Give Where Help Is Needed
Women in Kenya are using solar cookers and have started small businesses selling them to other women. The cookers enable them to harness solar power to purify water as well as to cook food. Their use makes clean water available to more families and eliminates the need to burn wood, which is a scarce resource. A donation of $150 trains and provides follow-up for a village group and $30 trains one family in solar cooking.
Women in Malawi are building small businesses and providing for their children through small business loans from what the women “Banki Yanga” My Bank, which serves only the poorest women. One woman, Dorothy Kanjautso received a $70 loan to buy play mats and games for her small nursery school. This amount enabled her to build a primary school in her village for 200 children. In addition, she has taken three AIDS orphans into her home, and charges no tuition to other AIDS orphans.
Many of the women who receive the loans are community leaders. They also meet regularly for support and sharing ideas. Loan repayment rates average 98%, allowing funds to be loaned out to others who continue the process of lending hope. Just $86 provides the average first loan to a Malawi woman, and 15 provides one share of a micro-loan.
Alternative Gifts International works with over 100 agencies with excellent track records. AGI allocates 90% of funds received to cooperating agencies, with just 10% used for administrative and fund-raising expenses. Other projects range from planting trees in Haiti to providing medical aid in Dafur. For more information, see www.alternativegifts.org/