Did you notice the new link at the top of the page?
a) what link?
b) yes, and I already clicked
c) not interested
d) I never do web surveys …
Anyways, if you are still wondering what this post is about … look up at the title bar and there, somewhere right of ‘About Mark’, lies the new addition – ‘Take the Survey’. Click it and you will be brought to a short 10 question survey.
If the image of missionary as doctor may have too much little black baggage attached, perhaps the new metaphor for understanding mission is one of a participant in the scene. A participant in the creation of community.
The students gathered in the dusty schoolroom. Classes had been let out an hour beforehand, but several classes of children gathered in curiosity to see the strangers and to play their games.
This was Kabala, northern Sierra Leone in 2005, HIV was on the rise in the community, and this stigma reduction program was intended to open communication over the taboo of AIDS.
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Often when we attempt to engage in International Relief and Development work, we cannot help but enter with our own unconscious cultural blinders and biases. Even with the absolute best of intentions, it is highly unlikely that an amateur STM participant can avoid some certain mindsets when it comes to personal participation.
I was a part of an ERDO seminar in Toronto a few weeks ago working to illustrate the above point through a fun interactive exercise I did with the group. Check it out!
check out others at the podcast page.
My friend Lynn in South Africa just sent me this article from “the Globe and Mail” (I think). Very interesting development in the world of development …
For those who may be unfamiliar with Mohammed Yunus, he developed the Grameen (bank of the village) in Bangladesh in the 70’s. After obtaining his degree in Economics in a US university, he had moved back to his native Bangladesh to work with the government on billion dollar policy and five-year plans. Walking through a local village one day, he was struck by the discrepancy between his work and the realities of poverty in the community. After some investigation he realized the the grand total to relieve a couple of dozen people from an uneding cycle of poverty was about $40 … and that is when he made a chaoice that has made all of the difference. Rather than simple charity, he loaned the money out to this percieved ‘high-risk’ credit-starved group, at interest. They repaid.
Today, the bank that he began with that simple step, has billions of dollars in asset and has refused donations since the mid-90’s. Men and mostly women who take advantage of the loans have personally experienced a dramatic reduction in child mortality rates, improved housing as Grameen standard homes stand against huricanes, definite improvement due to personal economic choice and possibility. The rate of loan return is at 98.15%.
Yunus and the Grameen organization co-shared the Nobel prize a couple of years ago … evidentally they had their sights set on the poor in America as well …
here is the article …
Yunus sees big answers in microcredit
TAVIA GRANT
June 11, 2008
Muhammad Yunus, banker to the poor and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, believes the best way to bring microfinance to the developed world lies in the heart of the banking world – New York City.
Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank opened its doors in Queens six months ago, distributing start-up business loans of $500 (U.S.) to $3,500 to women, many of them low-income Latin American immigrants. It’s early days, but repayment rates so far are 100 per cent and the number of clients has grown to 225 from 165.
The concept is simple – give those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to affordable credit a chance to start small businesses such as, in New York, child care or beauty salons. Groups of borrowers meet weekly and make regular repayments. The concept has mushroomed throughout the developing world, but is relatively untried in richer nations.
“New York is the world capital of banking, but it doesn’t do banking for its nearest neighbours – those who live under the shadow of the skyscrapers,” Mr. Yunus said in a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail.
My friend Bob is back online, check out his blog in my blogroll on the right.
Master Theoloigan and great friend.
A while back I had posted on the sub-$100 laptop in development, the intention was to develop a technology that would be useful and cheap enough to provide computer resources throughout Africa, enabling development. Although I have not heard much about the machines in recent date … There are groups of people developing the free software to power the machines.
Ubuntu is one of these software groups.
The word Ubuntu comes from an Bantu (Southern African) language roughly meaning ‘belonging to the whole’. Nelson Mandella better explains the philosophy of the Ubuntu as follows;
A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not address themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you be able to improve?
Now, not quite as articulate as Mandella (but who is), the Ubuntu website says … Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.
Now I am not sure what a Linux-based system is … although I think it has something to do with the stability of the background ’surface’ on which the programs are built … but the rest of the stuff makes sense. Free browsers, free software to write documents (IE Word), and figure out numbers (IE excel) … plus all the esoteric stuff like ftp clients and torrent downloaders …
Interesting how this material is being developed for free, with regular updates, and fixes … brilliant!
check out the Ubuntu site here
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