Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a liftime...




That is the motto of the new group just launched today! The motto is taken from a Chinese proverb that says: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Think about that proverb for a minute. How easy is it for us to see someone in need and want to fix the problem? If they need clothes, we scour our homes looking for items to give to goodwill, or we buy them new clothes. If they are hungry, we give them a bite to eat. All of these kind deeds are helpful to the person at the time you give it to them. However, what happens tomorrow when they are hungry again?

Why not give them a way to feed themselves? Why not teach them a skill that will provide them with income throughout their lifetime. A skill that they can pass on to their children and their children's children. It's value can not be measured!

We have been doing this already, you know? We have fully funded 10 income generating projects in less than 8 months. These families who received donations to start their businesses are now selling clothes, food, toys, bed sheets, and more! What a sense of accomplishment the parents must feel to be able to provide for their families using the businesses we provided for them.

ABOUT THE NEW GROUP

The new group is called "Miracles in Caring" (MIC). As we watch this group grow, you will be able to see just how your caring makes miracles happen for the families involved. This is a hands on IGP for us. We will be able to see the business grow and get feedback from the families being helped.

The first group business being started is for a group of mothers in Kampala, Uganda. We have close to 20 mothers that are already participating in this business, and hopefully, we will be able to bring on even more families in the near future. I have all of the details about these mothers on the web-site, so I won't go into too many details here. Instead, I will let you check out the web-site for more details. I do want to tell you that the pictures above show you some of the items that have already been made, and are ready to be shipped to the US.

What I will tell you is that just like our other IGP's, we have got to raise some funds to get this one off the ground. Right now we need $300. The $300 will go to shipping the hand-made East African products from Uganda to the US. Once in the US, the products will be sold on the Miracles in Caring web-site and 100% of the profits will go to the women who made the items in Uganda. Once we have it all up and running, there will be a constant stream of products coming into the US & being sold. Therefore, the women will be able to continually provide food and other necessities to their children over the course of their lives.

These women are in desperate need of money to buy food now. The sooner we can raise the money needed to ship the goods, the sooner their children get food in their bellies. I have considered that in addition to the $300 for shipping, we, also, provide them with $50 to $100 towards the products they have already made (before we have time to sell them). This way, they will have some money now, and once the items sell, they will have more money (but they won't have to wait so long to eat).

Here is my proposal for the IGP:
$300 ships 20 kilos of product to the US from Uganda
$100 pays for part of the goods- in order for them to feed their families now
Total: $400
Imagine! Our other 10 IGP fundraisers needed any where from $200 to $500 to get them started. This IGP only needs $400, and benefits close to 20 families (with more families being added in the near future)!! I can not think of money more well spent than that!

There is a paypal donation button on the web-site. Make your donation through that button, so that it can be clearly noted as to what it is for. I hope to be able to raise the funds needed by Thursday or Friday, as the families are in desperate need. Thank you for your support of our new group! I can't wait to see how this business changes the lives of these families!
**One final note, if you prefer to make a "Kiva"-type loan to the group instead of a donation, send me an e-mail for details.

4 comments:

dana said...

wow, you are branching out with alot of sticks in the fire!

helpingthechildrenofafrica said...

Do you know what you might charge for the dolls? Are all the women part of CU?

Heather M said...

I should have some prices by the end of the week. The biggest thing right now is just getting the items here. Not all of the women are part of CU. I will have bios and photos to post soon!

Mack said...

We are going to have to find ways to make the general public aware of this website so we aren't the only people buying Ugandan handicrafts. We need to convince rappers to give up their gold chains in favor of more traditional "bling"!

Mack