Stop Mining on Sacred Ground.

I just signed a petition to ask Barrick Gold to stop illegally mining on Shoshone lands. The petitions is to let the Western Shoshone peoples know they have strong support among concerned citizen around the world. They are going to bring it to Barrick's annual stockholder meeting in Toronto on May 2nd. HEY - YOU, get off their land.

National Museum of the American Indian

Today I renewed my membership in the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. I am a founding member, and gave funds to have it built. Its a pretty cool place.

I have also been working on the Agents of Change LA event for June 6th for Kiva. Plans are coming along great. This will be a bit of a feat, throwing together a fundraiser in a month without a budget. Everything has to be donated. I hope we raise a lot of money, I think they are going to need help getting to their Million Dollar goal.

Cure Autism Now Walk - We walked it!

I went on the Cure Autism Now walk today, with Team Tury for Brendan. It was fun. We had to walk farther than last year. There seemed to be more booths, which is exciting. They raised over 1.1 million by the beginning, which beats the record from last year.

I have know CAN since its inception, so its exciting to see it grow.

My favorite shirt 'keep autism weird'. I got Kiva gift certificates for my sponsors, but I don't want to give them to them now because there are so few loans at Kiva and almost all of them are to Azerbaijan.

Fair Trade products from 10, 000 Villages

Went shopping today to 10,000 villages and found a bunch of shiny things to buy. Our purchases include cards from Bangladesh and the Philippines, incense set from India, a beautiful bowl from Uganda, a tray from Bangladesh, a cinnamon carved container from Cambodia, and a pan flute from Peru.
And chocolate. Which is almost already gone.

Many become one. To end poverty in our lifetime.

I joined this a while back, and have been surprised at all the places I keep seeing it. Its a movement. Take part here .

Cure Autism Now walk

I sent out email today asking a few people to support me this Saturday for the Cure Autism Now walk. This will be the second year I'm doing it. I walking with some friends. I once got a CAN research grant, so its good to help out.

You can sponsor me here.

Someone joined me today on Maharram Shukurov loan. He's up to $50. Will the rate be one a day?

New Kiva Country: Cote D'Ivoire

Today I lent to 'TANTI CECILE' AKISSI CECILE in Anono , Cote D'Ivoire. She wants to buy a refrigerator/freezer for her fish business. She's a dynamic women and has other loans that she has repaid. I presume Tanti means Aunt, the official french word for aunt is Tante.

So I'm still the only one bidding on Maharram Shukurov and he's on page 6 of 'old to new' loans.

Azerbaijan

I just made a loan to Maharram Shukurov from Beylagan , Azerbaijan, for his Fruits and vegetables. He's already paid back 4 loans so he's not really a risk.

But he's from Azerbaijan, and that's not very unique at Kiva. I found this loan a few pages in to the new loans, but noone else had bid yet. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to fund.

Solar tax credits

I just sent letters to my congress people (Barbra, Dianne and Adam) asking them to support The Securing America's Energy Independence Act (S. 590, H.R. 550). This legislation will extend the solar tax credits and give people more incentive to go solar and develop technologies. Thanks to Solar Nation and the Co-op American Newsletter for getting me involved.

Reviewing grant proposals for the NIH

I did a quick telephone study section this morning, where I participated in reviewing 3 proposals for the National Institute of Health. The way science is funded is that scientists (from universities, centers, etc) write grant proposals and send them to the NIH. NIH has study sections that review these proposals and assign a priority score, which basically ranks the proposals. There are thousands of reviewers each study section, as each proposal gets read by at least 3 people. After the proposals are ranked the individual institutions within NIH (e.g. NIMH-National Institute of Mental Health, NCI- National Cancer Institute, NIA - National Institute on Aging) looks at the appropriate proposals and funds them based on the monies given to them by congress.
Reviewing for the NIH is an awesome responsibility and I am always honored to be asked.

You can search the CRISP database for all of NIH current and past proposals. Don't bother looking me up (yet), I haven't got my proposal funded (yet).

Oxfam, Agents of Change LA

I renewed my membership in Oxfam today. I first got involved in College, my first year I sort of majored in 'Oxfam' and 'Amnesty'. As well as Vegetarian and SCA, all of which I still do. I guess its more than a phase.

We had our first meeting of Agents of Change-LA where we are planning the June 6th event. Hi Kelly!

