I want to give up my birthday for something more meaningful to me…to people that I have met that need it more than I need a drink or coffee or shiny-sparkly-thinga-majiggy.

I’d ask that you either 1) give me a uend giftcard -or- 2) sign-up for U:Powered ($5/month) by clicking the UPowered button on our homepage (and yes, you can edit the amount from within the cart itself) Literally $5 or $10 makes a HUGE impact…I could tell you stories!

This is especially alive to me right now while i am here in Sierra Leone…ranked 3rd lowest in the world on the Human Development Index (HDI)…and I type on a device that is 4 times their GDP, and realistically 60 times what most make in a year. I am visiting CAUSE Canada’s great projects here in and around Kabala. Humbling to see people work so very hard while asking so little of the world.

Next I am off to visit Liberia and the Rotary International / Foundation For Women-Liberia micro-credit projects.

Although it would be cool if you bought me a giftcard or signed up for UPowered…what I really hope for is that you would consider doing the same thing for YOUR birthdays too…maybe join our monthly birthday campaigns on the UEnd site…and encourage your friends to do the same. I am convinced that poverty will not end unless all of us think and act a little differently…so I’m starting with you, my friends.

I’m also convinced that extreme poverty will end in my lifetime…because all of us will do just a little bit…just a little bit.

My vision is hundreds of thousands of little fires starting around the world. Fires in the developed world looks like people like you refocusing our birthday, christmas, and wedding gifts to worthwhile projects that help end poverty - even just 1 out of 20 gifts would do the trick! Fires in the developing world looks like projects defined by the community members and funded partially by us and partially by the community…empowering them to define and solve their own problems.

Thanks for reading. Thank you much!
Love you all.
…Jay

This situation continues to blight the lives of large numbers of people today. One sixth of the world’s population (1.1 billion people) remain without access to improved sources of water, and two fifths (2.4 billion people) lack hygienic sanitation. The exposure to disease this causes contributes to 2.2 million children dying every year. But improved sanitation, safe hygiene practices and clean water can make the world a safer and healthier place for all its children. ”

Read the balance of the article for an eloquent and well stated case for water and sanitation and its role on poverty reduction.

It is really very simply, text UPOW to 45678 to send a monthly $5.00 donation to UEnd for operations or text 45678 to UEND to send a single donation of $5.00 to a project.

This is made possible through a partnership with Zipgive and mobilegiving.ca.

So next time you buy a coffee, but one for us and help to end poverty.

OneYoga is joining forces with the Yoga in the Park event this year moving to a summer and outdoor location.

Event details this year:
August 8, 2010
Stanley Park, Calgary, AB
9:30 registration, 10:08 practice start, 108 minutes of yoga
fee: by donation
proceeds to go to the project called Cleaner Hands Healthier Children by Cause Canada.

So tell all your friends. Join the tribe of people helping to end poverty by giving your time and attention to this great karma yoga event.

Please not that parking is somewhat limited so we encourage you to either bicycle, walk, take transit or walk from the 4th St Lululemon store as part of the Peace Walk. Go to our OneYoga in the Park page for more information.

This project is the Dheri Development Education and Empowerment Project. Please go to the link for more information knowing this is a great example of the principles that we support in all of our projects. The following excerpt explains the community development approach exceedingly well.

“The Base Module Program is the key development component for bringing the village of Dheri out of extreme poverty in a sustainable way. It guides and trains the villagers to develop their own solutions to build a future where they can live in relative prosperity, peace and harmony with nature.

Care is taken to ensure that a maximum number of people own the vision and are engaged in its implementation. Through this process, the entire community is equipped with the motivation, skills, knowledge, and resources to create change which is real, equitable and lasting.”

The skills are developed in a local context, with local leadership, ownership and development. The solution is the peoples’ and will always be theirs allowing the skills to stay in the community. What makes the CD approach so effective is the confidence to use the same process to handle future community challenges that results from having experienced it once before. From UEnd’s perspective this is the only way to responsibly spend your gifts.

The General mapping process follows the following steps:
First, you determine what the issue is. Document this in the communities words. You will find a wide view here that can guide the community for some time to come.
Second, determine who is effected by the problem.
Third, invite these people to come together to talk about the problem. Document the group’s thoughts, in their words and ask what they want to do about the problem. Determine the priority for the group.
Fourth, invite other community members to the group that may be able to contribute to a solution.
Bring everyone together to see if they can brainstorm a solution. Again, document the group’s thoughts, in their words and solutions. Ask how they might to contribute to the solution.
Fifth, ask who wants to take the lead on the project. Determine what support they might need to help them achieve their goal. Ask others how they can help with the project.
Sixth, help them to achieve their goals by assisting but never doing the work, that way they have experienced the process first hand.
Seventh, celebrate the successful outcome and make sure the community members know who did it.
Finally, debrief and review the stages the group went through to achieve their outcomes. Ensure they realize that the same process can be used in 99% of all cases that come up.

Phase 2 comes in when the momentum continues and another issue often identified in the initial brainstorming session is addressed.

It is a dynamic process and never really sleeps.

Why you ask? It is all about how the work is undertaken.
Community Development when done the UEnd way… means:
- that we always work alongside the people living in the situation, we are not the experts, we have skills as much as the community has skills
- to encourage the people find their own solution, one that works for them within their context
- comes from a place of capacity building not deficits- coming in knowing that the people can solve it with perhaps some small assistance is a vastly different perspective than coming in an fixing a problem for them
- to view the community as a system with interdependent parts, to send a child to school may not be the only solution- one needs to understand why they are not sent to school to truly address the problem
- the end result is the people in the community own it, understand it and have gone through the process of problem solving themselves thus embedding those skills in the community structure for future use.

There are people that feel this process should form the foundation of any good leadership strategy. The end goal of a tangible deliverable is often a necessary thing- something that one can see, feel and touch but the process of getting there is where the true power lies. The journey lies in overcoming the challenges, the network building, the meeting of your neighbors and finding commonalities, the problem solving, working together to come up with a tailor-made solution, the use of innate skills within your team, the resourcing (human and product) that comes from unexpected places, people stepping up, the small wins, the team building, the success of achievement and the celebration of it all, the realization that no one but you and the community members did what you did and no one, NO ONE can take that away from you. This journey makes everyone personally and communally stronger.

To sum it up the project is effective becuase it belongs to the people and it is sustainable because the people themselves rose to the occasion to solve the problem.

They own it and rightfully so.

That is correct, text giving has come to UEnd.

So what are you waiting for…
Text UEND to 45678 as often as you want to give one $5.00 gift to a UEnd project that ends poverty.

-OR-
Text UPOW to 45678 for a monthly $5.00 gift to the operations budget for UEnd that helps us help you in your poverty ending efforts.

So start texting- do it once a week for the UEND option or just once or twice for UPOW.

Tell your friends too. Those living in poverty thank you!

Go to mobilegiving.ca for terms.

For this post, I will provide you with all sorts of links for you to read more on Community Development and its role in eracing poverty.

Blogs:
Mike Chitty Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in the Community

Powerpoints:
Community Development Principles in action powerpoint from a government perspective
Horizons Community Development powerpoint
Understanding Community Development Presentation

Websites of Organizations:
Community Development Organization
Maaori Community Development Links
Simon Fraser’s Centre for Sustainable Community Development

Books:
Community Development: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
Introduction to Social Work
Sustainable Community Development

Enjoy!