Calvert Foundation

What
• Calvert Foundation seeks to blend financial and social returns through Community Investment.
• Calvert offers innovative financial products and services that channel flexible, affordable capital to underserved communities.
– Calvert Community Investment Notes allow investors to dedicate a portion of their investment portfolio to social investing
• Investor can choose note amount, term, and return rate from 0-3%
– 15% of investors choose 0%
• Investors also select a geography and use for investment (ie., international microcredit, US housing, social enterprises, etc)
• Investment is pooled and placed in a professionally managed portfolio of affordable loans to over 200 leading nonprofit organizations and social enterprises working in over 100 countries
• Calvert investments focus on affordable housing, microcredit, small business funding, developing community facilities, and social innovations

Where
• Use of investment capital in 2006:
– 32% International microfinance
– 29% Community development financial institutions
– 20% Affordable housing
– 19% Other

Giving and Learning More
• For more information see: http://www.calvertfoundation.org/

What is the What?

Thought I'd throw out a recommendation for a book I just finished reading: 'What is the What' by Dave Eggers. The book is a novelized history of one of the Sudanese Lost Boys, Valentino Achak Deng. It is suppossedly true except certain details that Valentino was unable to remember.

The so-called Lost Boys refers to a large group of Sudanese boys who were orphaned or separated from their families during Sudan's civil war, largely in the late 1980's and 1990's. Most walked hundreds of miles across Sudan to a refugee camp in Pinyudo, Ethiopia, and later, Kakuma, Kenya. Their struggles, the horrors they witnessed, and their mass resettlement to the United States is covered through Valentino's experiences in 'What is the What.'

I found the book to be eye opening and a valuable source of context on the foundational problems confronting Sudan today. Furthermore, I found the insights into the day-to-day lives of refugees- their struggles, boredom, reactions to aid workers, relationships with their fellow refugees, etc.- to be capitivating. Definitely worth the read.

Also, all proceeds from book sales go to support The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which aims to support Sudanese immigrants to the U.S. and to rebuild Southern Sudan.

Charity Anywhere

A friend from work, Ben Siebach, recently took a trip to Tijuana, Mexico with his family to build houses for needy families. The trip was coordinated by Charity Anywhere (www.charityanywhere.org), based in Twin Falls, ID. They focus on building housing for poor residents of Tijuana, Mexico and dental and medical missions to Haiti, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico. I thought Ben's trip was particularly interesting given its appropriateness for kids (he brought kids ages 10, 12, and 14). It's also relatively cheap compared to other expedition-type experiences available through other charities. Here's a brief overview from Ben.

Itinerary

• Wednesday – drive from Alpine, UT to San Diego CA (7 families; ~40 people)
• Thursday – cross the border, establish base camp at clinic, travel to two worksites, bought lunch at a street taco stand and building materials at a hardware store. Spent the rest of the day building an outhouse and digging a pit for the outhouse. (Took tools with us.) The outhouse was a refinement to the house built in June for an elderly lady. Played some soccer with neighborhood kids. Gave them the soccer ball. Dinner that night at the LDS coordinator’s house.
• Friday – Sheetrock, tape and mud a kitchen built on Family #2’s house. Other families installed cabinets, painted, stucco’ed, roofed, investigated plumbing options, etc. Lunch paid for with our funds but prepared by the family being served. Dinner that night at the LDS coordinator’s house.
• Saturday – Painted interior rooms of family #3’s house. Other families continued at family #2’s house. Lunch provided by the family. Dinner at a street taco stand. Bonfire on a Tijuana beach.
• Sunday – cross the border and drive home (11 or so hours, after you cross the border).

Cost and Accommodations

• Each of the seven volunteer families donated $600. This money paid for auto insurance, two lunches and two dinners and for building supplies. Each family additionally paid for our own fuel, snacks, breakfast, and other miscellaneous expenses. Some building supplies were donated by individuals and companies here in the US. We hauled a trailer down with those materials.
• We stayed in a Catholic Free Clinic. The upper floor of the building is unused and consists of a chapel, a large multi-purpose room with kitchen, and several typical hospital rooms with private bathrooms. Accommodating and clean. Cold-water showers. Each family took one room and camped there. Sleeping bags / mats / cots, etc.

