What A Relief!

Today I thought I had sad news. A few months ago I lent to a group of women in Pakistan who each had their own means of income. One was a seamstress, one a hair stylist, etc. The reason I had chosen to make a loan to Pakistan was because I had been seeing how many people were being displaced due to the US' presence along the boarders where there were supposed Taliban hide outs. I hate how the 5 o'clock news shows missiles flying overhead and entire towns being blown to smithereens. Um, there are people there. I don't want to sit here eating my bowl of cereal watching people die. But that's another story. Anyway, I was watching and reading these stories about how so many people were being pushed out of their homes and had no where to go. So I did what I could to help keep their economy going by lending to their people. (as we all know by now, government aid rarely actually helps. Giving Pakistan government money would do no good. We need to get money into the hands of the people. Go Kiva for being awesome.)

Today when I logged in, I noticed that this lending team was delinquent on their payments and my heart dropped. Not only could one person in this group not pay, but the rest of the group was not able to come together and cover the shortage? (lending teams support one another. If one person cannot pay, the rest of the team is responsible. Go read Banker to the Poor for further explanation. It's awesome) I wondered what could have happened that would make it impossible to make their payment. Were their homes destroyed? Was business just that bad? I'd rather they feed their families than pay me back... But then I noticed that Kiva's field partner, Asasah, had a 50% delinquency rate and got suspicious. Kiva has a 98% repayment rate, how could this ONE lender have a 50% delinquency rate. So I investigated... and found good news.

The reason for the high delinquency rate is because they are having trouble transferring money out of Pakistan. I know how difficult it can be to move large sums of money in to or out of countries, I can empathize with them. They have the payments from their loanees and as soon as the Bank of Pakistan sorts through the issue, all of the money will be disbursed. So I can sleep well tonight - It is safe to assume that my Pakistani women are safe and sound and prospering in their business.

Whew!!

A Lesson in Ethics

Unicef is an organization that does everything they can to protect children from all kinds of harm, help solve gender inequality issues, and provide an education for children who otherwise would never touch a book, learn to read, or learn to write. They are an amazing organization and have done a lot of good in our world.

(www.guardian.co.uk)

One of the projects that Unicef supported was ending the use of child labor in garment factories in Bangladesh. It's 'child labor'. It's bad right? Of course ending these practices would be a good thing, right? Unicef thought so too, until they learned of the consequences of pushing children out of relatively safe work environments and into a workforce much less friendly.

Garment factory workers are relatively well paid and work reasonable hours which leaves both time and money for children to put themselves through school. Without factory jobs, many children are forced to work as maids who have no time off for attending classes, and who make about half as much as factory workers. Or worse, they work 'off the grid' in unsafe, under paid, sweat shops.

So what did we learn? Imposing morals and practices followed in the US may not work for all countries. Unicef backed this movement to get children out of factories because we would never do that here in the US, but didn't take the time to think about how pushing them out of those jobs would simply push them into others. Their families still need to pay rent, they still need food, and they still need money to fund their own educations. Pushing children out of factory jobs actually ended up doing more harm than good.

See an awesome video on the topic here

Charity:Water has infiltrated Moo.com

Yes, that is right. Charity:Water has infiltrated Moo.com. Charity:Water has been one of my favorite non profits for a long time now, so of course, I am always excited when I find them in other places. The more reach they can get, the better!! Here you can buy a pre designed set of Charity:Water post cards or greeting cards to send to your friends and famiy. With every purchase Moo.com will donate $11 to Charity:Water. You get post cards, they get moolah (haha, I'm so funny...) Also check out Charity:Water's twitter feed for a daily photo of projects they're currently working on.

Postcards $19.99
Buy this on MOO.com

September Kiva!!

Hm... You know my life has gotten boring when all I ever have to talk about is Kiva. :)

So today I made my Kiva loan for September. This one went to a Teth Sopheap in Cambodia who does a little bit of everything. She raises ducks and sells their eggs, raises pigs for slaughter, and cultivates rice crops during the summer. She has a husband who is a motorcycle mechanic and five children, many of whom work for the local water company. Even with all of the work her children and husband do, it still does not bring in enough money to support all of them.

Cambodia is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Most people there live very much like Teth does in that they work for themselves on multiple different projects to bring in income for their family. This is why I chose to lend to Cambodia this month. They are hard working people, yet still struggle to meet the basic needs that many take for granted. Obtaining an education is nearly impossible for most and rising above poverty is even more difficult.

