in New York is donating  all the fleece and flannel. Fabri-Quilt in Kansas City is donating all the nylon. Isn't that AMAZING?

And to top it off, Lilly Oyare - the founder and director of Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre, where parents are manufacturing and distributing the pads - has arranged for the donated fabric to be shipped to Kenya by the U.S. Ambassador!

What does all this mean? It means that instead of providing sanitary pad kits for 160 girls, we'll be able to supply kits to 216 girls!

We couldn't be more grateful for this outpouring of generosity.

$

Help Educate Kenyan Girls

Without access to sanitary pads, many girls and women in Africa miss school and work for a week out of every month.
Our Pads for Peace program is creating a sustainable business in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Women make soft, reusable sanitary pads. Eliminate Poverty Now donates them to girls. They can finish high school and lift themselves out of poverty. Working women buy pads so they can get to work, and feed their families.  

• Pads for Peace Business Educates 2000 Kenyan Girls
  

From now through December 31, Eliminate Poverty Now needs 50 people to each donate at least $10 at our GlobalGiving project page: Pads for Peace business educates 2000 Kenyan girls. If they do, we will be able to post ALL of the Eliminate Poverty Now projects at this important website! You can donate easily by clicking on the "give now" button.

Please encourage your friends to learn more about this program by going to www.GlobalGiving.org, Search on “Pads for Peace business educates 2000 Kenyan girls,” and donate $10 each. Or click on the button at the left.

Donations can be in honor of someone. A Red Cross survey found that 79% of Americans would rather get a charitable donation in their  name than a gift they would not use!

Millennium Promise Cites Sama Women's Garden

Dear Friends, Do you remember the Sama Women's Cooperative Garden Eliminate Poverty Now funded? Millennium Promise cites it in their Thanksgiving message. Read more about it here:

Dear Friends, In the Millennium Village of Tiby (Mali), the Sama Cooperative Garden does more than provide food. By teaching new skills, the garden enables women to earn an income, support their families, and participate in the community's economic development. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you for your continued support of Millennium Promise. Due in no small part to supporters like you, gardens and businesses like this are changing lives all across the Millennium Villages. As you give thanks this week, please know that your generosity is deeply appreciated and is making a lasting impact on more than 500,000 lives in sub-Saharan Africa. The enclosed video demonstrates how your support has helped thousands realize their full potential. On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff at Millennium Promise, I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday. Peter Neidecker CEO, Millennium Promise

Jeff Sachs' Deficit Reduction Strategy

Cuts to government spending are inevitable. The question is what to cut. Most Americans think we spend a fortune on foreign aid and should slash it. Actually we spend about $25 billion a year on foreign aid, less than 1% of our $3.5 trillion annual budget. The fortune is spent on the military -- $700 billion annually, more than the rest of the world spends on defense combined!

Jeff Sachs dancing at Sauri Millenium Village

Jeff Sachs, noted economist, educator, author and founder of the Millennium Villages Project (one of Eliminate Poverty Now's partners) offers a strategy to cut $175 billion annually in spending (that's $1.75 trillion over 10 years which is what the Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction is trying to find) and does it by being penny-wise and pound-wise at the same time.

Here's a link to this important article which appeared in the Huffington Post.

Important reading

Why do we focus on economic opportunity and education especially for girls and women? Learn the hard facts in the new World Bank Development Report 2012.

It focuses on the importance of gender equality in economic development.

Check out the World Bank Development Report 2012.

BREAKING NEWS

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13 at 1:15 pm MDT, John is being interviewed about Eliminate Poverty Now on KDNK radio in Carbondale, CO. KDNK broadcasts locally on 88.1 FM Carbondale, 88.3 FM Aspen, 88.5 FM Basalt and Redstone, 93.5 FM Leadville and 94.9 FM Thomasville. Or you can listen live by clicking http://www.kdnk.org/listen.cfm. (You may need to download Winamp or ITunes in advance to be able to listen live.)

And on Wednesday, September 14 at 7:30 pm, John will be speaking about Eliminate Poverty Now and giving a slideshow of his photographs of Africa, at Third Street Center in Carbondale. His will be the first in the Creating Change series sponsored by the Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities (CCAH).

Thanks so much to all the wonderful people at CCAH - especially Ro Mead, Jane Hart and Ruth Hollowell - for spreading the word about our work to provide economic opportunity and education in sub-Saharan Africa, especially for girls and women.

Don't miss it!