"WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER." PLEASE ACT NOW FOR ACTION NOW:KENYA

[Guest]

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[Jill]

Welcome Naomi,

While I know there’s a chance that KivaFriends may understandably be feeling a bit of either “Kenya-fundraising fatigue” or just fundraising fatigue, in general, ** I still was really glad to see that you decided to start a thread here about your project for what may be my favorite of all of Kiva’s  Field Partners, Action Now: Kenya.   I also was really pleased, though not surprised, to see that a number of my fellow old dogs  from our sweetly connected Mark Agwonah days have already jumped onto this thread to voice their encouragement—they, along with our caring “younger pup,” Tatiana. 


Endeavors like this represent some of what I feel is the dearest and the best of Kiva and KivaFriends.  For me, the slogan that Irene and her staff chose for their t-shirt project, “We are better together” expresses not only the hopefulness I feel for the various Kenyan tribes being able to come together, but also articulates my feeling about the Kiva and KivaFriend communities, themselves.  To be my standard effusive, over-the-top self, I suppose it also sums up my hope and my feeling about the entire world community.


Now this, sort of a side-track, sort of not.   About the t-shirt component of your project…..

Diane and I, who have been graced to remain in contact with ANK’s Irene Kamau, first learned and fell in love with the idea of their proposed t-shirt project some time ago.  It may not be very realistic, but as an offshoot and expansion of their project, I’ve been fantasizing about the possibility of KivaFriends creating, selling and distributing a similar t-shirt, partly because the slogan is so great, and partly with the idea of perhaps raising more money, either for Kiva or for ANK or for both.

I don’t want to hijack this thread, so if anyone wants to comment on this most likely, pretty crazy idea, it might be worth starting a new thread,
but my preliminary design for our imaginary t-shirt would have it:

1)   Be in fashionable and slimming-making black (black being beautiful as we all know -- smile).
2)   Have the words, “We Are Better Together” be in big letters on the front
3)   Have “Kiva.org in solidarity with Action Now: Kenya” or something like that be somewhere on the t-shirt, in much smaller letters, both to 
         credit and show solidarity with ANK and also to advertise Kiva and give all of us prospective fashionable t-shirt wearers an opening for
         telling more people about Kiva.

      Well, that’s all for now.  Thank you, again, Naomi, for doing this.  There are a whole bunch of us here who will be hoping for the terrific success of your project.  And having that May 11th Mother’s Day double-our-money deadline you wrote about hopefully will help you reach your goal all the faster.

Best,
Jill


** Or, perhaps more aptly, many may well be suffering from EPBS, or from “Empty Piggy Bank Syndrome”, largely due to their earlier demonstrations of generosity.

[naomi]

Hey all. 

I've been in touch with Givemeaning and they have explained that the logistics of protecting the integrity of Givemeaning only allows them to send money directly to AN:K...they can't even send it to me, the founder of this fundraising project. It shows their commitment to providing the funds to exactly whom they were donated to. So, although I really, really appreciate the offer from Diane, I think it will be easiest if the funds are wired directly into AN:K's account. The fee is minimal and I will personally take care of it.

As promised in an earlier post, I'm posting a couple of photos from my time with Action Now: Kenya.

The first one is a photo of an entrepreneur I had the great opportunity to meet in the Kibera slums of Nairobi. I love this photo because although she lives under some of the most desperate circumstances, she looks like the happiest woman in the world. At that particular moment, she had just received her loan of $30USD from AN:K (too small to be a Kiva loan) to buy gasoline to sell to slum dwellers who have no other way of having energy in their homes. She was so excited to get the loan because not only could she make enough profit to buy more gasoline, make even more profit, and therefore put more money in her own pockets to feed her family, she was able to help her neighbors to have some light in their homes at night too.

The second and third photos are of myself and Irene when we were doing client visits in the township of Mlolongo. The t-shirt Irene is wearing is worn by all AN:K staff when they are visiting clients. The prominent AN:K logo is all the advertising they need! It prompts others who know current clients to start asking questions about if a loan would be right for them. Just walking through a poverty stricken area wearing those t-shirts creates a buzz, and if nothing else, gets people talking about microfinance. Although I haven't received the photos of the "WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER T-SHIRTS", I assume that the front will look similar to this...but let's wait for the photos to see for ourselves. And as Jill said, that slogan says so much in just a few words!

On another note, Thanks to Robert and Jill for showing an interest in supporting AN:K through supporting even just the idea of this fundraising project! I'm new to the Kiva Friends circle but I can feel the love already!

Kindly,
Naomi

[wind5001]

Thank you, Naomi, for sharing so kindly with us!

In a way, I am pleased that Givemeaning is not giving the funds away to even the initiator. It shows their strong commitment to really get the money to the place it has been intended for.

Jill: I like the idea of creating and selling a T-shirt of our own and would be wearing it in an instant to support AN:K and promote Kiva. You echo my feeling when you write that this is probably Kiva's MFI that is closest to your heart. As you all know, I will not be able to participate much in creating these shirts, though...

[Tatiana]

(black being beautiful as we all know -- smile)

Totally off-topic, but at least it bumps up the topic again, so new people might found out about this wonderful action for AN:K:

De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, an old church which is only used these days for very interesting exhibitions and royal weddings, will organize an exhibition with the title Black is Beautiful.

