November 11, 2011

9 Noviembre 2011 take three


My host mother and president of "Women Farmers"

I am looking for a microgrant.
This isn’t a micro lending situation, because it isn’t going to generate money. But, I thought someone might be interested in supporting an already successful club here in town.

Mujeres Campesinas (women farmers) is a group I work with often. It is pretty much just a club of women. They help each other when planting and harvesting, they dance in the festivals together, they volunteer in town even cleaning the streets from time to time. But, in my opinion, the most important thing that they do is run the soup kitchen. They receive food (rice, oil, and lentels) from the government, and they rotate 5 days a week cooking it in a little adobe hut they built. This food is sold at about 1.50 soles a plate (less than $1) and most often serves elderly, orphans, and the disabled. The money earned goes to buying potatoes, carrots, onions and other things the women grow to add flavor to the dishes.

The president of Mujeres Campesinas (my host mom) asked me if I could help find funding to buy the women uniforms because they want to play in a soccer tournament. “Then,” she said “we could use those same shirts to look official when we are working in the kitchen.”
As we were pricing the shirts we found where they could be made with their logo for only about $3 a piece. With 8 women, that is only a $24 donation.
“Is there anything else the club or soup kitchen needs?”
“plates, we lost some plates”
Having seen the women eating their rice with their fingers I asked, “What about spoons? Could you use some spoons?”
“Oh yes! And cups!”
“Ok, I will see if we can get those too. Are you ladies ok with pots?”
“We have two large ones, but we do need a medium one.”

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen. When crunching the numbers I found that we could get them more than what they need to get by for a few years for about $100.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in making a donation to Mujeres Campesinos. I am not going to go through all the PC hoops because it is such a small amount. I am going to throw in $25 to make sure they get their uniforms before the tournament in December, but would greatly appreciate help on the other $75.

Sorry for the plug.

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