A Woman's Investment: A Web 2.0 Fundraising Campaign to Support Women Entreprenuers in Philippines

Beth Kanter — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:42:42 -0500

"When a woman invests, the effort will bear fruit and sustain others."

Jasmin Tragasa, who lives in Australia, is managing consultant and social media advocate at IBM with a background in new media and design. She invited me to contribute one sentence for a social media fundraising project she's leading to support female entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

She's asking women around the world to contribute a sentence, just one sentence, on the theme of "A Women's Investment." Some of the contributors so far:

Anita Pahor, Women’s Opportunity Director, Australia
Kieran Cannistra, Innovation Editor IBM, USA
Cindy Lenferna de la Motte, Director at Fashion Collaborative, Australia
Amy Palko, Less Ordinary, Scotland
Suzanne Male, Publisher, Smink Works Books, Australia
Silvia Guccione, Director, Pomodoro Italian Cooking School, Australia
Michelle Zamora, AP SOA Marketing Leader, IBM, Australia
Nina Simosko, Global Chief Operating Officer, SAP Education USA
Lindy McKeown, eLearning Consultant, Australia
Renee Wolforth, Attorney, Washington, USA
Bonnie McEwan Owner, Make Waves: Impact Marketing for Nonprofits USA
Debbe Kennedy, Founder, President, and CEO Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, USA http://www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com Phaedra Boinidiris, CEO, WomenGamers.Com USA
Joanna Young, Confident Writing, writing coach, Scotland
Janette Toral, digitalfilipino.com Australia/Philippines
Linda Griffin Founder ClearWind LLC, USA
Sacha Chua, Philippines and Canada

She is going to create slide show featuring all the sentences that people have contributed and use that to support her fundraising campaign. (You can see an example of a slideshare (and some early contributions) here.) She is hoping to raise $10,000 for a group of female entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

The money Jasmin will raised will be used to help 15 to 30 entrepreneurial poor (mainly women) to form a Trust Bank. They will co-guarantee each other’s loans to start small businesses and support their families, working together so that all may succeed in their individual businesses. The Trust Bank is established in a community where over half the residents are living below the national poverty line (typically $1-2 a day.)

In addition to the loan, the money raised will also provide enterprise development services, including training in business and management skills, social and community issues such as health, sanitation and community participation - and personal development. The members will meet each week to make their repayments, discuss issues relevant to their businesses and personal lives, and receive business training and mentoring.

Now, like other contributors, all I need is a sentence and a visual. So, simple a request, yet difficult. I flipped through my flickr images and settled on this basket of apples from last year. It symbolizes the harvest, the fruit of hard work. So, here is my sentence:"When a woman invests, the effort will bear fruit and sustain others."

If you'd like to contribute, write a post with a sentence linking back to this post and leave a comment for Jasmin. You have until October 31st to participate.

Beth Kanter, BlogHer Editor for Social Change and Nonprofits, writes Beth's Blog.

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A Woman's Investment: A Web 2.0 Fundraising Campaign to Support Women Entreprenuers in Philippines