From their website:




Black is beautiful


In the summer of 2008 the Nieuwe Kerk will present a journey of discovery though the history of art. For the first time the attractiveness of the black person in the art of the Low Countries will receive attention. Many great masters turn out to have portrayed black people. The fascination with them will be illustrated in about 135 paintings, drawings and manuscripts from collections here and abroad. Black is beautiful presents a remarkable oil study by Rubens, an intimate drawing and etching by Rembrandt, paintings by Jordaens, Mostaert, Breitner, Jan Sluijters, Karl Appel and Marlene Dumas, and beautifully illustrated manuscripts from the late Middle Ages such as the famous Van Maerlant manuscript.

Together these works give an idea of the changing role of black people in Dutch art and culture. They show that for seven centuries black people have been part of Dutch art and history, in which they play an ever more important role. Striking images and new insights take us from the year 1300, via the great masters of the seventeenth century, to contemporary art. Iris Kensmil has made twelve memorial paintings especially for this exhibition; they pay homage to her predecessors in black emancipation. They will be temporarily added to the architecture of the imposing Nieuwe Kerk.


The exhibition is divided into three main sections: the Old World, the New World and the Modern World. These sections are further divided into subjects such as The black king, Strong men, Strong women, Africa and the Africans, (South) America and the slaves and Portraits.

For the first time Black is Beautiful presents a broad and coherent view of the beauty of black people in seven centuries of art in the Low Countries. The exhibition, which fills a gap in the study of Dutch art, is the result of years of research by guest curator Esther Schreuder and has been realised by the Nieuwe Kerk thanks to contributions from the VSBfonds, the Mondriaan Stichting and the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunsten. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with international contributions in a Dutch an English edition which was made possible by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Not likely that any of you will be in the neighbourhood, but I still wanted to share....

[wind5001]

*Note:  I absolutely shamelessly selected ANK not simply because they offer some of the most comprehensive and effective loan descriptions we get to read.  But also, perhaps transparently, I was hoping I might give a bit of a bump, like Tatiana the other day, to Kiva Fellow, now KF Naomi’s ANK project   where the amount raised has not changed for at least three and a half days, no matter how many times I go there to check….

That was Jill, a few minutes ago...and I have to agree. I know that KFs have been extremely supportive lately, especially moneywise and understand that there is a limit to it all. Still, I had hoped there might be some money trickling in at least once in a while...maybe $5 or $10. AN:K has been exemplary in describing the loans, in providing journal updates (sometimes several per borrower!), also in informing and clearing up what happened after the riots. They do an outstanding job! I'm just hoping we can help them a bit more...

[Tatiana]

I am so happy to see more and more generous Kivafriends appearing at http://www.givemeaning.com/project/actionnowkenya


(I made my small donation anonymously, the first day Naomi posted the project here. I usually don't like it so much when donations are completely out in the open. But it gives me great joy to see the Kivafriends appearing there. I am telling you now because it feels a bit uncomfortable somehow to keep promoting this project if it seems like I didn't take the trouble to donate myself)

[Jill]

      Since, not being real bright, I am up at 3:42 in the morning, my time, just fooling around, I thought the least I could do was return to this thread to thank Naomi for the wonderful pictures she posted here, the other day, that somewhat strangely to me, no one has commented upon.
That first picture, especially when you click on it and have it fill your entire screen, contains a face with a smile that's worth a million bucks, it's so open and contagious.  And then, having the opportunity, for me it was the first time, to attach a face to the name and reality of that wonder woman most of us know, simply, as "Irene," well that was a special present.

     Also wanted to comment on Tatiana's "Black is Beautiful" church exhibition post, also above.  I thought it was very special and curiosity-arousing as I wouldn't have thought that there would be all that many blacks in Amsterdam (not because I would have any real educated idea in the world--this represents but one of the near infinite number of gaps in my knowledge).

     Anyway, thanks to both of you for adorning, further, this thread.

[naomi]

Thanks again to everyone who has been so supportive of the fundraising effort for Action Now: Kenya! The donations are trickling in and we are very excited about the projects Irene and the team at AN:K will be able provide with these funds. Hopefully we will reach our fundraising goal of $5000 by May 11th, the date one donor has promised to double whatever funds have been raised!!!

Check out this website to see the progress we've made in fundraising for AN:K:

http://www.givemeaning.com/project/actionnowkenya


I've also got two more photos for Kiva Friends to see the living conditions of many of AN:K's clients before the post-election violence. Many of these homes and businesses were burnt or looted, leaving the families with little to nothing upon which to survive. The photos I've attached here were both taken in the Kibera slums. In the first one, you can see Grace, an AN:K outreach worker. Her role is to recruit clients in Kibera, follow-up with them after they have received their loan, and support/encourage them with their business and loan repayments. Grace also lives in the slums and uses the small commission she gets from AN:K to help support her family. This is more proof of AN:K's commitment to sustainable livelihoods - building communities from the ground up. AN:K's outreach workers are not only earning income, they are also empowered and have become leaders within their communities. 

Naomi

[wind5001]

OMYG, I had not seen such close up photos of the Kibera slums...they look horrible and devastating. Naomi, thank you so much for your work there and for making us aware once again how much there is to be done. I so much hope we can reach the $5000 by May 11th! Let's not loose hope. People here are very kind and I still think with trickling money we can achieve it!!

[KivanSteven]

Deplorable...ashaming that we allow others to live, and die, in such conditions.