Our microfinance team allocated its 1,666th loan
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Would you even know where Kyrgyzstan is? Leave alone, been there? And would you even have thought to finance an entrepreneur there? Ever?
Well we did. On all three accounts: "Knew", "Visited", and "Financed"...
We just financed our 1,666th loan (that is one thousands six hundred and sixtysixthththth) loan with our Kiva micro financing team.
The loan went to Zaripakhon, 52 years and mother of three children. She is a cattle farmer since 2000 selling milk and dairy products. To order further develop her business, Zaripakhon requested a loan buy more livestock.
Zaripakhon was one of the 70 women from around the world we allocated our newest microfinance loans to. This loan was financed by a project on AidJobs, which raised over US$2,000 of funds.
Here are the latest micro finance loans we allocated, bringing our team total to almost US$60,000!
KONY2012: Can Social Media Capture a War Criminal?
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I blogged before about Kony, the infamous leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. For decennia, he has been terrorizing, first Uganda, and now, larger areas of the surrounding countries.
According to the guys from KONY2012, one of the reasons why Kony has not been captured, is lack of a lack of means and efforts. Those in turn, can only be possible if the public opinion pushes policy makers to allocate enough resources in order to smoke out an indicted mass murderer.
Thus, was the approach from KONY2012: "Make Kony Famous". And so came this video about. It has many stories, within the story. The story of the love of a father for his son, the impression an ex-child soldier and abducted Ugandan child, had on a film maker. How a mass movement can start with a single idea, loads of creativity. How one person can make a difference. And about the awesome power of social media.
This movie is the current Internet hit with over 52 million views, and counting.
Watch the movie, and sign the petition.
Monsanto Go Away
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As part of the Occupy Maui movement, The Human Revolution has a clear message for Monsanto.
More on Monsanto on The Road.
Happy 2012 everyone. Now start changing the world, will you?
[i-Susila-Devi1]
Since we kicked off our Kiva microfinance project "Change Starts Here" in November 2008, our Kiva Lending Team has already funded over 1,500 projects, for a total value of US$54,000. Check out our project score card on our Have Impact! blog.
In 2011, I had a wide range of sponsors for the blogs I manage. After deducting the running costs for my blogs, I want to invest the left-over funds in our microfinance project "Change Starts Here" . Seems like a good way to start 2012 off on a good footing!
So, from January 1 to 15, I will run a promotion campaign for AidJobs, my newest blog, while helping to boost our micro finance projects. How? Pretty simple:
Again, the end date is midnight January 15, and all funds go to our Kiva micro finance projects. A good way to start 2012, no?
Just leave your name and where you live. Add any wishes you have for a better world in 2012.
(we're starting at 147 followers)
(we're starting at 22 likes)
(we're starting at 4 subscriptions)
Over the next weeks, I will publish updates on this blog post.
Happy New Year everyone!
Peter
Looking for a job as an aidworker? Here is a good start!
aidjobsmapbright[i-aidjobsmapbright]
Ever since I wrote the post on "How to become an aidworker", I get mail from people asking for advice. Most struggle with getting into "the system", which is indeed the hardest part: "getting through that solid iron gate".
Part of the problem is that people don't know where to look for vacancies. Job announcements in the aid and nonprofit sector are spread in many different places. I tried to change that, and built an aggregator. AidJobs collecting job vacancies in the international aid sector, the humanitarian and development field as well as in the nonprofit area.
The job offers range from part time volunteering to internships, consultancies, and staff employment. About half of the jobs are for local positions (mostly in the US and Europe), half are international positions (mostly in Africa, Asia and South America).
To really get started, I also list offers for online volunteers: volunteering work you can do from your home, for a few hours per week - a great way to help out many nonprofits, to get additional experience, give something back to society, and also to get "a foot in the door" of the nonprofit world.
AidJobs also features a map, with the locations of the latest job offers.
You can follow the updates via @AidJobs on Twitter, and via the AidJobs Facebook page. I also publish a daily digest.
Since I started the site a week ago, 1,700 positions were collected, from development specialists in Haiti, to social media internships in New York, a human rights consultancy in Argentina and a camp manager in South Sudan.
Enjoy!