Welcome!

Hello all!

Welcome to the BLS Microloans blogspot! Here you will find all the information, updates, and discussions.

Here is a brief overview of this group.

Our Missions:

- Give out small, individual loans to people in impoverished regions

- Help them start their own businesses and help them grow

- Keep in contact with a micro-lending group, and contribute to solving their problems as their process slowly but surely pulls them out of poverty.

We are part of the MicroLoan Foundation:

- For more information, visit www.microloanfoundation.org.uk

- A London-based charity established in 2002

- Key aim: enable families to become self-sufficient by financing and helping them to launch small business projects

- Provides microfinance services in Malawi, Zambia and the Philippines

How Does This Work?

- We fundraise money through fun and meaningful events and donate the money to the MicroLoan Foundation as a “sponsor.” (Please share any ideas!)

- The MicroLoan Foundation will then send the money to people in need, mostly groups of women entrepreneurs in Malawi in Sub-Saharan Africa.

- As a sponsor, we receive email updates and track repayments online. When a loan is repaid it is recycled into new ventures, so the money that we raise can go on working for years to come.

Club/Fundraising Ideas

- Selling beads (a huge success last year; raised $1200) - we can buy beads from Project Hope (www.projecthavehope.org, has a branch in Malden) and sell them in school or public places in Boston; any leftover can be returned to Project Hope

- Bake sales at school (already approved! Thanks Faith!)

- Connect with Stand in Harmony and Invisible Children

- Dance Parties?

- (… Your Ideas!)

Discussions at Club Meetings

- Time: Once every other week (Mondays? Tuesdays?)

- Recruiting

- Movie (educational/moving) Times

- Guest speakers (arrangements made with other organizations)

- Interesting lectures on microfinance or finance in general

- Fundraising Events