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Africa Aid & UCSD Partner to Design Micro-Lending Initiative
Updated: June 23, 2008
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Africa Aid is partnering with the International Relations / Pacific Studies (IR/PS) program at UC San Diego to develop its new Micro-Lending Initiative. The University classroom-designed program will provide small loans to African men and women who would not otherwise have the available capital to break the economic shackles of poverty. The Micro-Lending Initiative will not only empower poverty-stricken Africans by giving them access to credit, but will also provide training in business development, personal finance, and basic accounting. Summer Starr, a current IR/PS student earning her Master of Pacific International Affairs, will be traveling to Ghana and Liberia with Africa Aid in July to begin assessments for the project.
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The instructor for the course, Craig McIntosh, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics, loans his expertise from prior experience with micro-lending in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and throughout Latin America. He has also conducted research for large microfinance institutions such as FINCA. Under McIntosh's direction, are looking forward to seeing our first micro-lending program launch successfully.
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Related Links:
- Support women cooks by purchasing a portion of the project
- Find out more about Africa Aid's Project Aya
- Find out how you can get involved with Africa Aid
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American Communities
Business students and professors at American universities offer their industry expertise and
economic analysis to collectives of African entrepreneurs, leading to self-sustainable African
business. In addition, Africa Aid gives African artisans and craftspeople an expanded market
here in the US.
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African Communities
Through job training, business training, and microlending programs that help fund small business
startups, Africa Aid gives Africans the opportunity to earn a living wage and achieve financial
independence. Empowerment through employment allows Africans to make their own economic decisions,
from providing
health care and clean drinking
water to offering proper
schooling.
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Africa Aid Creates Jobs for Refugee Mothers in Buduburam
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Africa Aid promotes the ideals of women's economic empowerment by encouraging the participation
of women in all our programs. In areas where women have limited economic, social, and political
authority, Africa Aid gives women the opportunity to improve their own standing within a community
through the dignity of work. Africa Aid desires to provide the means for women to empower themselves
and take action to improve their own social, economic, and political condition.
Within the
School Lunch and Educational Enhancement Program, Africa Aid
has hired mothers of the participant children as cooks in the Africa Aid school lunch kitchen. By doing
so, Africa Aid ensures a fair living wage for underserved women within the
Buduburam community as well has a high level of
health quality
standards in the food served to the school children.
Related Links:
- Find out more about Africa Aid's Project Aya
- Find out how to get involved with Africa Aid
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Refugee women prepare meals for children enrolled in the School Lunch Program in Buduburam.
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Africa Aid is a proud partner of Bridge for Africa, an organization that works with African
artisan groups to design, create, and market unique handmade African items. Artisans are paid
a living wage for their work, while additional proceeds and results from our fundraising efforts
are reinvested in community development, training, and job creation in the region. Africa Aid
worked with Bridge for Africa to expand the market for artisans in the
Buduburam Settlement in Ghana. In addition, Bridge for
Africa provided goods for Africa Aid's Art Twogether art auction, with proceeds directly
benefiting programs in Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Ghana.
Visit their website at www.bridgeforafrica.org
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