Pros

• An extremely rewarding experience. My family had seen extensive poverty and suffering, but we had never taken the opportunity to serve. My kids (14,12,10) were able to make real and significant contributions to relieve suffering. They now identify with some less-fortunate individuals in a loving and caring way.
• No one got sick.
• A quote from a 10-year old. “Dad, I want to do this every year for vacation.”

Cons

• A large group to coordinate – not quite enough work for all the helping hands. With some better preparation, more could be accomplished. Volunteer leaders and volunteer workers don’t always mean efficiency.
  

Africa's Poverty Trap

I'm just starting to read The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and so Little Good by William Easterly. I'll probably give a more detailed overview when I'm done, but it's essentially a full-fledged bash of the "poverty trap" and Jeffrey Sachs' assertion that extreme poverty can only be overcome through 3rd-party aid. However, I found an oped piece Easterly wrote for the Wall Street Journal recently that presents some of his key criticisms I thought I'd pass along now. Here's the link: http://www.nyu.edu/fas/institute/dri/Easterly/File/AfricasPovertyTrap_WSJ032307.pdf.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of our Time

I'm a sucker for catchy book titles. That's the reason I had to read Why Do Men Have Nipples and definitely a reason I was drawn to The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time even though it's written by Jeffrey Sachs and has a foreword by the esteemed economist, Bono. Aside from the title alone, I'd recommend everyone read this book for some other reasons- here's what you'll get:


The Good

• A thorough portrait of poverty in the world today, with 1/6th of humanity living on <$1 per day. Some facts: 8K children die each day from malaria, 7.5K people die each day from AIDS, and 5K people die each day from tuberculosis.
• An overview of the relatively new phenomenon of economic growth. Discussion of how growth got started and why it was most pronounced in Great Britain.
• Insights into solutions for what is needed to end poverty. Sachs highlights the "Big 5" of 1) agricultural inputs (fertilizer, small-scale irrigation, improved seeds), 2) investments in basic health (antimalarial bed nets, antimalarial medicines, HIV/AIDS treatment), 3) investments in education (primary and vocational education), 4) power, transport, and communications services (electricity, village truck, mobile phones), and 5) safe drinking water and sanitation.
• Data supporting the notion that these "Big 5" needs can be tackled at a reasonable cost.
• Inspiration from Sachs lack of patience and insistence that something be done now.

The Bad

• A feeling that you can't do anything to help. He builds the problem and necessity of a solution up, then says your efforts don't matter. Maybe this is true, but it's disheartening. Sachs' subscribes to the philosophy of the "poverty trap." Simply put, some people/countries are too poor to save and invest in capital goods, which are necessary to grow. They need all they have to survive; therefore, they don't save and remain in the same improverished state. In order to emerge from this trap, all parts of the "Big 5" must be attached jointly and aggressively, requiring the resources of rich governments.
• An excuse for not helping. Sachs asserts that .7% of rich country GNP needs to be donated to poor countries to break the poverty trap. This, he says, is the responsibility of our governments and rich taxpayers. Middle-class American need not worry about giving their own money, just about ensuring politicians get some from the rich.
• A blind spot to free markets. Sachs asserts that the only way to break the poverty trap is for central coordination of individual country poverty reduction plans. These plans will be developed and administered by the United Nations and the individual countries. Never mind that this is not how any other country in the world's history has embarked on the path to growth, this is now what is necessary.
• Some very left wing political rhetoric on multiple subjects such as the war in Iraq

Well, I let myself get a little more negative than I anticipated on "The Bad." I stick with my original comment that the book is still worth a read. I provides great color and history; unfortunately, I'm not really bought in to the proposed solution.

How Much To Give?

I appreciate Peter Sturgeon passing along this quote from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.

"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little….There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures exclude them."

United Way: Welcome Baby

One of Ashlee's friends, Melanie Hall, passed along this idea for helping new mothers in Utah County. Since most of you live in the area, I thought I'd pass this along (hope you don't mind Melanie.)

"Regarding opportunities to give time to help kids and families... The United Way of Utah County has started a program where experienced mothers visit first-time mothers once a month for a year after their baby is born. It's basically like visiting teaching on a county level and focused on teaching mothers who may not have much other support about taking care of and raising a child during their first year. http://www.unitedwayuc.org/welcomebaby/

The program is in desperate need of experienced moms to volunteer for this. I think I'm going to go through their next training and give it a shot."