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January 2007 |
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Leadership Beyond Business |
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Youth Microcredit International (YMCI) Visits Guatemala - Register Now for Next Trip 15-19 March!
If you have children ages 13-17, YMCI's visit to Guatemala on 15-19 March 2007 is a perfect trip for them to be exposed to microcredit and the developing world.
22 WPO and YPO members, spouses and youth visited Guatemala with YMCI 26-30 December. Highlights of their visit included working with microentrepreneurs and witnessing the power of microcredit, visiting remote villages, installing ONIL stoves in Guatemalan homes and meeting with handicraft producers.
YMCI trips aim to introduce
WPO and YPO families to microcredit as a sustainable
tool to fighting poverty. WPO and YPO youth will learn about lending and credit
while becoming aware of the challenges of the poor. The trip involves visits
to microentrepreneurs in remote villages, witnessing micro-loans and also
seeing how products, aimed at improving people's quality of life, can be
financed through microcredit. This experience will strengthen your child's
perception of helping the poor and will fuel their leadership capabilities.
When returning home, YMCI members have the opportunity to form microcredit
clubs in their schools or to join existing ones.
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Microfinance Forum Members Meet at Microcredit Summit Campaign in Halifax, Lead Important Microfinance Initiatives
22 members of the very active Microfinance Forum attended the sixth Microfinance Forum meeting held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in conjunction with the 2006 Microcredit Summit Campaign chaired by Mr. Sam Daley-Harris. A forum dinner was held on Friday November 10, with a full day forum meeting the following day. As VIP registrants, members attended the 2006 Microcredit Summit Campaign meeting which took place November 12 to 14, featuring the newest Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Dr. Yunus’ award has brought a new level of attention to microfinance and its significant role in the alleviation of poverty. The Microcredit Summit Campaign is the world’s most significant microfinance conference, and the roster of participants was a “Who’s Who” of work in the sector.
The founding members of the
WPO/YPO Microfinance Forum, Steven and Elizabeth
Funk and Dick Simon, were featured as speakers at the conference. Since the
last Summit meeting, major strides have taken place in the world of
microfinance, such as a $100M securitized issue by Morgan Stanley, the
closing of an $80M fund by Deutsche Bank, and an unprecedented growth in
both new and existing microfinance institutions. |
Bridging the Gap in US-Arab Relations: The Issues, The Questions and What YOU Can Do! - Register Now!
The American-Arab
Action Forum has organized a series of discussions for WPO and YPO members and/or
spouses that will focus on expanding your understanding of the underlying
issues that have created the dangerous, and widening gap between the US and
Arab countries.
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US Department of Interior Invites WPOers and YPOers to Engage in the National Parks Parent-Child Program
A parent-child program is being
convened for WPOers and YPOers by US Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne at
the request of President Bush to engage WPOers and YPOers in planning for the
National Park Service. The National Park Service is seeking to better engage
our children in the National Parks utilizing technology, both during visits
and on an outreach basis, and to develop a strategy for maintaining and
improving facilities. Children's Health Action Forum Plans a Visit to Kenya, January 2007
Village Partnership Action Forum and Economic Development Network to Meet in London, 1-3 March 2007
Please save these dates and plan to be in London, England to attend a
meeting of the Village Partnership Action Forum and Economic Development
Network. We are starting with dinner at 7pm on March 1 and are ending at 4pm
on March 3.
Please contact Frieder Krups (f.krups@jnet.dk) or Ken Tsunoda (ktsunoda@pannetwork.org) for more information.
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On
Thursday January 11, 2007, resources including WPO and YPO members from the
US, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia will come together to
share their perspectives on the roles that religious understanding,
education, governance, US foreign policy, and the media are playing in this
area. Resource experts on US-Arab affairs from The Pentagon, The Cordoba
Initiative, The Council on Foreign Relations, National Defense University,
Al Arabia News, MSNBC, Newsweek and The New York Times will also be present
to share their perspectives.
At a meeting of the Children's
Health Action Forum held last month in Boston, members of the forum agreed
to partner with International Medical Corps (www.imcworldwide.org) in Kenya
by using its resources and leveraging the network to benefit a specific
initiative in Kibera, one of the largest urban slums on the African
continent. The focus will be on two major issues: malaria prevention and
nutrition/prenatal care. Malaria continues to be the largest killer of
children in Kibera.
The
aim is to get as many of us, members of the Forum and those of the wider WPO/YPO
memberships, who are interested in Third World Development together to
connect with each other, share our personal vision and experience, learn, be
inspired and identify opportunities where we can benefit from working more
closely with each other to ‘move the needle’ and make a difference. We will
also be inviting a couple of top resources like Percy Barnevik whose focus
is on ‘bottom-up-development’, to share their experience with us.