Social Business Investment

For those of you who have not heard of "Social Business" it comes to us from The Banker To The Poor - Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Muhammad Yunus. He extablished the first experiments with micro-credit which evolved into Grameen Bank.

His latest book is: Creating a world without poverty - How Social Business can transform our lives.

The Social Businesses described are like traditional for-profit businesses except that instead of all of the profits going into the pockets of the investors, the profits help the humanitarian cause for which the business was established. Depending on the agreement with the investors, they may continue ownership of the enterprise or they may be repaid thier investment with appropriate interest. Some investors will, for the sake of the humanitarian cause agree to taking no profit, others may still need one or two percent to meet the needs of their board of directors or shareholders.

The businesses in the Orphan Communities are being established as Social Businesses. You can see the various businesses that make up the Funding Activities that in turn pay for the Childcare Activities of the community at: www.orphancommunities.org.

You can contact the organization to discuss your interest in investing in any particular business.

Language proficiency critical in older cross-cultural adoption

A lesson learned: Language proficiency is critical when adopting an older child who speaks a different first language.

When first agreeing to a volunteer trip to help a private orphanage in Mexico, I had no initial thought of repeating the experience, let alone of adopting any of the children we met. I did however yield to the opportunities for several repeat visits until, when the death of one of the owners of the orphanage meant it was about to be closed, my hardcore objectivity and control melted me into a pool of blubbering emotion.

Having gotten to know the 120 children, it was heartbreaking to see them being redistributed to other orphanages throughout the state, or being placed with known relatives (who in some cases were not even able to support themselves, let alone the children now being placed with them). While I was vulnerable, the older of two brothers whom I had learned to care about over the last year, approached me with the request that I adopt them. Making a very long story short, after checking into the legalities, I moved to Mexico, brought my mother along to be grandmother to the children and we started the adoption process.

We think the boys were 11 and 13 when we started the process (birthdates had been arbitrarily assigned by the orphanage). They were born somewhere in rural area of Colima, Mexico and had spent the last 8 years in the orphanage.

The new adopting father came from middle class white USA and was still learning Spanish.

Over the next few years, I found the adoption of my two sons to be the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.

While there were certainly differences to be explored, we never had any serious cultural issues, perhaps in part to my having lived in the Southwest and have a high comfort level with Hispanic culture. When, 6 years into our lives together we moved to the USA, we chose a spot with high Hispanic population so the boys would feel more comfortable.

Was there anything that did not “go right”? Yes, and this is my suggestion for any situation where there is a cross cultural, different language adoption of an older child.

While my proficiency in Spanish is about 80%, the empty feeling I have is that I was not able to have the close, personal, important life conversations that are needed between a father and adolescent sons. It is difficult enough when both speak the same language with 100% proficiency. But when the opportunity presents itself for close, subtle communication it will quickly break down if the adolescent senses your lack of clear understanding of the language of the adolescent, and there is no retrieving the moment, that communication moment is lost forever.

While my sons, now 27 and 29, have turned out wonderful (biased father speaking) and I would not trade the experience of them for anything, nor do I regret anything about the adoption process, that communication emptiness will always be with me. My inability to have been there for them to talk meaningfully about their adolescent needs and dreams haunts me to this day.

There is however, a positive outcome that is coming at that cost in my relationship with my sons. My sons have taught me to see the differences between children raised in orphanages vs. those raised in a family. The result of this is the new project to create self-sustaining communities in developing countries where orphans are raised in family groups with surrogate parents and grandparents from that same culture. This will at least do away with any cross-cultural or language issues while raising the children since they will be staying in their own country. To learn more about this project, visit our website at: http://www.orphancommunities.org/.

If you are adopting an older child who speaks a language different than your primary language, will you be able to be there for them with full understanding?

45,000 people dying a month in Congo

This article appeared January 22, 2008

Makes me wonder if anyone cares.....

-----------------------------------------------------------
45,000 people dying a month in Congo
By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer
DAKAR, Senegal - Some 45,000 people die each month in Congo as the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis has failed to improve despite five years of relative peace in the Central African nation, according to a report released Tuesday.

A Challenge to Social & Business Networks: Which helps most, is most Charitable?

There are now hundreds of on-line social and business networks around the world vying for our attention.

When we look at just the networks that each have a minimum of one-million members, combined, they have over a billion members. The question that may be asked is, “What good are they doing?”

Many people join just for the social interaction, many as job seekers and many just to share ideas.

We may also wonder however, do Social & Business Networks have a Social Conscious? Do they purposefully do good things for our world and those in need? Do they, via their members, really help when presented with an opportunity to do so? If so, then we wonder, which Network can prove itself to be the most responsive, the most charitable?

This is the question that is the subject of the Proving People Care project.

The Test Subject being used for this Challenge is the 501-c-3 charity, Our Family Orphan Communities, Inc., and their humanitarian project Ethanol & Orphans/Disabled Children.

This project, now underway in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam will do all of this and more:
· Improving the environment by providing ethanol instead of petrochemical fuels
· Caring for street orphans by providing homes and families for them
· Assistance for disabled children to learn skills to be self-sufficient
· Providing medical treatment for those who cannot afford it
· Reducing the HIV/AIDS epidemic with current treatments
· Helping third-world economies to improve with tax income and employment
· Providing better education to the disadvantaged including scholarships
· Ensuring food supply for citizens by not using grain to make ethanol
· And more

The way they are doing this is by building a cellulose ethanol refinery that will use sugarcane, create 500 jobs, help the environment, and using the profits to:
· build a Self-sustaining Community where street orphans are raised in families with surrogate parents and grandparents,
· provide more care for disabled children who are still today being born with birth defects caused by the Agent Orange used in war during the 60’s and 70’s.
· build a medical clinic to provide treatment for those unable to afford it.
· All the details of this project are at: www.orphancommunities.org


What do you think? Which Network will provide the most assistance for this project?

Would you tell other people in your network about this project? Would you help?

You can compare your Network to others, and find out who does the most to help by going to www.provingpeoplecare.com/3

Why are people (you?) indifferent to thousands of children dying daily?

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is
not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them;
that is the essence of inhumanity.”
—-from The Devil’s Disciple by George Bernard Shaw

Vietnam Vice President Appreciates Ethanol & Orphan/Disabled Children Project

In our recent meeting with Vietnam Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan in Ha Noi, executive director Bob Miller had the opportunity to discuss the Ethanol & Orphan / Disabled Children Project being started in Vietnam.

She expressed her appreciation for how this project will help the disabled and disadvantaged children of Vietnam - estimated at over 3 million.
The project is currently looking for the funding needed to do the engineering, environmental and feasibility studies.

For complete details of how this project will use the profits from the ethanol refinery to help humanitarian projects, see the website for Our Family Orphan Communities, Inc. = http://www.orphancommunities.org/

Agent Orange continues its Devastation

Our partner organization, the Vietnam Aid Society for Disabled Children, helps those who are still being born today with birth defects, to become self-sufficient.

Here, helping children to gain computer skills, even if they have to use their foot to move the mouse.

The profits that will come from the ethanol refinery will provide more assistance to more children.
www.orphancommunities.org