Just before Christmas I received notice that $25 had been repaid from my previous loans, enough to join in a loan to a new entrepreneur. On top of that, I was gifted a $25 loan certificate for Christmas from my cousin and his new fiancee!

Here are my new loan-ees:

Doris Yolanda Blanco Huallpa makes and sells handicrafts in Peru, and wanted a loan to buy raw materials. The picture of a smiling Doris in the process of knitting (or crocheting?) something in a mellow yellow colour was all the prompting I needed to add to her loan.

Mrs. Ros Som already works as a weaver, but wants to diversify by purchasing some farmland and growing crops. Since I have my own farmland dreams for the future I am totally on board with this lady.

I made my first loans around Christmas of 2008, when I started with $100 (enough for four loan amounts). With the addition of these two new loans I’ve made a total of ten loans. I haven’t had any loan-ees default on a repayment. It’s really great to see just how far one loan can go in this innovative microfinance system!

I hope the rally today motivates more people to speak out – it’s really important that MLAs hear from their constituents. It only takes a minute to send an email. It doesn’t have to be formal or wordy; just tell them who you are and what your stance is on the issue. My MLA replied to my email and asked for my contact information but didn’t indicate why he wanted it. I’m pretty sure he won’t send any goons to my house, so maybe he wants to discuss the concerns I brought up?

To: greg.byrne@gnb.ca
Good Day Mr Byrne;

Amy Tompkins
Fredericton

From her profile:
Hakik has had a small business processing and drying apricots. Thanks to the quality of her products and the experience she gained in this sphere of business, she has earned a solid reputation among her customers. Accordingly, the demand for her goods has grown, allowing her to contribute significantly to the household.

Now, Hakik requests 900 USD to spend on purchasing apricots which she will dry and resell. She hopes that she will continue sending her children to school so that they will be able to get an adequate education. She expresses her gratitude to everyone supporting her.

She got my money because I LOVE dried apricots. Should I be less self-centered and more random in my giving?

It’s really easy to lend with Kiva, and the base loan amount is just $25. Who can’t spare that much for charity, especially considering that it gets repaid and re-lent as many times as you choose!

I guess I should have acted faster, as she’s already raised her full loan amount! In the spirit of the feedback from my contest, I choose a very similar woman to loan to.

Elizabeth Broni is a widow raising four children. She works as an independent caterer/baker on the Cape Coast of Ghana. My loan will help her purchase more supplies like flour, sugar, and yeast.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Maybe in another three or four months I’ll be able to re-loan to another deserving business.

I loaned to two women in Tajikistan, in two different fields. One is a younger woman who sews womens’ clothes, and one is a mother of five who raises and sells livestock. My third loan went to a young man from Senegal who runs a general store. Finally, my last loan was to a group of sixteen women in Bolivia who sell cosmetics and general goods. Here is my lender page with information about each of my loans.

I made the loans in December, and most have already been significantly repaid. In fact, I have enough credit in my account to make a new loan again! I’m trying to decide between these two businesses:

• Liliana Brigges, Bolivia – Liliana runs a small breakfast cafe. She is a widow raising three children.
• Lubajja Traders Group, Uganda – This group of fish-mongers is headed by Abdul, father of 18 children. The group also raises chickens and grows some other products.

What do you think? Leave your vote in a comment and I’ll post again in about a week with the winner.

Though there are certainly factors that contribute to poverty locally, they aren’t unique factors. The root causes of poverty, Dan explained, are larger economic factors and class division. Pretty heavy stuff. He pointed me at some sources for statistics locally and nationally, here are some that stuck out:

• In 2004, more than 11% of the population in Canada were living in poverty. Rates for female single-parent families were above the average at 35.6%.
• Here in my city, population of about 50,500, the community kitchen serves approximately 139,942 meals a year. That’s an average of 383 meals a day.
• My province provides some of the lowest welfare incomes in the country.

As the conversation went on I spilled my own poverty story. Fresh out of high school and living on my own, Jasmin would have been only two at the time, I spent about a year as a recipient of welfare. I’ve even had to suck up my pride and stand in line for food at a food bank. I soon dug myself out of that hole, thanks in large part to various government education and loans programs. I asked Dan: if I could do it, if the programs are there, why aren’t more people leaving the welfare system? His answer was “because they don’t know that they can.”

You see, I was raised by two college-educated parents. We had a house, two cars, and a modest but comfortable lifestyle. If I had never experienced that, I might not realize it was possible. Add to that the life skills and job skills that many people in poverty lack, and you have the system that keeps people stuck in the welfare/poverty trap.

Dan gave me a stunning example. He told me about a man who never in his life had the simple privacy of his own room. Who reading this can even grasp what it must be like to go through ilfe without so much as one small room to call home? After working for Dan’s organization for a time the man was earning enough that he finally got a room of his own. Needless to say, he likes it. Chances are he will not want to go back to being homeless. By simply having the opportunity to experience a sense of home, of privacy and security, this man is now aware that a better lifestyle is possible. Awareness creates desire, desire motivates action.

Few people on welfare or below the poverty line have the opportunity to experience a better life. There are 53 classifications of deductions from a welfare cheque. Earn more than $200 in a month? The extra is deducted from your welfare payment. Recieve a monetary gift? Deducted. Child support? Deducted. What if we stopped clawing back money from the poorest people in our society? What if we let them keep that extra and experience an improved lifestyle?

I asked Dan what one person can do. I wanted some small, tangible action for someone with limited resources. Speak up, he said. Speak up, get angry, write your MLA, innudate the media. Don’t stop making noise until they can’t avoid the topic anymore. I’m glad I found Blog Action Day, I’m glad I got a chance to talk to Dan. Now I’m ready to make some noise, are you?

I hadn’t ever heard of Blog Action Day until just now, but I think it’s a great idea. Every year on October 15th, bloggers from all over the world join together to post about a global issue. This year the issue is poverty. It’s the chance for many small voices to join together and shake the internet into a mass conversation.

I’m already knocking on the doors of some friends of mine here in Fredericton who run FAPO (Fredericton Anti Poverty Organization). I’m going to be talking about poverty here, at the local level in my city.

I’m also going to take this opportunity to tag a few other bloggers on my blogroll. I never, ever do this so hopefully they won’t blacklist me for it. I’d like to see the following bloggers join me for Blog Action Day:

• Joe from Broken Joe, because maybe he can contribute something artistic to the action?
• Al from The Hallway, just because he needs a break from blogging and tweeting about Evergreen.
• Jaffer, of ManiaRavings, because I enjoy his posts on local political topics and want to hear about something global from him.
• Wil Wheaton, because he’s thoughtful, insightful, and can motivate people and generate conversation. I want to see him write more about doing good things.
• Nick, of thatnickguy, because it will stretch his literary muscles.

No pressure or anything guys!

Also, it appears that “TV Turnoff Week” has become “Mental Detox Week”. Now the challenge is to completely unplug from April 21-27. No TV, DVD, iPod, internet, blackberry, etc. For me personally, I think I can cut out everything EXCEPT my email and blogging – at least I’ll give it a try.

Click here to visit the Adbusters “Mental Detox Week” Site.