So now you've read (and hopefully understood?) what microfinancing and Kiva is. But you're asking, so? What does that have to do with Pow Wow? Well, I touched upon it lightly in the past post that modern microfinancing was created to empower women, and that giving a woman a microloan is changing her life and her community's life forever. But other than how important it is for us to empower our sisters, Kiva is also just a great cause and a great way to step up as a leader and raise awareness about poverty and the difference we can make!
What is Kiva U and how can I get involved? Kiva U was created a little over a month ago and is an innovative education initiative movement run by students and educators to raise awareness about microfinancing, Kiva, and how to battle poverty. These people create and join teams on the Kiva U community so they can get connected with others and get access to different tools/resources, raise awareness, and raise money to lend under their team's name! Kiva U is built by our generation who have decided to step us as leaders because we care about whats going on in the world and how we can make our difference! As the rising generation to step up, we have a duty to the rest of the world to help others out and make whatever differences we can! I urge you to go to Kiva U and check out how you can make a team at your school and start making an impact today! If you don't know how to make a change in the world, this is a tangible way to get out there and start building a better future for the world one microfinance club at a time. How to get started: 1. Join or create a Kiva U team here, 2. Use Kiva toolkits to start a microfinance club at your school! Here is a video further explaining Kiva U. What does PowWow Have to Do With It? About a month ago, Alexis and I interviewed Jessica Hansen (read more about it here!), the educational manager at Kiva. She was such an amazingly friendly and passionate woman that we couldn't bear the idea of not working with Kiva more! Jessica invited us to the first ever Kiva U Summit (which took place this weekend from Oct. 11th-14th) and we grabbed the opportunity! This weekend has been absolutely amazing, Alexis and I were enveloped into the passion of every single person attending the Summit as we all worked towards our common goal of alleviating poverty. Joining forces with 140 other passionate souls, we listened to speaker after speaker and attended workshop after workshop. We learned about Kiva, microfinancing, poverty, and much more. We enjoyed the city of San Francisco and made loads of new friends from across the country (plus a cool new Canadian friend!). We created goals and ideas to raise awareness about Kiva and bounced off of one another's energy. A fun, inspiring weekend filled with amazing speakers and participants, workshops and talks, African dancing and singing (you can find a video here), a Borrower Bazaar (People who got loans from Kiva came to the Summit to sell their stuff and meet us!), and much more! We learned how much these microloans empower women and make a difference in their communities, as well as generally alleviate their poverty and help them break the cycle of poverty! In general, the experience was amazing and we learned so much. Getting men and women around the world out of poverty will help empower everyone, and once everyone feels empowered, new doors can open up for women! In the grand scale of things, poverty is a huge reason of gender inequality around the world and by helping alleviate it, PowWow is helping empower women worldwide for a better future! Alexis and I have left feeling so inspired and grateful to have such an opportunity and we can't wait to bring it to you! We hope you join us in this journey of fighting poverty so our brothers and sisters around the world can live better lives and so women worldwide live in better circumstances. Loaning $25 today is investing in a better future of equality for all! And so, speaking of bringing Kiva U to you, Alexis and I have an announcement! We've just created a Kiva U lending team for Powerful Women, so go join and start loaning! -- Shanzay Kazmi If you go to our school, chances are you've heard of the term microfinancing and have heard at least one teacher raving about Kiva at some point. But for those of you who don't necessarily know about the sheer amazingness that is microfinancing and Kiva, we'll break it down for you right here. What is microfinancing? "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (Chinese Proverb) Well at Kiva they say, what if someone knows how to fish, but needs a net? Those living in poverty often times don't get the financial services they need and are unable to make savings accounts or get the loans they may need. Without a savings account or knowledge of the basics of finances these people aren't able to properly save money. They may hide the money to keep it safe or buy assets they can sell (animals, gold, etc.). But, those aren't stable ways of saving money since there are millions of different things that could happen to those savings (your animal gets sick, someone steals your money, a natural disaster, etc.) To get out of the cycle of poverty by creating a business or funding your child's education, you need to have the resources and money to do it. Microfinancing provides small loans and basic financial services to the poor to these people to get their projects started. Over time, they repay the person as their business kicks off or their child finishes his/her education. Modern microfinance came when a man named Dr. Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh loaned money to a group of women and they were able to fund their businesses and break the cycle of poverty. Microfinancing a woman is microfinancing her village because she hires other women to work for her, pays for her child's education, and works for the betterment of her family and community. Today about 160 million people living in poverty around the world are getting microloans. What is Kiva? Kiva connects millions of people (they have one million+ lenders and one million+ borrowers!) together to alleviate poverty. Its the world's first and largest micro-lending website so anyone with an internet connection and just $25 can change the life of someone across the world (or in America, wherever you want to spend your money). Kiva is currently in 72 different countries so you can sit in your desk in California and loan a woman in Ukraine $25 so she can buy a cow -> sell milk and cream to her community -> create a business -> properly save her money and become financial savvy -> pay off her loan while keeping her business going -> send her children to school and support her family -> empower her community. See the difference $25 (aka just one shirt at the mall for you or a trip to the grocery store) can make on a person's life? And in the end they repay you and you can either take those $25 back or recycle it and lend to someone else! Its super simple to start on it, and you can even make your first $25 loan for free here. The simple proces: 1. Choose a borrower, 2. Make a loan, 3. Get repaid, 4. Repeat! Check out Kiva's site here! -- Shanzay Kazmi Hey guys we're here for a lovely weekend in San Francisco to attend the Kiva U Summit. We plan to vlog and blog as much as our schedule permits, so keep an eye open for that. Wish us luck! Sitting in my bed after a long day out, I can't say that living in California doesn't have its perks. Today I got the amazing opportunity to go to the Bay Area's local Stanford campus and listen to Debora Spar, the President of Barnard College, speak about her new book 'Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection". Arriving a little late after countlessly circling Stanford's parking lot in a last minute attempt at finding a parking spot, I arrived to a room filled with at least 200 people sitting on the edge of their seats to listen to Mrs. Spar. Though it was mostly filled with women, I was pleased to notice the 20 or so men who were cool enough to make it out and listen to her discuss her new book. Mrs. Spar related her experiences in an extremely interesting way, making sure to make us laugh at her jokes, gasp in outrage over this story, and forcing us to think as she discussed her point of view on feminism. Mrs. Spar grew up after the feminist movement of the 1960s and spent most of her life avoiding the idea of feminism, thinking feminists too radical and unneccessary with the battle already won. However, as she grew older and gained experience as an aspiring careerwoman, mother of three, and previous proffessor at Harvard, she realized the simple truth that women are still not equal to men because of the "triple whammy", that is, the need to be the perfect careerwoman, mother, and wife. President Spar discusses feminism and the unattainable ideal of perfection in our society today in a fresh new outlook on feminism by writing a book that:
I would reccommend reading her book and doing some more research about her (for example this is one of many interviews) if you're interested in Powerful Women (see what I did there?) today. -- Shanzay Kazmi If you haven't checked out Stacey Ferreira's TedxTak you should definitely do so! The talk describes her experience creating the company and giving advice to young euntrepeneurs out there! Check out our interview with her here! --
Shanzay Kazmi Feminism doesn’t mean giving up on love or hating men (Or not shaving your legs). It's about the liberation of the woman! It means having confidence in yourself without criticism. It’s about being happy on your own and then being able to contribute to that happiness with the addition of love into your life, but being alright if that love goes away for a while. It’s all about the Self Reliance, as Ralph Waldo Emerson would put it. We've got to look into ourselves for the answers. We have to find strength and independence in ourselves before we venture into others. Being a feminist doesn’t mean giving up on love... Accepting love into your life is not only a feminist, but a human thing to do.
--- Alexis Ajluni |