What this is all about?

Grameen means "rural" or "village" in Bangla, so literally this translates to 'Stories from the Village.' I travelled to Bangladesh in 2010 and did an Internship with the Grameen Bank and was amazed by the people there especially in its rural villages. The 'desh' and its people are an inspiration and will always have a special place in my heart.

Since then, I continually see how important villages are, be it in rural Bangladesh, or in urban core neighbourhoods in Canada. A strong village is what brings people together and welcomes newcomers and supports those in need. Villages are what I fight for and this blog is how I do it.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

January Activities!

January has been a busy month and it is not over yet! I just got a great lesson on time management in one of my classes though, so I should get more organised! I'm trying to set aside time each week for this (although right now I am in my "Thesis Time").

Couple things: I have found microcredit even in London, Ontario!! The farmers' market where I am doing my thesis (on the economic impact that the market has on the surrounding community) is trying to set up, with the local Business Improvement Association, a economic development corporation which can be used to help provide vendors at the market with a loan to open full blown stores / expand their businesses!

I am now the President of the Western Microcredit Society (WMS), since our wonderful president for the last year and a half left us to go on exchange to Hong Kong! However the club is still moving forward I think under my leadership. =) We will soon have a page about us on Opportunity International's (OI) website under YAO (Young Ambassadors for Opportunity), and OIConnect site will be set up in a week or two to promote our events.

The WMS also has 5-6 interested students in the internship that I did last year to the Grameen Bank, our problem has been that the trip is very expensive, ~$3,500! However, Jannalee from Opportunity came into talk to us yesterday and gave us her great presentation about what OI does and how microfinance works. She had the great idea to look for companies to donate aeroplane points to pay for the flights! Soooo my charge for everyone is to ask if anyone wants to donate aeroplan points, or knows of good businesses to approach. It takes 130,000 points to get to Bangladesh and back x 5-6 people!

Cheers,
Mike

No comments:

Post a Comment