Archive for the ‘Poverty’ Category

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Millionaire Moves To Ugandan Mud Hut

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Successful British businessman Jon Pedley is leaving behind a life of luxury to move to Uganda and start a charity.

  • A self-made tycoon, Pedley experienced many setbacks in life – a criminal record, struggles with alcoholism, and a serious car crash that left him in a coma for 6 weeks.
  • Inspired by a friend who works in Uganda, Pedley is selling real estate and businesses to fund his new charity, Uganda Vision.
  • Uganda Vision connects troubled British youth to children in Uganda who are struggling with AIDS and poverty.

Facts and Figures

  • The 41 year old is selling his 16th-century farmhouse to move to a mud hut in Uganda.
  • Pedley is also selling Empowered Communications and Eme Tech to raise funds.
  • After fully recovering from his car accident, he gave up alcohol and found religion.

Best Quote

“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.” – Jon Pedley

TILE Announcement: World Water Week!

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Today is the first day of World Water Week, and our friends over at charity: water have just launched UNSHAKEN – a new campaign to support clean water efforts in Haiti. All donations will go to one of eleven projects currently underway in the devastated country. Check out this great video they made:

Unshaken – charity: water’s campaign for Haiti from charity: water on Vimeo.

If a bank won’t lend to someone, why would you?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

For a long time, banks and economists thought that the millions of poor people who now use microfinance services simply couldn’t afford loans, and they were right. They couldn’t afford the relatively large loans that banks offer to people in the developed world because even the lowest interest payments on a big loan would be way too expensive for them to make. It wasn’t economical for banks to lend small amounts of money to people who were far away from traditional bank branches and had a limited history of borrowing.

However, as many microfinance institutions have discovered in the last few decades, many of these people can afford a slightly different kind of loan: a microloan. Thus there are nonprofits and for-profit micro financiance institutions (MFIs) that realize it can be profitable to service the otherwise “unbanked” community.  Microfinance is self-sustaining when it attracts new kinds of investors who realize the potential and power in reaching the many more millions of people who desperately need, and want, access to financial services.
While individuals, companies, and governments are beginning to see the potential size and impact of the market, there are still plenty of people that really can’t afford a loan and, for the most part, they don’t receive any. Many different organizations – mainly charities and governments – offer other types of services that don’t charge any interest so that eventually these people might be able to afford microfinance services.

With the support of charitable organizations and everyone who donates to them, microfinance institutions and banks everywhere will be making lots more loans to people who can now afford them.

A Developing Country is…

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

A developing country in general is a country that has low levels of industrialization and low standards of living. While there is no universally accepted means of determining the dividing line between a developing and developed country, statistical measurements like standard of living, GDP per capita, life expectancy, industrialization, and literacy rate among others all help determine a country’s classification. That being said, not all developing countries are the same. Some have relatively high standards of living, but low life expectancy rates while others are the complete opposite.

When is a pig better than cash?

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

For many of the poorest people around the world, holding onto cash is just as difficult as getting their hands on it in the first place. For one thing, lacking food or basic necessities, there are immediate needs that cash will go to right away. Nothing is invested, which makes it harder for a person to make more money and eventually, escape from poverty. Too many hungry children or parents in desperate need of medicine siphon off cash as soon as it appears, trapped in an endless cycle of poverty.

For this reason, many microfinance and poverty-alleviation institutions are making loans of durable goods like pigs, bicycles, or refrigerators rather than cash. These are called in-kind loans. It’s much harder to give away pieces of a pig (until it’s eventually butchered of course), so it tends to last longer – hopefully long enough to grow from a small, inexpensive piglet to a fat hog that will fetch a good price at the market and allow its owner to repay the loan and, hopefully, reinvest the profit.

This isn’t to say that cash loans don’t help – they can save lives – but it’s also important that the people receiving the loan know how and are able to turn that cash into a durable asset that will reap greater returns and profit in the long term.

Doing Homework With No Home

Monday, October 5th, 2009

The federal government tried to look out for homeless students by requiring certain allowances be made to keep them in school. But in a bad economy, who should foot the bill for this crucial assistance?

