Kiva & home

Made a few Kiva loans today.
Had 4 homeless people stay at my house this month, 2 couples who are friends. One had to go to the hospital and stayed a week to heal. The other 2 got jobs kinda in the area (3 hour bus ride) and stayed till they could find a closer room.

Helping the local homeless

Made a donation to

Care Packages for the Homeless Community of Boyle Heights

Ovarian Psycos would like you to help us raise funds to assemble a total of 200 Care Packages which we plan to distribute on our bikes on the morning of December 31st, 2016! The ovas welcome you to join us on your bike while we ride around BH to various homeless camps to distribute the care packages and to connect with this community that is too often outkasted and stigmatized! 

Each Care Package will include the following items:
-2 pairs of socks (preferably wool)
-1 pair of gloves
-A scarf
-Baby wipes
-Chapstick
-Waterless shampoo
-Small first aid kit
-Lotion and body spray
-A beanie
-2 pairs of clean (never used)underwear
-Bottled water
-Snacks and nonperishable food items
-A list of resources in BH for quick and easy shelter

You can help here

Southern Poverty Law Center

I made  donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center. I have been supporting them for decades, they do very good work and are one of the oldest and largest anti-hate group. If you join them you'll start receiving a lot of their literature which is quite informative. They also provide a lot of things for teachers in their Teaching Tolerance program.

https://www.splcenter.org/

kiva

 Made a Kiva loan today - https://www.kiva.org/lend/1160534

A loan to to expand weather, farming information and financing for 500 cocoa farmers through mobile services in Ghana.

A loan to to expand weather, farming information and financing for 500 cocoa farmers through mobile services in Ghana.

Lending for higher education

I made a loan to Jean in Rwanda to help pay for a lap top to go to school in the US.  

Loan to coffee grower in Peru

Made a loan to Peru, to a new microlender.  Adriano, aged 45, is a member of the Cenfrocafe Cooperative and lives in Caserío Cruz de Chalpon, San Ignacio, Peru. Adriano lives with his wife and their two children who are of school age. He wants to use the income from the farm to support his family and to educate his children. Adriano dreams of salvaging his coffee production, which was affected by yellow coffee rust, and buying more hectares of coffee.

With the loan Adriano is going to buy fertilisers so he can ensure good quality in his organic coffee. He has shown himself to be responsible during his eight years as an active member of Norandino and is grateful for the services. With the extra income he wants to reinvest the money into his farm. Adriano plans shortly to buy more hectares of coffee and guarantee a good life for his family.

Scales and support through Amazon Smiles

Just bought a  shipping scale and sent it to my adopted niece. She's building a business and I am helping. I bought it through Amazon, through the 'smiles' program and a portion of the money went to TEAM RUBICON, one of my favourite non-profits. Here I wearing one of their supporting 'I'm in the Tribe' t-shirts.

'Adopted family'

Family isn't always blood.  Over the years I have picked up kids (and adults) who failed the parent lottery and taken on active and consistent roles as a close mentor. A few years ago I picked up twins who are now in University. One spent the summer with me(first time) and is returning to school tomorrow. I just took him on a grand vacation to meet my family in Canada, and show him what family could be. We had many family parties and dinners and we got to spend some time seeing a bit of Alberta including the Rocky mountains.

An adopted niece cat sat.  Family is wonderful and it's not just blood.

kiva

Made 2 kiva loans to new microlenders I hadn't leant to. I think I have 33 left to find. And 4 countries.

Kiva loans to to new field partners

Found 2 loans from field partnerss I haven't lent to yet. Still trying to tick off that box.

I have 33 field partners still to lend to. Since some of them are no longer partners I have actually loaned to :

Field Partners 306 / 253

Likewise  I have 4 countries left to lend to, but

Countries 81 / 78 is my tally.

Two new countries to lend to

Just made two loans, one to Nepal and the other to Lesotho. First time lending to both countries.

New Kitten

I went to the local SPCA yesterday and adopted a new kitten. She's 11 weeks old and adorable. I am hoping she'll play a lot with my other cats.

The Pasadena SPCA has a new cat house that has several communal cat areas. It's very beautiful. And it was nice to see empty cages.  I choose which kitty I wanted a head of time because there was no way I could look into their eyes and decide.  So I went there hoping to bring Harley home. And I did. And she's now curled up beside me.

Kiva

Joined one of my Kiva groups in trying to get a loan funded, also chose a loan from a microlender I haven't loaned to in a while.

Helping Ferel cats

I made a donation today to a wonderful group in British Columbia, Canada that is saving feral cats. They have a very ambitious goal to care for the current cats and reduce future generations by neutering. They are taking in pregnant cats and finding homes for the  kittens. And they put everything online so you can follow them. Lots of live web cams.

http://www.tinykittens.com/cats

Helping delegates get to Philadelphia

I've been donating a lot lately to Sanders delegates to help fund their trip to the convention. Not sure how many I've funded, I've not kept track.  One is supposed to send me postcards.

It's hard not to help encourage and support people who have such passion and are willing to donate time and effort into making things better for everyone.

Kiva loans

Made 3 more kiva loans to microlenders I haven't loaned to yet. Slowly getting through them all.

Two more kiva loans

I made 2 more kiva loans today. Lending to new microlenders. I need to make more money so I can have more money to lend through kiva.

Team Rubicon - One of the best Non-profits.

Just 'fixed' my monthly donation to TEAM RUBICON.
They are such a great organization, win/win.  Vets helping.

I ran into a member last week at the airport in Calgary, Alberta Canada. He was just coming off the Fort Mac Deployment.  I wish I was wearing my 'I'm in the Tribe' shirt.

Kiva loans

Made 4 Kiva loans to microlenders I haven't loaned to yet.  I have leant to 291/256 field partners.