August Kiva Loan!!

YAY! I've finally made my loan for August. This one went to Bo Sok in Cambodia. Currently Bo Sok works as a caterer, but with five kids, two of which are in school (which is not free in Cambodia...) he can no longer afford his monthly household expenses. So, with the fruit season coming, he intends to open a fruit stand to make up the difference so that his kids can stay in school and everyone can have food. Below is a picture of his wife:

AIDS Walk 2009!!!

(Kelly, Alicia, Vikki)

YES!! The AIDS Walk was this last Sunday. And yes, it was awesome.

Alicia and I started our day bright and early and drove up to the city. Thanks to UCSF’s cooperation, we got cheap parking for the day right across the street from Golden Gate Park. Checking in was a breeze and playing with our rewards for our fundraising was of course a blast.

We had gotten there so early, we had about an hour and a half to wait for the walk to actually start, so we met up with our friend Vikki and chatted, made new friends, watch a rescue attempt of a poor lost mole, and listened to the entertainment from the stage. Next year I hope to secure a place closer to the stage so that I can actually see what is going on up there.

Once the walk started there was a mad dash for the starting line. We tried to hang back a bit so as to not get trampled, and for the most part were successful. Very early on we encountered our first and only protesters. They were quite nice and only held signs warning me that God will judge me. Yes, God will judge me, so you, please don’t. What made it great though were the drag queens partying it up right next to the protesters. Sequins, geisha style makeup, singing and dancing… They were quite hot if I may say so myself.

There was never a dull moment along the walk. There were stopping points along the way where volunteers handed out oranges, popsicles, multigrain bars and other snacks of the like. There were men walking by with their Ipod players propped up on their shoulders as if they were 90s style boom boxes, men (errr… women..) walking in their underwear, men dressed is space man outfits, and my personal favorite, a naked man with face paint and a sign around his mid section advertising nakedclowns.com. I have yet to visit the site… :S…

The AIDS Walk is definitely a must in my next years ‘to do’ plan, only I will make it bigger and better. Yes, that means that all of you are getting an invite to join my team, fundraise, and walk with me! And with California’s current budget situation it will be more necessary than ever. Most of the organizations that this event supports have already lost most of their funding. As San Francisco is one of California’s cities with the highest rates of HIV and AIDS, these services are needed. In total, the AIDS Walk was able to bring in over $3.5 million and Alicia, Vikki, and I were able to raise over $1700 ourselves. Imagine a difference we could make with a bigger team!

And, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who made this possible!!!

Mirror, Skull, and Chair

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, artists used to create a type of painting called a 'vanitas'. Yes, it sounds like 'vanity' because it means 'vanity'. In these paintings were symbols of a lustrous life. Books to show that the subject had knowledge, pearls, money, and jewels to show that they were wealthy, mirrors to show that they were a bit narcissistic... And a skull to remind us that death is unavoidable. Then in the background would be a painting of the final judgement. Jesus doesn't care how much money you had, or how beautiful you were. You'd have better been a good person as well, or you're not getting though those big pearly gates.

Through the years, the religious symbols of these paintings have been made much more subtle, or at times non existent as is in the following example.

'Mirror, Skull, and Chair", finished in 1962, Oil on Canvas by Paul Wonner

By far the most appealing vanitas I've seen yet. Rather than using deep, dramatic colors, Wonner chose to use softer colors to invite us in, and allows the light to fill the room rather than focus on one focal point coming from above (as the earlier versions have to symbolize the presence of God). Vanity is still present with the use of a mirror, and a palette of makeup next to the skull, yet the more simple use of these symbols lets the painting be understood by a wider audience. It is not riches and excessive knowledge that Wonner wants us to see within ourselves, but the obsession with beauty. Makeup and a mirror to adorn ourselves, with a little pink flower; beauty.

Wonner was an impressionistic painter, yet this painting is much closer to realistic than most of his other works. You can see, even in a photograph of the painting, that the brush strokes are heavy and deliberate, yet the entire painting comes together as a whole without the need for much questioning. Ok, I'll admit, I'm guessing that the palette on the table is makeup, however given the other visual ques, I think it's a fair guess. We can see through the mirror that the sky is blue, and the room is flooded with light. The skull is peaceful looking as opposed to jagged and piercing as the skulls in the more traditional vanitas paintings are, and the door in the background is ajar as if to tell is that all are welcome here. In death comes judgement, we cannot escape this no matter how beautiful we are, yet it might not be so bad after all.