  • In the wake of the recession, the number of homeless children enrolled in public schools has surged. The trickle-down effects of layoffs and foreclosures have begun to strain the resources of public school districts as they struggle to keep kids enrolled while their families deal with financial ruin.
  • Federal law requires that a special liaison to the homeless be appointed in every school district. In addition, districts must immediately place any student that enrolls without requiring proof of residence, and they must allow students to remain enrolled at the same school even when their families are forced to move.
  • Assistance can include special car or bus services and even special administrative positions created just to manage the school-related obstacles transient children face. Some of the cost of these services is absorbed by grants and federal aid, but still they present budget issues which are sometimes visited upon local taxpayers.

Facts & Figures

  • Since 2007, according to the Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, the number of homeless children seems to have increased by 75-100% in many school districts.
  • In the 2006-2007 school year, there were 679,000 homeless students reported. In spring of 2009, there were more than 1 million.
  • A school district in San Antonio saw the number of homeless students double this year to 1,000 in the first two weeks of school alone.

Best Quote

“We see 8-year-olds telling Mom not to worry, don’t cry.” – Bill Murdock, Chief Executive of Eblen-Kimmel Charities

U.S. Poverty Rate Rises As Incomes Drop

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Poverty isn’t just an international problem. The recent economic downturn has highlighted a deepening domestic struggle to stay afloat.

  • The U.S. Census Bureau revealed statistics showing that the blight of poverty is spreading throughout the country, especially in the Western and Midwestern states.
  • Many of the newly impoverished Americans are children, even as two-worker households are increasingly seeking assistance in the form of food stamps.
  • Areas with the greatest increase in poverty rate are the same areas that have seen many jobs and wages disappear in the recession.

Facts & Figures

  • For 2008 data collection purposes, a family of four with two children is considered to be below the poverty line when they earn less than a total of $22,000 a year.
  • In 2008, the poverty rate increased in 31 states; 2007 saw an increase in only 10 states. Only Michigan saw its poverty rate increase in both 2007 and 2008.
  • The national rate of poverty is 13.2%, but the highest rate in the country can be found in Mississippi (21.2%), followed by Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arkansas (at about 17% each).

Best Quote

“There are lots of people who are using food stamps for the first time, because they don’t have any other options.” – Mark Mather, Demographer at the Population Reference Bureau

Do people pay back microloans?

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Microloans are not simply charitable donations, but actual investments or business arrangements where there is some risk involved. Unlike regular loans though, the people who take out microloans usually can’t offer any typical type of collateral – something like a house or car that the bank could seize if the person defaulted on the loan. What motivates people to pay back microloans is a combination of a desire for a better life and, frequently, a commitment to other people in a lending group. For example, many micro-lenders are a part of a group that commits to paying back the loan. This means that if one person “defaults” the rest of the people in the group are responsible for covering their share. Not only does the borrower make a commitment to the institution lending the money, but also their friends or family. Talk about peer pressure!

Paying back a microloan means more than just fulfilling an obligation – it’s the honor of keeping your word and could mean a successful entrepreneurial venture and more money in the home. That may be why the payback rate is so high for microloans – there is actually a lower default rate for microloans than there is for student loans in the U.S.!  If you think it’s acceptable to take a “chance’ on an American student’s college education, then helping a man or woman provide for a family might be a no-brainer.

What is microfinance?

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Microfinance is a way of providing financial services like savings accounts, loans, and insurance to poor people around the world. It is aimed at people who may not qualify for typical financial services because they have limited resources or there are no financial institutions where they live.

By not being able to access financial services that are available to most everyone in more developed countries, these people have little means of improving themselves and their society. The goal of microfinance is to break this cycle of poverty by empowering people who have great ideas, no matter how poor, with the tools and resources to achieve them.

A Poverty Cause is…

Monday, August 10th, 2009

A Poverty Cause is any organization that works with the TILE community to improve the lives of the billions around the world – and here in the United States – who suffer under the crushing weight of poverty. Poverty is a complicated issue, therefore, Poverty Causes address a variety of poverty-related dimensions from access to clean water, education, and providing loans to help the poor start small businesses.

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