If you're going to be a tailor, you need a good sewing machine. So today I lent to Eliseo Alarcón Reyes from García, Nuevo León , Mexico so he can update his machine. He has recently gone into business for himself. And now, thanks to Kiva, he'll have access to credit.

Nuevo León is a north eastern state of Mexico, its one over from the Gulf and has a little tip that borders the US. I'm studying Mexican geography so I can at least identify some of the states, and Kiva is helping. Hm, I should get a Mexico map!

Kiva YouTube Videos and Talkshoe

I made my first youtube video. Click here to see it. Its about Kiva of course. I also did my first talkshoe show with Randulo. Its here, under 'Make the World Better in 15 minutes'. I think we took 19.

We discussed Kiva and Kiva friends, Agents of Change.ca, Anysoldier.com, Playful pancake cat toys, and GiveMeaning.com and the project I'm helping with. It was fun, and quite interesting for me to hear myself. I actually can hear my Canadian accent.

Loan to Julia Nancy in Ecuador, how can I resist?

I was scanning the Kiva loans and came across a loan to Julia Nancy Leyton in Guayaquil , Ecuador. She runs Señora Nancy Store and wants to expand her product and eventually move to another location. Its a hard job running a corner store. She works long hours and spends almost all her time in the shop. Her kids help out, because convince stores truly are family businesses, even her in North America.

Sometimes I look at the kids in the pictures and wonder how much their lives change from this loan. But I of course, chose this one, because of her name. I couldn't turn her down.

Mexico - so close to home.

I made two loans to Mexico today through Kiva, to build up our Mexican portfolio. I just feel that we, as North Americans/Californians, have a special duty to help Mexico. So I loaned today to Griselda Reyes Regalado in Acuna , Mexico so she could buy a cart to sell her Veracruz-style tamales. Right now she sells them from her table in pots.
The second loan was to Dora Alicia Menchaca González in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico who just wants to increase her stock. She sells out each week and can see that if she had more she could sell more. No one else had bid on her loan and its not that new, so lets see how long it takes to fund.

I think I have been influenced in my desire to help Mexico by Agents of Change. And I am still helping them organize the LA event on June 6th. I have also been doing some emailing on YouTube to try to get people to join the Kiva YouTube Contest. So far I got 1 hit! I emailed with her a few times and she made a submission, and we're waiting for it to appear in YouTube. Apparently there is a delay.

We got the Votes, and almost 50% of the $

I am happy to say that we got enough votes to become a project on GiveMeaning.com. And we did it two days early! I am thrilled that we have already raised $745, which is almost 1/2 of the money needed for the new roof.

Its thrilling to see this project happen, I only got didn't think I could do much when Keith asked me to help, but it seems showing him the site and editing the text really helped. So what do you know, I can put a roof on a school in Africa from my computer! With help from a lot of people. I am so glad there are so many caring souls out there like me who want to change the world. If we all keep getting together for these projects and doing what we can, we can get them done.

Amnesty International

I voted today for members of the board of directors for Amnesty International of the U.S.A., Inc. I used to write a lot of letter for Amnesty, starting when I was in my first year of University. I used to go to meeting and movies and dances for justice.

I still believe in justice. And giving a voice to those who can't speak.

Kiva loans to Mexico

I found myself with Kiva withdrawls today, it seems like forever since I've made a loan. First I spent some time getting my current loans organized, I made a binder and printed them all, and organized them according to region and country and date of loan. I made a special sections for Honduras and Mexico. I have a total of 84 loans now, but only 4 to Mexico.

So I went hunting for a Kiva loan, and found this great one to Armando Villafaña Pavón to buy a closed circuit security system for his electronics store in Nuevo Laredo , Mexico. Nuevo Laredo is just across the Rio Grande from Texas, so its a border city.

Lunches for Kids who live in the dump in Teguigalpa, Honduras

Thanks to a KivaFriend, I was show a new program that the Micah Project is doing with the kids who live in the dump in Teguigalpa. I have donated to the Micah project in the past because they are doing such great work, they set up a school for the kids who live in the dump. Yes, live in the dump. Approximately 1200 people live in the dump, many of them children.

So the Micah project built a school and is now, along with special missions, starting a daily lunch program, so the kids can at least get one good meal a day. That will help them do better in school, and make their way out of the dump.

Tree people

Today I sent off my membership to Tree People. Tree people is a local group that plants trees in Los Angeles. I planted trees on St. Patrick's Day.
I am tree people.
We are tree people.